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Indigenous netball player shares "disgusting" hate letter after sponsorship drama

<p>An Indigenous netball star has shared a vile hate letter she received from a netball fan, two years on from the Netball Australia sponsorship drama.</p> <p>Prior to her first game with the Australian Diamonds national team in 2022, Donnell Wallam, a Noongar woman from Western Australia, refused to wear the uniform which featured the logo of Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting.</p> <p>The 30-year-old athlete shared that her reasoning was over racist comments made by Rinehart's late father in the 1980s, when he suggested Aboriginal people should be sterilised.</p> <p>In response to Wallam's boycott, Gina Rinehart dramatically tore up her $15 million sponsorship deal with Netball Australia, which had been set to run until the end of 2025.</p> <p>Now, two years on from the sponsorship drama, Wallam shared a photo on of hate mail she received about the controversy, from a woman named “Mary”.</p> <p>The letter posted to Instagram, which accused Wallam of being "radicalised by the Aboriginal left", includes a mocking imitation of an Indigenous Acknowledgement of Country paying “respects to British and European elders”.</p> <p>“As if the hate online wasn’t enough, Mary thought she’d send me a letter,” the netballer wrote. “I’m beyond disgusted and hurt but I will never stop advocating for my people. Blak, Loud and Proud. ALWAYS.”</p> <p>The letter reads, “I am writing to you to express my sadness that your [sic] cost the Australian Diamonds, of $15,000,000, caused by your radically influenced comments about Gina Rinehart’s father, Lang Hancock.” </p> <p>“Mr Hancock’s comments about serialisation [sic] of Aboriginals was disgusting and made by one man. However, at the time his daughter was not yet born as you were not yet born. You were influenced by the nasty activist Aboriginal clique that hates everything Australia. You fell into their spell and caused such loss of donations to Australia Netball. Hang your head in shame girl, for being manipulated by the radical Aboriginal filth.”</p> <p>Mary adds that she went to school in Perth “and had many good Noongar friends that I still love today”. </p> <p>“You are a disgrace to the Noongar Tribe,” she wrote. “I will never watch you play, ever.”</p> <p>Wallam’s supporters slammed the letter as “disgusting”, saying they will always support the inspirational athlete.</p> <p>“You are such an inspiration for so many, I am completely disgusted but sadly not shocked, what an absolute piece of s**t this woman is,” one wrote.</p> <p>“I will defs be watching your next game to support you,” another said. “Sounds like Mary’s loss!”</p> <p><em>Image credits: DARREN PATEMAN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Editorial </em></p>

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Two iconic locations officially given dual Indigenous titles

<p>In a significant move to recognise and honour the rich cultural heritage of the Indigenous peoples of Australia, two iconic locations in northern NSW will now be officially known by their Indigenous names. This decision comes after impassioned calls from the community to acknowledge the profound significance these sites hold in Indigenous culture and history.</p> <p>Walgan, translating to "shoulder" in the Bundjalung language, has been designated as the dual name for Cape Byron, marking it as the Australian mainland's most easterly point. Cape Byron, situated in the picturesque town of Byron Bay, has long been a hotspot for tourists seeking stunning coastal views. However, beyond its natural beauty, this area holds deep cultural significance for the Arakwal and other Bundjalung people. It has served as a sacred site for important gatherings and traditional ceremonial practices, anchoring it firmly in the cultural tapestry of the region.</p> <p>Similarly, Nguthungulli, referred to as the "Father of the World", will now share its name with Julian Rocks, a renowned diving destination located 2.5km off Cape Byron. This underwater marvel, steeped in Aboriginal lore and legend, is intricately tied to the dreaming stories of the Arakwal and other Bundjalung communities.</p> <p>By bestowing these dual names, authorities aim to not only pay homage to the Indigenous heritage of the land but also to foster a greater understanding and appreciation of its significance among all Australians.</p> <p>The decision to officially recognise these dual names was approved by the NSW Geographical Names Board, following a submission from the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Additionally, in a nod to preserving local Indigenous language and culture, a reserve in the suburb of Bangalow will be formally named Piccabeen Park. The term "Piccabeen" originates from the Bundjalung language, referring to the bangalow palm and the traditional baskets crafted from its fronds.</p> <p>Jihad Dib, the Customer Service Minister, emphasised the NSW government's commitment to safeguarding and promoting Indigenous language and culture through place naming. "All Australians share a relationship to the land and the names we give to places convey their significance, sense of history and identity," he said "Dual-naming acknowledges the significance of Aboriginal culture and represents a meaningful step towards the process of unity in NSW."</p> <p>Echoing these sentiments, David Harris, the Aboriginal Affairs and Treaty Minister, underscored the enduring connections that the Arakwal and other Bundjalung peoples have maintained with these sites since time immemorial. "It is only right to honour that history and that connection through names that bring story and language to life for all Australians to enjoy," he said.</p> <p><em>Image: Getty</em></p>

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Little girl's Anzac artwork sells at auction for $100,000

<p>A moving artwork created by nine-year-old Evie Poolman has sold for a staggering six-figure sum at auction. </p> <p>Young Evie created the artwork of the 'Lone Soldier' just six months after receiving a devastating diagnosis of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a deadly type of brain tumour.</p> <p>Evie underwent four brain surgeries and 30 rounds of radiation for her condition but tragically died at the age of nine in June 2021.</p> <p>Now, the artwork - a striking red and orange piece depicting an Anzac standing before a grave at sunset - has been auctioned off by Evie's parents in an attempt to raise money for a cure for the horrible disease. </p> <p>Currently, DIPG has a zero per cent survival rate but despite this, since 2015, less than a million dollars has been dedicated to research in Australia.</p> <p>Evie's parents Chuck and Bridget chose to auction off their late daughter's artwork at the Heels 2 Heal charity lunch in Sydney on Friday, to increase the funding of research into DIPG. </p> <p>The lucky winner, Jo Kinghorn, forked out a staggering $100,000 for the artwork, as she handed over the money "with absolute joy and pleasure".</p> <p>"It was so exciting for me, I've never really experienced anything like that before," Kinghorn, a friend of the Poolman family, told 2GB's Ben Fordham, adding that she hadn't woken up that day expecting to part with so much money.</p> <p>"I'm just so grateful that the painting ended up in my hands."</p> <p>Kinghorn was more than happy to contribute so much money, knowing the funds were going to a good cause. </p> <p>"It's a drop in the ocean as to what is needed, and the government has the ability to properly fund these trials," Kinghorn said of the money spent.</p> <p>"I saw first-hand what this did to a family, and the strength of this family is beyond words. I cannot be more proud. It's just devastating."</p> <p><em>Image credits: 2GB</em></p>

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Sam Newman calls for an end to "divisive" Indigenous symbols

<p>Sam Newman has called for all "divisive" Indigenous symbols, including the Aboriginal flag, to be banned from major events after the defeat of the Voice to Parliament referendum. </p> <p>The former AFL player, who recently encouraged sports fans to boo during the Welcome to Country at the AFL grand final, has once again taken aim at First Nations Australians after Indigenous symbols were used on awards handed out at the Melbourne Marathon on Sunday. </p> <p>Speaking on his <em>You Cannot Be Serious</em> podcast, Newman questioned why Aboriginal artworks adorned the medals and ribbons handed out to participants of the marathon. </p> <p>"People just cannot help themselves," he said.  </p> <p>"The Melbourne Marathon was run last Sunday, and everyone who ran in it got a medal ... the pandering and sycophantic crap. All the ribbons had snakes and lizards and were decked out in Indigenous artwork."</p> <p>When challenged by his co-host, Newman doubled on his controversial opinion. </p> <p>"Why can't you just have an Australian flavour for the Melbourne Marathon? (Why) do you have to keep pandering to it all for? Why aren't we just one people? What do you do that for? They can't help themselves."</p> <p>Newman also welcomed the defeat of the Voice to Parliament referendum, and took aim at disappointed Yes voters who were mourning the defeat. </p> <p>He said, "The people who were the Yes voters said 'we're going to fly the Aboriginal flags at half-mast'. Well, that's good, we've got them half way down let's remove them right down to the bottom and not fly them at all."</p> <p>Ironically, after beginning the rant about the Voice, he welcomed the idea from Indigenous leaders to hold a 'Week of Silence' to grieve the outcome of the referendum. </p> <p>"How fantastic is that? Let's have a year of silence and not talk about it," Newman said.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images </em></p>

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Explainer: Australia has voted against an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. Here’s what happened

