THE BLACK RISING A publication of the MOVEMENT, by the PEOPLE, for the FUTURE
issue #9
January 2018
www.theblackrising.com
/theblackrising
the empire gets smacked ISSUE 9
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#INVASION DAY 2018
contents This Ancient Country - Kristy-Lee Horswood
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The Empire Gets Smacked - Bogaine Spearim
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A new State from an old nation - Michael Mansell
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Mythologies of Aboriginal culture - Chelsea Bond
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Artist Profile - Paul Spearim
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INVASION DAY 2017
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Black Conscience - Dale Ruska
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#JUSTICEFORFELLA - Latoya Aroha Rule
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Warrior Profile - Timothy Wilkey
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Decolonise your diet - Bogaine Spearim
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If you would like to contribute &/or subsribe to TBR send an email to theblackrisingmag@gmail.com We thank all who have made this publication a reality; the writers, photographers, and artists, along with the organizations assisting with printing and distribution.
printed and/or distributed by: Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union Brisbane Aboriginal Sovereign Embassy Community Food Program Inc Electrical Trades Union
Co-editors: Pekeri Ruska, Anita Goon Wymarra, Jade Taylor and Callum Clayton-Dixon
National Tertiary Education Union
Layout/Design: Tahnee Edwards
Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre Inc
Front cover credit: Jade Taylor
United Voice
Queensland Council of Unions
Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance 2
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This Ancient Country. Kristy-Lee Horswood Then they come with their noises and drums, Speaking in tongue not known by anyone. The animals ears pricked; What manner of sound was this? And the ancient country shuddered in its wisdom at what was to come. This same ancient country watched while her children were murdered. Hundreds of thousands of them were slaughtered. Absorbing their blood back into her waters. This same ancient country would then raise those killers’ daughters. Generations and generations of pain. Continually exploited for capital gain. They never saw her internals as part of her whole but more like, bits, to be chipped off, traded or sold. What a thing to endure this invasion was and still continues to be. For endure she did, despite all efforts to the contrary. And maybe this is the thing that they never understood about this ancient country of mine, her, she. As long as this ancient country exists, so do we.
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Photo credit: Reuters
Photo credit: The Province
The Empire Gets Smacked Bogaine Spearim, Kooma /Murrawarri /Gamilaraay
The 2018 Commonwealth Games is fast approaching, with this on the horizon I want to look at some examples of resistance of our people here and First Nations around the world. Indigenous people have always played a hand in the destruction of arrogant and ignorant sporting events. The Olympics, The FIFA World Cup and the Commonwealth Games are held on stolen land and continue to attempt to destroy the lives of Indigenous people. In this article I will talk about the 1982 Commonwealth Games protest in Brisbane, The 2006 Commonwealth Games protest in Melbourne, The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, The FIFA World Cup and what we have the potential to do on the Gold Coast next year. The announcement of Brisbane hosting the 1982 Commonwealth Games (formally known as The Empire Games) hit a chord with Aboriginal people because of the conditions we were in. In the eyes of our people, Australia (least of all Brisbane) was not worthy of hosting a cheerful and commemorative event like the Commonwealth Games. Queensland was the last state in so called “Australia” to 4
still have the oppressive Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders Act (also known as The Black Acts). Due to this the state of Queensland held immense power over blackfullas. The condition Aboriginal people were living in was appalling, especially in missions and reserves (not much has changed). It was common to be brutalised by the police force; mob would often be seriously hurt or die because of this brutality. This was before the royal commission into black deaths in custody and was under the reign of racist, former Premier Joh Bjelke-Peterson. Over the two weeks the Commonwealth games were held in ’82 thousands of Aboriginal people and supporters across so called Australia and the world gathered in Musgrave Park. This gathering was considered illegal at the time as laws and legislation did not permit our people to gather in groups and the Aboriginal flag was prohibited. In the months before the games a committee of blackfullas called Black Unity worked hard strategizing and organising a planned resistance. Protests and rallies were organised all over Brisbane at various arenas where the games were hosted. Aboriginal people
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snuck into events holding banners and Aboriginal flags, and streets were also shut down in the Brisbane CBD. In 2006, for the forth time, so called ‘Australia’ hosted the Commonwealth Games, this time in Melbourne. Aboriginal people and supporters protested the games again. This was exactly a year before the Howard government, in a show of power, issued a state of emergency in the Northern Territory temporarily removing the Racial Discrimination Act from the constitution to implement what was known as the Northern Territory Emergency Response (the bastard child of Stronger Futures, a program implemented 10 years later that still exists today). The organising group launched a concept called The Black GST aiming to get Indigenous rights back on the agenda by calling attention to the issues of genocide (G), sovereignty (S), and treaty (T). The same organising group decided to dub the games “The Stolenwealth Games.” This title shone a light on the wealth the Commonwealth had stolen since occupation; the land, lives and cultural
Photo credit: Juno Gemes
Photo credit: Justin McManus
knowledge that were forcibly destroyed at the hands of the British Empire and Australian Government. Over a course of 3 to 4 months (before, during and after the games) Aboriginal people and supporters occupied Kings Domain in Melbourne CBD calling the occupation ‘Camp Sovereignty’. They burnt the Australian and the British Flag within the Queen and the Royal Families eye sight. I remember my older brother and father leaving to get the bus with staunch Brisbane mob that were headed to Melbourne to participate in the resistance. They had the honour of meeting different Aboriginal people from around the continent that had the same drive they did; to expose and shame Australia in the watchful eye of the world. When the 2010 Winter Olympics was announced to be held on Turtle Island (so called Canada) in Vancouver, First Nation’s Warrior Societies and non-Indigenous groups began organising. Actions and information sessions were held about why it is important to oppose the Winter Olympics on stolen land. Homelessness groups occupied buildings to raise awareness towards how the city upgrades were effecting Indigenous, low income and homeless people. The Warrior Society stole a massive Olympic flag in response (and to honour) a native elder who
passed away after being incarcerated in the lead up to the games for blockading the then proposed highway expansion into Vancouver city. They also organised blockades against the Olympic torch relay and raised awareness for missing and murdered Indigenous women. In 2014 Brazil hosted The FIFA World Cup and like the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Brazil was accused of using the event as a pretext for social cleansing as thousands of Indigenous, low income and homeless people were forced out on the streets. In the lead up to The FIFA World Cup, there was an increase in bus and train fare in some major cities, multiple issues arose regarding infrastructure, education and health care, the cost of living increased and multiple scandals of corruption surfaced regarding embezzlement and over billing in the government. Indigenous people resisted against extreme police forces to protest the land grab in the Amazon, the expansion of mines, damns, army bases and other industrial projects.
