Identity

For COOKED a group of young Indigenous people (aged from six years to 27 years old) posed questions to the settlers/colonisers and newcomers of so-called Australia via a website where mob could submit anonymous answers and also ask questions of us. We then turned that into a show. And what a journey it has been.

Now, if we are to recognise that shame is an exterior thing, it is both natural and instructive to then ask: who planted them seeds? I ask this question not at all as part of the process of discarding shame, as some have suggested is the best course of action. The shedding of shame, from my standpoint, is in fact at best lazy thinking and at worst wasteful.

Always and Again is a poem written by queer Goorie writer, Brooke Scobie.

First Nations LGBTQI+ people and communities have a long history of contributing to the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG) festival, particularly as parade participants.

Indigenous disruption of cruel government policies could further the cause of self-determination and might even help save the planet

The celebration and assertion of our identities as queer mob has always unsettled and challenged colonial sentiments; that complex sexualities are incompatible with Aboriginality. Resilience and reclamation runs in the blood of our mob, queer Blakfullas have always been at the frontier of resistance.

Our distrust of the healthcare system is justified and it is no surprise that many of us are skeptical of the medical industry. Similarly, knowing the history of the ways our bodies have been abused and used, I know that still, the vaccine is the best way I can keep my family and community safe.

Jared Field discusses beautifully the search through story for a word that sheds colonial norms and labels.

As Aboriginal women we have to fight tooth and nail to be listened to, even in spaces where we are beyond capable.

Children ask vital questions of the world which expose accepted ‘truths’. On 26 January, we contrast Australian displays of amnesia with Aboriginal truth-telling

We need leaders on all levels who understand the importance of representation in the media, because they themselves have shouldered the burden of representation and wish to make a world where others of non-Anglo heritage see themselves on and off screen. The consequences of doing otherwise are stark.

And even though colourism is not a new conversation, and neither is cultural appropriation, or community accountability, I feel both a freedom with which younger ones are willing to talk about them, and an attempt to shut them down by some of my contemporaries which I do not want to engage in.

I spent so much time walking the streets fighting an enemy I couldn’t see, so I struck out at everything.

Neil Morris explains why he started a campaign to help Indigenous peoples displaced by the fires ravaging Australia.

When I thought about my experience being a queer blackfulla, I thought to myself, “what experience”?

I am a Kalkadoon woman. I grew up on Gubbi Gubbi Country. I also have Syrian and North African heritage that I am extremely proud of. I am also queer.

This is a direct link to regaining power of the mind and also shifting social change. In order to regain the mind, we must decolonise it.

My father’s life, with all of its suffering, hardship and pain may have been orchestrated by the government with the intention to wipe him, his people and culture out. But for our family, the government didn’t win. While my father and his children live on, our culture will never die, be silenced or erased.