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/amy-maguire-129609">Amy Maguire</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-newcastle-1060">University of Newcastle</a></em></p> <p>A majority of Australian voters have rejected the proposal to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament, with the final results likely to be about 40% voting “yes” and 60% voting “no”.</p> <h2>What was the referendum about?</h2> <p>In this referendum, Australians were asked to vote on whether to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander <a href="https://voice.gov.au/referendum-2023/referendum-question-and-constitutional-amendment">Voice</a> to Parliament. The Voice was proposed as a means of recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the <a href="https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/australias-first-peoples">First Peoples of Australia</a> in the Constitution.</p> <p>The Voice proposal was a modest one. It was to be an advisory body for the national parliament and government. Had the referendum succeeded, Australia’s Constitution would have been amended with a new section 129:</p> <blockquote> <p>In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia:</p> <p>i. there shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice</p> <p>ii. the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples</p> <p>iii. the Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.</p> </blockquote> <p>This proposal was drawn from the <a href="https://ulurustatement.org/the-statement/view-the-statement/">Uluru Statement from the Heart</a> from 250 Indigenous leaders, which called for <a href="https://deadlystory.com/page/culture/Annual_Days/NAIDOC_Week/NAIDOC_2019/Hey_you_Mob_it_s_NAIDOC_week#:%7E:text=The%20statement%20outlines%20a%20need,see%20below%20for%20more%20information">three phases of reform</a> - Voice, followed by Treaty and Truth -telling about Australia’s colonial history. The proposal was for constitutional change to ensure the Voice would not be abolished by government in future, as previous Indigenous bodies have been.</p> <h2>How did Australians vote?</h2> <p>Voting is <a href="https://www.aec.gov.au/about_aec/publications/voting/">compulsory</a> in Australia. Every eligible Australian citizen over 18 years of age is obliged to vote in elections and referendums. Australia has one of the <a href="https://peo.gov.au/understand-our-parliament/your-questions-on-notice/questions/how-many-people-voted-in-the-last-election/#:%7E:text=According%20to%20the%20Australian%20Electoral,voter%20turnouts%20in%20the%20world.">highest rates of voter turn out</a> in the world - over 90% of those eligible have voted in every national election since compulsory voting was introduced in 1924.</p> <p>Australia has a written <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2013Q00005">Constitution</a>. A successful referendum vote is required to <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/House_of_Representatives/Powers_practice_and_procedure/Practice7/HTML/Chapter1/Constitution_alteration">change</a> the Constitution in any way.</p> <p>To succeed, a referendum proposition requires a <a href="https://voice.gov.au/referendum-2023/how-referendum-works#:%7E:text=For%20a%20referendum%20to%20be,4%20out%20of%206%20states.">double majority</a>. This means it must be agreed to by a majority of voters, and a majority of states. Australia has six <a href="https://digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/images/map-australia-showing-states-and-territories">states</a>, so at least four must have a majority of voters in favour for a referendum to succeed.</p> <p>Australia also has two territories - individuals in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-and-territory-ballots-will-be-counted-differently-at-the-voice-referendum-is-that-fair-212703">territories</a> contribute to the overall vote, but the territories do not count towards the majority of states.</p> <p>It’s very difficult to achieve constitutional change in Australia. Since federation in 1901, 45 questions have been put to Australian voters in <a href="https://www.aec.gov.au/elections/referendums/referendum_dates_and_results.htm">referendums</a>. Only eight of those have succeeded.</p> <p>In the Voice referendum, only the Australian Capital Territory voted “yes” by majority. A <a href="https://tallyroom.aec.gov.au/ReferendumNationalResults-29581.htm">clear majority</a> of the national electorate voted “no”. All states returned majority “no” results.</p> <p>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people constitute <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/estimates-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-australians/latest-release#:%7E:text=Data%20downloads-,Key%20statistics,Queensland%20and%20Western%20Australia%20combined.">3.8% of Australia’s population</a>. Government members claimed on ABC TV in the referendum coverage that polling booths including high proportions of Indigenous voters, for example Palm Island in Queensland, returned high “yes” votes. However, in a majoritarian democracy like Australia, such a small proportion of the national population cannot dictate the outcome of a national poll.</p> <p>Importantly, the Voice referendum did not have unanimous support across the two main political parties in Australia. The Labor government <a href="https://theconversation.com/were-all-in-declares-an-emotional-albanese-as-he-launches-the-wording-for-the-voice-referendum-202435">announced</a> and has campaigned for “yes”. The leader of the opposition, Liberal Queensland MP <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-05/peter-dutton-voice-to-parliament-yes-no-vote-referendum/102797582">Peter Dutton</a>, campaigned strongly against the referendum proposal.</p> <h2>What happens now?</h2> <p>The government is bound to abide by the referendum result. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed that his government <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/08/labor-wont-try-to-legislate-indigenous-voice-if-referendum-fails-albanese-says#:%7E:text=The%20prime%20minister%2C%20Anthony%20Albanese,away%20from%20the%20voice%20altogether%3F%E2%80%9D">will not seek to legislate a Voice</a> as an alternative to the constitutional model.</p> <p>Albanese, conceding the failure of the referendum, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-14/live-updates-voice-to-parliament-referendum-latest-news/102969568">said</a>: “Tomorrow we must seek a new way forward”. He called for a renewed focus on doing better for First Peoples in Australia.</p> <p>The referendum outcome represents a major loss for the government. But much more important than that will be the negative impacts of the campaign and loss on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.</p> <p>On ABC TV, Arrernte/Luritja woman <a href="https://www.snaicc.org.au/about/contact/staff-bios/">Catherine Liddle</a> called for a renewed focus on truth-telling and building understanding of Australia’s history across the population. She said the failure of the referendum reflected a lack of understanding about the lives and experiences of Indigenous people in Australia.</p> <p>“Yes” campaign advocates reported <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/we-are-tired-victorian-yes-advocates-devastated-as-no-vote-refuses-voice-20231012-p5ebse.html">devastation</a> at the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/14/australian-voters-reject-proposal-for-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-at-historic-referendum">outcome</a>. Sana Nakata, writing <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-political-subjugation-of-first-nations-peoples-is-no-longer-historical-legacy-213752">here</a>, said: “now we are where we have always been, left to build our better futures on our own”.</p> <p>Some First Nations advocates, including Victorian independent Senator <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/16/lidia-thorpe-says-australias-voice-referendum-should-be-called-off">Lidia Thorpe</a> - a Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman - argued the Voice proposal lacked substance and that the referendum should not have been held. Advocates of a “<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/article/these-progressive-no-campaigners-are-looking-beyond-the-vote-heres-what-they-want/tdyj2ilx6">progressive no</a>” vote (who felt the Voice didn’t go far enough) will continue to call for recognition of continuing First Nations sovereignty and self-determination through processes of treaty and truth-telling.</p> <p>The information landscape for Australian voters leading up to this referendum was murky and difficult to navigate. The Australian Electoral Commission published a <a href="https://www.aec.gov.au/media/disinformation-register-ref.htm">disinformation register</a>. <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/extremely-politicised-and-very-worrying-how-misinformation-about-the-voice-spread/w9sl4pzba">Misinformation and lies</a>, many circulated through social media, have influenced the decision-making of a proportion of voters.</p> <p>It’s open to question whether constitutional change of any kind can be achieved while voters remain so exposed to multiple versions of “<a href="https://www.amnesty.org.au/sorting-fact-from-fiction-in-the-voice-to-parliament-referendum/">truth</a>”.</p> <p>For many First Nations people, the proliferation of lies and misinformation driven by <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-66470376">racism</a> throughout the Voice debate have been <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-03/indigenous-mental-health-impacts-of-voice-referendum-debate/102923188">traumatising</a> and brutal.</p> <p>Indigenous Australians’ Minister, Wiradjuri woman Linda Burney, spoke to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people after the result: “Be proud of your identity. Be proud of the 65,000 years of history and culture that you are part of”. Her <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/videos/national/linda-burney-gives-emotional-speech-following-referendum-result/clnpw6w0n009u0jp8kvgbijuy">pain</a> was patently obvious as she responded to the referendum outcome.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215155/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/amy-maguire-129609"><em>Amy Maguire</em></a><em>, Associate Professor in Human Rights and International Law, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-newcastle-1060">University of Newcastle</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images </em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-australia-has-voted-against-an-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-heres-what-happened-215155">original article</a>.</em></p>

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Kyle censored during fiery on-air debate

<p>Kyle Sandilands has been censored during an on-air rant about Indigenous Australians. </p> <p>The radio shock jock clashed with <em>The Kyle and Jackie O Show</em> newsreader Brooklyn Ross as the pair discussed the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament, which would comprise of a body of First Nations Australians  and Torres Strait Islanders who can advise the government on matters relating to the social, spiritual and economic wellbeing of their people.</p> <p>As the pair argued, lengthy portions of Kyle's opinionated rant were censored. However, some of his comments made it to air.</p> <p>“We have to actually give [Indigenous Australians] money and look after them,” said Ross to which Sandilands replied: “Nah, bulls**t!”</p> <p>“How about educating people and giving people the chance to build their own life like the rest of us did?” he suggested. </p> <p>Sandilands has made it clear that he is staunchly opposed to the Voice, as he doesn’t believe a reported $34 billion in funds should be allocated to Indigenous Australians as he thinks the money wasn’t having a positive affect on First Nations communities. </p> <p>“No one’s really putting all that $34 billion into fixing the real problem. They’re painting houses and giving them this and that,” Sandilands added, before mocking: “’We’ll rename Fraser Island!’”</p> <p>During his rant, he went on to criticise Welcome to Country traditions that have been adopted into everyday life, which involves a speech typically given at significant events by an elder or custodian to welcome visitors to their traditional country. </p> <p>“Look, The Project’s thanking people from the past [for] using their land. These things, they’re s**t!” he said. “No one’s better than anyone else. If they’re treated worse, that’s an issue."</p> <p>After staying silent for most of his tirade, Jackie O chimed in to say she agreed with that part of his outburst. </p> <p>“Thank you, Jackie. Jackie’s finally popped up," he sarcastically called listeners, before telling her: “I understand you don’t want to get involved in it.”</p> <p>Rightfully so, said Ross who made Henderson laugh when he said, “[An] angry man and a gay man arguing. And both of us white!”</p> <p><em>Image credits: KIISFM</em></p>

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‘Why didn’t we know?’ is no excuse. Non-Indigenous Australians must listen to the difficult historical truths told by First Nations people

