Newsletter date: 27 January 2015
Contents:
* Video: NITV News - 26 January 2015: Invasion Day Marches and Rallies in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane
* Analysis / Opinion: Amy McQuire, New Matilda: Australia Has A Lot Of Growing Up To Do
* Analysis / Opinion: Chelsea Bond, The Conversation: The day I don’t feel Australian? That would be Australia Day
* Statement: Rollback the Intervention: Invasion Day 2015 Statement from Central Australia
* Analysis / Opinion: Liam Mannix, The Age: Invasion Day: Aborigines will lay tissue paper wreaths to mark genocide
* Analysis / Opinion: Toni Hassan, WA Today: Australia Day an uncomfortable reminder of colonisation
* Analysis / Opinion: John Passant, En Passant: I won’t be singing Advance Australia Fair on Invasion Day
* Analysis / Opinion: Nakkiah Lui, The Guardian: Australia Day is a time for mourning, not celebration
* Analysis / Opinion: Jay McDonald, Green Left: 'Australia Day no time to celebrate': Aboriginal activist
* Statement: Congress to Recognise First Nations: Congress Official Statement for Invasion Day, 26 January 2015
* Background: Jens Korff, Creative Spirits: The meaning of Australia Day for Aboriginal people
WGAR News Public Google Group: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-GB#!forum/wgar-news
WGAR News - Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)
- Video
NITV News - 26 January 2015: Invasion Day Marches and Rallies in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane
http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/389024835728/NITV-News-26-January-p...
NITV News 26 January Expires on 2 February 2015, 5:30pm.
- Analysis / Opinion
New Matilda: Australia Has A Lot Of Growing Up To Do
https://newmatilda.com//2015/01/26/australia-has-lot-growing-do
26 Jan 15: "Amy McQuire doesn't celebrate 'Australia Day'. She does, however, hope one day for a mature conversation about changing the date. ... Whilst it is still a minority, there is a building chorus that agrees we should not celebrate a date that for generations of Aboriginal people has been one of mourning. Blackfellas have mourned January 26th for decades because the arrival of the First Fleet not only announced the invasion of the British, but also heralded the massacres of entire tribes, ... " Amy McQuire, a senior reporter with New Matilda. She's the former editor of Tracker magazine and the National Indigenous Times.
- Analysis / Opinion
The Conversation: The day I don’t feel Australian? That would be Australia Day
The Conversation: http://theconversation.com/the-day-i-dont-feel-australian-that-would-be-...
SBS: http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/01/26/comment-day-i-dont-feel-au...
26 Jan 15: "If there is ever a day that I don’t feel Australian, it would be on Australia Day. My mother is a fifth-generation Australian of English and Irish heritage and my father is Munanjahli and an Australian-born South Sea Islander. ... The disconnect I feel on the January 26 is not a rejection of my mother’s history. Rather, it is a rejection of the privileging of one version of history at the expense of another. I simply cannot be part of the collective amnesia that sweeps the nation on January 26 each year. ... " By Dr Chelsea Bond, an Aboriginal (Munanjahli) and South Sea Islander Australian and a senior lecturer with the Oodgeroo Unit at Queensland University of Technology
- Statement
Invasion Day 2015 Statement from Central Australia
https://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/
https://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/2015/01/25/invasion-day-al...
https://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/2015/01/25/ian-viner-artic...
25 Jan 15: "We believe that our voices are not being heard since 2007, since the Intervention was put on us. ... The Summit of Aboriginal people who came from all around the country embarked on Alice Springs, Mparntwe, and gave us hope. ... The Intervention has made it so hard for us to live on land and in our communities. ... We are entitled to be supported to live on our land. ...
Statement to Freedom Summit from Central Australia January 2015 ...
We need to all stand together and demand our rights - rights to land and culture, education our way, proper jobs with equal pay, fair systems not discrimination, self-determination, respect for us as Aboriginal people.
We have not given up. We need our voices to be heard. We ask the Freedom Summit in Canberra on the 26th to 28th of January to take up our struggle, talk about what is happening here and help us stop government attacks on our human rights."
- Analysis / Opinion
The Age: Invasion Day: Aborigines will lay tissue paper wreaths to mark genocide
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/invasion-day-aborigines-will-lay-tissu...
26 Jan 15: "Early in the morning on Australia Day, a small group of Aborigines will gather, with flowers made from tissue paper in red, yellow and black, and piece together floral wreaths. Later, in a sombre ceremony, they will be laid on the steps of Victoria's Parliament House. ... "We don't want to celebrate the genocide of our people, and this is what celebrating Australia Day represents for us," said Meriki Onus, the commemoration's organiser. "So we're going to have a memorial tomorrow to remember all those people who fell victim to the genocidal act by the Australian state." ... " Liam Mannix, an Age journalist
- Analysis / Opinion
WA Today: Australia Day an uncomfortable reminder of colonisation
http://www.watoday.com.au/comment/australia-day-an-uncomfortable-reminde...
