WGAR News: Indigenous leaders suspect remote NT communities will be closed: Helen Davidson, The Guardian

Submitted by WGAR - Working ... on Sat, 06/06/2015 - 7:53pm

Newsletter date: 7 June 2015; last updated 15 June

* Analysis / Opinion: Jon Altman, Inside Story: Living the good life in precarious times
* Media Release: Greens Senator Rachel Siewert: Government presses on with work for the dole in remote communities
* News Analysis: Helen Davidson, The Guardian: Remote jobs and community program to be rebranded due to unpopularity

* News Analysis: Helen Davidson, The Guardian: Controversial Indigenous advancement strategy gets $100m funding boost

* Compilation: Respect and Listen: NT Intervention: http://www.respectandlisten.org/nt-intervention.html
* Compilation: Respect and Listen: The Intervention: an Anthology: http://www.respectandlisten.org/nt-intervention/intervention-anthology.html

* WGAR Background: Plans to close Aboriginal homelands / remote communities in WA and SA (and NT?)
* WGAR Background to the Northern Territory (NT) Intervention (Last updated: 27 May 2014)
* WGAR Background to 'Stronger Futures' new NT Intervention laws (Last updated: 30 May 2014)

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

- Upcoming anniversary march & rally

21 June 2015: NT Intervention - Stolen Futures - 8 Years of Racist shame!

https://www.facebook.com/events/567345523405275/permalink/567827446690416/

"Sunday, June 21 at 3:00pm in UTC+10 [Note change in time to 3pm]
Sydney Town Hall

8 Years of Racist shame!

NT Intervention - Stronger Futures

Join us for an anniversary march and rally

3pm Sunday 21 June
Town Hall Sydney
to The Block, Redfern

Speakers:

Uncle Albert Hartnett, a Wangkumurra man with first-hand experience of child removal

Uncle Ken Canning, Murri writer and poet from the Kunja Clan of the Bidjira Nation

Kyol Blakeney, a Kamilaroi man and Sydney University SRC president

Eva Cox, Research Fellow at Jumbunna, Indigenous House of Learning at UTS

Gerry Georgatos, human rights and social justice campaigner. Editor of The Stringer. ... "

- Homepage

Stop the Intervention
http://stoptheintervention.org/

- News Analysis

The Guardian: Indigenous leaders suspect remote NT communities will be closed
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jun/02/indigenous-leaders...
2 Jun 15: "Arnhem land’s Milingimbi community has sent petition to federal and Northern erritory ministers outlining concerns about ‘threat to our homelands’ ... Despite repeated assurances that no Northern Territory remote homelands would be closed, a lack of government communication has left leaders in the Arnhem land community of Milingimbi believing it to be inevitable. Residents’ concerns have been outlined in a petition sent to the chief minister, Adam Giles, the local government and community services minister, Bess Price, and the federal Indigenous affairs minister, Nigel Scullion, and signed by 135 elders and senior people. ... " Helen Davidson, a reporter for Guardian Australia

- About

Helen Davidson - The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/profile/helen-davidson

- Analysis / Opinion

Inside Story: Living the good life in precarious times
http://insidestory.org.au/living-the-good-life-in-precarious-times
2 Jun 15: "Jon Altman has been visiting the remote Aboriginal community of Maningrida for many years. In February, he talked to Kuninjku people about the impact of changing government policies ... unsympathetic Australian governments, one after the other, have imposed a program of "improvement" that is disconnected from their realities and aspirations and that is undermining both their livelihoods and their ways of living. For Kuninjku people, the good life seems more precarious today than it has since the colonial era some forty years ago." Jon Altman, an Emeritus Professor in the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet) at the Australian National University

- Media Release

Greens Senator Rachel Siewert: Government presses on with work for the dole in remote communities
http://rachel-siewert.greensmps.org.au/content/media-releases/government...
3 Jun 15: " ... "This measure is discriminatory and disproportionately targets Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples; but even setting that major issue aside I have to ask where Minister Scullion is hoping to make these jobs magically appear from?
"In announcing this measure in Darwin today the Minister is once again ignoring the underlying factors that are contributing to unemployment. The jobs are not there to enforce this harsh measure.
"Minister Scullion has admitted that there are 'a lot less jobs available in remote communities' and work for the dole doesn't address that problem. The types of job he outlines and hopes will turn into real jobs are jobs that are in many cases dependent on Government funding.
"People that manage to secure work for 25 hours a week for income support means they will be working for inadequate wages. ... "

- Portfolio

Greens Senator Rachel Siewert: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Issues
http://rachel-siewert.greensmps.org.au/portfolios/aboriginal-and-torres-...
"The Australian Greens acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as Australia’s first peoples and recognise their strong cultural and spiritual connection with the land, and their rights and obligations as owners and custodians. We are committed to seeing these rights reflected in our laws and our society. All Australians, including those living in remote communities, have an equal right to essential government services such as health, education, training, housing, community infrastructure, employment support, and policing. ... "

- News Analysis

The Guardian: Remote jobs and community program to be rebranded due to unpopularity
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jun/03/remote-jobs-and-co...
3 Jun 15: "[Greens senator Rachel Siewert said] "It is clear from budget estimates last Friday that the program simply isn’t ready to roll out, the department last week was unable to articulate even the basics about how the process was going to work." "Job providers have raised significant concerns about the holes in this program that to date haven’t been addressed."" Helen Davidson

- News Analysis

The Guardian: Controversial Indigenous advancement strategy gets $100m funding boost
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/may/27/controversial-indi...
27 May 15: " ... The opposition spokesman for Indigenous affairs, Shayne Neumann, welcomed the announcement but said it was "hardly surprising." "The IAS has been a disastrous experiment that has caused unprecedented levels of anxiety and anger for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people," Neumann said. "Two weeks after the second budget the Abbott government has had to roll out additional funds to try to fix the mess they created; cuts the minister for indigenous affairs consistently referred to as an ‘efficiency dividend’. It’s a chaotic mess." ... " Helen Davidson in Darwin

- Compilations

Respect and Listen: NT Intervention
http://www.respectandlisten.org/nt-intervention.html

Respect and Listen: The Intervention: an Anthology
http://www.respectandlisten.org/nt-intervention/intervention-anthology.html
"In this historic anthology, award-winning writers Dr Anita Heiss and Rosie Scott have gathered together the work of twenty of Australia’s finest writers both Indigenous and non-Indigenous together with powerful statements from Northern Territory Elders to bring a new dimension and urgency to an issue that has remained largely outside the public radar. Anna Funder has described the book as ‘an indispensable contribution to the debate. ’It’s been a long time in the making."

- 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: 2 June 2015)

WGAR Background to the Northern Territory (NT) Intervention
https://indymedia.org.au/2012/04/22/background-to-the-northern-territory...
(Last updated: 27 May 2014)

WGAR Background to 'Stronger Futures' new NT Intervention laws
https://indymedia.org.au/2012/04/22/background-to-stronger-futures-new-n...
(Last updated: 30 May 2014)

- - -

WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)

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'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)?];
* 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;
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