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/heidi-norman-859">Heidi Norman</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/anne-maree-payne-440459">Anne Maree Payne</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a></em></p> <p>Big things are being asked of history in 2023. Later this year, we will vote in the referendum to enshrine an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representative body – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/10-questions-about-the-voice-to-parliament-answered-by-the-experts-207014">Voice to Parliament</a> – in the Australian constitution.</p> <p>The Voice was introduced through the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which outlines reforms to advance treaty and truth, in that order. And it calls for “truth telling about our history”.</p> <p>Truth-telling has been key to restoring trust and repairing relationships in post-conflict settings around the world. Historical truth-telling is increasingly seen as an important part of restorative justice in settler-colonial contexts.</p> <p>The UN recognises the “<a href="https://www.un.org/en/observances/right-to-truth-day">right to truth</a>”. It’s important to restore dignity to victims of human rights violations – and to ensure such violations never happen again. But there’s also a collective right to understand historical oppression.</p> <p>The Uluru Statement, too, <a href="https://theconversation.com/first-nations-people-have-made-a-plea-for-truth-telling-by-reckoning-with-its-past-australia-can-finally-help-improve-our-future-202137">sees truth-telling</a> as essential for achieving justice for Australia’s First Nations people.</p> <p>A successful “Yes” referendum outcome has the potential to make history. The Voice will structure a more effective relationship between Aboriginal nations or peoples and government. It will better represent Indigenous interests and rights in Australia’s policy development and service delivery.</p> <p>However modest this reform, the Voice is outstanding business for the nation.</p> <p>But the Uluru statement’s call for “truth-telling about our history” will prove more difficult.</p> <h2>Barriers to ‘truth hearing’</h2> <p>“Why didn’t we know?” non-Indigenous Australians still lament when confronted with accounts of past violence and injustice against Indigenous Australians, despite decades of curriculum reform.</p> <p>Our current research reflects on the barriers to “truth hearing”. The barriers are not just structural. Negative attitudes need to be overcome, too. Researchers have noted <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340480495_NEW_Preface">the levels of</a> “disaffection, disinterest and denial of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history”. They’ve also lamented the piecemeal nature of current educational approaches.</p> <p><a href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/historys-children_history-wars-in-the-classroom/">Anna Clark’s research</a> on attitudes in schools towards learning Australia history – particularly Indigenous history – shows that students experience Australian history as both repetitive and incomplete, “taught to death but not in-depth”.</p> <p>Bain Attwood has <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/48554763">convincingly argued</a> that early settler denial of the violence of Indigenous dispossession was followed by a century of historical denial. History as a discipline, he argues, needs to reckon with the truth about its own role in supporting <a href="https://theconversation.com/truth-telling-and-giving-back-how-settler-colonials-are-coming-to-terms-with-painful-family-histories-145165">settler colonialism</a>.</p> <h2>50+ years of Aboriginal history</h2> <p>For more than 50 years, historians have produced an enormous body of work that’s brought Aboriginal perspectives and experiences into most areas of Australian history – including gender, class, race, <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-when-did-australias-human-history-begin-87251">deep history</a> and global histories.</p> <p>Until the late 1970s, academic interest in Aboriginal worlds was led by mostly white anthropologists and their gaze was set to the traditional north. But historians were then challenged to address the “silence” of their profession when it came to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. They needed to write them into history.</p> <p>This meant “restoring” the Aboriginal worlds omitted in the Australian history texts of the 20th century. This called for new ways of doing research: oral history, re-evaluating the archive, drawing on a wider range of sources than the official and written text.</p> <p>Today, some historians work with scientists and traditional knowledge holders to tell stories over much longer time periods. For example, Australian National University’s <a href="https://re.anu.edu.au/">Centre for Deep History</a> is exploring Australia’s deep past, with the aim of expanding history’s time, scale and scope.</p> <p>And the <a href="https://www.monash.edu/arts/monash-indigenous-studies/global-encounters-and-first-nations-peoples">Global Encounters and First Nations Peoples</a> Monash project, led by Lynette Russell, applies interdisciplinary approaches to consider a range of encounters by First Nations peoples over the past millennium, challenging the view that the Australian history “began” with British colonisation.</p> <p>On the other side of the sandstone gates, an incredible flourishing of historically informed Aboriginal creative works has taken centre stage in Australian cultural life. This includes biographies, memoirs, literature, painting, documentary and performance: often with large audiences and readerships. They are all forms of truth-telling.</p> <p>In <a href="https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/black-words-white-page">Black Words, White Page</a> (2004), Adam Shoemaker details the extent of Aboriginal writing focused on Australian history from 1929 to 1988: writers like <a href="https://ia.anu.edu.au/biography/noonuccal-oodgeroo-18057">Oodgeroo Noonuccal</a>, <a href="https://ia.anu.edu.au/biography/davis-jack-17788">Jack Davis</a>, <a href="https://ia.anu.edu.au/biography/gilbert-kevin-john-18569">Kevin Gilbert</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/charles-perkins-forced-australia-to-confront-its-racist-past-his-fight-for-justice-continues-today-139303">Charles Perkins</a>.</p> <p>This body of work – and much more since – conveys an Aboriginal interpretation of past events, through oral history and veneration of leaders and heroes, drawing together the past and future.</p> <p>Some early examples include Wiradjuri man Robert (Bobby) Merritt’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-great-australian-plays-the-cake-man-and-the-indigenous-mission-experience-88854">The Cake Man</a> (1975), set on a rural mission, which explores causes of despair, particularly for Aboriginal men. It was performed by the then newly formed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Black_Theatre_(Australia)">Black Theatre</a> in Redfern in the same year it was published.</p> <p>Indigenous autobiographies, like Ruby Langford Ginibi’s <a href="https://www.uqp.com.au/books/dont-take-your-love-to-town-2">Don’t Take Your Love to Town</a> (1988), just reissued in UQP’s First Nations Classics series, and Rita Huggins’ biography <a href="https://shop.aiatsis.gov.au/products/auntie-rita-revised-edition">Auntie Rita</a> (1994) are realist accounts of Aboriginal lives, devoid of moralism or victimology.</p> <p>Many more have followed, including Tara June Winch’s novel <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-yield-wins-the-miles-franklin-a-powerful-story-of-violence-and-forms-of-resistance-142284">The Yield</a> (2019), winner of the 2020 Stella prize for literature. Through Wiradjuri language, she gathers the history of invasion and loss – and survival in the present.</p> <p>Indigenous artists are exploring ways to represent the past in the present: overlaid, but still present and continuous. Jonathon Jones’ 2020 <a href="https://mhnsw.au/whats-on/exhibitions/untitled-maraong-manaouwi/">artwork</a> to commemorate the reopening of the Sydney Hyde Park Barracks, built originally in 1817 to house convicts, is one example.</p> <p>Jones <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=374269496789482">explained</a> the installation’s interchangeable use of the broad arrow and maraong manaóuwi (emu footprint) as a matter of perspective: one observer will see the emu print, another the broad arrow.</p> <p>Each marker, within its own sphere of significance, served similar purposes. The emu print is known to be engraved into the sandstone ledges of the Sydney basin and marked a people and their place. The broad arrow inscribed institutional place and direction. Jones wants to show how the landscape can be written over – but never lost – to those who hold its memory.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WPGcFDw5c_s?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><figcaption><span class="caption">Jonathan Jones’ artwork is part of an incredible flourishing of historically informed Aboriginal creative works.</span></figcaption></figure> <p><a href="https://www.uapcompany.com/projects/the-eyes-of-the-land-and-the-sea">The Eyes of the Land and the Sea</a>, by artists Alison Page and Nik Lachajczak, commemorates the 250th anniversary of the 1770 encounter between Aboriginal Australians and Lt James Cook’s crew of the <em>HMB Endeavour</em> at Kamay Botany Bay National Park. This work, too, represents the duality of interpretation and meaning. The monumental bronze sculpture takes the form of the rib bones of a whale – and simultaneously, the hull of the <em>HMB Endeavour</em>.</p> <p>This body of work by dedicated educators, researchers, artists and families has been highly contested.</p> <h2>Truth-telling, healing and restorative justice</h2> <p>Many non-Indigenous Australians are interested in – but anxious about – truth-telling, our early research findings suggest. They don’t know how to get involved and are unsure about their role. Indigenous respondents are deeply committed to truth-telling. But they have anxieties about the process, too.</p> <p>Only 6% of non-Indigenous respondents to Reconciliation Australia’s most recent <a href="https://www.reconciliation.org.au/publication/2022-australian-reconciliation-barometer/">Reconciliation Barometer report</a> had participated in a truth-telling activity (processes that seek to engage with a fuller account of Australian history and its ongoing legacy for First Nations peoples) in the previous 12 months. However, 43% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents had participated in truth-telling.</p> <p>Truth-telling is seen as an important part of healing, but there is uncertainty about its potential to deliver a more just future for First Nations peoples. And it’s acknowledged that <a href="https://theconversation.com/albanese-is-promising-truth-telling-in-our-australian-education-system-heres-what-needs-to-happen-191420">truth-telling</a> might emphasise divisions and differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. There are also concerns about <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-half-of-australians-will-experience-trauma-most-before-they-turn-17-we-need-to-talk-about-it-159801">trauma</a> and issues of cultural safety.</p> <p>But during the regional dialogues that led to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the demand for truth-telling was unanimous from the Indigenous community representatives. Constitutional reform should only proceed if it “tells the truth of history”, they agreed. This was a key guiding principle that emerged from the process.</p> <p>Why does truth-telling remain a central demand? The final report of the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/constitutionalrecognition">Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples</a> described its multiple dimensions.</p> <p>Truth-telling is a foundational requirement for healing and reconciliation. It’s also a form of restorative justice – and a process for Indigenous people to share their culture and history with the broader community. It builds wider understanding of the intergenerational trauma experienced by Indigenous Australians. And it creates awareness of the relationship between past injustices and contemporary issues.</p> <p>“Truth-telling cannot be just a massacre narrative in which First Nations peoples are yet again dispossessed of agency and identity,” <a href="https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q6316/teaching-as-truth-telling-a-demythologising-pedagogy-for-the-australian-frontier-wars">argue</a> Indigenous educators Alison Bedford and Vince Wall. Indigenous agency and the long struggle for Indigenous rights need to be recognised.</p> <p>And there is an ongoing need to deconstruct Australia’s national foundational myths. A focus on military engagements overseas has obscured the violent dispossession of First Nations Australians at home. As Ann Curthoys argued more than two decades ago, white Australians positioned themselves as heroic strugglers to cement their moral claim to the land. This myth overlooked their role in dispossessing First Nations people.</p> <h2>Makarrata Commission</h2> <p>The Uluru Statement called for <a href="https://theconversation.com/response-to-referendum-council-report-suggests-a-narrow-path-forward-on-indigenous-constitutional-reform-80315">a Makarrata Commission</a> to be established to oversee “agreement-making” and “truth-telling” processes between governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.</p> <p>As part of its commitment to the full implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the current federal government committed $5.8 million in funding in 2022 to start the work of establishing the Commission.</p> <p>Yet few details have been provided so far about the form truth-telling mechanisms might adopt. And there’s been little acknowledgement that the desire to “tell the truth” about the past runs counter to the contemporary study of history, which sees history as a complex and ongoing process – rather than a set of fixed “facts” or “truths”.</p> <p>Worimi historian <a href="https://www.newcastle.edu.au/profile/john-maynard">John Maynard</a> describes Aboriginal history research as generative: the work reinforces and sustains Aboriginal worlds – and it reflects a yearning for truth by Aboriginal people that was denied.</p> <p>The impact of colonisation not only targeted the fracturing of Aboriginal people but, as Maynard says, “a state of forgetting and detachment from our past”. Wiradjuri historian <a href="https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/bamblett-l">Lawrence Bamblett</a> develops a similar theme. “Our stories are our survival,” <a href="https://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=61SLQ_INST:SLQ&amp;search_scope=Everything&amp;tab=All&amp;docid=alma9915551944702061&amp;lang=en&amp;context=L&amp;adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&amp;query=sub,exact,Australia%20--%20Race%20relations%20--%20History,AND&amp;mode=advanced&amp;offset=10">he says</a>, in his account of Aboriginal approaches to history.</p> <p>Consider the dedicated labour to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/religion/heidi-norman-bob-weatherall-weve-got-to-bring-them-home/13962068">return Ancestral Remains to their country</a>. Consider the the work of Aboriginal people to restore the graves of their family and community on the old missions. And the work to document sites, such as <a href="https://youtu.be/gTh2rV_VuwQ">Tulladunna cotton chipping Aboriginal camp</a>, on the plains country of north west New South Wales.</p> <p>Some of this dedicated labour to care for the past is made possible by the recognition of Aboriginal land rights. Aboriginal communities are documenting their history in order to communicate across generations – and to create belonging, sustain community futures and know themselves.</p> <p>These processes of documenting and remembering Aboriginal stories of the past are less concerned with the state, and settler hostility. They are <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-dark-emu-debate-limits-representation-of-aboriginal-people-in-australia-163006">unburdened by categorising time</a>. The “old people” or “1788” appear irrelevant in the enthusiasm for living social and cultural history.</p> <p>That history is not confined to the “fixed in time” histories called upon in Native Title litigation, or the debates among historians and their detractors over method and evidence. Nor is it confined to the moral weight of such accounts in the national story.</p> <h2>History and political questions</h2> <p>When discussing Aboriginal history, there is an unbreakable link between the history being studied and the present.</p> <p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_(literary_and_historical_analysis)">Presentism</a> – the concern that the past is interpreted through the lens of the present – and the concept of the “activist historian” can both impact on the way Aboriginal history is perceived or judged. Disdain for “presentism” has leaked into contemporary discussions recently.</p> <p>A <a href="https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/september-2022/is-history-history-identity-politics-and-teleologies-of-the-present">widely criticised column</a> by the president of the American Historical Association – James Sweet, a historian of Africa and the African diaspora – is a recent example.</p> <p>He argued that the increasing tendency to interpret the past through the lens of the present, plummeting enrolments in undergraduate history courses and a greater focus on the 20th and 21st centuries all put history at risk of being mobilised “to justify rather than inform contemporary political positions”.</p> <p>These are not new debates. They have taken place within and outside the academy across the world, including in Australia.</p> <p>But the realities of the histories of <a href="https://theconversation.com/eliza-batman-the-irish-convict-reinvented-as-melbournes-founding-mother-was-both-colonised-and-coloniser-on-two-violent-frontiers-206189">colonisation</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/unpapering-the-cracks-sugar-slavery-and-the-sydney-morning-herald-202828">slavery</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/empire-of-delusion-the-sun-sets-on-british-imperial-credibility-89309">imperialism</a> mean they continue to have an impact in the present. Reparations and apologies happen because of the work of historians and others. They are real-world, present impacts of the work being undertaken.</p> <p>It’s the role of historians to understand the past on its own terms – <em>and</em> to produce work relevant to contemporary political questions.</p> <p>Applied (or public) history produces this work. In this work, particularly historical work that sits outside the academy, we do often find “truth telling”. For example, in the important work done for the <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/bringing-them-home-report-1997">Bringing them Home</a> Commission, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-deaths-in-custody-inquests-can-be-sites-of-justice-or-administrative-violence-158126">Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Royal Commission</a> and Native Title claims in courts.</p> <p>But somehow, these efforts at truth-telling – and other historical research conducted since colonisation – seem not to have impacted on the overall “history” of Australia.</p> <h2>Forgetting and resistance</h2> <p>As the referendum vote edges closer, Australians are being asked to make provisions for the First Peoples to have a role in the political process – and the decisions that impact them.</p> <p>The challenge to address the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-great-australian-silence-50-years-on-100737">Great Australian Silence</a>” – to include First Peoples in the stories of the nation, where they were otherwise omitted – has been largely addressed by the significant body of historical work added over the last 50 or more years. That work, and the correction it has delivered, has generated discomfort and hostility.</p> <p>Yet Australians’ appreciation – and even awareness – of the history of its First Nations people remains deeply unsatisfactory.</p> <p>There is now little justification for the laments <em>Why weren’t we told?</em> or <em>How come we didn’t know?</em>. Our undergraduate students continue to ask these questions, though.</p> <p>Australia has a difficult relationship – a kind of historical amnesia; a forgetting and resistance – to hearing those First Nations stories. That resistance is much deeper than simply being <em>told</em>.</p> <p>The current focus on truth-telling will once again draw our attention to dealing with difficult history. This time, different questions need to be asked.</p> <p>Not <em>why didn’t I know</em>? But <em>how can I find out</em>?</p> <hr /> <p><em>Heidi Norman and Anne Maree Payne will be presenting their research at the upcoming 50th Milestones Anniversary of the Australian Historical Association. Heidi will deliver the keynote address, <a href="https://web-eur.cvent.com/event/f99aac02-b195-46e5-b1d9-bf5183aea6fc/websitePage:150e8a3c-395b-4de3-bf2b-98ac8be5929e">The End of Aboriginal History?</a><!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208780/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></em></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/heidi-norman-859">Heidi Norman</a>, Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/anne-maree-payne-440459">Anne Maree Payne</a>, Senior Lecturer, Centre for the Advancement of Indigenous Knowledges, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-didnt-we-know-is-no-excuse-non-indigenous-australians-must-listen-to-the-difficult-historical-truths-told-by-first-nations-people-208780">original article</a>.</em></p>

