Race & Racism

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.

‘Most Australians, and our international visitors, first learn about Indigenous people through conversations that are often grounded in disadvantage’ 

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.

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.

On September 13 the United Nations will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Australia was initially opposed to the Declaration, but now supports it. Bidding for seat on the UN Human Rights Council, our government also promotes itself as a model human rights citizen.

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.

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.

To celebrate the 115th birthday of Albert (Elea) Namatjira, Google has published a doodle painted by his granddaughter, Gloria Pannka, but for all the acclaim that the Western Arrernte artist was showered with during his lifetime, Namatjira still found himself being regarded as less than the average white man.

After hearing last Friday’s news, I was left reeling with a frenetic bundle of nerve endings and emotions. When I spoke to Luke, he instantly picked up on it.

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.

Growing up with a last name associated with Aboriginal activism, my identity is often decided for me. In some ways it becomes a validation of my Aboriginality.

I was three at the time, so I don’t remember any of it, but the impacts on my life are profound. 27 May 1967 is widely understood as the day Australia stood as a nation almost unanimously in support of Aboriginal people and their right to be citizens of this country.

Australia ‘has systematically implemented policies that are born of a rhetoric suggesting that the state is somehow protecting Aboriginal children better than their families’.

Grandmothers Against Removals say too many Indigenous children are being removed from their culture when Aboriginal family or community members would be able to care for them.

Bronwyn Carlson: ‘Many of my students hold the belief that the 1967 referendum was about giving Aboriginal people the vote. They have very little knowledge about the Australian constitution.’

As we commemorate Sorry Day on 26 May, it is vital to also recognise that 20 years has passed since the release of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s Bringing Them Home report.

Unless you have been living under a rock, by now you would of heard that Sam Thaiday attempted to be funny while on the Footy Show on Thursday night.

Reconciliation Australia has found that six out of 10 Australians have had little or no contact with Aboriginal people. It is often held up as a sign of how far we still have to go on our national ‘Reconciliation journey’, and in some ways I can see the relevance but I also think it’s wrong to place too much stock on this statistic.