Black GST, a collective has begun for the 2018 Commonwealth Games called Black Liberation Ally Action Collective (BLAAC). The aim of this collective is to involve as many progressive political groups as possible such as; various Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups, Unions, Socialists and Environmental and Student groups. We have launched an art competition in Issue 7 of The Black Rising called Stolen Land, Stolen Lives, Stolen Wealth. We are also working on a zine called the Empire Gets Smacked aimed to inform and inspire creative action. Revisiting stories of resilience and resistance of our own people and Indigenous peoples around the world can give us a sense that we’re not alone in the global struggle against oppression and colonisation. Looking at these past examples we can remind ourselves we do have the strength, we do have the unity, we do have a reason to live and that’s what scares the colonisers the most.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast is an opportunity for our people from all corners of the continent to gather in protest once again. Just like in the lead up to the 1982 and 2006 Commonwealth Games with the organising groups; Black Unity and the
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A new State from an old nation Michael Mansell, Pakana
The founders of Australian Federation always anticipated new States would be added to the original six. These other States were going to be either existing colonies or countries in the nearby region (it was thought New Guinea, Fiji and New Zealand would eventually be included in Australian federation) or States created out of the existing ones that were thought to be too large and unmanageable. If the Federal Parliament supported Aboriginal people having a State within the Federation, a range of selfdetermining powers would automatically flow to Aboriginal people. States have responsibility for their parliaments and for election of members to the parliament; for law and order (including customary law), police and prisons; for religion, education, health, housing, main roads, public transport, electricity generation and supply, agriculture, vacant lands, local government, State taxation, environment, and land use and planning.
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The Australian Constitution provides an exclusive power in the Federal Parliament to ‘admit’ existing colonies or countries into the Federation or ‘establish’ new States out of territory belonging to existing States. The relevant provision under Part VI is s 121: New States may be admitted or established: The Parliament may admit to the Commonwealth or establish new States, and may upon such admission or establishment make or impose such terms and conditions, including the extent of representation in either House of the Parliament, as it thinks fit. ‘The Parliament’ refers to the Federal Parliament. Section 121 enables the Federal Parliament to: •
legislate a new State;
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impose any conditions on the new State;
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decide how many representatives the new State can elect to either or both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
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States are well understood by Australians. Most live in them. That makes it easier for Australians to comprehend what is meant by a new State as part of Federation run by Aboriginals as against an Aboriginal nation state that is politically independent of Australia. Although the fear of ‘separatism’ may still emerge with the concept of a new State within Federation, it is less likely to generate opposition than would be the case for full-blown independence. An Aboriginal State or Territory is not a new idea. David Unaipon, whose face appears on the $50 note, appeared before a royal commission in 1926 into the treatment of Aboriginals. That year he also advocated a model Aboriginal State in an attempt to provide a separate territory for Aboriginals in central and northern Australia; his involvement in the movement may have contributed to his arrest in November 1926 on vagrancy charges.
Keeping in mind how David Unaipon was treated, discussion about forms of Aboriginal self-empowerment need to be approached with due care. The ‘one Australia’ belief is so culturally entrenched that any suggestion of ‘independence’ conjures up highly emotive claims of the country being broken up, of reverse apartheid and of course, that nasty fear of ‘separatism’. Never mind that each existing State is separate from the others and people are geographically and politically separated by boundaries, and are identified separately according to State boundaries. Strongly held prejudices about what Aboriginal independence or self-determination means unfortunately restricts debate on the topic, which prevents the flow of ideas. An Aboriginal State does not mean Aboriginals have to move to central Australia to enjoy its fruits. Nor does it mean any whites living inside the proposed territory of a new State have to move out. Times have changed, and now it is no longer possible, even desirable, to treat people negatively on the grounds of race. There is nothing wrong with positive political change providing for a distinct people to reach their full potential and maintain their unique identity while maintaining benefits for the majority. Federation requires free movement of people in and out of States anyway. Providing for a predominantly Aboriginal inhabited or dominated State would not alter the rules. It is applying the rules. In summary, the territory could be twothirds of Australia’s land mass, mostly made up of lands located in the inner areas of the continent – the wastelands. It would not be purely an Aboriginal State:
whoever resides within the territory of the new State could participate in its political system (voting, standing for election) and its economic and social life. A special measure of the new State Constitution could provide that all Aboriginal people, regardless of where they resided, could be a candidate or vote in elections for the new State Assembly. Although the establishment of an Aboriginal territory would constitutionally be a ‘new’ State, it is more appropriate to describe it as the ‘First State’ or ‘First Peoples State’. The Aboriginal nation has existed since time began. This ancient nation of people deserves to be dignified when invited to embrace the new political structure of Australia that is little more than 100 years old. Although fitting, the new Aboriginal State cannot be called ‘the original State’, for that description is already used in the Constitution to describe the six colonies that became original States of Federation.3 As Aboriginals are the original people of this land, the first people, it seems ISSUE 9
appropriate to regard a new, modern Aboriginal territory established from the old as the ‘First State’, not the seventh. If statehood was broadly seen as the better model for Aboriginal selfdetermination, and as a model of reconciliation then, as a gesture, Australia could hold out the hand of friendship and invite Aboriginal people to join the nation of Australia at the highest political level – as equals. It would be more dignified if Aboriginals were offered such a settlement rather than have to fight for it. States are sovereign entities under the Australian Constitution. Inviting Aboriginals to join Federation as a sovereign State finally acknowledges Aboriginal sovereignty, albeit within Australian Federation.