Caring

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“Where’s Andy Murray?” Famous family fires up over Wimbledon faux pas

<p>The family of Andy Murray are up in arms after the tennis champion was left out of a promotional artwork ahead of the annual Wimbledon competition. </p> <p>On Tuesday, the All England Club unveiled the promotional image to their social media accounts, which shows 15 past tennis champions, past and present, walking down the stairs of the main building at Wimbledon. </p> <p>At the forefront of the image are members of the “next generation of headline acts” Spaniard world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz and Italian Jannik Sinner, surrounded by sporting legends such as Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and the Williams sisters Serena and Venus.</p> <p>Despite the image being filled with famous tennis faces, there is no image of Andy Murray, a two-time Wimbledon champion, whose famous victory in July 2013 ended 77 years of waiting for a homegrown British male singles winner.</p> <p>Andy's family and fans reacted with outrage that Murray, who was officially knighted in May 2019, was left out of the composition.</p> <p>Murray’s uncle Niall Erskine tweeted, “Appalling at every level, all about the men in the forefront and your own British history-maker nowhere to be seen. You should be ashamed of yourselves.”</p> <p>Elder brother Jamie – who has won two Wimbledon mixed doubles titles – asked, “Where’s Andy Murray?”</p> <p>LA-based freelance illustrator Grant Gruenhaupt responded to the criticism by saying, “Worry not Jamie, there are more paintings on the way.”</p> <p>He added, “Back with Wimbledon on another fun series celebrating historic moments and players!"</p> <p>“This one featuring the greatest rivalries of the past and present as they make the historic walk through the clubhouse and onto Centre Court."</p> <p>“A lot of nuance in this one. Definitely one of the more challenging scenes I’ve had to tackle.”</p> <p><em>Image credits: All England Club / Getty Images</em></p>

Family & Pets

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Selfish selfies: Influencers fined for posing with priceless artworks

<p dir="ltr">Tourists visiting Queensland’s Carnarvon National Park have come under fire, after the wannabe influencers put an historic Indigenous site at risk with their disrespectful holiday selfies. </p> <p dir="ltr">The park’s rock art sites are, according to senior ranger Luke Male, of international importance, and are marked as restricted access areas to prevent tourists from interfering with the “fragile” rock art. </p> <p dir="ltr">However, “some visitors to Carnarvon National Park think the rules don’t apply to them and they’re entering restricted access areas to pose for photos.</p> <p dir="ltr">“In some instances, they are posing in front of Indigenous rock art that is thousands of years old, or they’re actually touching it.</p> <p dir="ltr">“The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service makes no apology for taking compliance action against people who break the rules because they believe they are influencers.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Over the course of 12 months, six different people have been slapped with fines for entering the restricted areas to interact with the rock face - whether to take selfies or to go so far as to touch it - and 18 more fines have been issued for other offences, with camping in the protected area also landing them in trouble with park officials.</p> <p dir="ltr">Touching the art is considered disrespectful, but isn’t the only reason visitors are asked to keep their distance, as touch can also wear down the work. The likes of sunscreen, perspiration, and hand sanitiser can cause further damage, while dust stirred from people walking through the space can adhere to the rock face. </p> <p dir="ltr">As Male explained of the situation, “the ochre stencil art of the region is unique, diverse, highly complex and spectacular, and the rock art is embedded within sandstone that is incredibly fragile.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It is a great honour and privilege for us to be able to see these rock art sites, and touching them can damage cultural artefacts that are thousands of years old.”</p> <p dir="ltr">He also shared that the park rangers regularly received “information, including photos from members of the public about people who have broken the rules.</p> <p dir="ltr">“People have to understand that the Traditional Owners remain connected to this place and the rock art within it, and they regard the entire Carnarvon National Park as a cultural site.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Carnarvon National Park Traditional Owners Management Group Committee’s Bidjara representative Leah Wyman had more to add on the importance of protecting the artworks, sharing that “our rock art bears thousand-year-old images, and they provide valuable information about the lives and cultures of our people in the past.</p> <p dir="ltr">“They are also important spiritual and ceremonial sites to us, and it is imperative that everyone stays on the walkways to ensure that Carnarvon National Park can be visited by future generations to come.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Another member of the committee and Bidjara woman Kristine Sloman noted that the park itself was a cemetery, and that the sites were locations where family members had been laid to rest, so “getting off the boardwalks and walking around is of the utmost disrespect, and is comparable to attending someone’s funeral and walking on their coffin.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Many people around the world have chosen to close their sacred sites due to destructive impacts, and it would be a great shame to resort to this type of action.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Let’s appreciate, learn, nurture, and respect each other’s cultures and ensure no more of our sacred places are damaged or closed to the public.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Department of Environment and Science</em></p>

Travel Trouble

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Indigenous Voice to Parliament: How will it alter the country?

<p>Australians will soon be heading to the polls to submit their vote for the Voice to Parliament.</p> <p>The laws that will allow the national poll to be conducted passed parliament, with the government’s Constitution Alteration Bill passing the senate with 52 votes to 19.</p> <p>The passage of the Bill through parliament led to a six-month period in which the referendum must be held.</p> <p>The Albanese government have already announced Aussies will be able to vote in the national poll between October and December.</p> <p>The government is yet to confirm an official date, but all referendums must be held on a Saturday, and that date raises the question:</p> <p>“A proposed law: to alter the constitution to recognise the first peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice, do you approve of this proposed alteration?”</p> <p>The proposed law that Australians will be asked to approve at the referendum would insert the following lines into the Constitution.</p> <p>To recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia:</p> <p>There shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice;</p> <ol> <li>The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;</li> <li>The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.”</li> <li>The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.”</li> </ol> <p>For the referendum to succeed, an overwhelming majority of voters in most states need to vote “Yes”.</p> <p>Speaking to <em>news.com.au</em> Yes 23 campaigner Dean Parkin and No campaign spokeswoman Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price both concluded the outcome would have a major impact both symbolically and on a practical level.</p> <p>Park said a successful Yes vote would send a powerful message of “what it means to be genuinely, uniquely Australian in the world is to be home to the oldest continuing culture on earth”.</p> <p>“That’s something a lot of people have pride in, and it’s the thing that makes us genuinely unique, and now every Australian gets to connect their own existing story and deeply held view of being Australian to 65,000 years of history,” he said.</p> <p>“That will strengthen and enrich all of our sense of what it means to be Australian. It’s not just about Indigenous people and doing something nice for 3 per cent of the population, it’s something that will benefit every Australian.”</p> <p>Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price weighed in on the No vote, arguing that “a vote against the voice in this referendum is a vote for a country united in the face of an effort to divide us along the lines of race”.</p> <p>It’s a vote for standing together, shoulder to shoulder as equals, to solve the tragic issue of Aboriginal disadvantage,” she said.</p> <p>“It’s a vote for fulfilling the promise of Australia’s constitution that we can all come from different backgrounds and cultures across the world and play a part in making our nation successful and prosperous.</p> <p>“We are a country that believes in a fair go. We are all equals, we all deserve to be treated the same way in our national rule book.”</p> <p>She noted that claims by pro-voice activists that a Yes vote would solve Indigenous disadvantage are “wrong and misleading”.</p> <p>“They talk a big game about ‘closing the gap’, but they don’t say how this will be done. In fact, there are no details at all,” she said.</p> <p>“But we already know what we need to do to help in my communities.</p> <p>“Kids going to school, adults working in real jobs, social stability in communities so people want to live, work and invest in them. The divisive voice won’t do this.”</p> <p>The Senator added that while there is “no doubt there would be widespread support within the Australian community” for Indigenous recognition in the constitution, by voting No, “Australians would be sending a strong signal to the government to embark on a unifying process that could be supported by all Australians”.</p> <p><em>Image credit: Getty</em></p>

