Media

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.

I searched the Internet for my name on a fine January morning, it can be the only way to find reviews of my work. I found my name somewhere unexpected, in an article by Keith Windschuttle in Quadrant (“Australia Dystopia”, Quadrant, January/February 2018). He quoted me, which is OK although I would prefer not being used to further his vitriol. He also called me a ‘hypocrite’, which is not ok.

As a health researcher I am troubled by the predatory possibilities of “the Aboriginal problem”. Many a mortgage has been paid off the back of knowing “the Aboriginal problem” or claiming to solve “the Aboriginal problem” as advancing new knowledge. Within Indigenous health research, people (and by people, I mean predominantly white people) make money from knowing “the Aboriginal problem” under the premise that a deeper understanding of “the Aboriginal problem” will somehow fix it.

Recently the Productivity Commission looked into the way in which GST revenue is distributed across Australia’s states and territories. Currently, GST revenue is carved up based on a number of factors to achieve what is called horizontal fiscal equalisation (HFE). This assessment involves a number of measurements, one of which includes taking into account the proportion of Indigenous people in each state or territory.

‘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.

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.

As a light skinned Koori, when you first meet me you probably won’t realise I’m Indigenous. Throughout my life that’s led to some interesting situations, especially as a journalist reporting on Indigenous issues for nearly five years now.

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).

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t a Whovian. Even when the original series of Doctor Who came to an end in 1989, I continued adding to my collection of memorabilia, reading the novels and hoping that one day, the show might come back.

Growing up, I loved my television, it was something I could get lost in or something that I could go outside and re-enact after watching. But the older I got, the more I started to realise that I couldn’t see myself on the screen.

Growing up, I was a huge comic book fan, but I often wondered why there weren’t many Aboriginal comic book heroes (or villains). I knew of Gateway from Marvel’s X-Men comics, and Condoman from health promotion posters and … Well, that’s about it actually.

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.