#aboriginal australians

[claraameliapond]

For Australia, 26th January is invasion day, and that's literally it.

Today is a horrifically sad day in Australian history. Invasion day.

That's literally all it is.

Please please please do not join in the chorus of racism wishing anyone a "Happy Australia day" on the 26th of January

We can, have and are moving forward together as a country,

But we cannot truly do so if a celebration of our country and identity is held on the literal anniversary of the brutal and long-standing invasion, massacre and occupation of Australian aboriginals, the first peoples of Australia.

This invasion and subsequent violent Colonisation was full of many horrors that lasted well into the late twentieth century, and the long-standing repercussions of which have lasted to this day.

The stolen generations , in which generations - multiple generations of young aboriginal children were literally stolen by white colonists from their families, sent to missions, (detention boarding "schools ") , in which they were converted to Christianity and prepared for menial jobs, punished if they ever spoke their own languages, and subsequently put into the service of white families, with the intention to be bred out, never to see their families again. Never to be educated about their home, their families, their land, their culture, their languages, their history; they are the oldest continuing culture on earth. The last of these missions were in effect until 1969. By 1969, all states had repealed the legislation that allowed the removal of Aboriginal children under the policy and guise of "protection".

The indigenous health, longevity and poverty gaps still exist. Access to medicine, medical care, healthcare, a western education, all things we deem human rights by law, are not accessible to many rural communities still. They are provided, but in western ways, on western terms, with a gap of understanding how best to implement those services for an entirely different culture , that we do not have a thorough understanding of - that was what the referendum was about: , how best to implement the funds that are already designated to provide those services, because it's not currently working or usable by those communities. Our aboriginal communities are still not treated equally, nor do they have the same access we all enjoy to things like healthcare services, medicines and western education.

It is horrific and insensitive to therefore celebrate that day as our country's day of identity, because it's literally celebrating the first day and all subsequent days of the invasion, the massacres, the stolen generations, the subjugation and mistreatment, the inequalities that still persist today. It celebrates that day, that act committed on that day, of invasion , violent brutal massacres of Aboriginal people, as a positive, 'good' thing. As something that defines Australia's identity and should define an identity to be proud of.

That's nothing to be proud of.

Our true history is barely taught in our school curriculum, in both primary and secondary school. Not even acknowledged.

It needs to be.

We cannot properly move forward as a country until that truth is understood by every Australian, with compulsory education.

January 26th is Not 'Australia day'. It's Invasion day. It's a sorrowful day of mourning.

Please do not wish anyone a "happy Australia day " today.

It's not happy and it's not Australia day.

Australia day should be at the end of Reconciliation week that is held from the 23rd May to 3rd June.

A sentiment that is about all of us coming together as a shared identity within many identities, accepting and valuing each other as equal, a day that actually acknowledges Australian aboriginal peoples as the first Australians - because they are.

This is literally about acknowledging fact - that is the truth of Australian history. Aboriginal cultures should be celebrated and embraced, learnt from, not ignored, treated as invisible and especially not desecrated by holding celebrations of national identity on anniversaries of their violent destruction.

Australian aboriginal peoples, cultures and histories, should be held up as Australia's proud identity of origins, because it literally is Australia's origins.

That's a huge, foundational integral part of our shared identity that must be celebrated and acknowledged.

Inclusivity, not offensive exclusivity. Australia day used to be on 30th July, also 28th July, among others. Australia Day on the 26th January only officially became a public holiday for all states and territories 24 years ago, in 1994. It's been changed a lot before. It can certainly be changed so it can be a nonoffensive , happy celebration of our shared Australian national identity for everyone, that respectfully acknowledges and includes the full truth of our whole shared history, not just the convenient parts.

There is literally no reason it can't be changed, and every reason to change it.

#Always Was Always Will Be

[scotianostra]

Charles Duguid was born on 6th April 1884 at Saltcoats, Ayrshire.

I only learned of this man 4 years ago, and have to say, if ever there was an apt name for a man “Dr Do Good” as he became known has that honour.

