Hyde 2020 Edition 6 - Indigenous

2 0 2 0 6 I S S U E

HYDE indigenous edition

·design·art·photography·fashion·music·news·life·university·

The Australian Aboriginal Flag was designed by artist Harold Thomas and first flown at Victoria Square in Adelaide, South Australia, on National Aborigines Day in July 1971. It became the official flag for the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra after it was first flown there in 1972. Since then, it has become a widely recognised symbol of the unity and identity of Aboriginal people.

ABORIGINAL & TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER FLAGS

The Aboriginal flag is divided horizontally into halves. The top half is black and the lower half red. There is a yellow circle in the centre of the flag.The meanings of the three colours in the flag, as stated by Harold Thomas, are: Black – represents the Aboriginal people of Australia.

Yellow circle – represents the Sun, the giver of life and protector.

Red – represents the red earth, the red ochre used in ceremonies and Aboriginal peoples’ spiritual relation to the land.

The Torres Strait Islander flag was designed by the late Bernard Namok as a symbol of unity and identity for Torres Strait Islanders. Adopted in 1992, it was the winning entry in a design competition run by the Island Coordinating Council, a Queensland statutory body representing the community councils in the Torres Strait.

The Torres Strait Islander flag has three horizontal panels, with green at the top and bottom and blue in between. These panels are divided by thin black lines. A white Dhari (traditional headdress) sits in the centre, with a five-pointed white star beneath it.The meanings of the colours in the flag are: Green – represents the land Black – represents the Indigenous peoples Blue - represents the sea White – represents peace

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COUNTRY

Victoria

University

Student

Union

and

Hyde

Student

Magazine acknowledges the Ancestors, Elders and families of

the

Boonwurrung,

Woiwurrung

(Wurundjeri)

and

Wathaurung (Wadawurrung) on our Melbourne campuses and the Gadigal and Guring-gai people of the Eaora Nation on our Sydney campus. These groups are the custodians of the University land and have been for many centuries. As we share our own knowledge practices within the University, may we pay respect to the deep knowledge embedded within the Aboriginal community and ownership of Country.

We acknowledge that the land on which our campuses stand is

the

place

of

age

old

ceremonies

and

celebration,

initiation and renewal. The Kulin and Eora people's living culture had, and has, a unique role in the life of these regions.

Victoria

Reconciliation

University

Australia

to

supports build

the

better

aim

of

relationships

between the wider Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres

Strait

Australians. visitors

It

Islander is

people

important

understand

and

for

that

respect

the staff, the

benefit

of

students, significance

recognising the traditional owners of University land.

all and of

VUSU This is a publication of Victoria University Student Union inc.

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers/ readers are warned that the following magazine may contain images or content of deceased persons.

We at Hyde magazine would like to state that the views published through out the magazine may not reflect the views of the editors, but we respect every contributor, and thank them for their contributions and for expressing themselves in a way that makes them feel safe.

Do you want to be a contributor?

Feel free to contact us:

hyde@vustudentunion.com

We want to ensure everyone is taking care of their mental health. There are many organisations that are able to help, especially in a hard time like this pandemic. Please don’t be afraid to reach out.

facebook.com/HydeMagazine

Beyond Blue: www.beyondblue.org.au/aboutus/contact-us Lifeline Australia: 13 11 14 For emergencies please contact 000

instagram.com/hyde_magazine

L E T T E R

F R O M

the editor Welcome VU to the sixth and final edition or 2020 - the beautiful Indigenous edition!

I would first like to acknowledge the Ancestors, Elders and families of the Boon Wurrung and Woiwurrung (Wurundjeri) people of the Kulin Nation, the traditional owners of the land in which Hyde was made. We at Hyde would also like to inform everyone that the contents in this edition may bring up strong emotions for our readers, and as such might contain narratives that could be emotionally challenging to our readers.

The edition is the largest the Hyde team has published all year with 122 pages and filled with amazing content produced by VU staff, students, external organisations and collaborators. It's been amazing working on this edition and through many conversations, long hours and countless email exchanges, we are so proud to welcome this edition to the Hyde 2020 collection.

This edition is very special and very close to our hearts. We are more than proud to say that this is the first edition in the history of Hyde and the VUSU that focuses on Indigenous students staff, and the cultures of the wider community. We have been preparing for this since June, and finally, it's here, and it's a lot better than how we imagined it would be.

In this edition, you'll find pieces of gold and a little bit more, from top 10 films and documentaries, to amazing resources to educate yourself on Indigenous history and culture , including podcasts, books and artists, and so much more. You'll find the most interesting stories of everyday life, imagination, struggle, but most of all, stories of resilience. So embrace it, and walk with us through this journey.

We hope that everyone who reads this edition can learn and grow as much as we have in the process of putting it together.

Thank you to all those who contributed to not only this edition but every edition of 2020. I am so proud to have been Editor in Chief of Hyde Magazine for the last year and I can't wait to see what the future holds for Hyde Magazine.

For the final time, happy reading! We hope you've loved Hyde as much as we have. xx Hannah Nadin - Editor in Chief

15 85

23 what's inside

93

102

58

page 7

page 13

page 23

A statement from our VC and Moondani Balluk

Dreaming

A budget that doesn’t even pretend it isn’t failing Indigenous people

Professor Peter Dawkins & Karen Jackson

Pen Thoughts

page 15

page 8

My Journey at Victoria University

A message from our VUSU Pres

Jean Mason

Will Penrose

page 21

page 9 A map of Aboriginal Australia

‘Mate, take a breath for me’: Inmate tried to save Nathan’s life, inquest hears

page 11

The Sydney Morning Herald - Jenny Nayes

Cultural Load at Victoria University Karen Jackson

The Canberra Times James Blackwell

page 25 Add traditional place names to Australian addresses Rachael McPhail

page 26 NATSILS sla investment in policing over additional funding for legal services NITV - Mikele Syron

37

83

13 page 27

page 51

page 58

page 85

Uni funding reforms are a stake through the heart of Indigenous selfempowerment

AEK1203 Indigenous Health and Wellbeing

Business Section

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Artists

The Canberra Times James Blackwell

page 53

page 30

Siyu Liu

Podcasts

page 55

page 37 Groups - AIATSIS - Common Ground - Reconciliation Australia - Boon Wurrung Foundation - The Uluru Statement - Wurundjeri

Ali Mckeich

Studying AEK1203

A beginner’s guide to allyship Kathleen Beno

- Arkie - YAHDIEZ - Ascension Magazine - Magpie Goose - Bush Medijina - Clothing the Gap

page 79 Koorie Heritage Trust - an interview with Gail Harradine

page 83 Samara: Silence is not an option Koori Mail -

page 93 Love reading?

page 102 Top 10 films & documentaries

page 115 Be a Better Human

page 117 Activities

page 7 | Indigenous 2020

A statement from our VC and Moondani Balluk Professor Peter Dawkins, Vice-Chancellor and President & Karen Jackson, Moondani balluk ABORIGINAL SAFE SPACES AND BLACK LIVES MATTER As the Vice Chancellor of Victoria University I understand that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are deeply impacted by the current events in the USA. As we ended Reconciliation Week on Wednesday 3rd June, and as the University’s lead in our Bathelmun Yalingwa Strategy, I wish to endorse the following Moondani Balluk statement. This statement aims to give confidence to our commitment to transforming people’s lives; to sharing Aboriginal knowledge; to connecting our institution and people to Aboriginal culture in meaningful ways; and finally to build and grow our relationships with the Aboriginal community in the west of Melbourne.

My role in leading the University and the Bathelmun Yalingwa Strategy is also to ensure that staff are in a safe environment and able to perform their duties. In this regard I am concerned by the impact of current events coupled with the cultural load carried by Moondani Balluk staff and am in discussion with Karen Jackson (KJ) on the opportunity to help deal with these matters in a culturally relevant way. As a first step, we are enabling some Aboriginal staff to come onto our Campus to participate in a Smoking Ceremony, in the context of our position that campuses are closed (with some exceptions). I am assured by KJ that this would be a helpful way for me to assist and have an immediate effect on staffing concerns and feelings.

MOONDANI BALLUK STATEMENT While the spaces of violence on Aboriginal land, culture and people continues to impact our bodies and spirits in our everyday lives and through our work, the thoughts of Moondani Balluk staff are with the families and extended families of the over 400 Aboriginal people who have died in custody. Since the release of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, a report that contained 339 recommendations on concrete ways to halt any more deaths, the impossibility of systemic change in racist acts on Aboriginal people is draining hope and aspiration for many in our communities. Our thoughts are with these families as our screens are flooded with events in the USA, and we know deeply that the grief and trauma of losing a family member in custody is unbearable.

Staff at Moondani Balluk understand that we will continue our work in the University’s digital classrooms to share our Aboriginal standpoints and perspectives through our Aboriginal teaching content. Our academic staff are often confronted by VU’s enrolled students who have not experienced Aboriginal history through our schools systems. The challenges of this are expressed by students as feelings of shame, guilt, or ignorance and these have been heightened by the current global events.

This work, coupled with our own lived experiences of systemic racism, our family connections to those who have died in custody, become even more burdensome when laden with such confrontations and challenges. We understand full well the impact of our knowledge on our students, on our colleagues, but we also carry the load and our cultural safety is always at risk.

We need staff and students at VU to understand this load.

The University seeks to work collaboratively with us through such strategies as Bathelmun Yalingwa, the Yannoneit Employment Strategy and related policies. Changes in recent times in University structures have seen a lifting of Aboriginal matters to Senior Executive level, and this is a welcome outcome and one that will bring change; over time. Our internal relationships are hard fought and require vigilance, gratitude and patience; they are however fragile, just like the fragility of the social contract between white and black – here in Australia and overseas.

The sheer negligence of acts of violence in societal structures and historical oppression against black bodies, our land and culture is a direct result of systemic racism and white fragility. It is not just for Moondani Balluk staff to teach, share our stories, stand tall, and make change and protest. This is a space for our University colleagues to show up, be counted, to educate themselves and to take action themselves against systemic racism and speak back against acts of violence on black bodies.

Please let us all know and remember the Aboriginal people who have died in custody, at the hands of Australian police. Please join in solidarity to decolonise our practices and systems so that our Aboriginal families, children and youth can feel safe in engaging in white spaces. Please show respect to our Country, our Culture, and understand the ongoing impact of dispossession and dispersal on our bodies and spirits.

A message from our VUSU Pres Will Penrose, VU Student Union President Hey VU, it’s me again for the last time as VUSU President. I am welcoming you all to the last edition of Hyde for 2020, the Indigenous Edition. This year has been one of the hardest we have faced as a VU community. We have had the bushfires at the beginning of 2020 and then the COVID pandemic swept the world and restricted us all to working and studying from home. Where we still are.

