We are pretty bad at this feature, but No Award is pretty bad at all of its features. Today at No Award: Indigenous Business, ie, a whole bunch of links and things.
The incomparable Celeste Liddle at IndigenousX: Let’s Recognise More Conservative White Men.
If there was one thing we needed more of in the discussion on Constitutional Recognition for Indigenous people, it was the centring of the voices of wealthy, conservative white men. The entire discussion on CR has been missing the voices of conservative white men and what they think on a topic which is going to have very little impact on their lives. And no conservative white male voice has been sidelined more on this topic than that of Andrew Bolt. What with his regular News Limited column, his blog, his TV show and his radio appearances, poor Andrew has been struggling for space to elucidate why he thinks Indigenous recognition would be racist. Therefore, I think it’s wonderful that the ABC have sought to rectify this travesty, and have engaged Bolt on their documentary series I Can Change Your Mind About Recognition and give him the platform he’s truly been lacking.
Domestic violence conference in Canberra told Indigenous women invisible in broken system
“Our women are invisible.”
She is now calling for reinstatement of the National Family Violence Prevention Legal Services Program and a longer-term commitment to funding community-controlled and culturally appropriate government services for Indigenous women.
“The Government can’t on the one hand call domestic and family violence a national disgrace and then not prioritise funding to [Indigenous] women,” she said.
“We don’t want any woman because of their geographic location being excluded from accessing a culturally appropriate service.”
What it told me was how far we apart we still are in this nation. It is still true that most Australians have never met an Indigenous person; many would not even know if they had. We remain at a distance: a people remote, unseen and unknowable, trapped in the legacy of two centuries of colonisation.
Few Australians could have known how we – Indigenous people – felt when we heard the booing of Goodes. They could not have known what wounds that reopened; what painful memories it revived.
And then: The politics of identity: We are trapped in the imaginations of white Australians
He connects to his people and his culture through language and lore; it is a living and lived link through his grandmother. He told me how he visits her whenever he goes home, joining his life to the songlines of this old woman for whom English is a third or fourth language.
He eats bush food, fishes with his uncles and sits by ancient waterholes. Through these rituals he is renewed. He belongs here.
But he also seeks to belong nearly 3000km away in Sydney. He swaps his boots for brogues, he has sharp clothes and a trendy angular haircut; the very image of the television professional he is. Here the waterhole is a coffee shop; the languages of the desert substituted for the babble of the city street.
Right Here Now: Work of young Indigenous artists showcased in new MoAD exhibition
Stolen at birth: How two Indigenous sisters found each other 54 years later
How an Indigenous treaty would build a better foundation for Australia
The difference between Australia and these other nations is stark. Only Australia fails to recognise the sovereignty of its first nations by way of a treaty.
Total cuties: A grandfather’s dream come true: proud Aboriginal elder dances with granddaughter at graduation
Sasha has a strong connection to her culture — something that’s strengthened during her time at boarding school.
“I love hunting, looking for oysters and fishing and looking for mangrove worms and dancing traditional, we call it bunggul, that’s what I miss, and telling stories around the campfire,” she says.
“I speak three Indigenous languages.
“Going to a boarding school like this, I learnt new Indigenous languages and cultures from different communities as well.”
Dr Gary Foley’s 1998 essay, The Power of Whiteness. Dr Foley is on indigenousx this week.
On Ms Dhu, at Overland: Nobody Cares.
For three days, Ms Dhu tried to get the attention of someone who would care for her. The only person who did was the triage nurse on her first visit to hospital. After that, nobody did.
Have you backed The Embassy: Audio history and multimedia archive yet? An online audio history and multimedia resource dedicated to the 1972 Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra. 4 days to go, and so close.
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MISC:
Today’s title is a line from Bran Nue Day, from Nothing I Would Rather Be, which I’m now regretting out of context but I do love it a lot.
I’m also thinking about being more specific about peoples’ countries / identification where available, especially of Indigenous people but of all people across the board. Any feels?
no-award.net 