Reprinted from the World Socialist Website - www.wsws.org"
Media interviews with asylum seekers on boats forced back to Indonesia by the Australian navy under the Abbott government’s “stop the boats” regime have confirmed earlier reports of physical assaults and abuse, with asylum seekers being beaten, pepper-sprayed and handcuffed.
The leaking of an environmental report into the Manus Island detention centre (The Guardian 4 Feb, 2014) reveals additional risk to the health and well being of people seeking asylum. Military bases leave a legacy of water and land pollution that can poison inhabitants for decades.
Newsletter date: 4 February 2014
Contents:
* Dylan Clarke, Living Black Radio: Memorial for Freedom Fighters
[Featuring Boonwurrung Elder and Patron of the Commemoration Committee, Aunty Carolyn Briggs]
* Jonathan Green, ABC RN Sunday Extra: Henry Reynolds, Historian and author of 'Forgotten War'
* Phillip Adams & Ann Arnold, ABC RN Late Night Live: Australia's forgotten war [Featuring Henry Reynolds]
* Paul Newbury, On Line Opinion: It’s time to commemorate the Frontier Wars
* Background to the Aboriginal sovereignty movement
Newsletter date: 3 February 2014
Contents:
* WGAR News: Aboriginal Sovereignty Day, Invasion Day and Survival Day Events: Sunday 26 January 2014
* The Stringer: Survival Day - Andrew Davis' response to Warren Mundine
* CAAMA Radio: Mansell shares his thoughts on Australia Day celebrations
[Featuring veteran Tasmanian Aboriginal rights campaigner Michael Mansell]
* Amy McQuire, The Guardian: Australia Day: Indigenous people are told to 'get over it'. It's impossible
* Nakkiah Lui, The Guardian: Australia Day is a time for mourning, not celebration
Newsletter date: 2 February 2014
Contents:
* Upcoming screenings of John Pilger's documentary film, 'Utopia'
* Perth Indymedia Radio Show: Utopia: a new documentary from John Pilger we speak with Robert Eggington about it
[Featuring Robert and Selina Eggington speaking about their involvement in Utopia]
* Joanna Lester, Living Black Radio: Remembering Communities Under The Intervention This Survival Day
[Featuring Elder Rosalie Kunoth Monks explaining her role in Utopia]
Melbourne and Victoria Aboriginal rights events for your diary
WGAR events postings for each State and Territory: http://indymedia.org.au/2013/01/03/about-wgar-news-wgar-events-postings
Click on the links for details of the events ...
New Event: Opening 30 January; until Wed 5 February 2014: Carlton, Melbourne, Vic
'Utopia': John Pilger’s film on Aboriginal Australia
Venue: Cinema Nova
"Drawing on his long association with the first people
of his homeland Australia, Utopia is both an epic
portrayal of the oldest continuous human culture, and
On the evening of January 24 some antifascists reworked a racist mural in Newtown, on a property owned by Sergio Redegalli on the stolen land of the Gadigal people. For the past 4 years he’s been continually repainting islamaphobic statements on his walls which have been vandalised at least a couple hundred times. Despite his expensive security precautions, including numerous CCTV cameras, and motion sensor floodlights, (like many potential targets) it remains easy to attack.
http://www.radio4all.net/responder.php/download/74101/81913/94041/?url=h...
Collection of Issues
credits:
news media, Sodacake with "oralie", The Abbotts with "Winter-Olympics" and "Downton Abbott", Skuthorpe with "No More Whispers" - both from 98.9 FM Indigenous Radio Brisbane, SISTAGURL with "East Coast Reppin, Clarke Dawe from the ABC
On the 26th of January, the 226th year since the British Naval fleet of Arthur Philip landed on this territory, we made some modest actions to counter the colonial narrative of 'Australia'. 4 banners denouncing the nationalist holiday were hung from highway bridges in Broadway, Stanmore, Kogarah and Sutherland reading:
STOLEN LAND
NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE
FUCK AUSSIE PRIDE
BURN THE (AUSTRALIAN FLAG)
Let no one say the past is dead.
The past is all about us and within
- Oodgeroo Noonuccal 1970
As settlers on stolen land,
we pledge our resistance to the
Australian state and its agents,
whose despotic practices we abhor,
whose police and prisons we despise,
whose laws we shall subvert and disobey.
On the night of January 26th, while drunken nationalists celebrated the 226th anniversary of a British military invasion, some unaustralians vandalised the facade of the Ryde electoral office of Victor Dominello, the state minster for Aboriginal affairs and for citizenship.