Duguid was the son of Charles Duguid, a teacher, and Jane Snodgrass Kinnier, daughter of Robert S. Kinnier, a surgeon, he attended Ardrossan Academy, where his father was Headmaster between 1882 and 1889, and the High School in Glasgow, before studying medicine at Glasgow University he gained a Master of arts in 1905 before going on to gain degrees in Medicine and surgery. Whilst teaching at Glasgow University, Duguid worked as a doctor in the slums of Glasgow, but in 1911 he signed on as ship’s surgeon for a voyage to and from Australia. This experience led him to emigrate to Australia in 1912. His early medical work in the Glasgow slums developed in him a compassion for the underdog which continued throughout his 102-year life.

After settling in Victoria and marrying an Australian lass, who tragically died in 1927, he remarried in 1930, both Duguid and his wife were idealists and humanitarians, the murder of a white man by Aboriginals at Landers Creek, Northern Territory, sparked Duguid’s interest in their rights.

The police shot 17 Aboriginals during the course of the hunt for the murderer, but official records at the time state that at least 31 people were killed. In 1934 he headed to Darwin, but missed his connection from Alice Springs after responding to a request to perform some emergency surgery there and stayed on for three weeks. He was appalled at the way Aboriginal people were treated there and by their poor living conditions.

Duguid’s wife Phyllis, founded the Aboriginal Advancement League in 1935 and Duguid served as President. In 1937, Duguid helped to found Ernabella Mission in the Musgrave Ranges of South Australia. He lectured and spoke in the UK as well as Australia and New Zealand about the conditions of the Australian Aborigines.

Duguid was active in other organizations concerned with the advancement of Aboriginal rights such as the Council for Aboriginal Rights and the Association for the Protection of Native Races. He also led the 1947 campaign against the establishment of a British-Australian rocket testing program at Woomera in the Central Australian Desert. He worked closely with Donald Thompson to inform the public of the harmful effect that this program would have on those people still living traditionally, nearby.

In addition to his work with Australian Aborigines, Duguid helped to found the Australian branch of the English-Speaking Union, of which he was Chairman in 1932. In 1935, he was elected Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of South Australia. Duguid died in Adelaide on December 5th, 1986 at the age of 102.

Check out this link for the full story of this good man http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/duguid-charles-12440

[us-the-voices-and-more-voices-2]

[IMAGE ID: a large fonted poster that says in big bold letters "now more than ever" along the bottom it reads "national reconciliation week 2024 27 May to 3 June #NRW2024 reconciliation.org.au" END ID:]

oh wait it's transparent GUYS it's fine if you use light mode. but if you use anything but light mode you might need to just look at it a bit

happy reconciliation week!

for actually a really cool and awesome education program!

this is super cool!

actually everyone check this one out! ^^^

^^^^^ THIS EVERY MUTUAL READ ^^^^^

THIS LITERALLY NO JOKE! PLEASE DO I AM PUTTING THIS ON THE PINNED POST this is the best introduction to First Nations stuff I've seen for people who aren't Australian PLEASE LOOK AT IT EVEN IF BRIEFLY PLEASEEEE

I will be trying to post stuff every day this week but I will probably forget :( I'm never consistent but please guys have a look at this stuff!!!!!!

[saotome-michi]

Australians have resoundingly rejected a proposal to recognise Aboriginal people in its constitution and establish a body to advise parliament on Indigenous issues.

Saturday’s voice to parliament referendum failed, with the defeat clear shortly after polls closed.

To succeed, the yes campaign – advocating for the voice – needed to secure a double majority, meaning it needed both a majority of the national vote, as well majorities in four of Australia’s six states.

The defeat will be seen by Indigenous advocates as a blow to what has been a hard fought struggle to progress reconciliation and recognition in modern Australia, with First Nations people continuing to suffer discrimination, poorer health and economic outcomes.

More than 17 million Australians were enrolled for the compulsory vote, with many expats visiting embassies around the world in the weeks leading up to Saturday’s poll.

The vote occurred 235 years on from British settlement, 61 years after Aboriginal Australians were granted the right to vote, and 15 years since a landmark prime ministerial apology for harm caused by decades of government policies including the forced removal of children from Indigenous families.

The referendum had been a key promise that Labor party took to the federal election in 2022, when it returned to power after years of conservative rule.