Legal

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How traditional Indigenous education helped four lost children survive 40 days in the Amazon jungle

<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/eliran-arazi-1447346">Eliran Arazi</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/hebrew-university-of-jerusalem-855">Hebrew University of Jerusalem</a></em></p> <p>The discovery and rescue of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/four-missing-colombian-children-found-alive-jungle-sources-2023-06-10/">four young Indigenous children</a>, 40 days after the aircraft they were travelling in crashed in the remote Colombian rainforest, was hailed in the international press as a “<a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/06/11/miracle-in-the-jungle-colombia-celebrates-rescue-of-children-lost-in-amazon-rainforest_6030840_4.html">miracle in the jungle</a>”. But as an anthropologist who has spent more than a year living among the Andoque people in the region, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/100474974/Amazonian_visions_of_Visi%C3%B3n_Amazon%C3%ADa_Indigenous_Peoples_perspectives_on_a_forest_conservation_and_climate_programme_in_the_Colombian_Amazon">conducting ethnographic fieldwork</a>, I cannot simply label this as a miraculous event.</p> <p>At least, not a miracle in the conventional sense of the word. Rather, the survival and discovery of these children can be attributed to the profound knowledge of the intricate forest and the adaptive skills passed down through generations by Indigenous people.</p> <p>During the search for the children, I was in contact with Raquel Andoque, an elder <em>maloquera</em> (owner of a ceremonial longhouse), the sister of the children’s great-grandmother. She repeatedly expressed her unwavering belief the children would be found alive, citing the autonomy, astuteness and physical resilience of children in the region.</p> <p>Even before starting elementary school, children in this area accompany their parents and elder relatives in various activities such as gardening, fishing, navigating rivers, hunting and gathering honey and wild fruits. In this way the children acquire practical skills and knowledge, such as those demonstrated by Lesly, Soleiny, Tien and Cristin during their 40-day ordeal.</p> <p>Indigenous children typically learn from an early age how to open paths through dense vegetation, how to tell edible from non-edible fruits. They know how to find potable water, build rain shelters and set animal traps. They can identify animal footprints and scents – and avoid predators such as jaguars and snakes lurking in the woods.</p> <p>Amazonian children typically lack access to the sort of commercialised toys and games that children in the cities grow up with. So they become adept tree climbers and engage in play that teaches them about adult tools made from natural materials, such as oars or axes. This nurtures their understanding of physical activities and helps them learn which plants serve specific purposes.</p> <figure class="align-center "><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=450&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=450&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=450&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=566&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=566&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=566&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="A youg girl holding up an insect as her family works alongside" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A local Indigenous girl on an excursion to gather edible larvae.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy of Eliran Arazi</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>Activities that most western children would be shielded from – handling, skinning and butchering game animals, for example – provide invaluable zoology lessons and arguably foster emotional resilience.</p> <h2>Survival skills</h2> <p>When they accompany their parents and relatives on excursions in the jungle, Indigenous children learn how to navigate a forest’s dense vegetation by following the location of the sun in the sky.</p> <figure class="align-left zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=551&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=551&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=551&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=692&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=692&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=692&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="Map of the Middle Caqueta region of Colombia." /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">Map showing where in Colombia the four lost children are from.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gadiel Levi</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>Since the large rivers in most parts of the Amazon flow in a direction opposite to that of the sun, people can orient themselves towards those main rivers.</p> <p>The trail of footprints and objects left by the four children revealed their general progression towards the Apaporis River, where they may have hoped to be spotted.</p> <p>The children would also have learned from their parents and elders about edible plans and flowers – where they can be found. And also the interrelationship between plants, so that where a certain tree is, you can find mushrooms, or small animals that can be trapped and eaten.</p> <h2>Stories, songs and myths</h2> <p>Knowledge embedded in mythic stories passed down by parents and grandparents is another invaluable resource for navigating the forest. These stories depict animals as fully sentient beings, engaging in seduction, mischief, providing sustenance, or even saving each other’s lives.</p> <p>While these episodes may seem incomprehensible to non-Indigenous audiences, they actually encapsulate the intricate interrelations among the forest’s countless non-human inhabitants. Indigenous knowledge focuses on the interrelationships between humans, plants and animals and how they can come together to preserve the environment and prevent irreversible ecological harm.</p> <p>This sophisticated knowledge has been developed over millennia during which Indigenous people not only adapted to their forest territories but actively shaped them. It is deeply ingrained knowledge that local indigenous people are taught from early childhood so that it becomes second nature to them.</p> <p>It has become part of the culture of cultivating and harvesting crops, something infants and children are introduced to, as well as knowledge of all sort of different food sources and types of bush meat.</p> <h2>Looking after each other</h2> <p>One of the aspects of this “miraculous” story that people in the west have marvelled over is how, after the death of the children’s mother, the 13-year-old Lesly managed to take care of her younger siblings, including Cristin, who was only 11 months old at the time the aircraft went down.</p> <figure class="align-center "><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=450&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=450&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=450&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=566&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=566&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=566&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="Three Indigenous people in western clothes stood under trees in front of a wide building." /><figcaption><span class="caption">Iris Andoque Macuna with her brother Nestor Andoque and brother-in-law Faustino Fiagama after the two men returned from the search team.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Iris Andoque Macuna.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>But in Indigenous families, elder sisters are expected to act as surrogate mothers to their younger relatives from an early age. Iris Andoke Macuna, a distant relative of the family, told me:</p> <blockquote> <p>To some whites [non-Indigenous people], it seems like a bad thing that we take our children to work in the garden, and that we let girls carry their brothers and take care of them. But for us, it’s a good thing, our children are independent, this is why Lesly could take care of her brothers during all this time. It toughened her, and she learned what her brothers need.</p> </blockquote> <h2>The spiritual side</h2> <p>For 40 days and nights, while the four children were lost, elders and shamans performed rituals based on traditional beliefs that involve human relationships with entities known as <em>dueños</em> (owners) in Spanish and by various names in native languages (such as <em>i'bo ño̰e</em>, meaning “persons of there” in Andoque).</p> <p>These owners are believed to be the protective spirits of the plants and animals that live in the forests. Children are introduced to these powerful owners in name-giving ceremonies, which ensure that these spirits recognise and acknowledge relationship to the territory and their entitlement to prosper on it.</p> <figure class="align-center "><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="Woman in pink t-shirt sat on chair inside." /><figcaption><span class="caption">Raquel Andoke, a relative of the missing children and friend of the author.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy of Eliran Arazi</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>During the search for the missing children, elders conducted dialogues and negotiations with these entities in their ceremonial houses (<em>malocas</em>) throughout the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Middle-and-Lower-Caqueta-River-region-State-of-Amazonas-Colombia-Map-from_fig1_255580310">Middle Caquetá</a> and in other Indigenous communities that consider the crash site part of their ancestral territory. Raquel explained to me:</p> <blockquote> <p>The shamans communicate with the sacred sites. They offer coca and tobacco to the spirits and say: “Take this and give me my grandchildren back. They are mine, not yours.”</p> </blockquote> <p>These beliefs and practices hold significant meaning for my friends in the Middle Caquetá, who firmly attribute the children’s survival to these spiritual processes rather than the technological means employed by the Colombian army rescue teams.</p> <p>It may be challenging for non-Indigenous people to embrace these traditional ideas. But these beliefs would have instilled in the children the faith and emotional fortitude crucial for persevering in the struggle for survival. And it would have encouraged the Indigenous people searching for them not to give up hope.</p> <p>The children knew that their fate did not lie in dying in the forest, and that their grandparents and shamans would move heaven and earth to bring them back home alive.</p> <p>Regrettably, this traditional knowledge that has enabled Indigenous people to not only survive but thrive in the Amazon for millennia is under threat. Increasing land encroachment for agribusiness, mining, and illicit activities as well as state neglect and interventions without Indigenous consent have left these peoples vulnerable.</p> <p>It is jeopardising the very foundations of life where this knowledge is embedded, the territories that serve as its bedrock, and the people themselves who preserve, develop, and transmit this knowledge.</p> <p>Preserving this invaluable knowledge and the skills that bring miracles to life is imperative. We must not allow them to wither away.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207762/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/eliran-arazi-1447346">Eliran Arazi</a>, PhD researcher in Anthropology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (Paris)., <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/hebrew-university-of-jerusalem-855">Hebrew University of Jerusalem</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-traditional-indigenous-education-helped-four-lost-children-survive-40-days-in-the-amazon-jungle-207762">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Caring

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Even after his death, Rolf Harris’ artwork will stand as reminders of his criminal acts

