Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso's neoliberal economic policies and proposals are facing determined opposition from diverse social sectors, Harvey Goldberg reports.
Indigenous
Award-winning author of Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe, will be the feature speaker at aGreen Left online forum on December 5.
Alex Salmon reviews a new edition of Stephen J Pyne's book, which examines the history of fire and humanity’s attempts to shape and use it.
Relatives of Berta Caceres, the iconic Indigenous environmentalist from Honduras who was killed in March last year, denounced on July 26 a "hate campaign" against them.
The environmental activist's family expressed concern about the "most aggressively executed hate campaign" against them after the Dutch Development Bank, FMO and the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation, Finnfund, decided to pull out from the Agua Zarca dam project on the Gualcarque River that flows through the Indigenous territory of the Lenca people.
Did you hear the one about how Vegemite was going to be banned in some alcohol-free remote communities because it was being used to make homebrew?
This wasn’t satire, this was a widely reported story in the mainstream press. It ticked all the right boxes for successful click bait, but there was just one problem: it was bullshit. The source for these claims? The Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Nigel Scullion.
Whichway
Lucky Luke
Released March 24, 2015
www.facebook.com/currymurri13
The artwork for Lucky Luke's debut album shows him holding Mount Isa's infamous lead smelter like a didgeridoo. It's as if he's taking it back for his people.
"The photo, as you say, is almost like I am reclaiming the smelter," says the rapper, who is from the Waanyi, Mitakoodi, Ringa Ringa, Kalkadoon and Warumungu tribal groups.
It's Fatal
Miss Hood
Payback Records
Out now
www.facebook.com/misshoodoffical
Hard-hitting rapper Miss Hood comes from a long line of women warriors. Her ancestors, the Kunai and Gunditjmara people of eastern and western Victoria, put female fighters on the frontline.
"Both of the tribes were matriarchal, so women were equal to men," says the Melbourne-based emcee. "It wasn't unusual to have women warriors as well as men warriors."
Little wonder, then, that her music packs such a powerful feminist punch.
Sheplife
Briggs
Golden Era Records
Released August 2014
Now touring
www.iambriggs.com
Briggs is 598 kilometres from his hometown of Shepparton - and he's missing his bed.
"When I'm at home I don't have people ringing me up telling me I've got to get out of the house," says the rapper, sitting on his hotel room's balcony in Sydney.
Renegades Of Munk
Renegades Of Munk
Released September 2014
Impossible Odds Records
www.renegadesofmunk.com
Mark Munk Ross says he has learnt to make his music more appealing by injecting a big dose of humour into his hard-hitting songs.
"I try to make them humorous, which then makes it accessible to fans that might not be that political," says the man better known as Munkimuk, the "Grandfather of Indigenous hip-hop".
"But they are still digesting it, whether they know it or not," he says. "Smart game plan I think."
Native Eyez
Intikana
Released August 2014
Stampede Fireflies
www.intikana.net
Bronx-based rapper, producer, film-maker and youth worker Intikana hits out at indigenous injustice, cultural colonisation and international imperialism, among many other topics. Green Left Weekly's Mat Ward put 18 questions to him. His absorbing answers are below.
* * *
1. You rap that "When people ask me where I'm from, I say my mama." Want to tell us more about your roots?
The Merry Grinchmas Mixtape
MC Bunz
Released December 25, 2013
Free download
When Glen Anderson was playing sport with his schoolfriends, he was suddenly surrounded by police who ordered him to lay flat on the ground.
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