*This is an excerpt from the recently published book ‘Treaty and Statehood: Aboriginal Self-Determination’ (The Federation Press, 2016) by Pakana lawyer and activist Michael Mansell. 7
Mythologies of Aboriginal culture Chelsea Bond, South Sea Islander/Munanjali/Yugambeh
I am an Aborigine - just not one of those ‘real’ ones, according to Australian mythologies of the Aborigine. While I know myself to be real, I know that within this nation’s consciousness, I am not really Aboriginal. Myths are powerful yet complex things. The ancient myth conjures up fanciful stories of supernatural creatures of an unspecified time; stories that couldn’t possibly be true, but nonetheless contain a moral truth. In the contemporary context, myths refer to falsehoods that are commonly accepted as true. Whether we think of the ancient myth or the urban myth; myths compel us to disentangle the truths of our social world. As an Aborigine whose lived cultural experiences are omitted from most representations of Aboriginal culture, I’ve been compelled to consider the utility of this mythologising. Colonial mythologies of Aboriginal culture, I argue, sustain particular truths about Aboriginal people that tell us little about Aboriginal culture. One of my earliest encounters with Aboriginal culture mythologically was in my primary school years. I had to do an assignment about some foreign country, and of course my source of information was the trundle of ‘school project’ cards at the local newsagency (it was the 80s). Each glossy foldout card could take me to China, France, Ancient Greece and even Aboriginal Australia. The geographical location of Aboriginal Australia wasn’t always clear – the land was red and dusty, the people much darker like my Dad, though unlike him, they were naked. Aboriginal Australia painted in caves and weaved baskets. This was Aboriginal Australia I was told. I remember in high school becoming aware of non-Aboriginal mythologies of Aboriginal culture via the inquisitions of fellow classmates. “How much percent?” “But you’re not full” These interrogations were inscribed upon my body, claiming to know it better than 8
I did. My identity was fraudulent they insisted. One kid was certain I wasn’t really Aboriginal because I didn’t eat witchetty grubs. I guess he had a point - I’m sure I read somewhere that Aboriginal Australia eats witchetty grubs. The culturally lost and culturally less Aborigine Mythologically, Aboriginal culture can only ever be lost or less; that is we either don’t have culture, or that our culture is inferior. Culturally the Aborigine can only be incomplete or incompatible. The assignment of black bodies to these categories is determined by white Australia and is known by them; the anthropologist, archaeologist, academic, art dealer, politician, television producer and even the pimply-faced kid in my year 9 class. The culturally lost Aborigine is not a new construct. In research conducted by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation 20 years ago examining the attitudes of non-Indigenous Australians they found that “no matter where the research was conducted, ‘real’ Indigenous people were always somewhere else.” According to this mythology, there are few real Aborigines remaining and they are really hard to find. The mythology of the culturally lost Aborigine seeks to invisibilise the everexpanding Aboriginal population. It upholds the aspiration of the “vanishing Aborigine”. Aboriginal people have always been passing and you can find any number of Aboriginal people who have ancestors that were once wistfully described as “the last of their tribe”. The presence of Aboriginal bodies disrupts this comforting colonial narrative and thus culture provides a means for restoring it; we are here physically, but rendered lost culturally. This mythologising soothes the consciousness of a nation that continues to claim ‘settlement’ on stolen land. If the native is out of sight, then they remain out of mind – much like asylum seekers in offshore detention centres. The ‘real’ Aborigines cannot be shipped away to a foreign shore, but ideologically they can
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exist in a land far away, in a far away time. No one really knows where exactly, but they definitely aren’t really here. The ‘real’ cultural Aborigine doesn’t fare much better than the culturally lost Aborigine. Even in their pristine state, the ‘real’ Aborigine is deemed culturally less. We can read many tales of the culturally pure yet culturally problematic Aborigine. From Nowra’s ‘Bad Dreaming’, Sandall’s ‘The Culture Cult’, or Sutton’s ‘Politics of Suffering’ we are told of the incommeasurability of Aboriginal culture with the “modern world”. We are reminded of the virtues of white Australia and all that their modern world offers. Sandall asserts “the more urbanized southern people have made good progress over the past thirty years…and have been warmly welcomed into the modern world by their fellow Australians.” He claims it is the northern Aborigines that have been victims of antiassimilationist policies stuck in the Stone Age and trapped in despair. This cultural incommensurability evidences the need for white intervention to rescue the Aborigine from their primitive state. Typically, it is the bodies of women and children that are used as the moral imperative for taking swift action. This mythology is present in the Indigenous social policy agenda of “a new paternalism”. In 2007 Prime Minister John Howard stated, “Indigenous people have no hope of being part of the mainstream of this country unless they can speak the language of this country”. Aboriginal language while being a marker of authenticating the ‘real’ Aborigine is seen to inhibit the Aborigines’ inclusion in the nation. This belief rationalised a policy which compelled Aboriginal children to attend school by restricting welfare payments to their parents. The proposal to close remote Aboriginal communities in Western Australia reasoned Prime Minister Tony Abbot was because Aboriginal culture was “not conducive to the kind of full participation in Australian society that everyone should have.”
cultural awareness training. Many of the health staff resented this training with one participant asserting that I didn’t know anything because I was just “a half-caste boong”. I realised then, that Aboriginal cultural awareness had nothing to do with my culture.