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gregory-dale-1441894">Gregory Dale</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a></em></p> <p>Australian entertainer and artist Rolf Harris has died at the age of 93.</p> <p>After a prominent career as an artist, particularly in the UK, in 2014 <a href="https://theconversation.com/rolf-harris-guilty-but-what-has-operation-yewtree-really-taught-us-about-sexual-abuse-28282">Harris was convicted</a> of 12 counts of indecent assault.</p> <p>For his victims, his death might help to close a painful chapter of their lives.</p> <p>However, what will become of the prodigious output of the disgraced artist?</p> <h2>Jack of all trades, master of none</h2> <p>Harris developed an interest in art from a young age. At the age of 15, one of his portraits was <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/1946/">selected for showing</a> in the 1946 Archibald Prize. Three years later, he won the Claude Hotchin prize.</p> <p>These would be among the few accolades he would collect in the art world. In truth, he was never really recognised by his peers.</p> <p>The Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth, from where he hailed, never added any of his artworks to its collection.</p> <p>Harris rose to prominence primarily as a children’s entertainer and then later as an all-round television presenter. There is a generation of Australians and Britons who grew up transfixed to their TV sets as Harris transformed blank canvases into paintings and cartoons in the space of just 30 minutes.</p> <p>His creativity also extended to music. He played the didgeridoo and his own musical creation, “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wobble_board">the wobble board</a>”. He topped the British charts in 1969 with the single Two Little Boys. However, he is probably more famous for the song Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport.</p> <p>Perhaps the ultimate recognition came in 2005, when he was invited to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_Majesty_Queen_Elizabeth_II_%E2%80%93_An_80th_Birthday_Portrait">paint Queen Elizabeth II</a>. His audience with the queen was filmed for a BBC documentary starring Harris. His portrait of her majesty briefly adorned the walls of Buckingham Palace, before being displayed in prominent British and Australian galleries.</p> <h2>Criminal conviction and the quick retreat from his art</h2> <p>In 2014, Harris was found guilty of 12 counts of indecent assault against three complainants, aged 15, 16 and 19 years at the times of the crimes. These incidents occurred between 1978 and 1986.</p> <p>Before sentencing Harris to five years and nine months imprisonment, the sentencing judge <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/the-full-statement-from-the-judge-who-sentenced-rolf-harris-to-jail-20140704-3bee0.html">commented</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>You took advantage of the trust placed in you, because of your celebrity status, to commit the offences […] Your reputation now lies in ruins.</p> </blockquote> <p>What followed was a public retreat from his artwork.</p> <p>It is worth asking why this was the public response, when the subject matter of his artwork was innocuous and unremarkable. Among his visual artworks were portraits and landscapes. None of them depicted anything particularly offensive or controversial.</p> <p>Nevertheless, many of those who owned his works felt the need to dissociate themselves with Harris. His portrait of the queen <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-28105318">seemed to vanish</a> into thin air. In the wake of his convictions, no one claimed to know of its whereabouts.</p> <p>Harris had also painted a number of permanent murals in Australia. Many these were <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/rolf-harris-mural-in-caulfield-to-be-painted-over-20140706-zsy3n.html">removed</a> or <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-06/rolf-harris-mural-on-theatre-survives-vote-for-destruction/9518358">permanently obscured</a>.</p> <h2>The roles of guilt and disgust</h2> <p>Guilt seems to play a <a href="https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:d3f7264">prominent role</a> in explaining why owners remove such artworks from display.</p> <p>Art is inherently subjective and so it necessarily forces the beholder to inquire into the artist’s meanings. When an artist is subsequently convicted of a crime, it is perhaps natural to wonder whether their art bore signs that there was something untoward about them.</p> <p>Some artists even promote this way of thinking. In fact, Harris authored a book entitled <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2883465-looking-at-pictures-with-rolf-harris">Looking at Pictures with Rolf Harris: A Children’s Introduction to Famous Paintings</a>.</p> <p>In it, he wrote:</p> <blockquote> <p>You can find out a lot about the way an artist sees things when you look at his paintings. In fact, he is telling us a lot about himself, whether he wants to or not.</p> </blockquote> <p>When facing the artwork of a convicted criminal, our subjective feelings of guilt persist because we have, in some tiny way, shared a role in their rise and stay as an artist. This makes it difficult to overcome the feeling that the artwork contains clues to the artist’s criminality. We can also feel guilty deriving pleasure from a piece of art whose maker caused others great pain.</p> <p>Disgust also plays a central role in our retreat from the criminal’s artwork.</p> <p>Disgust is a powerful emotion that demands we withdraw from an object whose mere presence threatens to infect or invade our bodily integrity.</p> <p>Related to disgust is a anthropological theory known as the “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-xpm-2014-feb-24-la-sci-sn-price-of-fame-celebrity-contact-boosts-value-of-objects-20140222-story.html">magical law of contagion</a>”. An offensive person leaves behind an offensive trace that continues to threaten us. It is not based on reason but instinct.</p> <p>In essence, the criminal has left their “negative” traces on their artwork.</p> <p>This explains why Harris’ paintings, although of innocuous images, suddenly became eyesores and their market value dropped. Owners of such artwork might also feel compelled to show their disgust openly, to publicly extricate themselves from the artist.</p> <p>No one wants to be seen to condone the behaviour of a sexual offender.</p> <p>Even after his death, Harris’ artwork will continue to stand as reminders of his criminal acts.</p> <p><em>If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call <a href="https://www.1800respect.org.au">1800RESPECT</a> on 1800 737 732. In an emergency call 000.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206282/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></em></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gregory-dale-1441894">Gregory Dale</a>, Lecturer, TC Beirne School of Law, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/even-after-his-death-rolf-harris-artwork-will-stand-as-reminders-of-his-criminal-acts-206282">original article</a>.</em></p>

Art

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The Voice isn’t apartheid or a veto over parliament – this misinformation is undermining democratic debate

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/dominic-osullivan-12535">Dominic O'Sullivan</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/charles-sturt-university-849">Charles Sturt University</a></em></p> <p><em>Readers please be advised this article discusses racism.</em></p> <p>We’ve heard many different arguments for and against the Voice to Parliament in the lead-up to this year’s referendum. This has included some <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a5MgbXj9kI">media</a> and <a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/voice-to-parliament/pauline-hanson-claims-indigenous-voice-is-australias-version-of-apartheid-in-speech-aimed-at-lidia-thorpe-and-albanese/news-story/2d988413c54d81ba0cb9c55f19d9cffa">politicians</a> drawing comparisons between the Voice and <a href="https://au.int/en/auhrm-project-focus-area-apartheid">South Africa’s apartheid regime</a>.</p> <p>Cory Bernardi, a Sky News commentator, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/02/liberals-accused-of-flirting-with-far-right-fringe-after-sky-news-show-where-indigenous-voice-compared-to-apartheid">argued</a>, for instance, that by implementing the Voice, “we’re effectively announcing an apartheid-type state, where some citizens have more legal rights or more rights in general than others”.</p> <p>As legal scholar Bede Harris has <a href="https://news.csu.edu.au/opinion/the-voice-to-parliament,-apartheid-and-cory-bernardi">pointed out</a>, it’s quite clear Bernardi doesn’t understand apartheid. He said,</p> <blockquote> <p>How the Voice could be described as creating such a system is unfathomable.</p> </blockquote> <h2>Comparisons to apartheid</h2> <p>Apartheid was a system of racial segregation implemented by the South African government to control and restrict the lives of the non-white populations, and to stop them from voting.</p> <p>During apartheid, non-white people could not freely visit the same beaches, live in the same neighbourhoods, attend the same schools or queue in the same lines as white people. My wife recalls her white parents being questioned by police after visiting the home of a Black colleague.</p> <p>The proposed Voice will ensure First Nations peoples have their views heard by parliament. It won’t have the power to stop people swimming at the same beaches or living, studying or shopping together. It won’t stop interracial marriages as the apartheid regime did. It doesn’t give anybody extra political rights.</p> <p>It simply provides First Nations people, who have previously had no say in developing the country’s system of government, with an opportunity to participate in a way that many say is meaningful and respectful.</p> <p>Apartheid and the Voice are polar opposites. The Voice is a path towards democratic participation, while apartheid eliminated any opportunity for this.</p> <p>Evoking emotional responses, like Bernardi attempted to do, can <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1618923114">inspire people</a> to quickly align with a political cause that moderation and reason might not encourage. This means opinions may be formed from <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.180593">limited understanding</a> and misinformation.</p> <h2>Misinformation doesn’t stop at apartheid comparisons</h2> <p>The Institute of Public Affairs, a conservative lobby group, has published a “research” paper claiming the Voice would be like New Zealand’s Waitangi Tribunal and be able to veto decisions of the parliament.</p> <p>The <a href="https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/voice-comparisons-with-nz-tribunal-are-just-wrong/">truth</a> is the tribunal is not a “Maori Voice to Parliament”. It can’t <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-14/fact-check-checkmate-maori-voice-waitangi-tribunal/102217998">veto</a> parliament.</p> <p>The Waitangi Tribunal is a permanent commission of inquiry. It is chaired by a judge and has Maori and non-Maori membership. Its job is to investigate alleged breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi.</p> <p>The tribunal’s task is an independent search for truth. When it upholds a claim, its recommended remedies become the subject of political negotiation between government and claimants.</p> <p>The Voice in Australia would make representations to parliament. This is also not a veto. A veto is to stop parliament making a law.</p> <h2>We need to raise the quality of debate</h2> <p>Unlike the apartheid and Waitangi arguments, many <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-a-lot-of-first-nations-peoples-debates-around-the-voice-to-parliament-are-not-about-a-simple-yes-or-no-199766">objections</a> to the Voice are grounded in fact.</p> <p>Making representations to parliament and the government is a standard and necessary democratic practice. There are already many ways of doing this, but in the judgement of the First Nations’ people who developed the Voice proposal, a constitutionally enshrined Voice would be a better way of making these representations.</p> <p>Many people disagree with this judgement. The <a href="https://nationals.org.au/the-nationals-oppose-a-voice-to-parliament/">National Party</a> argues a Voice won’t actually improve people’s lives.</p> <p>Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe says she speaks for a Black Sovereignty movement when she advocates for a treaty to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-31/lidia-thorpe-wants-treaty-and-seats-not-voice-qa/101909286">come first</a>. The argument is that without a treaty, the system of government isn’t morally legitimate.</p> <p>Other people support the Voice in principle but think it will have <a href="https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/voice-to-parliament-yes-vote-has-many-enemies,17190">too much</a> power; <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-australia-could-learn-from-new-zealand-about-indigenous-representation-201761">others</a> think it won’t have enough.</p> <p>Thinking about honest differences of opinion helps us to understand and critique a proposal for what it is, rather than what it is not. Our vote then stands a better chance of reflecting what we really think.</p> <p>Lies can mask people’s real reasons for holding a particular point of view. When people’s true reasons can’t be scrutinised and tested, it prevents an honest exchange of ideas. Collective wisdom can’t emerge, and the final decision doesn’t demonstrate each voter’s full reflection on other perspectives.</p> <p>Altering the Constitution is very serious, and deliberately difficult to do. Whatever the referendum’s outcome, confidence in our collective judgement is more likely when truth and reason inform our debate.</p> <p>In my recently published book, <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-99-0581-2">Indigeneity, Culture and the UN Sustainable Development Goals</a>, I argue the Voice could contribute to a more just and democratic system of government through ensuring decision-making is informed by what First Nations’ people want and why. Informed, also, by deep knowledge of what works and why.</p> <p>People may agree or disagree. But one thing is clear: deliberate misinformation doesn’t make a counter argument. It diminishes democracy.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205474/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/dominic-osullivan-12535">Dominic O'Sullivan</a>, Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/charles-sturt-university-849">Charles Sturt University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-voice-isnt-apartheid-or-a-veto-over-parliament-this-misinformation-is-undermining-democratic-debate-205474">original article</a>.</em></p>

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"Giant of the nation": Indigenous leader Yunupingu dies

<p><em><strong>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this article contains images of deceased persons.</strong></em></p> <p>Indigenous leader Yunupingu has passed away at the age of 74. </p> <p>Yunupingu, a Yolngu man and the Gumatj clan leader, was known for his longtime advocacy work, campaigning for land rights for Indigenous Australians. </p> <p>The influential leader was one of the architects of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which called for Constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians, as well as the upcoming Voice to parliament vote. </p> <p>He was named Australian of the Year in 1978, made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1985, and was later made an honourary Doctor of Laws by Melbourne University in 2015.</p> <p>Yunupingu became the first chairman of the Northern Land Council in 1977, and was re-elected to the position in 1983, which he held until his retirement in 2004.</p> <p>Tributes have flown for the influential First Nations leader, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calling him a "great Australian". </p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Yunupingu walked in two worlds with authority, power and grace, and he worked to make them whole — together. He was a leader, a statesman, a great Yolngu man and a great Australian. He now walks in another place, but he has left such great footsteps for us to follow in this one. <a href="https://t.co/aOgZMU6UTJ">pic.twitter.com/aOgZMU6UTJ</a></p> <p>— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlboMP/status/1642660247516086273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 2, 2023</a></p></blockquote> <p>Yunupingu's family broke the news of his passing as they issued an emotional statement, saying they mourned his death "with deep love and great sadness".</p> <p>"The loss to our family and community is profound. We are hurting, but we honour him and remember with love everything he has done for us," daughter Binmila Yunupingu said.</p> <p>"We remember him for his fierce leadership, and total strength for Yolngu and for Aboriginal people throughout Australia. He lived by our laws always.</p> <p>The family said Yunupingu would be returned to his land and will be honoured in ceremonies to be announced in due course.</p> <p>"There will never be another like him," Binmila said.</p> <p><em>Yunupingu's family have given permission for the use of his surname and image to be used in media articles.</em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

