Media

Freedom of speech and freedom of the press has always been a double edged sword for Aboriginal people. At its worst, the media perpetuates racist stereotypes that continue the Australian tradition of oppressing Aboriginal people throughout the centuries...

Over the past few months, some mainstream media outlets have attempted to stir up a hornet’s nest about health services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; Karen Wyld explains.

Aboriginal people are over-represented in most of the negative statistics and under-represented in most of the positive ones. This is the fundamental reality underpinning government programs like ‘Closing the Gap’.

This year, on the 6th Birthday of IndigenousX we were keen to acknowledge some of the figures, organisations and publications on whose shoulders we stand. There are many, and to be frank, without them we wouldn’t be doing what we do today.

My nan Sandra Onus and my mum Tracey Onus would always take me to rallies or protests. I remember when I was 19, I went with my mum and aunties and jumped in the car and we drove to Ngunnawal country (Canberra) for Invasion Day and the 40th anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.

On the day of the Abbott-Turnbull leadership spill in 2015, Channel Seven Sunrise host Samantha Armytage joined the talking heads from the other mainstream television stations outside Parliament House.

The suffragettes were just ordinary women who came from the upper and middle classes. They wanted change.

The roots of racism within mainstream feminism are still there, under the soil.

IndigenousX speaks with Uncle Jack Charles about #Apology10

Black Panther seeks to eradicate the white-centric narrative entirely whilst propelling this welcomed advancement, without apology.

Alice Springs town councillor Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has been at the receiving end of community criticism from groups in Alice Springs recently. Last week a petition was circulated on social media to protest against mainstream media’s representation of Ms Price as a community leader.

January is increasingly becoming a time for fierce debate about Indigenous identities and Australian nationhood. And each year the debate is gathering more attention. Indigenous voices, especially on social media, are getting louder.

"But the angry black woman is not just a dehumanising caricature; actual angry black women are a real threat to the colony. And when we get angry, right on cue the Native Police arrive to quell the troublemakers, each and every time"

Opponents to Australia Day are invariably criticised in two ways. The first is a favoured manoeuvre for establishment media pundits: claim the focus on 26 January is trivial while more pressing Indigenous issues are neglected.

We cannot seek an end to the oppression of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by cajoling the broad majority of Australians with soft entreaties of ‘change the date’. As rightly pointed out by many, changing the date of Australia Day – without the achievement of social justice or legal restitution in the form of Land Rights and Treaty – only moves the celebration of unfinished business to another date.

Recently, a wonderful story hashtag-restored my faith in Australia’s mainstream media. For once it was talking somewhat positively about the homeless Indigenous people of Darwin. 

That Day was once Many Days, as each state held their foundation days at different times of the year. The cry for a national day on 26 January came from the Australian Natives’ [sic] Association.

Least anyone become overly concerned, the date chosen to mark Australia Day has historically been a movable feast. For instance, July 15 was once the favoured date. While many believe that the current date – January 26 – commemorates the landing of the so-called “First Fleet” (which itself is historically inaccurate), I would expect that the date was moved from the gloom of a southern winter to mid-summer for the sake of devotees of the barbeque and patriotic lamb advertisements.