Russian skaters dressed in ‘traditional’ Aboriginal clothing and paint
We witness within this mythologising the promise of full participation in Australian society predicated upon the Aborigine trading their culture via language or land. The cultural Aborigine while real, has no real place in modern Australia. Not until they become less real can they expect to enjoy the same entitlements as other Australians. Yet the tale of the culturally lost Aborigine tells us that as soon as the Aborigine enters the modern world, the Aborigine no longer exists. Culture is the final frontier for non-Aboriginal Australia and the means by which the colonial project can be completed. There remains a frustration at our continued existence necessitating the proliferation of mythologies that commemorate or herald our demise culturally in academic texts, public discourse and public policy. Aboriginal culture as the cause of disadvantage I remember a time when I got to be ‘one of those people’ in their eyes. In my senior years of high school I engaged in ‘socially deviant’ behaviour which just happened to be the same time that I got to be a ‘real’ Aborigine. My Indigenous ancestry was suddenly visible to non-Aboriginal Australia. Through this encounter I discovered that social deviance could authenticate my urban olive-skinned self as one of those Aboriginal Australians I had read so much about. The disadvantage that Aboriginal people experience in areas of health, housing, education, employment, and justice are seen as a testament to the ills of Aboriginal culture. Our culture predisposes us to social disadvantage, thus rationalising indifference to the abuses inflicted upon Aboriginal bodies. Cartoonist Bill Leak shifted the nation’s gaze away from the torture of Aboriginal children in Don Dale
by attributing the cause to the culture of parental neglect within Aboriginal communities. Aboriginal men we were told were really to blame for the abuses of Aboriginal children at the hands of white men. Culture has long been used to explain the sexual abuse of Aboriginal women also and historical accounts are filled with white men’s insistence that culturally Aboriginal woman have no knowledge of chastity and thus were incapable of being raped. In contemporary discourses, Aboriginal women can also find themselves blamed for domestic violence because of our supposed culture of “racial solidarity”. Even when Aboriginal people are not perpetrators of abuse, constructed cultural fantasies reconfigure culture as the cause of Aboriginal ailments. The tragic death of Mr Ward in 2008 on the four hour commute in the back of a prison van from Laverton to Kalgoorlie is one example. The metal lined prison van had no air-conditioning, and with no checks on his welfare, Mr Ward suffered third degree burns to his abdomen and died of heatstroke. Prison Officer Stokoe claimed she didn’t check on Mr Ward because she believed it was not “culturally acceptable for women to communicate with Aboriginal elders.” It was his culture that caused his death. And, who could forget claims of paedophile rings by the Indigenous Affairs Minister and his senior advisor on ABC’s Lateline program? The “myth of the black male perpetrator” rationalised the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act enabling the Northern Territory Emergency Response. Racism was necessary because of our culture. Aboriginal Culture as the new racism
In 2013, a South Australian Police Officer confessed to racially abusing an Aboriginal man in police custody and was disciplined with cultural sensitivity training. He stated; “I’d like to tie the hose around your neck, set you on fire and drag you around the streets attached to our car with lights and sirens on.” Awareness of our culture is depicted as the remedy for racial oppression. Yet the only therapeutic benefit is to non-Aboriginal Australia, in the form of moral absolution. It is via our culture that white virtue may be redeemed and silence about race and racism maintained. While race is not real biologically, it remains real as a social construct and via mythologies of Aboriginal culture we can witness its realness. Via culture, essentialist claims are made about Aboriginal Australia which are are no less problematic than the biologically deterministic claims of race. Invoking culture instead of race is a terminology shift which ensures the social acceptability of racism in ‘modern’ Australia. Whether culturally less, culturally lost or culturally corrupt, Aboriginal culture mythologies work together like a welloiled machine sustaining the necessary ideologies that enable the production of racialized inequalities. To talk about race we are told is “divisive” and attempts to address racism are met with hostile resistance as evidenced in the Goodes booing saga. This silencing is present in public and scholarly discourse. What remains is a bustling industry and scholarly intrigue in the business of Aboriginal culture. Investigating the ills and otherness of Aboriginal culture is framed as benevolence to the plight of Aboriginal Australia. While many of us are committed to testifying to the value and virtues of Aboriginal culture as a necessary part of decolonisation we cannot afford to ignore the dangers that lurk inside this discourse. If culture is the final frontier for the coloniser, Aboriginal resistance must include interrogation of the ways in which we are inadvertently reproducing these mythologies and sustaining racialized rather than cultural truths about ourselves.
My first job as an Aboriginal Health Worker in rural Queensland involved delivering my employer’s compulsory Indigenous ISSUE 9
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Artist Profile: Paul Spearim Gamilaraay
Can you please tell us about yourself, where are you from and who are your people? Yaamagaraa nginda ngay gayrr winangali Gii. Ngaragay ngaya yana-y dhi-bidi Cawubuwan Gunigal Bumaay Ngaragay Wirrayaraay Gumbu. ngay yulu-gi, yugal yaambal nginda walaaybaa dhaarwaan Gumbu. My name is Winanga-li Gii (which means to listen from the heart) and I come from the big light of the Bumaay and Wirrayaraay clans of the Gamilaraay Nation. My song, stories, dance, art, knowledge and culture are my connection to my sacred lands.
