Politics

This week I appeared on #QandA as one of the questioner’s to the Prime Minister regarding the Uluru Statement from the Heart. He sought to defend his dismissal of a proposed First Nations Voice to Parliament by relying on the fact we already have Indigenous MP’s in Parliament.

‘Indigenous despair is not a matter of good fortune or bad; it is an enabling apparatus to the colonial project, cleverly disguised behind an agenda of benevolence and good intentions.’

The visit of the founders of Black Lives Matter to accept the Sydney peace prize should be leveraged by First Nations, indeed by all people of colour in Australia plus our allies and advocates, as a mechanism to have our agendas infiltrate mainstream forums at an international level and work towards redressing the raft of issues that affect us.

When Turnbull shut down the idea of a voice to parliament, he also damaged any hope of an alternative.

Last week was a pretty big week in Australian politics. Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the Queensland election, the Australian Workers’ Union (Bill Shorten’s former union) was raided by the Australian federal police.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has today released its 2016 Causes of Death data which includes annual national suicide information. Analysis provided by Mindframe revealed that 162 (119 male, 43 female) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people died by suicide, which is slightly higher than the 152 recorded in 2015.

I’m exhausted. The constant background noise of the ‘debate’ on Marriage Equality has had a toll on me and on a lot of queer Australians. As a member of a strong, but marginalised community, this debate has been devastating.

The small township of Bourke in far western New South Wales is a small speck of dust swimming in a vast ocean of ruby red dirt and is home to the Barkindji people since time immemorial.

The past few weeks in Australian media and political life have been a bit of a blur. Even trying to recount them now sounds far fetched.

Australia Day and meaningful acknowledgement of First Peoples continue to be debated across the nation, with signs of traction. Unfortunately, the current federal government’s responses have been woeful. As has the continuing poor performance of their Indigenous Advancement Strategy (IAS).

Bill Shorten has raised the issue of a republic once again when he released his plan at the Australian Republican Movement gala dinner on Saturday night to put the question to the public. The predictable knuckle-dragging has ensued due to the shortsighted who continue to see value in pledging allegiance to a foreign head of state.

All over the planet, we are are facing the most urgent time in human history, the most dire situation of all: the effects of the destruction of our earth. Ice-caps are melting, the climate is changing, and species of animals and plants are being threatened and dying out. Yet many of “the powers that be” are still supporting, pushing and funding the destruction of our life-giving earth, through mining, various forms of agriculture and unsustainable energy creation and usage.

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum, in a sunset ceremony in central Australia, approximately 300 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates from across Australia delivered the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Convened by the Referendum Council, the statement put forth an Indigenous Australian position on proposed constitutional reform, rejecting constitutional recognition in favour of a treaty.

In the aftermath of the referendum, there was a belief among the younger black activists in Redfern that the Commonwealth Government was disinterested in the result.

Just about everywhere I turn in Canberra I am reminded of how this city is a place of representations. From the mountains to the lake, from the numerous government buildings to the resistance camp at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, these are all representations of power and agency.

If the recent skirmish over federal arts funding teaches us anything, it’s that even the best-laid plans are not set in stone. With a change of government or the swearing in of a new minister, an entire ecology can be swiftly placed in a precarious position. If the foundations are unstable, it can all come tumbling down.

The furore over Bill Leak’s death, and the effect it had on the RDA shows again that the dominant class do not value Aboriginal life, writes Amy McQuire.

It was very telling that among all of the discussions on changing 18C there was only one ‘risk’ mentioned: that was the risk of losing votes in marginal seats.