This edition looks to showcase some of the fantastic artwork and written pieces from the indigenous community at VU and also the wider community too, with some fantastic contributions from different organisations, while still making sure to showcase the beautiful submissions from both VU students and Staff that Hyde is typically known for.

For a bit of a run down on what VUSU has been doing as of late include the typical weekly yoga classes that run every Wednesday to give the VU community a free hour of relaxation without the stress of block classes or anything, Let the yoga wash any of your troubles away. We are also hosting a few competitions including the Spooktacular Games Night, which will give students the chance to win a MacBook Air so stay tuned for that awesome prize night. We have also been taking submissions for an awards night, so be sure to jump over to the VUSU Facebook page to find out more information and nominate your friends.

As this is the final edition of Hyde for 2020, I want to personally thank Hannah and the team for all of the hours you have put into these editions. Before 2020 Hyde was a bit all over the place with a few editions here and a few there. With Hannah joining the team she really streamlined the Magazine by bringing in strict deadlines and also including themes for each edition. This has given us the opportunity to showcase all that our beautiful VU community has to offer. Some of my favourite editions to date have been the Women’s edition and the Queer edition, they were stunning and just so appealing to the eye with phenomenal content inside the pages too. We really do have some very gifted students at VU. For the last time I also want to thank all of the VU community for sticking together to do the right thing, whether it was staying home or being an essential worker it has been tough for us all. Hopefully we will be back on campus for 2021 and I look forward to seeing all of your great faces on campus whenever the time arises.

Until then stay safe and good luck with studies for the remainder of 2020.

For the last time, Kindest of Regards from my desk at home, Will Penrose VUSU President

nationalunitygovernment.org/

page 11 | Indigenous 2020

Cultural Load at Victoria University Karen Jackson

I recently named myself as the Acknowledgement of Country Queen at VU. While I seemingly laughed off this suggestion it has obviously come to be noticed by me that in this time of Black Lives Matter #BLM people feel it important to ensure a black person is up front to Acknowledge Country. I get why this is so. I think.

But perhaps the making of space for black people in this way also hinders the enabling of space for white people to think more deeply on what an Acknowledge of Country means – to them – to what they know or don’t about Traditional Owners. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=Iw8YVBbQgNg. It’s important the people think about what it means for them to find words that are meaningful, that they are willing to share. Also words that they feel won’t upset us black fellas?

And yet, being asked to begin a session such as the Vice Chancellor’s conversation gives me a platform to remind VU staff that we’re still here – this is Aboriginal land that is unceded and sovereign territory – that the Ancestors footprints are in the landscape and Traditional Owner knowledge is embedded in the black bodies who are a part of Moondani Balluk and the VU community.

You may recall a paragraph in the Moondani Balluk statement that refers to the cultural load carried by Aboriginal academics teaching Aboriginal higher education units. These staff put themselves into these risky situations every single time they teach as the content is deeply personal; it may not be reflective of their own family story but it certainly is very similar.

There is normally always one white student who blatantly calls out the Aboriginal knowledge and perspectives being shared as false. And then proceeds to advise that they went to school with an “aborigine”; or their family lived next door to some Aboriginal people; or they grew up overseas where this and that happens or they’ve been to the Northern Territory and so “know” about true Aboriginal people.

I know of a few other VU academics who are hit with such racism and ignorance – for example, those who teach on the Holocaust in European History. But I don’t believe it’s an ongoing weekly experience, it’s also not an experience that happens in their personal lives outside of work. Every single Aboriginal staff member of VU will have a story on the times that they made a very conscious decision to ‘hold their tongue’; where they have been racially vilified; where they felt fear…

Perhaps unknown for non-Aboriginal academic staff is the depth of time and thought Aboriginal staff engage in to embed cultural safety strategies for themselves in their classrooms, knowing that the teaching and sharing of critical race theory, Aboriginal standpoints and perspectives has a daily toll on health and wellbeing when in a combative and personal mode of pedagogy.

Such oppression in our lives always impacts our bodies and spirits. This is long term impact.

This is what the earlier Moondani Balluk statement referred to as the sheer negligence of the acts of violence and historical oppression as a direct result of systemic racism.

We are resilient, adaptable and survivors - because we have to be - otherwise we would not be here. Literally.

We protest so that our anger and rage at our treatment, our families and communities’ treatment, our Elders and Ancestors treatment is heard, seen, felt by white people and let go from our black bodies.

It needs to be remembered that it is not the role of Moondani Balluk alone to make systemic change at VU…if indeed we can as Aboriginal people inside this mainstream institution.

The challenge now is for how VU colleagues will show up, be counted, speak back against acts of violence on black bodies and educate themselves and then take action themselves against systemic and societal racism. The challenge is who is willing to maintain the very hard conversations on racism, to share their learnings with family and other VU colleagues, to disrupt agendas and the racial status quo. To know that the University has its Bathelmun Yalingwa Strategy, that our University Act contains reference to Aboriginal education and participation, and to familiarize yourself with the work and teaching of Moondani Balluk.

A couple of places to start are Gary Foley’s webpage https://www.gooriweb.org/ , Clare Land’s Decolonizing Solidarity http://decolonizingsolidarity.org/ , and

webpage

the Critical Race Theory https://acrawsa.org.au/.

webpage

Australia

page 13 | Indigenous 2020

Dreaming ~ Pen Thoughts

And I dream of what it is, and I dream of what it could have been Sometimes I wonder what we share is a dream or this life without you would be There are days I dream of passing by a coffee shop down the years and bumping into you Dreams where we leave behind what could've been to just hold each other like it's the end of our days Because I refuse to believe there is a world where we are not together I dream of the day where we're walking hand in hand and feel all the pain was merely a dream And a dream...

page 15 | Indigenous 2020

My Journey at Victoria university Jean Mason

Ngi (hello), my name is Marjorie Jean Mason (nee Jones). I am a proud Bakandji Nghuugu (woman). I was raised on a mission in a small town in western New South Wales, named Wilcannia, which is situated on the banks of the Darling River. I was educated at the local public school along with my eight siblings. I grew up learning everything about my people, from the Balku (dialect), the culture, knowledge of our boundaries to how we belong to this Kirra Kirra (country).

I am an alumnus of Victoria University having completed a Certificate I,II and III in Mumgu dhal tyama-tiyt (meaning message stick in Woiwurrung language and were foundations/bridging level courses), a Bachelor of Arts (Kyinandoo – Indigenous studies, Kyinandoo means clever in Woiwurrung language) and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours).

I am proud to share my study journey with you.

My study journey has been a long and ultimately fruitful one, but not without its challenges. In 2006 I retired after a long career in the public service to focus on my health and family. I always had ambitions to study Arts/Aboriginal studies, although work and family kept me busy so I could never get around to it. My mother always instilled the importance of education to her children. Education is the key to your future and through education the world is your oyster, as my Mother used to say.

Having lived in the West for over 30 years, naturally Victoria University was an option to study at. However, upon retiring there were no courses related to my interests at the time.

I hounded Karen Jackson (KJ), Director of Moondani Balluk – Indigenous Academic Unit for three years enquiring about a suitable Aboriginal studies course. Finally, in 2009 I received a call telling me that the Certificate I,II and III in Mumgu dhal tyama-tiyt was starting in 2010. Soon afterward enrolled in the Cert I in Mumgu Dhal, along with my two sons and daughter.

I was excited and nervous about coming into a new place after not being in an education setting since I was 15. The public school in Wilcannia did not allow Aboriginal students back in the 1960’s to progress past Year 7, unless you were sponsored by a white family, all under a racist education policy and as such I had to leave school to look for employment back then.

For returning to studies after all these years, the Cert I, and eventually the Cert II and III helped me reintroduce myself to studying, prepare for further studies and helped myself become familiar with tertiary education. Some of my favourite memories while doing these certs were organising assessed community projects, such as organising student led events on campus, live music, performances and cultural activities with Moondani Balluk. I was extremely proud studying with my children and also improved my study skills and utillsing various academic resources.

I thoroughly enjoyed the three certs overall and felt this was a stepping stone to bigger and better things. I enquired about the Bachelor of Arts (Kyinandoo – Indigenous Studies) at VU in 2015 and after receiving high enough marks in my certs, thankfully received a course offer. I knew that the degree would be difficult and mixing with other students would be a challenge, but with the backing of Moondani Balluk staff and students, who were going through the same pathway as myself, I was determined to succeed.

There was a big jump from TAFE to University. At times it was difficult understanding the academic writing, references, research and adjusting to the higher standards of a degree. But I was raised to finish something I started. I had great support from my teachers, Mat Jakobi, Gary Foley, Rebecca Gerrett-Magee and fellow Kyinandoo students Rebecca, Jaimie-Lea and Tanaya Lyons. They were like family to me and were always encouraging and checking in on me.

Eventually I got my head around the requirements and overcame those educational challenges with great support. Some of the topics which were covered included colonisation and decolonisation. As I had previous, lived experiences with these topics, I was able to link this back through my studies and understand why it happened and the ongoing effects that came with those topics. I eventually completed my Bachelor of Arts (Kyinandoo – Indigenous Studies) in 2017, with my final two years’ worth of marks not dropping below a Distinction. I was so glad that I completed the degree and stuck with it. It was a massive achievement for me, and my family was very proud. Not bad for a mission girl who was not allowed to complete Year 7!

But I was not going to rest on my laurels, I felt that I had more to give, further stories to tell and more research to do. I was not 100% satisfied with stopping at the Bachelor. After yarning with staff in Moondani Balluk, I decided to apply for a Bachelor of Arts (Honours). I was accepted into the course and excited to begin the next step of my academic journey. I felt that all my hard work throughout my previous courses and the preparation involved was leading to this moment, where I would receive a proper opportunity to document my heritage and tell my story in an appropriate format. Where my research and coursework would focus on my people, upbringing and a way for me to document the exploration of the culture, customs, language and lore of the Bakandji people.

This was incredibly important to me, to tell my story and the Bakandji history that has been passed down to me by my family and elders. I believe it is important to preserve this knowledge and to correct the misinformation about the Bakandji for future generations and to assist with ongoing education about Aboriginal history.

Hence why I was determined to continue my studies, complete the Honours degree and use my thesis to document the significance and importance of all this.

In one of my first few classes, one of my teachers, Enza Gandolfo, explained to the class why we were all chosen to do Honours. One of the major factors being the strength and uniqueness of our research proposals as a part of our course applications. This conversation was a great confidence booster for me and Enza was a great mentor, as was Dianne Hall and Karina Smith, another two teachers in the course, whom I “clicked” with. One aspect of Honours I noticed was the increased reliance on appropriate academic writing, referencing, academic sources and research, more so than the Bachelors degree.

I did initially struggle with this, but I was able to access tutoring via Moondani Balluk and had a strong support network there. Also having quick yarns with the likes of Paola Balla, Tony Birch and Edwina Howell at the corridors and student space at Moondani Balluk about my progress, with them encouraging me and offering tips, helped massively.

