WGAR News: Aboriginal elders voice concern over plans to close remote communities - Tauto Sansbury & Rosalie Kunoth-Monks: Natalie Whiting, The World Today

Newsletter date: 10 May 2015

Contents:

* Audio: Natalie Whiting, The World Today: Aboriginal elders voice concern over plans to close remote communities [Featuring Tauto Sansbury & Rosalie Kunoth-Monks]

* Speeches: Green Left: Aboriginal voices resist closures [Featuring Gwenda Stanley, Uncle Ken Canning & Ginny Jane]

* News Analysis: Sue Bolton, Green Left: Melbourne councils oppose forced closure of Aboriginal communities
* News: David Weber, ABC News: Anger over plans for future of remote Aboriginal communities in WA [Featuring the Kimberley Land Council]
* News Analysis: Stephanie Anderson & Robert Burton-Bradley, SBS News: Calls to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in Indigenous funding [Featuring Closing the Gap campaign committee]

* Analysis / Opinion: Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: Beware the 'framing' of the conversation - 'consultation' is a dirty word - Don’t close any Homelands - end of story

* WGAR Background: Plans to close Aboriginal homelands / remote communities in WA and SA

WGAR News Public Google Group: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-GB#!forum/wgar-news
WGAR News - Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)

- Audio

The World Today: Aboriginal elders voice concern over plans to close remote communities
[Featuring Tauto Sansbury & Rosalie Kunoth-Monks]
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2015/s4232099.htm
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/news/audio/twt/201505/20150508-twt07-indigen...
8 May 15: "A group of Aboriginal elders is concerned that moves to shut some remote communities in Western Australia will set a precedent for other parts of the country. ... As Natalie Whiting reports, elders and activists used a forum in Adelaide last night to air their concerns about the ripple effects of the WA plan. ... a forum in Adelaide on issues facing Aboriginal people. At the top of the list was the closure of remote communities. The panel featured a range of elders and activists from New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Event organiser Tauto Sansbury says closing communities isn't just an issue for Western Australia. ... "

About the Public Forum: http://freedommovement2014.wix.com/freedommovement

- Speeches

Green Left: Aboriginal voices resist closures
[Featuring Gwenda Stanley, Uncle Ken Canning & Ginny Jane]
https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/58957
8 May 15: " ... Clearly Barnett was spooked by the huge nationwide and international protests against his policy of closing remote Aboriginal communities. Opposition to the closures is still growing and further nationwide rallies are planned for June 1 if the policy has not been abandoned. Resistance, particularly Aboriginal resistance, to the planned community closures is indicative of more than just a community responding to a policy that violates basic human rights. It also brings to the surface a resistance that has existed in Australia since 1788, often going unnoticed and unreported, but existing just the same. ... "

- News Analysis

Green Left: Melbourne councils oppose forced closure of Aboriginal communities
https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/58975
9 May 15: "The Moreland council in Melbourne became the first council in Australia to pass a motion last month condemning plans for forced closures of Aboriginal communities, and to send a letter of solidarity to those communities. The motion was moved by me as a Socialist Alliance councillor on Moreland council. ... On April 28, a second Melbourne council, the Moonee Valley council, passed the same motion. ... Since then, a number of people have asked for copies of the motion to send to their local councils in the hope that they will pass similar motions. ... " By Sue Bolton, a Moreland City Councillor [in Melbourne] and member of Socialist Alliance

About GLW - the need for alternative media - Green Left Weekly
https://www.greenleft.org.au/about
"In these days of growing media concentration, Green Left Weekly is a proudly independent voice committed to human and civil rights, global peace and environmental sustainability, democracy and equality. By printing the news and ideas the mainstream media won't, Green Left Weekly exposes the lies and distortions of the power brokers and helps us to better understand the world around us. ... "

"Congratulations once again to Green Left Weekly. As I've often said to people all over the world when they ask what the press is like in Australia, 'Mostly owned by Murdoch and mostly unfree'. But I always add quickly, 'There is one newspaper that is independent of powerful interests and that's Green Left Weekly'." John Pilger

