On 24/02/2012 8:59 PM Bob Randall wrote:
Dear Friends & Family,
Please have a look at this short compelling video, sign the petition, and share this link with with everyone you can.
On Wednesday the 8th of February 2012, a Tent Embassy was established in Market St Portland with the support of the Dindama Yinna Inna National Woman’s Council and the Canberra Tent Embassy.
Organiser Sandra Onus was quoted in the Portland Observer stating:
On January 26th approximately 1000 people gathered in Borthwick Park in Belgrave to share and learn about indigenous culture, reflect on the experience and consequences of colonization for Aboriginal people since 1776 and to celebrate the Survival of indigenous culture.
Not for as long as it takes to blink were Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott so much as threatened, even less endangered, on the 26th of January by demonstrators from the 40th anniversary Aboriginal Embassy camp in Canberra. Vision footage from activists and mainstream media almost inundating the internet makes irrefutably clear that it was police who were violent and caused the bedlam. At one point uniform was even roughing up plainclothes. For at least 10 minutes after Gillard/Abbott had been driven away, when there was nothing and no one left to “protect”, the police line kept pushing us back, some punching, shoving, throwing people on the ground and “f”- swearing at demonstrators.
Tent Embassy statements: Aboriginal Provisional Government statement | Declaration of Independence for a Sovereign Union of First Nations | Press conference | Comment: Embassy more relevant than ever | I see no riot or attack | Media paints black as white and might as right | Protest speaks for itself | A lesson in over-reaction and social context | No apologies are due to either politician, nor to anyone else |Forget the race card, they're playing the whole deck | Michael Anderson explained the importance of the Embassy on Radio Australia | First hand accounts: Chris Graham: fact v fiction, black v white | From field notes and footnotes | “You shoe’da come!” | Video | Photo essay by Green Left Weekly (what the media didn't show) | ABC’s Media Watch: An Australia Day beat up | AFP to review officers' conduct | Kim Sattler, Secretary, Unions ACT, to Barbara Shaw: "And Abbott's just made a statement to the press that the tent embassy should be pulled down ... he's over there." | Gerry Georgatos’ source: Multiple calls from Gillard’s office, awards ceremony not disturbed | Bob Carr: “The Tent Embassy in Canberra says nothing to anyone and should have been quietly packed up years ago.” | Solidarity actions: Solidarity billboard in Melbourne | Banner drop in Canberra
Below is the Press Conference Given at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on January 26th 2012 explaining why after 40 years the Tent Embassy continues. Footage orginally uploaded by Channel 10
Sovereignty Announced - No volence on Invasion Day: Treaty Republic
A colour leaflet is available advertising the 8th anniversary of 17 year old tj hickey who died as a result of a redfern police chase on st. valentine's day 2004 when he was rammed by a police vehicle that catapulted him onto a spiked fence.
on this 8th anniversary we are attempting to build our numbers to show the redfern police and the nsw government of barry o'farrell that we are not going to forget our true obligation to the memory of tj, his mother gail hickey and his sisters. as they will never forget the injustice that was done to tj on that infamous day, nor should we.
By Michael Woodley, CEO, Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation 7 November 2011. The Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation is calling on Tony Burke, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities to take action under the emergency powers of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act to stop the destruction by Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) of Yindjibarndi sacred sites and ‘living heritage’ areas that are used by Yindjibarndi people each year for their Birdarra religious ceremonies, which date back thousands of years.
by Gerry Georgatos During the last month Indymedia Australia and The National Indigenous Times in Editions 231 and 233 have highlighted the plight of the Western Australian Nyungar family whose young son, the eldest of their six children, was hit by a police-four-wheel drive. The incident occurred on March 6, 2009 and in that time the struggle for some justice and meaning had been lost in a vacuum of inhumanity, and only recently largely thanks to The National Indigenous Times and to Indymedia Australia and to the consequent awareness-raising have we prised some piecemeal gains.
Campaign resources: Belloti Support Group on Facebook -- Justice for Rex Bellotti Campaign Website
Background articles on IndymediaJustice for Rex Bellotti(4/8/2011) -- Justice for Rex Bellotti Jnr an inch closer - new witness and calls for an inquiry(1/9/2011)
The hard fought campaign to save Melbourne's only school for Indigenous students has won a partial victory. The Liberal Government Education Minister and the Save Ballerrt Mooroop College Committee have agreed on a compromise whereby the schools spirit tree and cultural area will be retained. However the school gym will be demolished. There are plans to build a new "Gathering Place" on the site however. This campaign has involved a small group of incredibly committed campaigners camping out in the school gym and picketing the site over the last few months. A fundraising concert on the 16th September became a celebration of the campaign's success and also raised $2000 which will go towards building the new Gathering Place.
Related: Campaign website -- GLW Weekly article on campaign win -- Campaign Facebook page -- Treaty Republic coverage
In Wurundjeri Country sits the only Aboriginal School since the christian William Thomas established a school on the Merri Creek in the 1830's. Today the only Aboriginal school Ballerrt Mooroop College may have its cultural heritage desecrated for sewerage pipes, better views and car parks to be built for the new $20m disability school, a prospect not welcomed by the Public.