A few of months into my Honours, just as I was getting settled, I found out that I had to have quadruple bypass surgery, urgently. This was a very serious operation, even more so at my age, 63. I had to put studies on hold indefinitely to have the operation and to recover. However, I had already planned to attend a graduation ceremony at Flemington Racecourse for my Bachelors degree.

Two weeks after surgery, I forced myself out of bed, used a walking frame and attended the ceremony. I got up on stage and accepted the scroll from the Chancellor. I got all my graduation photos done and had officially graduated! When I said I was raised to start what I finished, I meant it! That was one of the happiest, but painful days of my life.

After a couple more months break, I slowly returned to studies. After the completion of all my coursework in class, the next step was to work on my thesis, a significant body of written research and work. With the guidance of my supervisor, Karina and through tutoring, I was able to establish the methodology I would use, which was a combination of Autobiography, Auto ethnography and Yarning.

I also included a creative aspect to my thesis, with my artwork detailing stories and rich cultural knowledge passed down to me by my Mother, which were a part of the creative aspects of my thesis. My mother was the keeper of all the knowledge and was my inspiration for creating my thesis. This art was displayed at an exhibition at the Footscray Community Arts Centre at the end of the semester and contributed towards my assessment.

I received a First class honours(H1) result for my thesis, equating to a mark of 88%.

I enjoyed my studies at VU so much and hope to one day write a collection of books on my Mother and our stories. I’d like to thank Gary Foley, Tanaya Lyons, Marcus Brooke, Paola Balla, Rowena Price, Rebecca and Tanaya Lyons, staff/students at Moondani Balluk for their ongoing assistance, support and providing me with the opportunity to achieve my study goals. Without them I would not have been able to achieve what I did.

page 21 | Indigenous 2020

Jenny Noyes October 19, 2020

'Mate, take a breath for me': Inmate tried to save Nathan's life, inquest hears Just a week before Anaiwan man Nathan Reynolds was due to go home from a four-month jail stint in western Sydney, the 36-year-old father, described as a "jokester" by his family, suffered an asthma attack.

He said a wheelchair was fetched, but Mr Reynolds' condition deteriorated when inmates tried to help him into the chair.

It took more than 20 minutes after he phoned for help for the only registered nurse at the John Morony Correctional Complex in Berkshire Park to attend to him, by which time he was already unresponsive.

Gesturing, Mr Preo said Mr Reynolds went "really stiff like a board", clutched his chest and seemed to be taking "his last breaths". He decided at that moment to intervene, lying him on his side and clearing his airways.

An inquest into Mr Reynolds' death has heard distressing accounts of his final moments from an inmate who tried to save his life as Corrections Officers watched, waiting for the nurse – who would slap him, shake him, and then wrongly diagnose him with a drug overdose.

"I put a lot of force on his jaw and I managed to open his mouth," Mr Preo said. He "did a big gurgle" and fluid came out, he said. "He was alive then and he could hear me telling him to breathe," he said. "I would say, 'Mate, take a breath for me' and he would do that."

Mr Preo said that, when the nurse arrived, he told her Mr Reynolds was breathing and some fluid had come out of his airways. What happened next shocked him.

First, he said, the nurse rolled Mr Reynolds onto his back. "The next thing I remember was her being over the top of Nathan slapping him and shaking him and telling him to wake up."

He said he began to worry "that she’s killing him, that he’s choking … she’s not doing the right thing for him".

Jeremy Preo told the inquest that fellow inmates tried to help Mr Reynolds when it was clear he needed to go to the clinic for oxygen – and a guard told him they could not give medical assistance.

The nurse declared Mr Reynolds was suffering from a drug overdose, he said. "I believe that she obviously just, me personally, she just thought ... he's a criminal, he's in jail and he's a junkie."

Mr Reynolds was pronounced dead at 12.44am on September 1, 2018 – 77 minutes after he called the duty office complaining of shortness of breath.

His family hopes the inquest, which began at the NSW Coroners Court on Monday, will provide answers as to how another Aboriginal man lost his life in custody nearly 30 years after the royal commission into the issue.

took so long for medical help to arrive, and why the nurse wasn't equipped to save his life.

Taleah Reynolds said her brother "lit up the room" and was loved by all of his nieces and nephews. "He had a heart of gold and would give his last dollar to anyone," said Makayla Reynolds, another sister.

In opening statements, counsel assisting Chris McGorey said the inquest would hear from respiratory specialist Dr Greg King that, when Mr Reynolds called for help at 11.27pm, "his respiratory condition was already severe and life-threatening and the window of time available to intervene and prevent his death was very limited".

He said it was Dr King's opinion that "it was unlikely at this point that CPR would have prevented Nathan's death" and he needed emergency treatment – including intubation and ventilation.

Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Karly Warner said Mr Reynolds was "a beloved brother, son, father, stepfather and nephew" and his family is one of hundreds that have been "left behind in grief, agony and despair" since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody handed down its findings.

"The commission’s findings continue to gather dust, and over 440 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in police and prison cells since," she said outside court.

Mr McGorey told the inquest Mr Reynolds had a welldocumented history of severe asthma, of which Corrections NSW was aware. He had been admitted to hospital with a severe asthma attack from Bathurst Correctional Centre on a previous occasion, he said.

Speaking outside court following a Welcome to Country ceremony performed by Aboriginal dancers, Mr Reynolds' sister Taleah said the family want answers as to why there was not an asthma management plan in place for her brother, why it

"We hope the inquest process provides accountability for Nathan’s death and swift action to finally put an end to black deaths in custody."

The inquest continues.

page 23 | Indigenous 2020

A budget that doesn't even pretend it isn't failing Indigenous people James Blackwell. Ocrober 8 2020.

The 2020 budget was meant to deliver our recovery as a nation and economic path forward following the coronavirus recession.

There was a lot to hope for from the Treasurer outlining ways to support Australians in this time of unprecedented economic pain. But once again the government has left Indigenous people high and dry.

We have been forgotten, underfunded, and left to the sidelines once more. This budget does nothing for us, but at least it doesn't pretend to. The government shows it lacks serious vision for Indigenous Australia and seems unable to truly address the systemic issues faced by our people.

The disadvantages faced by Indigenous people in this country are large and widespread. Our infant mortality rate is twice that of non-Indigenous Australia.

Our school attendance, success and graduation rates lag behind the rest of Australia; one in four Indigenous children read below national standards, and only two-thirds of our students complete year 12. Indigenous employment is 26 per cent less than it is for non-Indigenous people, and we are paid less on average.

Our life expectancy is eight years less than for non-Indigenous people. And despite being 3 per cent of the population we make up nearly 30 per cent of the adult prison population.

All of these are serious systemic problems and require serious systemic solutions. And all exist on top of pandemic recovery. This 2020 budget underdelivers on addressing any of them.

There is very little from the government in term of specific funding for Indigenous people coming out of the recession.

While there are small measures such as increased money for Indigenous housing, and funding for Indigenous rangers, there are no large-scale items focused on specifically helping Indigenous communities.

Yet the government has not given any money beyond $46.5 million from when the agreement was announced, that itself repurposed funds from the National Indigenous Australians Agency.

This budget is proof, if you didn't already need it, on why fully implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart and a constitutionally enshrined Voice is so vital.

It has also reallocated money for the Productivity Commission to review these targets, but without money to achieve change, what is actually achieved? There can be no headway when the government shows it isn't financially committed.

What money that is specifically earmarked also is somewhat controversial. A funding boost for Clontarf, given their history, and lack of focus on women, does nothing to advance the interests of our people; mental health funding for Indigenous Australians administered by non-Indigenous organisations is egregious at best; and a reclassification of Abstudy independence tests, while good for Indigenous youth, appears to be an attempt to expand mutual obligations.

The real issue with this budget for Indigenous people however, rather than what is allocated, is the lack of new financial support. Most of what has been announced is merely the reallocation of previously appropriated funds, rather than new money for new purposes.

Like that aunty at Christmas who always regifts you what she got last year, the government is shuffling around money it already earmarked and presenting it afresh.

It is also plainly underfunding areas it needs to in order to be committed to Indigenous people and advancing our interests.

Take their commitment to "Closing the Gap".

This budget contains no money for achieving the targets it set itself as recently as three months ago. The expanded and revised goals agreed to with the Coalition of Peaks in July were hailed as ambitious and serious when it comes to solving Indigenous disadvantages.

There is also no money allocated for work towards a referendum on a Voice to Parliament, something government has been reluctant to implement from the beginning. This budget is proof, if you didn't already need it, on why fully implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart and a constitutionally enshrined Voice is so vital.

The government has decided to punt on helping Indigenous people yet again, and without pressure from us in the halls of power, protected by the constitution, they will continue do so. Treaties will not get us the kind of change a Voice will when it comes to funding through the budget, but a Voice can get us to that and treaty.

Indigenous people have once again been left out and left behind by a government that has shown it is not committed to change. This budget does not even have the veneer of trying to solve the systemic inequities faced by Indigenous people. It has given up on Indigenous people.

I don't know whether the government will be able to "Close the Gap" or resolve the fundamental issues plaguing our mob. But if their success is to be based on how this budget aims to deliver for us, addressing the systemic disadvantage doesn't seem likely.

page 25 | Indigenous 2020

Add traditional place names to Australian addresses

Every area on this continent now known as Australia has an original place name.

I am calling for place names to be made part of the official address information in Australia, the same as postcodes and street names.

I am also calling for Australia Post to collate a comprehensive and accurate database of traditional place names, by consulting with Elders and First Nations knowledge holders on each Country.

Please sign this petition, and keep adding in the traditional place name when placing online orders or sending parcels!

Come and join the movement at @place_names_in_addresses on Instagram Rachael McPhail - initiator of petition

Mikele Syron October 7 2020

NATSILS slam investment in policing over additional funding for legal services

NATSILS Roxanne Moore said the lack of funding was “deeply unsettling” and caused her to question whether black lives mattered in Australia. (NITV News)

NATSILS expresses outrage over the government's decision to provide additional funding in the 2020 budget for the Australian Federal Police while ignoring Indigenous legal services and Closing The Gap. NATSILS have publicly criticised the investment of $300 million headed to the Australian Federal Police after the federal budget failed to provide support to Indigenous legal services or address Indigenous deaths in custody or Closing The Gap. A post to social media , which was reposted in support by NATSILS Executive Officer Roxanne Moore, said Aboriginal-led solutions and prevention was required to support Indigenous communities to rebuild post COVID19, rather than additional policing.

“The government is failing to commit to the support we know our community needs to end this, because it is clearly not a priority.”

The additional investment in policing goes against the public health response that NATSILS and other organisations have called for and has sparked fear that it will have a detrimental impact on incarceration rates and justice targets.

