Without anywhere that is home, Aboriginal people have been without a physical space to reinvent themselves and their culture in modern Australia.
Since colonisation, Aboriginal people have been internally displaced from their country. The doctrine of β a land without people β was established under British colonial government and persisted in Australian law until 1992.
Colonisation and colonialism
Earlier this month, a 10-year-old Aboriginal girl took her own life in a small Kimberly community near the town of Derby in Western Australia. It is believed that her life leading to her suicide was marred by βtrauma and tragedyβ and she had previously witnessed the suicide of a close family member.
Brisbane
See a film at Red Cinema: Disruption. This film looks at the 2014 Peopleβs Climate March in New York. Entry $15/$10 conc. Meal and drinks available. Friday November 6 at 6pm. Brisbane Activist Centre, 74B Wickham St, Fortitude Valley. Phone Angus 0431 935 576.
Melbourne
Melbourne Resistance Centre was packed on May 9 as people gathered to hear First Nations activists and other anti-racism activists talk about fighting racism in Australia today. The seminar began with Wendy Brabham, nationally-respected Aboriginal academic and traditional owner from the Wamba Wamba, Wergaia, Nyeri Nyeri and Dhudhuroa first nations.
Chinaβs Second Continent: How a million migrants are building a new Empire in Africa Howard W French Knopf Published May 20, 2014 304 pages www.howardwfrench.com In his 2009 film Rethink Afghanistan, director Robert Greenwald suggested that the US should not try to control the world through military means, but by building schools and hospitals in the countries it wishes to invade. Journalist Howard French's book China's Second Continent shows how such a model can work in practice.
This year marks the bicentenary of the first European crossing of the Blue Mountains in NSW.
For white Australia it was a great triumph and a significant step forward in the process of colonising the entire continent.
For the Aboriginal people of this area, however, it was a disturbing development that heralded the most significant challenge they had ever faced.
Itβs just before the turn of the 20th century, and colonial Australia is desperate to forge a βnationβ and pull away from self-governing British colonies.
So-called native-born Australians are swept up in a wave of nationalism, keen to cut the apron strings of mother England. At the same time, on the southern edge of the Kimberley, another battle for independence is underway.
But this one wonβt result in a constitution or the formation of a Commonwealth; it will end in rivers of black blood and the deaths of many.
The statement below was released on November 3 by the Canada Haiti Action Network in preparation for Haitiβs November 28 elections. For more information, visit . To contact CHAN, email canadahaiti@gmail.com.
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The Canada Haiti Action Network is once again expressing its grave concerns about exclusionary elections in Haiti.
The Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), involving involves police and soldiers, is set to continue its occupation of the Pacific island for at least βfive to six yearsβ, despite a change of government in the Solomon Islands.
Danny Philip was elected prime minister of the Solomon Islands by parliamentary vote on August 25, the Solomon Star said, after the August 4 general elections in which 25 out of 50 seats changed hands.
For five centuries, Africa has suffered at the hands of the West. Starting with the slave trade, through the colonial era, to todayβs neoliberal global economy, the development of industrial capitalism in the West has come at a terrible price paid by Africans.
Food riots in Mozambique early this month and looming mass starvation in Niger after floods that were preceded by years of drought both reflect the ongoing economic exploitation.
However, they also reflect another creation of the industrialised West adversely affecting Africa: climate change.
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