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“He yelled the N-word”: Stan Grant speaks out on racist attack

<p dir="ltr"><em>Q+A</em> host Stan Grant has opened up about the time he faced unprovoked racist abuse from a stranger outside of the ABC’s headquarters, just days after <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/entertainment/tv/there-is-no-excuse-for-what-i-saw-stan-grant-calls-on-the-abc-to-do-better">calling for the broadcaster to “do better”</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">Grant, a Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi man, was attending the national summit on Aboriginal child safety in Adelaide when conversation turned to the incident involving a passerby and “the N-word”. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I was standing outside the ABC filming … and a young man and his girlfriend walked past me and, as they got close to me, he yelled the N-word loudly at me, right at me,” Grant explained.</p> <p dir="ltr">“So what if I’m on television, so what if I stayed in the White House with [former US President] Barack Obama …. so what if I can phone the Prime Minister [Anthony Albanese] and he’ll pick up the phone, so what? In that moment, that’s what I was to that person.</p> <p dir="ltr">“We don’t know when someone’s going to say that. No matter how successful you are, someone can always cut you down. </p> <p dir="ltr">“Racism can touch us anywhere.”</p> <p dir="ltr">When breaking the story, Grant was addressing an audience of approximately 250 individuals from across Australia - primarily First Nations experts and frontline workers - at the summit hosted by KWY.</p> <p dir="ltr">The group is a South Australia-based Aboriginal organisation who, according to their official website, “cover domestic and family violence, child protection, youth work, kinship care, disability, mentoring, Aboriginal education outcomes, perpetrator intervention, and cultural training and consultancy” across Adelaide and other regional centres. </p> <p dir="ltr">During the summit, Aboriginal Children’s Commissioner April Lawrie called on the South Australian government to take action against the rising rates of Aboriginal children who were being taken into state care, declaring that, “we’re removing [children] but we’re not supporting [families].” </p> <p dir="ltr">“It’s a telling story when [I] go into a school community to engage with young fullas … to find that I couldn’t take a photo because most of the Aboriginal children in that school community were a child in care [and can’t be identified].</p> <p dir="ltr">“That speaks more than what you see in data. That is the compelling story about what is going on in our Aboriginal communities, what is the relationship of the state with our Aboriginal families.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Reportedly, South Australia has a budget in excess of $500m, and only spends roughly $69m per year on early help services for families. </p> <p dir="ltr">As South Australia’s Child Protection Minister Katrine Hildyard said, the Malinauskas government intends to commit $3.2m to creating a new committee, while increasing the overall budget for family services by $13.4m. </p> <p dir="ltr">“We know that the current system is not working for Aboriginal families and children,” she stated.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Listening to the wisdom and experience of Aboriginal people is utterly fundamental to building a better approach.</p> <p dir="ltr">“This includes our government acknowledging how that legacy of colonisation and experiences of intergenerational trauma and racism influence the issues Aboriginal people face.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Q+A / Youtube</em></p>

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First Nations elder removed from Obama event

<p>A First Nations Elder bas been left “shocked and distressed” after being removed from performing the Welcome to Country ceremony at a Melbourne event hosted by former president Barack Obama.</p> <p>Obama touched down in Melbourne with former First Lady and wife Michelle ahead of the event at John Cain Arena on March 29.</p> <p>In what could have been a special ceremony for her, senior Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy Murphy has been left deeply saddened after she said she was told she was being “too difficult” for making two requests for the event.</p> <p>Aunty Joy asked if the event organisers Growth Faculty were able to provide appropriate accommodations for a support person to accompany her, and made a request to provide a gift to Obama, which is something she said is cultural practice.</p> <p>The Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation said Aunty Joy was removed from the event following the requests.</p> <p>"I am 78 years of age. I have never been treated or spoken to in this way in the past," Aunty Joy said in a statement.</p> <p>"I do not want this to be a reflection on President Obama. I am a leader of the Wurundjeri Nation. I asked to be treated as an equal.</p> <p>"I have been shocked and distressed by the way I have been treated by event organisers.</p> <p>"They have always shown me respect and accepted my Welcome as a gift from our people.”</p> <p>Aunty Joy was also removed from performing traditional cultural protocols at a planned lunch with Obama the next day.</p> <p>"The Welcome to Country is a very important ceremony for our people. It is an honour to Welcome people like President Obama and I am upset that I am unable to do this today," she said.</p> <p>Growth Faculty have since issued an apology for the circumstances that led to the last-minute cancellation.</p> <p>In a statement, a spokesperson said changes to the ceremony due to “security requirements” meant a welcome to country was instead delivered by Wurundjeri-Willam woman Mandy Nicholson.</p> <p>“Growth Faculty had been working with Aunty Joy and the Wurundjeri community for many weeks ahead of last night’s event,” the statement read.</p> <p>“Due to security requirements, the organisation was unable to accommodate last minute changes to the agreed upon ceremony.</p> <p>“Growth Faculty has apologised to Aunty Joy that last night’s ceremony could not be changed.”<br />The spokesperson also said that Aunty Joy had accepted an invitation to perform the welcome to country at a business lunch taking place in Melbourne on Thursday instead.</p> <p><em>Image credit: Getty</em></p>

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We now know exactly what question the Voice referendum will ask Australians. A constitutional law expert explains

<p>The Albanese government has now released the formal wording of the proposed referendum it will introduce into parliament next week. </p> <p>It had earlier released a draft proposed amendment at the Garma Festival last year, which was intended to start a debate on the wording. Since then, this wording has been the subject of intense discussion and debate in the Referendum Working Group, comprised of Indigenous representatives, which has been advising the government.</p> <p>It has also been scrutinised by the Constitutional Expert Group, which has provided legal advice in response to questions raised by the Referendum Working Group. </p> <p>Many other Australians have raised ideas and concerns in the media and in communications with the government, which have been the subject of analysis and deliberation.</p> <h2>What do the words say?</h2> <p>The wording of the proposed amendment will be as follows:</p> <p><em><strong>Chapter IX – Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples</strong></em></p> <p><em><strong>129 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice</strong></em></p> <p>In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia:</p> <p>(1) There shall be a body to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice;</p> <p>(2) The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;</p> <p>(3) The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has emotionally revealed the wording for the referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/auspol?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#auspol</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/voicetoparliament?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#voicetoparliament</a> <a href="https://t.co/4o4ZU5ykz3">pic.twitter.com/4o4ZU5ykz3</a></p> <p>— The Saturday Paper (@SatPaper) <a href="https://twitter.com/SatPaper/status/1638699476826353664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2023</a></p></blockquote> <h2>What is new?</h2> <p>First, it is now clear this amendment will be placed in its own separate chapter at the end of the Constitution in a new section 129. </p> <p>The title of the chapter makes clear it is directed at the “recognition” of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Constitution. </p> <p>This recognition then flows through to some introductory words which form a preamble at the beginning of the section. These words provide “recognition” of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the “First Peoples of Australia”.</p> <p>The terminology used is careful. It avoids the use of “First Nations”, which is politically more contentious and might have given rise to implications drawn from the term “Nation”. </p> <p>The description “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples” is long-standing and well-accepted, and the statement that they were the First Peoples of Australia is one of fact and recognition.</p> <p>The rest of the proposed amendment remains the same except for a minor alteration of words at the end of sub-section (3). </p> <p>Importantly, the guaranteed ability of the Voice to make representations to the executive government remains. </p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are asking the country for two simple things. </p> <p>Recognition in the constitution. </p> <p>And a Voice to Parliament. </p> <p>Today the Referendum Working Group has announced the proposed wording for a referendum that will do just that. <a href="https://t.co/NbS6ihhlon">pic.twitter.com/NbS6ihhlon</a></p> <p>— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlboMP/status/1638691913166651392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 22, 2023</a></p></blockquote> <p>However, concerns about this have been addressed by the alteration to sub-section (3). </p> <p>The concern that had been raised was the High Court might draw an implication from sub-section (2) the representations by the Voice must be considered by government decision-makers before they can validly make a decision, potentially resulting in litigation and the delay of decision-making. </p> <p>While this concern had little to no substance, there was a suggestion some words should be added to the end of sub-section (3) to make it abundantly clear it was a matter for parliament to decide what the legal effects of the Voice’s representations would be. </p> <p>Parliament could make the decision that in some cases decision-makers would be obliged to consider representations first, but there would be no such obligation in relation to other types of decisions.</p> <p>This has now been accommodated by a compromise set of words added to the end of sub-section (3). </p> <p>These words say parliament can make laws with respect to “to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.”</p> <p>The words “relating to” and “including” broaden the scope of this power. </p> <p>They are intended to permit parliament to legislate about the effect of the Voice’s representations, so it is a matter for parliament to decide whether the representations of the Voice must be considered by decision-makers when making administrative decisions. </p> <p>They are also intended to permit parliament to extend the powers and functions of the Voice as and when needed in the future.</p> <h2>The question on the ballot</h2> <p>The ballot paper never sets out the whole constitutional amendment, as in many cases, it would go for pages. </p> <p>Instead, voters are asked to approve the proposed law, as it is described in its long title. </p> <p>So the question put on the ballot will be set out as follows:</p> <p>"A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice."</p> <p>"Do you approve of this alteration?"</p> <p>Voters then write Yes or No.</p> <h2>What now?</h2> <p>The amendment bill is intended to be introduced next week. When it is introduced, a parliamentary committee will be set up to allow the public to make their own submissions about the amendment. </p> <p>Anyone who has concerns can have their voice heard by the committee and it remains possible that the committee might recommend alterations to the wording. </p> <p>After the committee reports, the amendment bill will be debated in June and if passed, it will go to a referendum between two and six months after its passage. It will then be a matter for the people to decide.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Twitter</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-now-know-exactly-what-question-the-voice-referendum-will-ask-australians-a-constitutional-law-expert-explains-202143" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

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"It’s just about their greed”: Pauline Hanson slams Pay The Rent initiative