How would you describe your art style? My style of work is a melding of our old ways of ngamilma-li (teaching), with vibrant colours that signifies for me the openness and life that is found within Gamilaraay. Over the past 45 years of my life I have been continuing the age old practices of teaching the cultural knowledge and customs of my Gamilaraay people. Using the same strict but highly unique educational tools that
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my parents and their parents and so on have passed on to me which have sustained our nation since Gamilu Bidi-Wii (Before the Big Light/Burruguu/Creation).
What is title of the artwork and can you please explain the story behind it? This painting is about the brolga and the importance of understanding Dhiriya Gamil (lore) and your obligations as a boy, teenager, young man and finally as an older man of Gamilaraay. What inspires you to create your artwork? For me it’s always about forever carrying and remembering my life’s journey as a young boy, teenager and finally now as an older man. Always remembering, seeing and feeling the amazing colours of life that just pop out of every living organism in my sacred Gamilaraay lands.
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How does your artwork reflect Aboriginal lives (past, present or future)? For me my work must always reflect my Dhiriya Gamil (lore), knowledge, customs and understanding that I too am also a part of the past along with my Gamilu Bidi-Wii (Before the big light/Burruguu/ creation) and it will always be a part of my future.
Do you have any advice for any other young Aboriginal artists wanting to tell their story through art? All I can say is please understand who you are first and foremost. Then the magic will flow. What life lessons have you depicted through your art? Always remember it begins with you first, then your immediate family, then your clan and finally your Gamilaraay people.
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INVASION DAY Photo credit: Timothy James Wilkey
Photo credit: Lowy Wright
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2017 Photo credit: Keara Forde
Photo credit: Vlad Thelmpaler
Photo credit: Lidia Thorpe
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Photo credit: Celeste Liddle
Photo credit: Arika Roo Waulu Photo credit: Lidia Thorpe
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Photo credit: Bogain Spearim
Photo credit: Dtarneen Onus Williams
Photo credit: Dtarneen Onus Williams
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Black Conscience Dale Ruska, Goenpul
This article will consider, who we claim to be and what we claim to represent (as Aboriginal people) and the social organisation and structures that we mostly use in our efforts and attempts to move closer to our desired objectives. Whatever those objectives may be, they are pursued on a common moral basis, being perceived as a necessity, as a right, a correction and balancing of equality and justice, a recognition of our claims of being and representation. Amongst all of our efforts and attempts, the structures and processes existing within ourselves underlies a negative moral conflict and division. A moral conflict and division developed throughout colonization and all of its effects, now causing belief difference, concerning which is the best way for us to move forward towards our objectives, based on our claims of being and representation. There are many conflicts that exist and if we leave it unaddressed it has the potential to become extremely selfdestructive and destructive to our claims of being. Health, housing, education and cultural development are absolutely necessary for our current social existence - those that gives us a sense of pride and moral value, regardless of the efficiency, adequacy and effectiveness towards their aims and purpose. Many aspects of our existence involves us having no choice but to accept what Australian law and governments are willing to allow
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and provide to facilitate the maintenance of our social existence. It is structured to ensure we remain dependent on Australian legal and political compassion to deliberately rely on their continued economic sponsorship and support - but do we know how long it will last? In relation to our beliefs, regaarding rights, recognition and concerning our claims of being, we allow Australian legal and political policies, processes and administrations to cause us to become even further morally divided by the wedge of opinion differences. Throughout colonial history we have come to realise and had to learn the hard meaning of the saying, ‘divide and conquer, united we stand, divided we fall.’ Many of our people believe that in relation to our rights, connection to our lands and our claims of being, Australians have politicised the solutions and means of us moving forward, towards what is necessary through processes like recognition, constitution amendments and native title. However, many of our people also believe that our ancient original First Nations values, our freedom of self governance, autonomy and truthful determination and maintenance of moral principles, represent the solutions and means of us moving forward towards what is necessary. Which way is honestly the right way? Can we allow ourselves to give the issue any
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priority and appropriate consideration to be able to determine ourselves what is absolutely compulsory in moving forward towards what is necessary. Major moral conflict and division arises here and unfortunately disrupts our unity. Only one opinion is accepted and maintained by the Australian legal, political, economic and administration processes, one that upholds the Australian legal, political, socially acceptable solution, determined on our behalf, under the guise of Native Title. Do we morally value the importance by holding on to the principles of our ancestors, their dreamtime of freedom, peace, social and cultural co-existence with their lands, the originality of theirs and our ancient identity? Do we truly value the connections and belonging to the original peoples and their land, their principles of our ancestors ancient morality, derived from direct bloodline connections, through our law and kinships, to their lands? Do we appreciate and value the cultural and social necessities, their morally disciplined devotion and maintenance of themselves, their lands and environments, uninterrupted for millenniums as original people? Do we as of now, understand and respect the pains of their endurance, the value of their costs of loss, sacrifices and sufferings caused by colonization? Do we give no value to their meaning, to the
costs of their sufferings, of all the immoral atrocities undignified and inhumane abuses to which they were generationally subjected to? Do we just disregard the moral value we place so heavily on any obligation to our ancestors endurance and leave it in the past? When we look at Australia’s colonial history fully and the legal, political, social role it has played for the people, through to recognition, support and administration of our historical times existence - do we just accept that our ancestors morality, values and insurances are not worthy of moral costs considerations simply by believing that nothing can be done about the past? As descendants of our ancestors, we need to consider how Australia’s colonial laws, government and society recognise our rights through legislations such as Land Rights and Native Title legislation, the very legislation developed by the colonists, to be the solutions. Solutions such as joint management and land use agreements (where it legally extinguishes Aboriginal title) that determines, defines and administers colonial land tenure forms to legally define our meaning and transfer of ancient customary law and land title. Could these be genocidal policies designed to facilitate customary land title assimilation into a nationally acceptable, colonial and legally democratic form? If so, do we truly accept it as priority now, part of our necessity, and as a form of proper justice? In respecting our claims of being and representation, can we allow ourselves to take much more than a moment to consider the truthful reason of our meaning, the state of our colonial history right now and the reality of the moral wedge dividing us? Can we allow ourselves to realise and address that this moral conflict is an absolute necessity and important priority. Or do we just carry on as we are, allowing ourselves to become more divided by the moral wedge and the opinion of difference? Can we reassess the true moral values of our claims? Are we at the beginnings of full genocidal destructions? Are we at a point of identity crisis? If we are, do we really want to do anything about it, or do we allow the tide of colonialism to engulf us entirely and just let go with its flow?