- News

ABC News: Anger over plans for future of remote Aboriginal communities in WA
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-08/anger-over-aboriginal-community-cl...
8 May 15: "The Kimberley Land Council says the WA Government's plan to consult remote Aboriginal communities about services and closure plans is "a blatant PR and marketing exercise". The KLC has attacked the plan for lacking detail and said it was insulting to Indigenous people. ... he [Premier Colin Barnett] did say there would be significantly less Aboriginal communities operating at the end of the process. The Kimberley Land Council has attacked the methods of consultation, which the Government expects will start within weeks. ... " By David Weber, a senior cross media news reporter in Perth with more than 20 years experience. David has reported on all of the major stories in WA while working with radio current affairs at AM, PM and The World Today. David has won numerous reporting awards, including a United Nations Peace Prize in 2005.

- News Analysis

SBS News: Calls to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in Indigenous funding
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/05/08/calls-restore-hundreds-mil...
8 May 15: "The Closing the Gap campaign committee is urging to Treasurer Joe Hockey to reverse cuts made in his previous budget, as well as quarantine current funding from any further saving measures. ... Call to keep remote communities open: ... The Closing the Gap campaign committee called on the government to stop the impending closures until the health and wellbeing impacts, as well as implications for other matters such as native title rights, of such closures are properly and independently assessed. ... " By Stephanie Anderson and Robert Burton-Bradley

- Analysis / Opinion

The Stringer: Beware the 'framing' of the conversation - 'consultation' is a dirty word - Don’t close any Homelands - end of story
http://thestringer.com.au/beware-the-framing-of-the-conversation-consult...
26 Apr 15: "Far too many politicians, ‘leaders’ and commentators are carrying on about Governments needing to ‘consult’ with the ‘remote communities’ rather than just stating as it should be - ‘do not close any communities’. Throwing around the ‘consultation’ is dangerous because it buys into an argument that some Homelands and their communities should be closed. There should be no buy-in to this. ... " By Gerry Georgatos, a life-long human rights and social justice campaigner, a multi-award winning investigative journalist

About Us - The Stringer
http://thestringer.com.au/about-us
"The Stringer is an independent online news site, delivering free-to-access independent news to readers daily. We went live on February 20 and formally launched on February 25, 2013 at the Media at the Crossroads Conference at NSW Parliament’s Theatrette. The Stringer was founded by media academic and producer Jennifer Kaeshagen. ... "

- Background

WGAR Background: Plans to close Aboriginal homelands / remote communities in WA and SA
https://indymedia.org.au/2014/12/08/background-plans-to-close-aboriginal...
(last updated: 9 May 2015)

- - -

WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)

About WGAR News:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-GB#!forum/wgar-news

Subscription to 'WGAR News' is free.

'WGAR News' monitors the media, including alternative media, focusing on:

* The Freedom Summit's National Freedom Movement;
* the Australian Federal government intervention into Northern Territory (NT) Aboriginal communities;
* Plans to close Aboriginal homelands / remote communities in Western Australia (WA) and South Australia (SA);
* the Aboriginal sovereignty movement and the Aboriginal tent embassies;
* Justice Reinvestment, Aboriginal imprisonment and Aboriginal Deaths in Custody;
* Aboriginal land rights and mining;
* Suicide and self-harm in Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander communities;
* Removal of Aboriginal children and the continuing Stolen Generation;
* Aboriginal peoples and the impact of the Australian Federal Budget;
* Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing;
* other Aboriginal rights issues; and
* upcoming Aboriginal rights events around Australia.

'WGAR News' gives priority to grassroots Aboriginal voices and grassroots voices in solidarity with Aboriginal peoples' rights.

The role of 'WGAR News' is to facilitate the voices of others, and as such, 'WGAR News' rarely writes its own articles.

'WGAR News' publishes information and opinions from a wide range of sources.
These opinions expressed are not necessarily the opinions of WGAR.

The e-newsletters include media releases, opinion pieces, news items, audio, videos and events.

Subscribers can expect to receive about 5-6 e-newsletters each week.

To subscribe, email wgar.news@gmail.com and include the words "subscribe WGAR News" in the message header.

To unsubscribe, email wgar.news@gmail.com and include the words "unsubscribe WGAR News" in the message header.

WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)