Ms Moore said that this “carceral” response will only push Indigenous people further into the justice system, at a time when the wellbeing of all people should be paramount.

Ms Moore told NITV News that the lack of funding to address Closing The Gap or Indigenous deaths in custody was “deeply unsettling” and caused her to question whether black lives mattered to the Australian federal government.

“The response has been to police this pandemic rather than implement public health responses, we are really concerned about the data which shows that Indigenous people have been disproportionately impacted by over policing in NSW and Victoria," said Ms Moore.

“We are the most incarcerated people in the world, and we have had five deaths in custody since June, but they couldn’t find a single dollar to invest in Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander legal services or closing the gap," she said.

“Aboriginal communities and organisations have been successful at using self-determination to prevent a single Aboriginal death from COVID19, why isn’t the government listening?”

page 27 | Indigenous 2020

Uni funding reforms are a stake through the heart of Indigenous self-empowerment James Blackwell. August 15 2020.

The government has announced more changes to the way it intends to fund the higher education sector, in addition to the previously announced Job-Ready Graduates funding package. Under the latest proposal, students will be cut off from the HECS-HELP loan scheme when they fail more than half of their units in the first year of a degree. This policy will have a hugely outsized impact on Indigenous students and the broader Indigenous community. This is in addition to the earlier Job-Ready reforms which gut the humanities and Indigenous Studies disciplines, penalising all students who want to gain knowledge about our histories, cultures, and languages.

What this round of proposed reforms does is penalise Indigenous students for trying to navigate a higher education system that was not just built without them in mind, but with their exclusion as a goal. In seeking to undertake their ideological war against a higher education sector they have long derided, the government has set back the hopes and aspirations for Indigenous students, decimated the academic disciplines bringing back our cultures, and neglected their own responsibility to "close the gap".

Indigenous completion rates sit well below the national average compared to non-Indigenous students. We take longer on average to complete our degrees, and fail more often doing them.

Nine-year completion rates sit at 47 per cent for Indigenous students, compared to 74 per cent for the non-Indigenous cohort, and the four-year completion rate has never gone above 30 per cent.

This is a large and ever-present gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, and these changes will have an outsized impact on this gap. It could set us back 15 years, or at the very least, hold us in place.

Failure is a necessary part of student growth. We see students every day who have gone from almost flunking out of a degree to being on the path towards graduation.

Indigenous people have not been particularly welcomed within higher education institutions.

Racism and exclusion have long been rife within the sector. We are not used to managing how their systems work, how to navigate their material and workloads, and the clashes between Western and Indigenous knowledge systems and ways of being. All of these are hurdles in the system designed to prevent our engagement and presence, and overcoming them takes perseverance, work, and effort.

For the government to decide that failing four units within one year cuts you off from the funding offered to everyone else, and that has been offered to generations past without regard to academic talent, feels like an attack on the already disadvantaged. It will lead to our students not entering higher education in the first place, flunking out of one degree and never returning (something over 15 per cent of Indigenous students already do), or bouncing around a dozen different degrees in order to maintain their studies.

Failure is a necessary part of student growth. We see students every day who have gone from almost flunking out of a degree to being on the path towards graduation. Students who these reforms would kick out. Universities have processes to deal with what the government calls "non-genuine students"; what these reforms do is financially punish failure, financially punish disadvantage. UNSW professor Megan Davis calls it "the state doing things to us without us".

Higher education for our people isn't just about knowledge for knowledge's sake, or to qualify for a particular job. It is about empowerment. Empowerment of ourselves as individuals, but also empowerment of our communities. Every single Indigenous graduate is someone who has achieved something their ancestors were forbidden from achieving. And they have a greater ability to better not just themselves, but their community. Every extra Indigenous teacher, doctor, lawyer or academic is of benefit to our society.

We want our community to achieve success and use that to find a better place. Stand on the shoulders of giants and reach upwards. These reforms are a stake through the heart of that. We also want non-Indigenous mob to enter the workforce and life with appropriate levels of cultural respect and understanding of Indigenous people. These reforms kill that dead in its tracks. We need to reject these proposals from the government. They're misguided and harmful to Indigenous students and communities.

page 30 | Indigenous 2020

A podcast is an episodic series of spoken word digital audio files that a user can download to a personal device for easy listening. Streaming applications and podcasting services provide a convenient and integrated way to manage a personal consumption queue across many podcast sources and playback devices.

The point of podcasts is to entertain and inform listeners. For the producer, it gives anyone the opportunity to do their own “radio� show.

Here, you will find some amazing podcasts broadcast by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people telling their stories with special guests throughout episodes, informing others, educating on and showcasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia.

Written by Podtail: Hosted by Mundanara Bayles who was born and raised in Redfern (Sydney) Australia and currently lives in Queensland. The Black Magic Woman Podcast is an uplifting conversational style program featuring mainly First Nations people from Australia and around the world sharing their stories about their journey to highlight the diversity amongst First Nations peoples and the resilience of her people. She hopes these stories inspire her listeners and also create a better understanding of what First Nations Peoples culture and history. Mundanara is guided by Aboriginal Terms of Reference and focusses more on who people are rather than on what they do. Mundanara makes people feel relaxed and comfortable as if they were sitting around the kitchen table just having a yarn. It’s the way First Nations people have been building relationships and getting to know each other for tens of thousands of years. She draws from a long family history in the media industry and has grown up in culturally strong, politically active family who have been at the forefront of the Aboriginal Rights movement since the 1960’s.

Mundanara sees this platform as an opportunity to share her cultural knowledge and insights to her audience in a non confrontational way that brings people along with her to create change for a better Australia. To connect more with Mundanara check out the work she does with her elders at www.theblackcard.com.au.

Written by Buzzfeed: "Actor Miranda Tapsell (Love Child, The Sapphires) and writer/actor Nakkiah Lui (Black Comedy, Kiki and Kitty) join forces to present 'Pretty for an Aboriginal', a BuzzFeed Australia podcast featuring wide-ranging conversation and critique of society, politics and culture.

Drawing on Australian and international guests – season one includes writer and commentator Roxane Gay, rapper, comedian and writer Briggs and Orange is the New Black’s Yael Stone.

Miranda and Nakkiah discuss topics such as relationships, the importance of representation and how to be a good ally, all while challenging perceptions of Indigenous Australia and the nature of success.

The conversation is friendly and sharp, and you’ll hear much-needed perspectives at the intersection of politics and culture. As hosts, they allow guests to reflect on their experiences in a more open-ended space."

Written by the Authors: Yaama, we’re Kamilaroi and Dunghutti sisters Marlee and Keely Silva.

We began the journey with Tiddas 4 Tiddas in November 2018 with the simple hopes of building a safe space for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tiddas to share their stories of excellence.

We believe stories of our blak women have the power to change the world.

Thank you for being part of this journey with us to build a better Australia for all.

We are also available to do speaking engagements and workshops with workplaces and schools across Sydney.

Go listen to Tiddas4Tiddas the podcast for more amazing yarns, and if you have a story to share simply DM us or get in touch at: tiddas4tiddas@gmail.com

Written by the Author, Marlee Silva: "Yaama, I’m Marlee Silva, a Gamilaroi and Dunghutti writer and the Co-Founder of Tiddas 4 Tiddas.

In these frightening and uncertain times, it feels as though there’s little left in life that has gone unchanged. Coming from the oldest, continuous surviving culture on Earth - that of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people there is something my people do, that never has and never will falter.

That is, our tradition of storytelling.

For over 80 thousand years, we have exchanged stories as a means of connecting, learning and surviving and continuing this today, to me, seems more important than ever.

That’s why I’m bringing you my new podcast, ‘Always was, always will be our stories.’ Where I sit down with inspiring Indigenous leaders from all walks of life, to hear their stories, learn from their experiences - and maybe even, just distract ourselves for a minute from the hazy and dark clouds that seem ever present in this world today, so we might connect and feel hopeful for the future."

page 37 | Indigenous 2020

AIATSIS (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies) is Australia's only national institution focused exclusively on the diverse history, cultures and heritage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia.

AIATSIS tells the story of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and creates opportunities for people to encounter, engage and be transformed by that story.

AIATSIS supports and facilitates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural resurgence.

Join AIATSIS for their first ever online Indigenous Art Market and celebrate NAIDOC Week 2020.

Aboriginal Studies Press and the University of Queensland's Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences invites you to virtually attend an In-Conversation event with author Dr Debbie Bargallie and UQ's ProVice-Chancellor (Indigenous Engagement) Professor Bronwyn Fredericks.

This dynamic In-Conversation will take participants inside Unmasking the Racial Contract: Indigenous voices on racism in the Australian Public Service (2020) – from PhD research to published book.

There will be a 30-minute Q&A session and also opportunity to pose questions throughout.

Please register to secure a spot. We look forward to welcoming you to our online event.

Event dates: Tuesday, 10 November 2020 1:00-2:30pm Location: Online event - please register now to secure a spot.

Common Ground Australia records and shares First Nations cultures, histories and lived experiences.

To help Australians see the value of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures through providing access to stories and knowledge that will help bridge gaps in knowledge.Common Ground is designed to build a foundational level of knowledge for all Australians, and be a go to resource for those wanting to learn more and connect with our First Peoples.

The First Nations Bedtime Stories Challenge is a unique way to learn from First Nations people and cultures Join us for a week of learning and sharing 16-20 November 2020.

Commit to watch five Dreaming stories over five days, told directly to you by First Nations elders and knowledge custodians. Do it on your own, at home with your family, or at school. It’s all online.

Check out www.firstnationsbedtimestories.com to learn more

Check out the commonground.org.au website to see a collection of original and curated learning articles on culture, history and reconciliation.

Reconciliation Australia developed this website (shareourpride.org) with initial funding from the Westpac Foundation and the Coles Group Community Fund in response to a request from industry for an introductory site for employees.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from across the country have provided input and feedback on the content. Every effort has been made to capture the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures but to also keep the content simple and introductory.

The site will continue to grow and continue to add Torres Strait Islander-specific content. Face-to-face training with an experienced Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander cultural awareness provider and/or cultural immersion within your specific community can be life changing.

This site is not a substitute for these deeper experiences; rather it is a starting point for your journey. It’s designed so that you can go through the chapters in one sitting or dip in and out when you have time or if you’re looking for information on a particular issue. As you work through this site, reflect on these questions: What might I do differently and what might my organisation do differently to build better relationships with Indigenous peoples?

What might I do differently and what my organisation do differently to have and show respect for Indigenous Australians?

What might I do differently and what might my organisation do differently to create opportunities for Indigenous peoples to help close the life expectancy gap and build a stronger Australia?

We’re not asking you to consider what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples might do to improve relationships, respect and opportunities. Indigenous communities think about these things every day, particularly for the sake of their children. But this particular website is designed to give non-Indigenous people a glimpse into the lives and cultures of Australia’s First People.