Maybe it is now as a people who claim to be what we are and what we represent, that we need to recognise the importance of our priorities and what is truly necessary for now. Are we Aboriginal Australians or Australia’s Aboriginals? What is the true meaning and strength of our values concerning who we are and what we claim to represent? Is our main strength that we understand colonial Australia and how its systems recognised and treated our ancestors historically and how it now determines, defines and administers our social and economic existence? Do we really have the ability to recognise, respect and accept the necessity of our original identities, our true values and meaning? Or do we accept that those values and meaning have now been compromised by us to fit in with the legal, social, cultural model of the democratic and contemporary colonial Australia? Do we feel that we have any responsibility or obligation to attempt to address with a sense of urgency, the moral complication which we now face, or do we just allow for its continuation and leave the turmoil of our existence for the next generation and the unborn to face? In coming to terms with this we need to determine what is the true value and meaning of what we claim to be and represent. Do we appreciate and respect our ancient ancestral connections and belonging as a value of our morality, as original people and our unique identity, the first people of the lands now known as Australia? If we do, how can we unite ourselves in our being and representations of our true meaning? Are we able to detach ourselves from the conscious state of oneself, the state of our individualism, our ideologies, egos, comforts of self interest, to consider our claims of being and representation as a people, from a state of complete truthful, natural free conscience, similar to that of our ancestors? If we can, can we define with unity, the true meaning of ourselves, as the children of our ancestors?
representation and what that involves legally, politically, socially, economically and culturally for ourselves as a people? Alternative to the economically motivated Australian political agenda, concerning how we fit into the organization of the Australian nation, can we be determined by ourselves? If we continue with individualisation, without unified agreement and clarity of our value and meaning, especially concerning our efforts towards sovereignty and treaty for example, Australian law and politics may not develop the solutions for us in the possible form of sovereignty or treaty acts. If we can define ourselves, who we are and what that means, by accepting and respecting our identities true values, our worth, our connections and belongings, we may begin to establish unity to true meaning and value of our identity and existence. Maybe only in the form of Australia’s first nations peoples treaty, between Aboriginal people only, may we display true devotion and self determination, reconnecting, reorganizing and reestablishing our own solutions, representing the people’s agreed necessities and priorities based on our originality. We may choose to re-establish tribal governance and structures based on our own moral values. Whatever we desire, we must not forget where we come from and what that means and what it has involved. I commend the organizers of the magazine, the thinking of The Black Rising and publications by its contributors. Lets together continue to awaken and maintain our peoples black conscience.
Can we unite and work together with a sense of urgency and pride to determine the true value of our meaning and
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#JUSTICEFORFELLA Latoya Aroha Rule, Wiradjuri/Nagti Porou
I remember when I first found out that my brother Wayne was in custody, I cried my eyes out after receiving my sister’s call. “Is he okay?” I asked. “Nah, he’s not sis…” she responded. I’ve always been surrounded by people who have been incarcerated given my experience with homeless mobs and other diverse groups, and I’ve made many visits to see prisoners, but my second eldest brother of all people was one of the last people I’d expect to do time. My brother was eccentric and very laid back. On the political spectrum he was probably somewhere in the middle with the, “if you got a good sense of humour and don’t impinge on anyone else’s rights, then pull up a seat” crowd. He was an artist, a musician and a chef. Wayne was a person who I thought would one day be that old fulla who would pull up his kayak, walk along the jetty telling people which squid jags he found most effective and making sure people weren’t taking under-sized fish. He was a father. He was engaged to be married. He owned his own home. He owned his own vehicles. 18
He worked hard for what he had. I’d like to say that I’m ignorant to why this has all happened to someone like Wayne who on a liberalist’s watch would’ve been considered a “good Aborigine”, but I’d be lying. You see, “good Aborigine” is in fact an oxymoron in the Australian context and both cannot co-exist. australia continues to view Aboriginal people with negative biological and behavioural characteristics that are supposedly inherent to Aboriginal people alone, and thus, australia treats Aboriginal people in such a way that reflects this darwinist ideology. Good = good. Aboriginal = bad. As Colin Tatz (2016, p.88) explains, “two aspects of genocide need more attention: how the targeted victims are perceived and how they are portrayed.” Though Tatz is speaking here on historical accounts of genocide in australia, I believe this statement is truer now than at the time when colonisation first began. Since Wayne’s incarceration up until this day, prominent figures, media and the australian public have portrayed Wayne
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as someone who; was violent, a criminal, a “creature”, aggressive, crazy, “deserved to be tortured” and “deserved to die”. Majority of the comments describing Wayne are partnered with racial slurs and statements that suggest he was an abuser of drugs and alcohol, receiving government hand-outs, involved in gangviolence and an all-round drop kick; all comments having nothing to do with what has occurred and are directly related to negative perceptions of black people. There is no doubt that the charges Wayne was facing were serious, but it is the white gaze that has defamed Wayne’s character and positioned him as a serial offender, not solely the charges. I want to say this clearly: I do not believe we have come much further than the era where massacres and the hunting of Aboriginal people were common practice. australia seems to uphold that the killing of Aboriginal peoples is justified; to me, this is no different to support given for policies like the death penalty, which australia apparently condemns.
