Feature

Howard knew Aborigines had a sovereignty based land right

Tamworth, 23 December 12 - - A prominent Aboriginal sovereignty campaigner argues that former prime minister, John Howard, amended the Native Title Act in 1998 because he was fully aware of the inherent power of Aboriginal peoples based on their continuing sovereignty.

“With the passage of time it is now painfully obvious that former Prime Minister, John Howard, fully realised that Aboriginal peoples maintain a very powerful position in Australia,” Michael Anderson writes in a media release.

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Coal protest: activists scale Yallourn power station cooling tower

Late last week two intrepid climate change activists scaled one of the cooling towers at Yallourn coal fired power station in Victoria's La Trobe Valley. In the end they spent 30 hours on the cooling tower, the longest power station occupation of it's kind in Australia, finally coming down voluntarily to be arrested and charged with various offences. The protest highlighted the enormous multi-million compensation being given by the Australian Government to power operators for the imposition of the carbon tax. The brown coal fired power stations in Victoria's La Trobe valley are some of the dirtiest most carbon emissions polluting power stations in Australia and the world.

Related: Quit Coal | Latrobe Valley Coal power and Climate change | Further subsidies for Victorian coal by Victorian and Federal Governments | Electricity Demand and Emissions Falling in Eastern Australia | Climate IMC: Doha climate change talks fail to cut emissions while weakened Kyoto Protocol extended to 2020

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Hit the road 'brother' - Bruce Woodley, chairman of the Wirlu-murra Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation

By National Indigenous Times reporter Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of the National Indigenous Times - http://www.nit.com.au/news/2299-hit-the-road-twiggy.html - Wednesday 28, November 2012

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Stopping the military's war on animals - it just goes on and gets more evil

Gerry Georgatos
The exploitation of animals has reached never before seen extents, with animals bred in the most horrific conditions to be en masse slaughtered for so-called food production and human consumption. In the meantime humankind is getting physically and mentally sick on the excess consumption of animals as food.

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Australian slavery buried in Queensland mass grave

Hidden under an old sugar cane plantation outside the Queensland city of Bundaberg lies an awful secret - the bodies of 29 South Sea Islanders buried in an unmarked grave. Bundaberg and District South Sea Islanders Action Group president, Matthew Nagas, says they could be his ancestors. And he believes they were probably worked to death "like pieces of machinery".

"If they weren't working anymore, you just pushed them aside and covered them with dirt," Mr Nagas told the AAP news agency. "They were buried in that place with no name, and forgotten. It cuts deep.”

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Help sought from UN ambassadors over "colonial assault" on the Brisbane Aboriginal Embassy

12 December 2012

Your Excellency,

Re: 12 December 2012 Assault on Aboriginal Embassy in Brisbane by colonial authorities

Just after midnight on 12 December 2012 eighty police, firemen and council workers stormed the Brisbane Aboriginal Embassy for no justifiable reason. The Embassy has been established for the last nine months, as a focal point for Aboriginal expression and representation of issues. Our Aboriginal Embassies are no longer viewed as protests, but as an expression of our continuing sovereignty in our own land.

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If you love Australian music, help to save it with your protest

UPDATE: Funding for half a year approved - see details in comment below

Do you like Australian music on the radio? Well, you’d hear hardly any of it if it weren’t for a government funding programme set to end on 31 December.

It’s AMRAP, the Australian Music Radio Airplay Project, helping more than 3,000 musicians and 1,500 broadcasters on community radio stations across the country to air Australian music.

And they’re asking for your protest to the government at http://www.amrap.com.au/funding.html.

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The National Indigenous Times – ‘voice to the voiceless’

Published at Indymedia courtesy of the National Indigenous Times (12.12.2012) - Photo courtesy of the National Indigenous Times, by Geoff Bagnall; January 26, Lobby Restaurant

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"Good morning, Mr Sarra" launched

Republished here by courtesy of the National Indigenous Times

The remarkable true story of one man’s fight to turn the tide of low expectations of Indigenous children.

Good Morning, Mr Sarra is the inspiring life story of an Indigenous boy from a country town who defied expectations to become one of the most outspoken and recognised educators in the country.

When Chris Sarra arrived as the first Aboriginal principal of Cherbourg State School in 1998, it was a time of high hopes but low expectations in Indigenous education.

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