21 Jan 15: " ... Every January 26 Aboriginal people from all around Australia come to the lawn across from the old Parliament House for an annual corroboree supporting indigenous freedom, at what is arguably one of the world's longest 'occupy' sites in the world, Australia's Aboriginal Tent Embassy. ... Rosalie Kunoth-Monks says the January 26 isn't a problem for her. "I'm not sweating about the day," she told me from Utopia. "What upsets me is a view that Australia began on that day. There is sovereignty in the hearts of Aboriginal people ... I don't want to be assimilated." ... " Toni Hassan
- Analysis / Opinion
En Passant with John Passant: I won’t be singing Advance Australia Fair on Invasion Day
http://enpassant.com.au/2015/01/18/i-wont-be-singing-advance-australia-f...
18 Jan 15: "Invasion Day (aka Australia Day) is 26 January. It commemorates the day in 1788 when British troops and their prisoners arrived to begin the process of establishing capitalism in Australia and dispossessing and slaughtering the indigenous population. One of the lackey Australia Day functionaries has suggested we all sing Advance Australia Fair, the sterile, lifeless national anthem of the Australian bourgeoisie, at noon on Invasion Day. I won’t be celebrating by singing that song. Instead I hope to join my indigenous brothers and sisters outside old Parliament House for a demonstration against the Invasion and its consequences."
- Analysis / Opinion
The Guardian: Australia Day is a time for mourning, not celebration
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/26/australia-day-is-a-...
26 Jan 14: "The refusal to celebrate Australia Day is part of an ongoing fight for the recognition of the abuse of Indigenous people's rights. If we give up on protesting, we might soon no longer remember the past ... I'm an Aboriginal woman in her 20s who cruises dating websites, but it’s only four generations back that my family felt the direct consequences of foreigners invading our land. There's my great-great grandmother, who survived a massacre; my great grandfather, who was forced back to the mission after his father died and wasn't allowed to own land; ... " Nakkiah Lui, a writer for theatre and TV and proud Gamillaroi and Torres Strait Islander woman from Mount Druitt, western Sydney
- Analysis / Opinion
Green Left: 'Australia Day no time to celebrate': Aboriginal activist
https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/46475
23 Jan 11: "Australia Day is traditionally the most racist day of the year for Aboriginal people. When people celebrate on January 26, there is no escaping the fact they are celebrating the day that one race of people invaded another race of people’s country and took control of Aboriginal lands and tried to dominate Aboriginal people. Invasion Day, as it should be called, celebrates the dispossession of land, culture, and way of life of Aborigines." Jay McDonald, an activist with the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, Launceston
- Statement
Congress to Recognise First Nations: Released as Congress Official Statement for Invasion Day, 26 January 2015
http://nationalcongress.com.au/congress-to-recognise-first-nations/
23 Jan 15: "The National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples proposes to formally acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations and governments in Australia. The Board of Congress is reviewing its structure to include those community-based governance institutions sustained by the peoples for community decision-making and self-governance.
Congress is taking a leading role internationally and nationally by developing structures and procedures for the accommodation of self-determination and development. Recognition and promotion by Congress of these governments and nations will lead to greater autonomy and culturally-appropriate political development, thus ensuring stronger and more effective voices at community level. Importantly, Congress respect for our nations and governments coincides with United Nations General Assembly interest in creating a special status for Indigenous Peoples governments at the UN.
Congress believes the recognition of governments and nations can rapidly advance the exercise of self-determination throughout communities and will strengthen community-based governing institutions as effective voices at local, national and international levels. ... "
- Background
The meaning of Australia Day for Aboriginal people
http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/history/australia-day-...
http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/history/australia-day-...
"To many Aboriginal Australians there is little to celebrate and it is a commemoration of a deep loss. Loss of their sovereign rights to their land, loss of family, loss of the right to practice their culture. ... Aboriginal people call it ‘Invasion Day’, ‘Day of Mourning’, ‘Survival Day’ or, since 2006, ‘Aboriginal Sovereignty Day’. The latter name reflects that all Aboriginal nations are sovereign and should be united in the continuous fight for their rights. [Michael] Mansell believes that Australia celebrates "the coming of one race at the expense of another" [6]." Jens Korff, Creative Spirits
- - -
WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)
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