The Boon Wurrung Foundation represents the traditional people and custodians of the lands from the Werribee River to Wilson Promontory and we are proud members of the Kulin People – the Boonwurrung and Woiwurrung.

To a time when this land that is now called Melbourne extended right out to the ocean.

Port Phillip Bay was then a large flat plain where the Boonwurrung hunted kangaroos and cultivated their yam daisy.

For thousands of years the Boonwurrung were actively involved in the Greater Kulin Nation and together we walked this land.

For our people, there have been many times when we have almost given up hope, but our belief and our spirit has kept us going.

The history of the Boonwurrung people dates back many thousands of years.

The importance of this land and this spiritual place lies within our history and our culture.

Melbourne has always had a strong underlying Indigenous history. It has been a history that has been both diverse and complex. It has often been a hidden history.

According to our tradition, our land has always been protected by our creator Bunjil who travels as an eagle and by Waarn who protects the waterways and travels as a crow.

Many of the descendants of the first people of Melbourne have played a major role in bringing about change.

Bunjil taught the Boonerwrung to always welcome guests, but he always required that the Boonerwrung would ask all visitors to make two promises: To obey the laws of Bunjil Not to harm the children or the land of Bunjil

Our traditional country now consists of the great multi cultural city, called Melbourne, where people from many ethnic backgrounds, arts, culture and sports are appreciated.

Today, we can still feel the spirit of this country, its Indigenous history and its spirit.

If you understand the continuing history of Melbourne – you will also understand that we, as its first people, have always taken an active and leading role in many areas – including health and well being.

The spirit of Bunjil and his gift of generosity has influenced this land for thousands of years and continues to do so today.

This commitment was made through the simple exchange of a small bough, dipped in the water.

The Boonwurrung people continue their tradition as the proud custodians and protectors of these lands from the Werribee River to Port Phillip Bay to Westernport Bay to Phillip Island and all the way to Wilsons Promontory.

We encourage everyone to nurture and care for this land as we do – with love and respect, to protect the rivers, the creeks and the waterways as they are the blood of this land and to observe the wisdom of Bunjil – to care for the children.

VOICE. TREATY. TRUTH. ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEART

Our First Nations are extraordinarily diverse cultures, living in an astounding array of environments, multi-lingual across many hundreds of languages and dialects. The continent was occupied by our people and the footprints of our ancestors traversed the entire landscape. Our songlines covered vast distances, uniting peoples in shared stories and religion. The entire land and seascape is named, and the cultural memory of our old people is written there.

This rich diversity of our origins was eventually ruptured by colonisation. Violent dispossession and the struggle to survive a relentless inhumanity has marked our common history. The First Nations Regional Dialogues on constitutional reform bore witness to our shared stories.

All stories start with our Law.

Want to learn more?

Go to: https://ulurustatement.org/resources

Wurundjuri.com is a website that offers many services to help aid understanding of the Wurundjeri culture, through things like informing about cultural heritage, natural resource management, cultural practices for events, cultural consultations, language and naming, and education, tours, and cross-cultural awareness training. They have many different events that are run by, or in collaboration with the Wurundjeri Land Council as well, that is updated regularly.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture has existed in this land for around 50,000 years. The uniqueness of these cultures and the wisdom and knowledge embedded in them, are things to be highly valued by all Australians.

If you are wanting to check out some amazing websites of organisations, initiatives, communities, groups and institutions go have a look at these sites, educate yourself and learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia, the history, traditions, experiences and culture.

There are also many more websites that you can research to learn as much as possible.

Learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures allows students to develop respect for diversity and understanding of cultural difference. It provides all students with a rich and well-rounded knowledge of Australia’s history. It also promotes the closing of the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians on life expectancy, educational achievement and employment opportunities.

Photo credit: www.diversetravel.com.au/aboriginal-tours

page 51 | Indigenous 2020

AEK1203 Indigenous Health and Wellbeing Ali Mckeich

Students of the College of Biomedicine whether in nursing, midwifery, health or dermal sciences - will at some point in their degree find themselves enrolled in AEK1203 Indigenous Health and Wellbeing.

This unit explores the impacts of colonisation on Indigenous Health and teaches students about cultural safety and how to work effectively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and communities.

Anna Liebzeit is the Key Academic for the unit, and has worked in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and education for over 20 years.

Anna says that one thing she enjoys about teaching AEK1203 is “meeting new students and supporting them to learn.”

“We cover a lot of content, from the historical context of contemporary health issues to the importance of delivering culturally safe healthcare that is free from racism,” she says.

“I love giving students practical strategies they can use in the workplace.”

Anna stresses that the aim of the unit is to demonstrate to students that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health is the responsibility of the whole health system, and that critical and reflexive thinking can help health care workers continually develop skills as lifelong learners.

“I want students to develop the confidence to engage and make a positive difference,” Anna says.

Another aim of AEK1203 is to prepare students for their professional careers, and teachers within the unit encourage students to engage with ‘lifelong learning’ even when their course is finished.

Anna says that one way of doing this “is to keep questioning and looking at their own and others' beliefs and assumptions about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. If these beliefs and assumptions undermine, rather than promote, health and wellbeing, discrimination continues. In our unit, I support students to explore ways to do this, using real-life and strengths-based strategies.”

“Learning about Indigenous perspectives is an inspiring and vital way to address historical and contemporary truths,” says Anna.

Student Reflections on AEK1203 Shioban: “Indigenous Health and Wellbeing was the first subject I undertook as a VU student and it was a great first impression of the University. I went into the subject thinking It would just reinforce knowledge I had already learnt about Indigenous health, however, I was pleasantly proven wrong!”

Laxman: “This subject made me understand about the broad issues of cultural diversity, how to work in multicultural team to deliver culturally competent care to Indigenous Australians. I realized the importance of effective communication and how the understanding of historical and cultural aspect of Indigenous communities help to minimize the prejudices prevalent in society regarding the impact and delivery of health care.”

Caitlyn: “I had the privilege of studying Indigenous Health and Wellbeing this year as part of my Bachelor of Nursing Degree in semester 1. To this day, I still find it one of the most valuable units I have undertaken.”

Maddy: “I am very fortunate to have learnt quite a lot about Indigenous culture growing up with my local Indigenous centre being only minutes down the road however, this class still taught me many things such as being culturally safe in the workplace and how much stigma and racism is still evident and embedded in society and especially the health care system. I still have much more to learn in the future about Indigenous health and to hopefully one day put it into practice in a culturally safe environment.”

page 53 | Indigenous 2020

Studying AEK1203 Siyu Liu Stepping into Indigenous Health and wellbeing unit, I knew I had to recall a lot of information from what was learnt in high school and apply to this unit but also continue to learn more in depth.

The main thing this unit has taught me was ways to become a better healthcare professional (nurse) in the future such as acknowledging the Aboriginal community and understanding the culture and history of Indigenous people has really touched me the most.

Starting off with Acknowledgement of Country, I learnt that providing more comfortable and valuable services for Aboriginal people including Aboriginal artwork, NAIDOC poster and holding events in hospitals may create a safe and culturally welcoming environment towards Indigenous people as it may strengthen communication skills and relationships between the healthcare practitioner and the Indigenous person, encouraging the person to have a say in their health condition and not feel burdened in the community but have a sense of belonging to the people around them as they may feel safe.

Understanding the culture and history of Indigenous people and what they may have went through in the past such as colonisation, when Aboriginal people had their custodians of land taken away from them, making it harder for them to live. Suffering grief and trauma due to loss of connection to family, identity, land and culture, influencing them to have less access to healthcare might be a major barrier as they may feel fearful when entering hospitals and having to repeatedly expose to racism. Learning about this has really impacted me especially that I want to become a healthcare professional in the future, I need to make them feel welcomed and recognise their culture and history by not making unbiased comments to any Indigenous people so that they may feel safe and secure in any hospital environment.

In the future, I want to expand my knowledge on Aboriginal culture to provide better care and treatment to Indigenous people. This may allow them to feel more comfortable visiting hospitals to receive treatment and contribute more to their health conditions and the treatment that goes along with it.

A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO ALLYSHIP Kathleen Beno

page 56 | Indigenous 2020 What is an ally?

An ally is a person who not only supports a particular cause, individual, group or community, they actively serve and fight for them, by using their privilege.

For example, a Caucasian person may be an ally to a POC or Indigenous person, and they would use their white privilege to stand up for the other’s rights.

The do’s of allyship Do actively and openly listen. You may hear things which are uncomfortable or may surprise you. However, you are listening to someone’s’ lived experience which is not up for debate.

Do educate yourself on the oppression and struggles of others. To be a truly ally you need to have knowledge of the types of oppression and the trouble the communities have faced, and are currently facing.

Do use your privilege. Privilege should be used as a tool to lift up marginalised voices, use your voice and actions to point to the oppressed in the room.

Do talk to minorities and ask them how you can assist. They know best on how they need to be helped/assisted so ask!

Do learn how to listen and accept criticism respectfully. You may make mistakes (it’s inevitable) however taking criticism respectfully and gracefully is the best way to grow and learn.

The don’ts of allyship Do not expect to be taught or shown. Educate yourself, do not rely on minorities to do so, however you can still ask some questions Do not behave as you know best. The minorities and oppressed know the most about their own struggles, not someone who has watched a youtube video.

Do not assume that every member in an underrepresented group feels oppressed. Often a community is made up of varying types of people, which may belong to several minorities. Members also all have differing experiences, and some may have faced more difficulties than others.

At the end of the day, allyship is a tiring job that you do every day, not for the reward or praise but the good of others. True, active allyship will be satisfying in its own way, as you will understand and know that you have helped an individual, group or community in some way.

page 58 | Indigenous 2020

Business Section

This section is all about supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses and also businesses that donate proceeds to communities.

Check out their websites for more information and to go shopping!

Bringing contemporary Aboriginal culture to mainstream Australians through fashion. Arkie the label is for young women who want more than just an outfit, hand drawn prints and carefully designed pieces that tell a story and represent a piece of Indigenous Australian culture.

Our collections are designed by our namesake, Arkie Barton.

Designed and made in Brisbane, Australia.Each design emanates an inherent sense of laidback Australian culture and are largely inspired by Arkie's heritage as an Indigenous Australian. Bright artisanal prints, influenced by nature, each print is hand drawn with love.

http://www.arkiethelabel.com/ourstory

page 62 | Indigenous 2020

Back in 2019, I had the opportunity to work as a tour guide for three months in Kakadu, which is 3 hours east of Darwin in the Northern Territory. It was an amazing experience and 80% of it was based around learning about Indigenous cultures and belief. One of the craziest things that I learnt from my Kakadu accreditation and in my indigenous studies was that the aboriginalindigenous culture of Kakadu is the longest continual running cultural history of any cultures still alive today. They have been going on unbroken for 65,000 years and they are still alive despite the prejudice and discrimination against them. They have creative deities, and I was lucky enough to learn about the different creative ancestors and the one that stood out to me the most was the rainbow serpent. The rainbow serpent is one of the first creative ancestors that is depicted and is pretty much the oldest deity or higher power within a culture that is still kept alive today. She is illustrated in Kakadu as someone that sees all, ever present and a protector.