Support for the voice to parliament had been strong in the early months of 2023, polling showed, but subsequently began a slow and steady decline.

[trekkitkat]

Because it appears to have been forgotten in a matter of days. A reminder that the current leading political party of Australia, rejected an official investigation into the sexual abuse of indigenous children.

They campaigned for months for government representation for indigenous people, talking about healing and reconciliation, then four days later, they rejected a Royal Commision investigation into the abuse of indigenous children, and no one asked why!!!!!

Do they care about indigenous people or not?????

Or do they only want to talk about it when it can be a pretty campaign of smiles, music and ceremonies. They don't want to deal with the horror of toddlers being victims of pedophiles and children on the street because they have nowhere safe to go.

The government of this country disgusts me.

[oceaniatropics]

[ammg-old2]

In Southern Australia, vandals have broken into Koonalda Cave and destroyed 30,000 year-old sacred Indigenous rock art. The vandals forced their way past barbed wire and dug under a steel gate to get into the Koonalda Caves, where they etched graffiti into the limestone wall over the ancient Nullarbor Plain drawings. The cave is considered sacred by its owners, the Aboriginal Mirning people.

“This is quite frankly shocking,” South Australia attorney general and Aboriginal affairs minister Kyam Maher told Australia’s ABC Radio. “These caves are some of the earliest evidence of Aboriginal occupation of that part of the country.”

Authorities have yet to find the vandals, but the suspects could face a $10,000 fine or up to six months in prison for writing “Don’t look now, but this is a death cave,” over the ancient geometric patterns carved into the rock.

“The vandals caused a huge amount of damage. The art is not recoverable,” Keryn Walshe, an archaeologist of ancient Aboriginal sites, told the Guardian’s Mostafa Rachwani. “The surface of the cave is very soft. It is not possible to remove the graffiti without destroying the art underneath. It’s a massive, tragic loss to have it defaced to this degree.”

Koonalda Cave, which has been on Australia’s National Heritage list since 2014, plays an important role in the country’s, and human, history. It had long been believed that humans first arrived on the continent some 8,700 years ago, but archaeologists upended that misconception when they found that the cave's drawings date back at least 30,000 years. The findings “transformed the scientific community and publics’ understanding of Australian and World prehistory,” according to the Australian National Hertiage Places registry.

The Mirning peoples had been in talks with the Australian government over needed changes to the site’s maintenance, asking for increased security and better access for the tribe to the caves. Currently, the tribe needs to request a key from the local environmental department to access the site, making it difficult for tribe members to visit and for the Mirning to protect the site. Trespassers have been entering the caves for years and carving their names into the soft limestone rock with their fingers.

“The failure to build an effective gate, or to make use of modern security services, such as wildlife monitoring cameras that operate 24/7, has in many ways allowed this vandalism to occur,” Clare Buswell, chair of the Australian Speleological Federation’s Conservation Commission, wrote to Aboriginal lands parliamentary standing committee in July, according to the Guardian.

Rock art, like the drawings destroyed in Koonalda Cave, is the oldest known form of early human art. In many Indigenous cultures, the drawings are a part of their cultural heritage and oral histories. Visiting the Nullarbor Plain art was part of a Mirning Elders ritual in communing with ancestors. 

“Me and my Mirning Elders are very sad, disturbed and hurt by what has happened,” Mirning Elder Uncle Bunna Lawrie tells Hyperallergic’s Elaine Veile. “Koonalda is our most important, sacred place.”

He tells Hyperallergic that it’s likely the destruction was “premeditated”: the drawings are deep within the tunnels of the dark caves, and Koonalda is miles away from civilization.

“It is not coming back,” says Lawrie of the ruined drawings. “It is one of the oldest cave art in the world and it is now damaged. It is so wrong.”

[indizombie]

Taking the time to stop and really listen to the environment around them is part of what Miriam-Rose describes as dadirri — a form of deep listening and quiet still awareness. “It helps your spirit to be fulfilled,” Miriam-Rose says. “Sometimes when I say, you gotta slow down, let’s go and sit by the riverbank and watch the flow of the river and listen to the sounds of the bird or listen to the wind blowing through the leaves – some people cry, westerners, because they can’t see themselves slowing down.”

