Newsletter date: 27 September 2015; last updated 9am AEST
Contents:
* News: Elefant Traks: Emma Donovan to releases 7" featuring Joelistics, Archie Roach & Tim Rogers
* Video & Music News: Monica Tan, The Guardian: Emma Donovan calls on Australia to save its remote Indigenous communities
* News: Kerry Smith, Green Left Weekly: Musos unite for SOS Blak Australia campaign
* News Analysis: Diet Simon, Linksunten Indymedia: Threatened traditional Aborigines again seek global activism
* Bios:
Monica Tan - The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/profile/monica-tan
GLW author Kerry Smith - Green Left Weekly: https://www.greenleft.org.au/taxonomy/term/855
Nuclear Worrier - Linksunten Indymedia: https://linksunten.indymedia.org/de/user/60/blog
* Media Release: #SOSBLAKAUSTRALIA 5th Global Call to action announced for Friday 27th November 2015: Stop the Forced Closure of Aboriginal Communities in Australia
* For more info:
https://twitter.com/sosblakaust
www.facebook.com/sosblakaustralia
www.instagram.com/sosblakaustralia
* WGAR Background: Plans to close Aboriginal homelands / remote communities in WA and SA (and NT?)
WGAR News postings on Indymedia Australia: https://indymedia.org.au/newswire
WGAR News Public Google Group: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-GB#!forum/wgar-news
WGAR News - Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)
- News
Elefant Traks: Emma Donovan to releases 7″ featuring Joelistics, Archie Roach & Tim Rogers
http://www.elefanttraks.com/news/emma-donovan-releases-7-featuring-joeli...
22 Sep 15: " ... a new 7" single featuring two classic Aboriginal Australian songs. ... This release supports the massive grassroots movement led by SOS Blak Australia, an organization dedicated to supporting Aboriginal communities in remote Western Australia currently under threat of closure. ... Earlier this year SOS Blak Australia issued a worldwide call to action to stop these closures occurring. In response to this, Emma and all the artists involved have come together to declare that they stand with the Indigenous people of Australia in support of their right to self-determination on their traditional lands. All involved have donated their time free of charge and all proceeds from the record go to SOS Blak Australia. ... "
- Video & Music News
The Guardian: Emma Donovan calls on Australia to save its remote Indigenous communities
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/21/emma-donovan-calls-on-austr...
21 Sep 15: "The singer-songwriter joins forces with Archie Roach in a cover of the classic track Down City Streets, premiering exclusively on Guardian Australia ... For Donovan – like so many Australians today – the question "where do you come from?" can be a complicated one, marked by ancestral and contemporary migration. ... All artists have given their time and sale proceeds are being donated to SOS Blak Australia. An activist, Sam Cook, began the campaign as a Facebook page in reaction to a November statement from the Western Australian premier, Colin Barnett, signposting the closure of up to 150 communities. ... " Monica Tan
- News
Green Left Weekly: Musos unite for SOS Blak Australia campaign
https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/60199
26 Sep 15: "Four big Australian musical acts have united to release two tracks in support of SOS Blak Australia's campaign to oppose the closure of dozens of remote Aboriginal communities. ... ElefantTracks said: "This release supports the massive grassroots movement led by SOS Blak Australia, an organization dedicated to supporting Aboriginal communities in remote Western Australia currently under threat of closure." The songs will be available via HopeStreet Recordings with all proceeds go to sosblakaustralia.com." By GLW author Kerry Smith
- News Analysis
Linksunten Indymedia: Threatened traditional Aborigines again seek global activism
https://linksunten.indymedia.org/de/node/153830
22 Sep 15: "Activists trying to save remote ancestral communities from destruction by Australian governments are again appealing for your support in their fifth global call to action. The appeal comes from #SOSBLAKAUSTRALIA, a group formed in November 2014 specifically to stop the forced closure of Aboriginal communities. The group says service providers have already been told not to renew their contracts. They refer in a media release to an announcement that eight indigenous individuals have been confirmed to determine the fate of 274 Aboriginal communities in Western Australia, while the state’s government claims this to be a ‘consultative process’. The people appointed are Patrick Davies, Brenda Garstone, Mary O'Reeri and Martin Sibosado to the Kimberley Council and Adrian Brahim, Kate George, Triscilla Holborow and Jason Masters to the Pilbara Council. A similar appeal in May triggered protests across several countries and attracted wide international media attention. ... " Written by Diet Simon, sourcing from WGAR News and SOSBLAKAUSTRALIA (Account: Nuclear Worrier)
- Bios
Monica Tan - The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/profile/monica-tan
"Monica Tan joined Guardian Australia as a reporter after several years living and working in China and has a diverse career that includes stints at the environmental organisation Greenpeace and Australia's ninemsn"
GLW author Kerry Smith - Green Left Weekly
https://www.greenleft.org.au/taxonomy/term/855
Nuclear Worrier - Linksunten Indymedia
https://linksunten.indymedia.org/de/user/60/blog
- Media Release
#SOSBLAKAUSTRALIA 5th Global Call to action announced:
Stop the Forced Closure of Aboriginal Communities in Australia
https://www.facebook.com/sosblakaustralia/photos/a.1042299689120174.1073...
16 Sep 15: "With the recent change of leadership in the current LNP government and last week’s announcement of eight Indigenous individuals confirmed to determine the fate of 274 Aboriginal Communities in Western Australia alongside what the Government claims to be a ‘consultative process’, a new date has been set for the 5th Global Call to Action – Friday 27th November 2015.
... #SOSBLAKAUSTRALIA grew out of necessity in the response to the threatened forced closure of Aboriginal communities. Our extended reach is in excess of 12 million people and our direct reach is close to 75,000. Our goal goes well beyond any ‘consultation’. Regardless of who is prime minister, we are committed to keeping our communities on their homelands and we have been consulting among our own people to develop sustainable and viable models for communities, outstations and seasonal campsites.
To support this work, we are steadily galvanising support from NGOs, unions, the legal fraternity and public figures and have built a skills database with submissions from thousands of everyday people worldwide, who care as much as we do about our Aboriginal culture and human rights. ...
#SOSBLAKAUSTRALIA itself will be scaled up to increase its capacity, whilst supporting a cultural revolution, political platform and fundraising campaign. ... "
- Background
WGAR Background: Plans to close Aboriginal homelands / remote communities in WA and SA (and NT?)
https://indymedia.org.au/2014/12/08/background-plans-to-close-aboriginal...
(last updated: 18 August 2015)
- - -
WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)
About WGAR News:
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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), South Australia (SA), [and Northern Territory (NT)?];
* Treaties with Aboriginal Sovereign Nations of Australia;
* 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.
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