On my third tour, I went to one of the rocks outside in Arhnehm land, which is a native aboriginal land. On that day, we were driving into the Arhnehm land, when we got pulled over by someone who told us about the death of a traditional owner that morning and how the whole community is in lockdown. So, in order to go anywhere in the Arhnehm land we would need an aboriginal guide as they dint want people to be walking around significant spots. After an hours-worth of wait in the arts centre nearby, we were greeted by an aboriginal guide who was passionate about his culture and wanted to share it with us. A while after our walk, we sat on our table for lunch and our guide was talking about the rainbow serpent, how she operates and how her fury can cause natural disasters like fires and earthquakes. And just as he was talking about it, our table and the rocks nearby started shaking (7.2 magnitude earthquake in Darwin, June 2019); we were all worried and our guide wanted us to take shelter as soon as possible. We were running down the track when we saw a bushfire start in the nearby area. We managed to get down safe, but it was one of the most intriguing spiritual experiences I have encountered so far because I was able to feel the presence of the rainbow serpent. Ever since then, I have been fascinated by the aboriginal culture and their history and hence why we created the rainbow serpent shirt.

It is sad how the aboriginal community has been destroyed ever since the western colonisation; everything they held dear, was ruined and it happened just 300 years ago, and it still goes on today. White privilege is real and that is why I want to do everything in my power to make it better and that is why we created this shirt. All profits are going directly towards the welfare of the Indigenous lifestyle. This photo below is a great one displaying all three charities we are supporting with 100% of the profits going to AIME, The Andy Irons Foundation and sock it to sarcoma on the left!

We want to start a program where aboriginal children can reconnect to their way of living because their way of living was pure and beautiful. They had an incredible way of experiencing life and the universe, it was magical. They were the caregivers of this continent for 65,000 years and they formulated a perfect symbiotic relationship with nature; they knew when to take just enough, unlike the modern civilisation.

YAHDIEZ stands for Youthful Attitudes Happily Displayed in Every Zone. We are a group of people from south Gippsland which is the southernmost district of the mainland of Australia. I would describe our brand as a movement to encourage people of any age to live life with a youthful attitude and happily display that attitude in every zone of their life.

Our mission is to create a reality where suicide does not exist and there is no depression, only sadness, sadness which is easily cured by sharing your YAHD! As for who is behind the brand we wish to remain as anonymous as possible as for us it is not a about making a name for ourselves it is about making a positive difference for our world.

The Rainbow Serpent Tee coming soon with 100% of sales being donated to improve the quality of Indigenous life in Australia.

page 65 | Indigenous 2020

Spirit speaks to us. She guides us in an unspoken language. Spirit whispers softly in our ears.

Ssshhh…Listen! Can you hear her?

Spirit urges us to listen to our intuition. But we hardly ever do. Why is this? As women, we’re conditioned to ignore our power. To play small and conform to a foreign ideal that places us in constant conflict and turmoil with ourselves and the world.

Ascension Magazine is a spiritual revolution. Right now we are in hot pursuit to reclaim Spirit.

It is time to give ourselves permission to transcend everything that no longer serves us.

This is called Emancipation.

When we realise that we’re infinite beings; we become capable of everything our heart desires.

The universe never meant for us to act in desperation, but in faith, expecting abundance.

Our ancestors are aware of this wisdom.

They watch and wait patiently for us to understand this universal truth.

Culture beats like a drum in our hearts. It runs deep through our bloodlines.

It’s the glue that binds us to each other. Our language, totems, dances, songs, our spiritual home is where we derive strength and purpose.

Culture is never lost. From all parts of the globe, we Australian women share a common reverence for culture.

With many new dialogues of ancestry, tradition and contemporary expression these are signs of a cultural renaissance.

What sets Ascension Magazine apart from every other glossy magazine, is our courage to see the world in colour rather than in black and white.

Ascension is the magic that happens when women dare to be fearless and release the goddess power within.

Welcome to Australia’s first Indigenous and Ethnic Women’s Lifestyle Magazine.

Ascension is proudly Aboriginal owned and operated.

page 68 | Indigenous 2020

Our mission is to help create the best version of Australia.

We believe this will be achieved through a deeper connection with Aboriginal people and culture.

Magpie Goose is a platform that fosters the celebration of Aboriginal culture, people and stories through the medium of fashion.

We develop clothing collections that showcase unique stories from Aboriginal people across Australia.

We are curators: with each clothing collection we partner with Aboriginal artists and art centres to present an 'exhibition’ of stories. Each collection introduces you to new people, places and realities.

Magpie Goose represents an ongoing exhibition of sorts.

Using the medium of accessible clothing, we work to grow the audience for these stories.

We invite you to come and learn and celebrate with us.

page 72 | Indigenous 2020

Our traditional knowledge comes from our connection to our land, native botanicals, our ancestors, and our stories. We have been using our bush knowledge and medicines to heal ourselves for generations. We want to lift our indigenous people and others up so that we can be stronger and healthier together.

The idea of starting a business using our cultural knowledge grew from the need to help our own people, especially our elderly who could no longer go on country. There also wasn’t much opportunity for us to come together to work in a way that brought our knowledge and culture together.

We struggle with domestic violence, chronic disease, youth suicide, substance abuse, illiteracy, and other social problems. Our life expectancy is about forty-eight years old and we attend family funerals on average every two to three weeks.

Many of our children and grandchildren are in prison, and this causes us heartache and worry.

We run our business from a few shipping containers in Angurugu which is on our remote island in the Northern Territory.

It is a humble set up, but we feel safe here.

We hand harvest botanicals from our country, take them back to The Shed and hand make and package everything ourselves. Coming to work gives us a break from our challenges.

We are governed by the strong indigenous women on our Board. We struggled with funding in the beginning, but our Board never gave up and others started to believe in us as much as we believed in ourselves.

We are busy keeping up with demand for our products but have a plan to scale our business, service our customers and sell our products overseas. We are excited to be on track to achieving our Vision and Mission.

We are First Nation people having a go at walking in two worlds to share our traditional knowledge and heal people, not just physically but through relationships. We are One People with One Voice who appreciate your support knowing that we as indigenous people and as an indigenous business, matter.

https://bushmedijina.com.au/

Clothing The Gap is a Victorian Aboriginal owned and led social enterprise. We are a fresh and dynamic fashion label managed by health professionals that celebrates Aboriginal people and culture.

We produce merch with a meaning and encourage people to wear their values on their tee. Clothing The Gap is a play on the words "Closing the Gap", which is an Australian Government health initiative to help close the life expectancy gap between Aboriginal people and nonIndigenous Australians. Clothing The Gap unites nonIndigenous and Aboriginal people through fashion and causes, one of which is to help Close the Gap. Clothing The Gap is proud to be registered as a Victorian Aboriginal business with Kinaway Chamber of Commerce Victoria and Supply Nation. We hold an Ethical Clothing Australia accreditation and we are currently undergoing a registration process with Social Traders.

HTTPS://CLOTHINGTHEGAP.COM.AU/

Sometimes it can be confusing navigating the space between allyship and appropriation and we get this question all the time at Clothing The Gap. To help navigate this conversation and to stop us repeating ourselves we have made it easier for our supporters and created some Ally Friendly and Mob Only symbols to guide your purchases. These symbols are located in all product descriptions on our website.

Now you've

seen them... go

shopping!

Go support these beautiful Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses and also businesses that donate proceeds to communities.

Check out their websites for more information and to go shopping!

page 79 | Indigenous 2020

The Koorie Heritage Trust at Federation Square takes Koorie peoples, cultures and communities from the literal and figurative fringes of Melbourne to a place that is a central meeting and gathering place for all Victorians. Our location at Federation Square is a recognition of our shared history and the importance of Koorie peoples as part of a broader 21st century community.

Our motto groups two Koorie languages (Gundijtmara and Yorta Yorta) and means “Give me your hand my friend�.

Interview with Gail Harradine On October 19 2020 Hyde's Editor in Chief Hannah met with Gail Harradine the Curatorial Manager at Koorie Heritage Trust.

Learn more from Gail's words about the importance of Indigenous history and culture.

What is Koorie Heritage Trust and what do they do?

"I't s non for profit Aboriginal owned organisation and how it got set up relates to in the early days a lot. It relates to the collecting of Aboriginal remains and places, like the universities, scientifically examining these remains. People like Uncle Jim Burg, who was around in those days, they did end up reburying remains to main gardens, sort of fully providence back to communities and there was a lot of work done there as well as cultural heritage material that was collected by curio-collectors. There was no place collecting a lot of the South Eastern Aboriginal material, so the Koorie Heritage Trust was formed in about 1985 by Uncle Jim Burg along with Ron Merkle and Ron Caston as well as some pretty influential people, who would help get together the collections.

The material includes really quite unique pieces, a whole variety of material from weaved baskets to artefacts and shields. Theres a variety of material from around Victoria itself and a lot of people came and come just to check out the material from their area and to learn more about design techniques that are totally different to the dot - you know a lot o people hear about dot art and the lovely painting in Northern Territory - we had stuff like Lady Lions Lydia style. That's how valuable it is to people really, just the whole connection and then the wider educational side and reconciliation side of the trust is to bring some kind of understanding to the wider side of the community, to the history of Aboriginal people.

What is your position at Koorie Heritage Trust and what do you do?

I'm a part of the collections and public programs and Curatorial area; so I manage that section. We have public programs that do a lot of the social media which is quite important nowadays, especially connecting the young ones [through] instagram and all the new platforms that are out there. Along with

workshops - some of those workshops are just for Aboriginal people or you know, we have in the build up to the career art show kids in the section. Our programs are all about showcasing people and even the Black Design Project we're really looking forward to that because it will involve Indigenous practitioners who have really built up their practice, and people who have so much to learn about how they've got to where they are and about they do and it's a really special program.

What is the Black Design Project?

The Ian Potter foundation is about connecting into the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community residing in Victoria, same as the Koorie Art Show and opening it ip to people to produce [and] to think about ideas for their own design work and building upon practice at the moment. It will be silversmithing and jewellery making. In future years there will be silk textiles work and things like that. There will a variety of elders involved and can sort of build on their design practice to intensive business smarts.

Do you get a lot of people who are of non Indigenous descent interested in Koorie Heritage Trust?