<p dir="ltr">Pauline Hanson has blasted a new proposal that would see Australian homeowners pay “rent” on the land they own to First Nations Australians, calling the idea “outrageous”.</p> <p dir="ltr">The initiative, called Pay The Rent, proposes a weekly payment from non-Indigenous homeowners to a “Sovereign Body of First Nations people” who will decide where the money is allocated without the input of the government.</p> <p dir="ltr">The body, which is driven by the motto “saying sorry isn’t enough”, aims to turn the scheme into an organisation that encourages all Australians to “honour the legacy of the Elders” by doing their part for the land through financial donations.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It is a somewhat more just way of living on this stolen land,” its website states.</p> <p dir="ltr">While there have been no official calls to make the scheme government policy, ex-Greens senator Lidia Thorpe and feminist author Clementine Ford have backed the initiative.</p> <p dir="ltr">Despite some support for the scheme, Pauline Hanson has been vocal in her disapproval, going as far as pushing others to sign a petition to “Stop the Rent Tax”.</p> <p dir="ltr">Her party has also released a statement branding the scheme as “deeply flawed and unjust” and a “distraction” from the real issues faced by the Indigenous community. </p> <p dir="ltr">Now, in her latest address to the senate, Hanson doubled down on her criticism of the plan, claiming it was “offensive” towards white Australians.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">The idea that non-indigenous Australians should pay rent to indigenous Australians is offensive and outrageous. Australia belongs to all Australians regardless of race. Let's reject this discrimination and focus on real problems affecting all Aussies! <a href="https://t.co/67oTXL5G8f">pic.twitter.com/67oTXL5G8f</a></p> <p>— Pauline Hanson 🇦🇺 (@PaulineHansonOz) <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulineHansonOz/status/1638050131122733056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 21, 2023</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">“The idea Australians should pay rent for living in their own country is offensive, it’s based on the idea that only Aborigines (sic) own Australia. They don’t,” she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I was born here and no self-identifying Indigenous Australian including those with minute amounts of Indigenous heritage has more right or connection to this land than I do.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Senator Hanson continued by claiming all Australians had contributed to the nation’s achievements, failures and values, suggesting the scheme would be “discriminatory” towards the non-Indigenous community.</p> <p dir="ltr">“The only good thing about the race-based rent idea is that the activists who want it reveal their true motivation,” she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It’s not about justice or redress, it’s about money. Other people’s money. It’s just about their greed.”</p> <p dir="ltr">She continued her speech by slamming the Voice to Parliament, insisting it would be a gateway to giving the body a reason to introduce similar plans to the Pay The Rent initiative. </p> <p dir="ltr">“It’s only a matter of time before non-Aboriginal Australians are forced to pay yet more tax, a race-based rent tax,” she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“As usual the Aboriginal industry will keep all the money and truly disadvantage Aborigines (sic) and remote communities will continue to suffer poverty, unemployment and crime.”</p> <p dir="ltr">While some agreed with Hanson’s opinions, those in favour of the initiative argued it was the least that could be done to support the Indigenous community.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It‘s their land – they never ceded ownership. After they suffered a century of genocide – rent is the least we should give them,” one comment read.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

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Indigenous artist seeking white Australian to donate their “future deceased body” to an art installation

<p dir="ltr">An Indigenous artist has put a call out for Australians of “British descent” to donate their “future deceased body” to an art installation. </p> <p dir="ltr">Nathan Maynard, a well known Palawa artist and playwright, put an advertisement for the unusual request in the weekend edition of The Age newspaper.</p> <p dir="ltr">Maynard signed the bizarre request as a “palawa” artist: one of the terms First Nations people from Tasmania use when referring to themselves.  </p> <p dir="ltr">“Palawa artist wanting to find an Australian of British descent who is willing to donate their future deceased body to an art installation,” the notice read. </p> <p dir="ltr">“The work will speak to sacrifice for past sins perpetrated against the palawa. Potential applicants should see this opportunity as an honour.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“The body and memory of the successful applicant will be treated with the utmost respect at all stages of the project.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The call-out was quick to spark backlash when it was reposted on social media, with one writing, “You can’t just obtain bodies for display in newspapers now. This is very bizarre on multiple levels.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Others questioned the legality of the request, with one person writing, “I dunno that this would be legal, tampering with a corpse is a crime! You can donate your body to medical science, but I don’t think this.” </p> <p dir="ltr">Another wrote, “Borderline psychotic, definitely completely illegal.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Despite the criticism, Mr Maynard told Daily Mail Australia that since the notice went to print, he has received half a dozen applications for their body to be used in the installation in November. </p> <p dir="ltr">The artist said if white Australians are upset by the request, they should ask themselves why they didn't have the same reaction to the mass murder of Aboriginal people. </p> <p dir="ltr">“If you’re not an Aboriginal person and you’re upset by this, I think you should ask yourself why you’re not upset that there is still First Nations remains that have been stolen from their people, stolen from their country in institutions all around the world that are still not repatriated to their own communities,” he said.</p> <p dir="ltr">Nathan said the motivation behind his installation revolves around the fact that thousands of First Nations people were killed by colonists, with their remains being sent overseas to be displayed in institutions and museums without a proper ceremony. </p> <p dir="ltr">“So many Aboriginal people's remains are still overseas. People are trying to bring their ancestors home and they are being denied that right,” Mr Maynard said. </p> <p dir="ltr">“Human bodies are very sacred and they should be treated with respect.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“Whitefellas obviously don't know how to handle remains with respect, so I'm going to show them how,” he said. </p> <p dir="ltr">The artwork has already received support from the state-funded Tasmanian Museum and Gallery and the Hobart City Council, which has donated $15,000 to the unusual installation.</p> <p dir="ltr">The artwork has been commissioned to appear as part of an exhibition for the popular Hobart Current biennial exhibition in November 2023. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Facebook / The Age</em></p>

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Australia Day hasn’t always been on January 26, but it has always been an issue

<p>January 26 is a date that sparks mixed emotions in Australia. For some, it’s a day to celebrate all the good things about living in Australia. For others, it’s a painful reminder of the beginning of British colonisation and the dispossession of First Nations.</p> <p>Increasingly, January 26 is becoming a date that divides the nation even as it attempts to unite it. Some local councils have <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/australia-day-citizenship-ceremony-window-widened-ban-overturned/bc76fadf-d39a-443b-ae8d-1b4a119a70cc">stopped holding citizenship ceremonies</a> on the date. In 2018, Triple J <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-27/hottest-100-wont-be-held-on-australia-day-triple-j-says/9197014">stopped hosting its Hottest 100</a> on Australia Day, and this year Victoria announced it will <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/victoria-quietly-axes-australia-day-parade-sparking-both-praise-and-disappointment/b2nrkslud">no longer hold its Australia Day parade</a>.</p> <p>An <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jan/24/guardian-essential-poll-albanese-approval-rating-dips-in-sign-of-gruelling-political-year-ahead">Essential Poll this week</a> suggests around a quarter of Australians would now prefer January 26 to be a day to recognise First Nations people with a national holiday on a separate day.</p> <p>Those who defend the status quo often appeal to tradition, but it’s important to recognise Australia Day has not always been celebrated on January 26, and the meaning of the date has long been contested.</p> <h2>When did Australia Day begin?</h2> <p>In the early 19th century, January 26 was a Sydney-centric celebration, sometimes called “Foundation Day”. These were initially informal gatherings and parties, but by 1838, it was declared a <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/230385624?searchTerm=%22Anniversary%20day%22">public holiday</a> to mark the 50th anniversary of the colony. As the other colonies were established, they celebrated their own foundation, rather than January 26.</p> <p>During the Federation debates of the 1880s and 1890s, there was a push for a single national holiday. But some objected to January 26 on the grounds it was focused on New South Wales. Nevertheless, by the centenary of the British arrival in 1888, all colonies except South Australia <a href="https://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/australia-day-south-australia">observed the day</a>.</p> <p>However, even after Federation in 1901, the primary national holiday was not January 26 but “Empire Day”, celebrated on May 24. The choice of date (the late Queen Victoria’s birthday) and the form of celebrations were more imperial than nationalist in flavour. </p> <p>It was only in 1915 that Australia Day emerged, as a fundraising effort for the first world war. Held on <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/voices/culture/article/2018/01/23/many-different-dates-weve-celebrated-australia-day">July 30</a>, the first Australia Day was directly shaped by the experience of the Gallipoli landing. It continued to be held in July for the remainder of the war.</p> <p>By 1935, the states all agreed to use the name Australia Day and celebrate it on January 26. But it was a decision that caused controversy and protest. The 150th anniversary in 1938 was celebrated nationally but also saw First Nations declare the date to be a “<a href="https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/day-of-mourning">day of mourning</a>”.</p> <p>Similarly, the 1988 bicentenary epitomised the contested meaning of January 26. It saw both sides – the largest party in Australia’s history and the largest protest since the Vietnam moratorium.</p> <p>It was <a href="https://www.australiaday.com.au/about/history-of-australia-day/">only in 1994</a> that Australia Day became a public holiday in every state and territory. </p> <h2>What are we celebrating?</h2> <p>Technically, January 26 does not mark the arrival of the First Fleet to Australia. Leaving England on May 13, 1787, the first ships <a href="https://guides.sl.nsw.gov.au/convicts-bound-for-australia/first_fleet">arrived at Botany Bay</a> on January 18, but Arthur Phillip decided it was not a suitable site. January 26 marks the day the British flag was hoisted at Sydney Cove. </p> <p>Throughout the 19th century, January 26 was a celebration of Britishness held by people who largely identified as Australian Britons. As Australian national identity evolved in the middle of the 20th century, the narrative around Australia Day became more exclusively nationalistic. Civic rituals like the Australian of the Year (first awarded in 1960) helped give January 26 a national focus.</p> <p>Today, Australia Day is presented as a day to “<a href="https://www.australiaday.org.au/">celebrate our nation</a>”. But for many First Nations people and their allies, it’s considered “<a href="https://www.commonground.org.au/articles/australia-day">Invasion Day</a>” or “Survival Day”.</p> <h2>If not January 26, then when?</h2> <p>Most countries hold their national holiday on the date they became independent. It’s a quirk of Australian history that the date the British flag was raised has taken this role, but it demonstrates how malleable national symbols can be. </p> <p>If the date of Australia Day was to change, there’s no clear alternative, although some argue that if Australia becomes a republic, that should be the new date. A pragmatic alternative is simply to hold Australia Day on the last Friday of January. A more humorous suggestion is <a href="http://may8.com.au/#:%7E:text=Though%20May%208%20has%20no,a%20greater%20Nation%20for%20it.">May 8</a>, which pronounced with a broad Australian drawl sounds like the word “mate”.</p> <p>Historic suggestions are the anniversary of the Eureka Stockade (December 3), the Mabo judgement (June 3), or the passage of the Australia Acts (March 3).</p> <p>For all their wisdom, it could be argued the constitution writers did Australia a disservice by having the Commonwealth form on January 1, 1901. Had it been almost any other day of the year, the legal creation of Australia would be the obvious choice for a national holiday.</p> <p>As emotive as the topic is, Australians should be free to debate what January 26 means and if it should continue to be the national holiday. The ability to openly debate tough issues without fear is, after all, one of the many freedoms Australia Day is supposed to celebrate.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-day-hasnt-always-been-on-january-26-but-it-has-always-been-an-issue-198389" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

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