‘A link to the past’, ABC

[figsandfandoms]

i may tune out during a workplace meeting, but i never tune out during the Acknowledgement of Country

[furmity]

Sorry Day- 26 May

Terranora Public School, adapted from the Healing Foundation

[mortispbf]

[jack-a-lass]

I saw a post about Fortune, an African American slave (1743-1798) whose remains were used for medical research without his consent and without his family knowing where his remains were, and the eventual return and burial of his remains didn’t happen until 2013.

It reminded me of the way that Aboriginal Australians have received similar treatment. The above images are from ‘Finding the heart of the nation’ by Thomas Mayor, in particular the chapter in which he talks to Rodney Dillon, a Palawa Aboriginal man, who has helped return the remains of many elders who were taken from their country without the consent of themselves or their families. The chapter also discusses Truganini, a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman, erroneously called the last Tasmanian Aboriginal, who was friends with Rodney’s great-great grandmother. Truganini, having seen how settlers treated the body of other Tasmanian Aboriginal people, was afraid that her remains would not be allowed to rest, a fear that was unfortunately realised.

There are still remains of Aboriginal people held in museums, hospitals, and teaching facilities, without the consent, or knowledge of their families. Rodney has done great work in returning the remains of some elders, but there is still work to be done.

[newsbites]

[Representatives of the Aboriginal communities in South Australia] have welcomed the commitment by the South Australian Government to establishing an independent peak body for Aboriginal children and young people.

South Australian Aboriginal communities and organisations have advocated tirelessly over many years for a peak body representing the interests of children and families.

SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle welcomed the SA Government’s investment in this peak, which will ensure Aboriginal children and families have a say in the laws and policies that impact them.

“SNAICC was commissioned by the SA Government to conduct community consultations around the State about a preferred model and we developed an options paper that reflected the views and wishes of the SA Aboriginal community,” Ms Liddle said.

“It was made very clear through the consultations that a peak body was needed, desired and should be adequately funded to hear, support and represent Aboriginal children, families and organisations working in the sector.

“There was strong consensus that the focus of the peak body’s work should be on the child protection, family support, and early childhood education and development sectors.

“By partnering with Government, the peak will aim to reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal children and young people in the child protection system, including in care.

“It will also build the capacity of the Aboriginal community-controlled sector to provide the services and do the work.

[biglisbonnews]

Pastor Sir Douglas & Lady Gladys Nicholls Memorial in Melbourne, Australia Situated in Parliament Gardens in central Melbourne, this memorial commemorates the remarkable lives of Douglas and Gladys Nicholls, two leading Aboriginal Australian rights activists from the Cummeragunja Mission in New South Wales. The monument is situated in Parliament Gardens in central Melbourne and is the first in the city to depict Aboriginal Australian leaders. Australian artist Louis Laume created the sculptures, which were unveiled to the public on December 9, 2007.  Born in 1906, Douglas Nicholls became a prominent Australian rules football player. The only Aboriginal Australian player in the league, sports crowds called him the "flying Abo" and worse. By the mid-1930s, Nicholls became involved in Aboriginal Australian rights organizations eventually co-founding the Victorian Aborigines Advancement League in 1957. He led protests and fought against assimilation policies with the VAAL and other organizations. In 1972, he became the first Aboriginal Australian to be knighted. Gladys Nicholls was also born in 1906. At 19, she married Douglas Nicholls's brother Howard. In 1942, Howard tragically died in a car accident, leaving Gladys with three children to care for. Less than a year later, she married Douglas. Throughout her life, Gladys was involved in many social reform projects that targeted poverty and social inequality, mostly in the Aboriginal Australian community across Melbourne. She later became secretary of the National Aboriginal and Islander Women's Council and was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2008. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pastor-sir-douglas-lady-gladys-nicholls-memorial

[the-sappho-of-lesbos]

I was hoping to find a physical copy but I couldn’t so I thought I was share the PDF link!

http://www.opendoors.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/However-You-Wanna-See-Me.pdf

[edgion-the-great]

I think it would be very cool and sexy if there were NOT golf resorts being built on traditional aboriginal grounds and graves actually