We do because in our organisation we have different sections; we have an education section, the Koorie family history service, which actually is extremely valuable in terms of looking a bit more into family history. With the education section they do a lot of the cultural competency workshops, in which they've transferred online with zoom to sort of connect with people that way, [and] that's been pretty popular, that gets a lot of focus from companies and different organisations, government agencies as well as people have found that really good, as well as understanding history and the trans-generational trauma and how people were treated and put on missions.

Does Koorie Heritage Trust offer opportunities and support to young people and students in the Indigenous community?

We go out of our way, students often come in and ask questions about even the flag or anything especially tropical things hat come up and I think that's sort of important to spend time with them and talk about those sort of things. It's amazing the sort of conversations you have have and they really appreciate it because it'll be some special time that they've put together themselves, and questions as well. Wt also shows them around the exhibition space as well as whatever exhibition is on at the time, you know we've had archaeology students as well. We also on level three have tour guides and show them a bit more history like things around the canoe table, the glass cabinets that have material in it which they draw upon for their talks and also walking tours are quite popular too.

What do the walking tours entail?

They pick certain sights along the river and talk about certain things that relate especially the history because there used to be a waterfall on the Yarra ad all that lovely history there, the Kulin Nations and just even leading into the MCG and the sporting history which a lot of people don't even know about the 1868 Aboriginal cricketers. They were from the Wimya and Gunditjmara country and Western districts and the amazing stories of them going to be in England and playing cricket back in those days and they did wonderful displays with boomerang throwing and all that sort of thing in between playing cricket. We're hoping to do an augmented reality program around all that so you look at the river, you can look at eel trap from our collection and it sort of comes up as image if you show your phone at a certain spot.

What is the Koorie Heritage Trust Voices?

So as we couldn't do as much with the oral history program that we have [in the past] with all the COVID19 and everything, especially with our elders, we've got to make sure that we don't be around them too much because we don't want to spread anything and I think it'll be a bit of an anxious time for a while.

The idea was that we could sort of contact people and just see if they were interested in talking about their time and how they were going in COVID19 and it was our way to sort of keep connected I suppose. We started to talk to other people and they would tell us

about someone else. It's a whole mix of different ways of doing it and we have some writers involved.

Sometimes people just wanted to pass on some information. e got together with editors and writers to produce stories and they all came together on our website so there's an international voice a bit as well, [as] we had some mouri writers as well and everyone has such a different style and it just came across in their stories of just the ways in which they are coping.

It's also a great way to help people along too.There's some lovely stories from all different areas of Victoria too and I love the elder stories because just learning from them has been really important.

Does Koorie Heritage Trust easily engage young university students?

We have different people come in and ask to look at different material, we just kind of look at what we ca manage with our capacity and yeah we fully understand that people have got interest in that, whether its family history or if it's academic research that they want to do. It's just a matter of contacting us and enquiring and we just sort of try and contact people and find out about what they need and how we can work in with it.

Do you offer educational programs?

I think Hyatt is the manager of the education section, they have gone out to schools but I think it was more that we wanted to showcase what we ha in the centre that was sort of a priority because we do have so much on its way that can be drawn upon so we were encouraging people to come in quite a bit. It makes it easier in one way because you've got everything there but we do want to have a relationship with educational institutions to help out any way we can.

Do you have any resources for people who are not of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent to better educate themselves?

We've got publications from the past that we sort of draw a lot upon which has substantial, beautiful colour pictures of some of our items in the collection as well as other collections which has really good information in there. There's a few [publications] that we draw upon when we're in there and we encourage people to look at them there's different things on sale in the shop too like this catalogue from the Lisa Blair show, it's really interesting, we have her collection, her graphic collection - she was my Aboriginal liaison

officer at Melbourne Uni. I miss her being around and the wonderful collection of photographs of the NAIDOC rallies. Its very special to have collections like that and yeah you know we sometimes have catalogues left over from previous shows that are still really interesting too and having those publications that do showcase some of the really important art and information to show people.

Is there anything in particular that is happening during NAIDOC week for Koorie Heritage Trust?

I think there's a couple of things in the pipeline, even possibly a few of the workshops opened up too to the broader community. There's talk at the moment of a couple of things that have just come in that we've been asked to be part of. This is a busy time leading up to our biggest show the Koorie Art Show and the Christmas event are likely to be online but it should be exciting, we sort of work with tech people and its just really interesting on how you can work on different things online. Thats our big project at the moment you know, how do we transfer these quite important events? The Koorie Art Show is giving out about 32 thousand dollars worth of awards, then theres the kids and youth part of it as well which is really important for the families, so we really want to make a good show of it. We've got all these great ideas so it should be really exciting this year and we were speaking with the elders and making sure that they've got access to the zoom.

Is is open to anyone?

It's for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders that reside in Victoria so were sort of concentrating on that, so its the biggest show in Victoria and we have some of our sponsors like Creative Vic, Big Energy, Metro Tunnel, City of Melbourne come on board so thats pretty good sponsorship too and we ask 3 judges to judge and its a blind judging process. People who haven't picked up a paintbrush before you know, mid-career established artists are welcomed all the time, we always have a mix which is just lovely for the end of the year and I do know that the launch is great to see everyone, and hopefully on zoom, that beautiful feeling will be there too. Who knows who's going to win, it's exciting to be a part of and I know the judges put their heart and soul into it and it's a big responsibility. It's just a big picture when it happens just being able to put everything together and present it to all those that join us.

Do you offer volunteering opportunities?

We do and it just depends on our capacity as well because its so important to look after volunteers on the same level as you know people employed in the organisation. We hope to especially next year really have people come in because the requests do come in and it's just that covid has put a spanner in the works.

We're pretty keen on getting to that stage for new staff and doing really well with the collections especially because it means so much to people to learn the history and culture.

Do you have any advice that may benefit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at Victoria University?

I guess it's just sticking to it. I do know I didn't pass my HSC, I did everything but I froze in the exam and then I didn't have that much confidence and went to uni later on and now I have completed 8 years study - post grad in territorial studies at Melbourne university and I was one of the first Aboriginal students to get through there and that department, and I would not have been in there because it was such a lot of money to be in there but my Aboriginal liaison officer really pushed for me to get in there with the head of the department. I think its worthwhile talking to people in there, through the uni processes and making sure you achieve what you wanna achieve because sometimes you have that lucky break, and all of a sudden the door can be opened a bit more, so I think the pathways are important especially in career education. I think just getting through that way of translating from an indigenous sense, to what the uni wants can take a while to work out, and being able to complete your work in a way that you feel satisfied and that you feel connected to the culture. It's not easy but you know if you hang in there you get there in the end I think you know might not be happy with one assignment but if you keep going you'll get that paper in the end.

page 83 | Indigenous 2020

page 85 | Indigenous 2020

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

Artists

Jenna Lee Jenna is a mixed race Larrakia, Wardaman and Karajarri woman whose contemporary art practice explores the acts of identity/identification, label/labelling and the relationships formed between language, label and object.

Being a Queer, Mixed Race, Asian (Japanese, Chinese and Filipino), Aboriginal Woman, Jenna’s practice is strongly influenced by her overlapping identities, childhood memory as well as maternal teachings of subject and process.

As an interdisciplinary artist, her work incorporates painting, printmaking, found object and sculpture with a reoccurring use of paper, the book, language and text. Recent work explores the transformation of the printed word through the ritualistic acts of destruction and reconstruction, seeking to translate the page into a new tangible language. New experimental works created by Lee further explore these themes through animation and moving image.

Grace Lillian Lee Grace Lillian Lee is a multicultural Australian artist known for drawing inspiration from her indigenous heritage.

Through collaborations with Australian indigenous communities and their art centers she has created a platform for cultural expression and celebration by way of fashion performances. These are instrumental in engaging young people from remote communities and providing an opportunity for them to represent and be proud of their culture and country through fashion and performance.

Working with these members of community inspired Grace to further her work by travelling to indigenous communities to encourage creative expression and mentor young people as well as collaborate with artists and art centers. Her aim is to guide members towards developing their art into textiles and adornment in a contemporary way while orchestrating the sharing of artistic culture between generations. This is instrumental in the preservation and celebrations of traditional techniques and creatives.

Among these communities is Mornington Island. As a result of an ongoing collaboration with Grace, the art center has been able to start a small fashion business titled MiArt Designs, known for its hand-painted one of a kind bags.

Jenna Lee Quandamooka woman Elisa Jane Carmichael is a multidisciplinary artist who honours her salt-water heritage by incorporating materials collected from Country, embracing traditional techniques, and expressing contemporary adaptations through painting, weaving, and textiles. She comes from a family of artists and curators, and works closely with her female kin to revive, nurture and preserve cultural knowledge and practice. Elisa is a descendant of the Ngugi people, one of three clans who are the traditional custodians of Quandamooka, also known as Yoolooburrabee—people of the sand and sea. Quandamooka Country comprises the waters and lands of and around Moreton Bay, south-east Queensland, Australia.

Rachael Sarra Rachael Sarra is an artist and designer whose work is an extension of her being and experiences. As a contemporary Aboriginal artist from Goreng Goreng Country, Rachael uses art as a powerful tool in storytelling to educate and share Aboriginal culture and it’s evolution. Rachaels work often challenges and explores the themes of societies perception of what Aboriginal art and identity is..

Aretha Brown Aretha Brown is an Indigenous Australian youth activist, visual artist, painter and the former Prime Minister of the National Indigenous Youth Parliament. Aretha made headlines following her speeches at both the 2017 and 2018 Invasion Day Protests in Melbourne, calling for the national “holiday” to be changed.

Charlotte Allingham Charlotte Allingham is a 27 Year Old Wiradjuri, Ngiyampaa woman from central west NSW, with family ties to Condobolin and Ivanhoe areas. Focusing on community love and body positivity, as well as Blak strength, self determination and truth. She tries to Challenge the perception of her people through her own creative expression, in a range of mediums..

Miimi and Jiinda Miiimi & Jiinda is an Australian Art business, founded by Aboriginal mother and daughter, Lauren Jarrett and Melissa Greenwood.Miimi & Jiinda's aim is to create beautiful, unique artworks that connect with the world--pieces that reflect their own personal stories and unique journeys as Indigenous women. Their creations endeavour to uplift and inspire our senses, spark conversations, and bring light to important issues. As proud Gumbaynggirr custodians, Lauren and Melissa love to share their interpretations of country, which spring from their own personal cultural identities as Aboriginal women.

Nungala Creative Nungala Creative is a 100% Aboriginal owned and operated creative communications agency. Established for community, we prioritise contemporary design, originality and collaboration. Established by proud Warumungu / Wombaya woman Jessica Johnson, Nungala Creative produces innovative content with a distinct Aboriginal voice.

The brand has garnered an extensive network of co-creators and clientele through proven excellence across platforms – print, product, animation, illustration, social, broadcast and brand development.The Nungala Creative product range reflects our ongoing commitment to the visibility, strength and empowerment of our people.