the Aboriginal person’s own fault (because apparently you can, despite being in great health, make yourself have a heart attack) or an “accident”, for example, when a corrections officer simply falls on you causing serious injuries and bruising to your entire body. Quick facts: Wayne Fella Morrison passed away following an alleged altercation with numerous prison officers in Yatala prison Wayne was hospitalised in ICU on the 23rd September, 2016 and his life support was switched off in the early morning of the 26th September, 2016 Photo credit: Michael Cook from the St Kilda fishing tackle shop
Justifications for the killing/ purposeful neglect of Aboriginal peoples incarcerated have literally been statements like, “we thought she was faking it”, and, “he swore at me”. Neither Ms Dhu nor Mr Doomadgee, or any other Aboriginal person for that matter, deserve to enter into custody and come out dead! Tatz (2016, p.91) mentions that during the protection era there were certain, “’crimes’ only [Aboriginals] could commit, such as being cheeky, refusing to work, committing adultery, leaving a reservation, absconding from a dormitory, and playing cards.” Though these sound a tad ridiculous I believe this is also true of today; there are some things you can do if you are Aboriginal that will get you injured in prison. One of my cousins actually shared with me how when he was incarcerated he was being “cheeky” to the guard and he poked out his tongue. Before he knew it he was restrained, thrown to the ground and beaten. He remained in an isolated cell till his body healed. I believe the silent killer massacring Aboriginal prisoners is the foundational denial of racist genocide in australia, from which truth all other truths stem. Acknowledging genocide would mean that there was/ is purposeful intent to wipe out Aboriginal peoples. australia continues to deny that there was ever the intention to murder an entire people, and australian police and corrections today are allowed to get away without conviction of the death of any Aboriginal person under the guise of it being either
Wayne was being held on remand for approx. 6 days before he entered ICU Wayne had never been incarcerated before My family and I waited in court on the morning of the 23rd September, 2016 expecting to bring Wayne home with us as his home detention application was being heard that morning SA Corrections Minister will not confirm the existence of CCTV footage of the alleged incidents and I have been made aware that only some of the correctional transportation vehicles are fitted with CCTV cameras A Parliamentary Inquiry into the Administration of SA Prisons is currently underway citing at least 3 cases out of 5 in the terms of reference that involve Aboriginal inmates We have not yet received adequate information from the pathologist or coroner about Wayne’s cause of death
Wayne was only 29 years’ old When I reflect on the events leading up to my brother’s death it is difficult to not suggest that he too is a victim to an on-going system of cultural genocide that conveniently separated him from his family and community, isolated him in a cell where he was vulnerable and created a sense of despair. The system of intergenerational trauma can now extend its hand to my niece and nephews, all who will have to live with the fear of police and corrections that we grew up having. I hope they will look back at the photos of our communities across australia protesting with Wayne’s name dispersed across banners. I hope they will look back at when I shaved my head at invasion day and how we shut down the parade and turned back the floats. I hope they will look back at when numerous communities around australia, Turtle Island and Aotearoa read out statements in support for Aboriginal victims of systemic violence and abuse. I hope they will look back at when an entire prison was shut down for a day by Aboriginal prisoners mourning Wayne’s death. I hope they will be able to look back at the parliamentary inquiry and the coronial investigation and feel glad that between those two platforms justice for fella was achieved and that this set a precedent for other Aboriginal deaths in custody cases. I hope they remember their dad/ uncle Wayne for the peaceful fisherman he was and that they will know that his death was not in vain. Reference: Colin Tatz. (2016). Australia: The ‘Good’ Genocide Perpetrator? Health and History, 18(2), 85-98. doi:10.5401/ healthhist.18.2.0085.
Photo credit: Michael Cook from the St Kilda fishing tackle shop ISSUE 9
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warrior profile Timothy Wilkey, Ngarrindjeri
Who’s your mob and where are you from?
How are you involved in Aboriginal resistance?
Timothy Wilkey - Ngarrindjeri.
I am involved in Aboriginal resistance in multiple ways including protest in the streets and the classroom. I attend university, not to pursue prestigious awards or gain a greater acceptance amongst the colonial society, but to challenge and resist Eurocentric teachings and colonial thought. Education systems and programs that respect only the worldview and knowledge of the colonizer need to be resisted on a daily basis. The education institutions in Australia nurture a relationship of domination between the colonizer and the colonized, and in doing so they further proceed the psychological and emotional terrorism that we as Aboriginal people have been experiencing for over 200 years. Steve Biko, an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa, said ‘’the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed’’. In resisting current colonial education systems and programs we can use education as a practice of freedom in a means to liberate our minds and transform our world.
