Arrernte woman Celeste Liddle who has been engaged in Indigenous and social justice movements for a long time, says she is undecided on her vote. Below she sets out her thoughts.
treaty
Livestream of the forum on Treaty, Sovereignty and First Nations justice with Lidia Thorpe, Uncle Gary Murray and Sue Bolton.
Tens of thousands of people joined Invasion Day protests around the country on January 26.
Frances Peters-Little, director of Vote Yes For Aboriginies, a film about the 1967 referendum, discusses the political context of the vote and the upcoming referendum on the Voice to Parliament with Isaac Nellist.
“In our negotiations with Labor, I’ve asked for their evidence that the Voice will not cede our sovereignty. To date, no one has responded to this request,” Senator Lidia Thorpe told Paul Gregoire.
Any call for a republic that is disconnected from addressing the very real social and ecological crises will not be enough, argues Sam Wainwright.
Hundreds rallied on Labor's so-called Day of Mourning, calling for the monarchy to be "abolished". Photos by Alex Bainbridge.
The proposed Voice to Parliament would mean little “meaningful change” for First Nations people, according to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre president Graeme Gardner. Isaac Nellist reports.
The quest for Aboriginal sovereignty challenges non-Indigenous Australia to let go of any perceived right to define what sovereignty is, writes Peter Griffin.
Prominent Aboriginal elder Wayne Wharton is making a tilt for the senate in Queensland this election, campaigning on issues such as justice for Aboriginal people, justice reinvestment and an improved aged care system.
Wharton told Green Left Weekly: “The systems that we’ve had for the last 230 years is broken, they’re useless.”
These include the legal system which, he says, is based on a “feudal system of punishment” instead of rehabilitation, and the two-party system, in which the big parties have become dominated by “top-end-of-town corruption”.
Gunnai-Gunditjmara woman Lidia Thorpe is a life-long Indigenous activist who among other things helped lead the successful campaign to save Nowa Nowa Gorge in East Gippsland. In the lead up to Invasion Day, Thorpe spoke with 3CR’s Green Left Radio presenter Jacob Andrewartha.
Sam Watson, a leading Murri activist from Brisbane, has been involved in Aboriginal rights struggles since the 1960s.
He is a prominent author, playwright and filmmaker, and is the Aboriginal affairs spokesperson for Socialist Alliance. A Birri Gubba man, he was previously an academic at the University of Queensland, and received honours for his 1990 novel The Kadaitchi Sung and acclaim for his 1995 film Black Man Down.
Watson spoke to Green Left Weekly’s Jim McIlroy about the issues confronting Aboriginal people.
Moreland City Council took a big step forward on September 13 when it voted to drop all references to January 26 as Australia Day out of respect for Aboriginal people. But it stopped short of cancelling its official Australia Day citizenship ceremony.
Thanks to a passing reference in this column only a week ago about statues and other monuments featuring colonial "founding fathers" that participated in massacres of Aboriginal people and other wrongs, I got lumped into Andrew Bolt's collection of "statue haters".
Others in the corporate media suggested that even having the discussion was like Nazi book burning. Right. And we're the ones disrespecting history!
The descendants of Gurindji workers who participated in the historic walk-off at Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory have used its 51st anniversary celebration to endorse the Uluru Statement from the Heart and call for a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous voice in parliament.
The following is a statement issued by participants of the StandUp2017 conference that concluded with a rally in Mbantua (Alice Springs) on June 26.
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Rosalie Kunoth Monks: “You better believe it, when the Intervention first hit in 2007 community councils were decimated.”
Matthew Ryan: “Trying to get the government to listen to us, is like a brick wall.”
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