How do you define ‘warrior’? I define ‘warrior’, within a contemporary context, as someone who isn’t prepared to remain comfortable in their oppression, therefore they see direct action as a necessary component to resist their oppressor.
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What is decolonization to you? Decolonization to me is the restoration of Aboriginal life, culture, ceremony, spirituality, land and animals by the means of freeing ourselves from colonial rule after understanding our right to analyze and determine our own destiny as a people. With that said, ‘decolonization’, is the complete transformation of our current reality. Why is it important for Aboriginal people to stand up and protect their land? It is important for Aboriginal people to stand up and protect their land because the land sustains our culture, our spirituality and every other aspect of our lives and existence. Without the connection to our land we lose law, we lose identity, we lose language, we lose health, we lose well-being, we lose sacredness and we lose our history. Without the connection to land we become no more than a thousand year old book, with a thousand pages but no words, sitting on a dusty book shelf of colonialism.
What do you see as the biggest issues facing Aboriginal people today? There are multiple big issues that we as Aboriginal people face today but I feel that a sense of belonging and having our humanness robbed from us for multiple centuries is one of the biggest. We have faced colonial terrorism in all of its forms (physical, emotional, sexual and psychological) throughout the past 200 years. During such terror, we have had our sense of belonging and our sense of humanness robbed from us by acts of colonial violence and the use of pseudoscientific racial theories that suggested we were more akin to monkeys than to human beings. We were dispossessed of our lands and placed in camps against our will which were designed to nurture our extinction. Now, most of us live our everyday lives with a double consciousness where we can’t help but see ourselves through the eyes of the colonizer as we try to find a sense of belonging within our communities, the lands we were taken from and the world of colonialism that continues to silence our voices.
What do you see for the future of Aboriginal people locally and globally? I see Aboriginal people, on a universal level, establishing their own set of rights as a people instead of relying on the current speech acts gifted to us from united colonial bodies as a form of protection against invasion and colonial violence. I see Aboriginal people uniting on a global scale and using this unification as a weapon of Aboriginal resistance. Our resistance will continue to grow and our voices will become more powerful than ever before as we continue to decolonize our minds and world.
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Words of advice for our future, the young ones? Go out and find yourself, find your family, your language, your land and your culture and never give up even when times are tough. Also, never let racism hold you down, you are far greater than what the current colonial society depicts you to be. If you are a young activist, I tell you from experience that you will make mistakes, you will gain enemies and you will lose many friends, but it is those mistakes, those enemies and those friends who you have lost which you need to learn from. In doing so you will plant multiple footprints towards the future for our people and help change the current horrible conditions that exist on earth. The future is yours.
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Decolonise your diet Bogaine Spearim, Kooma/Murrawarri/Gamilaraay
This recipe is a great way to enhance the flavour of fish, whilst enjoying the smoky flavour given by the paperbark and fire. Seafood is a vital part of the diets of many Aboriginal people who reside close to the coast. Generally fish is low in fat and cholesterol, whilst providing a good source of protein and vitamin B. Certain species of fish also contain vitamins A, D and omega-3 fatty acids (which can reduce the risk of heart attacks!).
Bunda Steak and mashed Kumara Ingredients • 1 x Bunda (Kangaroo) Steak • 1 x Kumara (Sweet potato) • Salad greens • Olive oil • Salt & Pepper
Method 1. Peel and roughly chop kumara into bite sized pieces. Steam or boil until soft. Mash with salt, pepper and any available herbs. 2. Fry steak on medium heat until cooked to your liking. 3. Add any available greens
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Reflection After reading Dark Emu (Black Seeds) by Bruce Pascoe I became more interested in eating Indigenous foods, however the foods that Bruce talks about in the book aren’t readily available at the local supermarket like kumara and bunda are. I struggle with eating healthy and sometimes when I cook kumara and bunda it makes me feel better about myself because I know there’s a long line of people in so called “Australia” and Aotearoa that have eaten these foods and I know it’s healthy for me. When the Maori of Aotearoa planted kumara prayers were said and an offering was made. The priest would place a tapu (a spiritual restriction) on the crop until it was ready to be harvested. Stone images or carved wooden sticks were used to protect the life force of the growing kumara. Nutritionally kumara is a good source of antioxidants, dietary fibre, vitamin c, vitamin a, vitamin e and naturally gluten free and virtually fat free. Our native yam is similar to kumara, it is 10 times as nutritious as the potato. Mob here used traditional forms of agriculture to cultivate our yams. Since our native yams aren’t available in the local supermarket kumara is a good alternative. Traditionally when our people hunted bunda we made sure we mostly ate the males and we never ate more than what we needed so there was always enough bunda for the next mob and enough bunda for the population to grow back. We never hunted our food to extinction or to the point where the foods we were eating were only eaten for our pleasure. Kangaroo is one of the few meats commercially available that is game meat. Meat that isn’t bred in factories to be slaughtered in inhumane ways. It is free from antibiotics, added growth hormones and chemicals. It is a source of high quality protein, low in saturated fat and a source of heart friendly omega 3’s. It is also a great source of iron, zinc and B group vitamins.
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Lionel Fogarty 1982 Commonwealth Games Protest Photo credit: Juno Gemes
In 2018, The Black Rising magazine will be transforming into an annual publication focusing on telling stories of decolonial action and organizing within Aboriginal communities. The aim of sourcing and publishing these stories is to provide readers with inspiration and information; instructional material (experiences, lessons, advice etc) that they can learn from and implement themselves in their own communities. We will be releasing and launching the tenth issue of The Black Rising in 2018. Yours in the cause,
The Black Rising team contact our team If you would like any more information about our magazine, please contact us at theblackrisingmag@gmail.com 24
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