Hopevale Art and Cultural Centre The Hopevale Arts and Cultural Centre was opened in 2009 as an open and accessible space for all Hopevale community members to pursue their interest in art, and to maintain the stories and traditions of the local Guugu-Ymithirr culture.The Centre is often used for community events, meetings and private functions. It is open to the public Monday-Thursday, and throughout peak tourism seasons we run a range of workshops and public talks from the garden of the centre. We sell a range of locally made arts and crafts through the attached Nganthanun Bmawi-Bayan Gallery.The Hopevale Arts and Cultural Centre is a not-for-profit Indigenous corporation managed by a small team of administrative staff and a Board of Directors.

Katie Wularni West Katie West belongs to the Yindjibarndi people of the Pilbara tablelands in Western Australia. The process of naturally dyeing fabric underpins her practice – the rhythm of walking, gathering, bundling, boiling up water and infusing materials with plant matter. Katie creates objects, installations and happenings that invite calm, reflection and attention to the ecologies we live within and participate, following the understanding that the health and wellbeing the environment is a reflection of the health and wellbeing of people.

page 93 | Indigenous 2020

Love Reading?

Check these books out

The Swan Book - Alexis Wright

Carpentaria - Alexis Wright

That Dead Man Dance - Kim Scott

The Swan Book is set in the future, with Aboriginals still living under the Intervention in the north, in an environment fundamentally altered by climate change. It follows the life of a mute young woman called Oblivia, the victim of gang-rape by petrol-sniffing youths, from the displaced community where she lives in a hulk, in a swamp filled with rusting boats, and thousands of black swans, to her marriage to Warren Finch, the first Aboriginal president of Australia, and her elevation to the position of First Lady, confined to a tower in a flooded and lawless southern city. The Swan Book has all the qualities which made Wright’s previous novel, Carpentaria, a prizewinning best-seller. It offers an intimate awareness of the realities facing Aboriginal people; the energy and humour in her writing finds hope in the bleakest situations; and the remarkable combination of storytelling elements, drawn from myth and legend and fairy tale, has Oblivia Ethylene in the company of amazing characters like Aunty Bella Donna of the Champions, the Harbour Master, Big Red and the Mechanic, a talking monkey called Rigoletto, three genies with doctorates, and throughout, the guiding presence of swans.

In the sparsely populated northern Queensland town of Desperance, loyalties run deep and battle lines have been drawn between the powerful Phantom family, leaders of the Westend Pricklebush people, and Joseph Midnight's renegade Eastend mob, and their disputes with the white officials of neighboring towns.

Steeped in myth and magical realism, Wright's hypnotic storytelling exposes the heartbreaking realities of Aboriginal life.

Big-hearted, moving and richly rewarding, That Deadman Dance is set in the first decades of the 19th century in the area around what is now Albany, Western Australia. In playful, musical prose, the book explores the early contact between the Aboriginal Noongar people and the first European settlers.The novel's hero is a young Noongar man named Bobby Wabalanginy. Clever, resourceful and eager to please, Bobby befriends the new arrivals, joining them hunting whales, tilling the land, exploring the hinterland and establishing the fledgling colony. He is even welcomed into a prosperous local white family where he falls for the daughter, Christine, a beautiful young woman who sees no harm in a liaison with a native. But slowly – by design and by accident – things begin to change. Not everyone is happy with how the colony is developing. Stock mysteriously start to disappear; crops are destroyed; there are "accidents" and injuries on both sides. As the Europeans impose ever stricter rules and regulations in order to keep the peace, Bobby's Elders decide they must respond in kind. A friend to everyone, Bobby is forced to take sides: he must choose between the old world and the new, his ancestors and his new friends. Inexorably, he is drawn into a series of events that will forever change not just the colony but the future of Australia.

By turns operatic and everyday, surreal and sensational, the novel teems with extraordinary, larger-than-life characters.

From the outcast savior Elias Smith, religious zealot Mossie Fishman, and murderous mayor Bruiser to activist Will Phantom and Normal Phantom, ruler of the family, these unforgettable characters transcend their circumstances and challenge assumptions about the downtrodden "other." Trapped between politics and principle, past and present, the indigenous tribes fight to protect their natural resources, sacred sites, and above all, their people.

Taboo - Kim Scott

Throat - Ellen van Neerven

The White Girl - Tony Birch

Taboo takes place in the present day, in the rural South-West of Western Australia, and tells the story of a group of Noongar people who revisit, for the first time in many decades, a taboo place: the site of a massacre that followed the assassination, by these Noongar's descendants, of a white man who had stolen a black woman. They come at the invitation of Dan Horton, the elderly owner of the farm on which the massacres unfolded. He hopes that by hosting the group he will satisfy his wife's dying wishes and cleanse some moral stain from the ground on which he and his family have lived for generations.But the sins of the past will not be so easily expunged.We walk with the ragtag group through this taboo country and note in them glimmers of re-connection with language, lore, country. We learn alongside them how countless generations of Noongar may have lived in ideal rapport with the land.

This is a novel of survival and renewal, as much as destruction; and, ultimately, of hope as much as despair.

Not in Aus, mate Bad things don't happen here Our beaches are open They are not places where bloodied mattresses burn

'Odette, be sensible. Sissy cannot leave this town.' Shea threw his hands in the air.'

Listen to me, please, Odette. It's not as if your Sissy is a white girl.' Odette Brown has lived her whole life on the fringes of a small country town. Raising her granddaughter Sissy on her own, Odette has managed to stay under the radar of the welfare authorities who are removing Aboriginal children from their communities. When the menacing Sergeant Lowe arrives in town, determined to fully enforce the law, any freedom that Odette and Sissy enjoy comes under grave threat. Odette must make an impossible choice to protect her family. In The White Girl, Tony Birch has created memorable characters whose capacity for love and courage are a timely reminder of the endurance of the human spirit.

Throatis the explosive second poetry collection from awardwinning Mununjali Yugambeh writer Ellen van Neerven. Exploring love, language and land, van Neerven flexes their distinctive muscles and shines a light on Australia's unreconciled past and precarious present with humour and heart. Van Neerven is unsparing in the interrogation of colonial impulse, and fiercely loyal to telling the stories that make us who we are.

Heat and Light - Ellen van Neerven

Common People - Tony Birch

In this award-winning work of fiction, Ellen van Neerven takes her readers on a journey that is mythical, mystical and still achingly real.

From the award-winning author of Ghost River. In this unforgettable new collection, Tony Birch introduces a cast of characters from all walks of life. These remarkable and surprising stories capture common people caught up in the everyday business of living and the struggle to survive. From two single mothers on the most unlikely night shift to a homeless man unexpectedly faced with the miracle of a new life, Birch's stories are set in gritty urban refuges and battling regional communities. His deftly drawn characters find unexpected signs of hope in a world where beauty can be found on every street corner - a message on a T-shirt, a friend in a stray dog or a star in the night sky. Common People shines a light on human nature and how the ordinary kindness of strangers can have extraordinary results. With characteristic insight and restraint, Tony Birch reinforces his reputation as a master storyteller.

Over three parts, she takes traditional storytelling and gives it a unique, contemporary twist. In ‘Heat’, we meet several generations of the Kresinger family and the legacy left by the mysterious Pearl.

In ‘Water’, a futuristic world is imagined and the fate of a people threatened. In ‘Light’, familial ties are challenged and characters are caught between a desire for freedom and a sense of belonging.Heat and Light presents an intriguing collection while heralding the arrival of an exciting new talent in Australian writing.

Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms - Anita Heiss Over 1000 Japanese soldiers break out of the No.12 Prisoner of War compound on the fringes of Cowra. In the carnage, hundreds are killed, many are recaptured, and some take their own lives rather than suffer the humiliation of ongoing defeat.

But one soldier, Hiroshi, manages to escape.At nearby Erambie Station, an Aboriginal mission, Banjo Williams, father of five and proud man of his community, discovers Hiroshi, distraught and on the run. Unlike most of the townsfolk who dislike and distrust the Japanese, the people of Erambie choose compassion and offer Hiroshi refuge. Mary, Banjo’s daughter, is intrigued by the softly spoken stranger, and charged with his care.

For the community, life at Erambie is one of restriction and exclusion – living under Acts of Protection and Assimilation, and always under the ruthless eye of the mission Manager. On top of wartime hardships, families live without basic rights.

Love blossoms between Mary and Hiroshi, and they each dream of a future together.

But how long can Hiroshi be hidden safely and their bond kept a secret?

Fire Front: First Nations Poetry edited by Alison Whittaker This important anthology, curated by Gomeroi poet and academic Alison Whittaker, showcases Australia's most-respected First Nations poets alongside some of the rising stars.

Featured poets include Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Ruby Langford Ginibi, Ellen van Neerven, Tony Birch, Claire G. Coleman, Evelyn Araluen, Jack Davis, Kevin Gilbert, Lionel Fogarty, Sam Wagan Watson, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Archie Roach and Alexis Wright.

Divided into five thematic sections, each one is introduced by an essay from a leading Aboriginal writer and thinker Bruce Pascoe, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Chelsea Bond, Evelyn Araluen and Steven Oliver - who reflects on the power of First Nations poetry with their own original contribution. This incredible book is a testament to the renaissance of First Nations poetry happening in Australia right now.

Blakwork - Alison Whittaker

Too Much Lip - Melissa Lucashenko

A stunning mix of memoir, reportage, fiction, satire, and critique composed by a powerful new voice in poetry. Alison Whittaker’s Blakwork is an original and unapologetic collection from which two things emerge; an incomprehensible loss, and the poet’s fearless examination of the present.Whittaker is unsparing in the interrogation of familiar ideas – identifying and dissolving them with idiosyncratic imagery, layering them to form new connections, and reinterpreting what we know.

A dark and funny new novel from the multiaward-winning author of Mullumbimby.Too much lip, her old problem from way back.

And the older she got, the harder it seemed to get to swallow her opinions. The avalanche of bullshit in the world would drown her if she let it; the least she could do was raise her voice in anger.Wisecracking Kerry Salter has spent a lifetime avoiding two things – her hometown and prison. But now her Pop is dying and she’s an inch away from the lockup, so she heads south on a stolen Harley.

Kerry plans to spend twenty-four hours, tops, over the border. She quickly discovers, though, that Bundjalung country has a funny way of grabbing on to people.

Old family wounds open as the Salters fight to stop the development of their beloved river. And the unexpected arrival on the scene of a good-looking dugai fella intent on loving her up only adds more trouble – but then trouble is Kerry’s middle name.

Gritty and darkly hilarious, Too Much Lip offers redemption and forgiveness where none seems possible.

Swallow the Air - Tara June Winch

Terra Nullius - Claire G. Coleman

After the Carnage - Tara June Winch

When May's mother dies suddenly, she and her brother Billy are taken in by Aunty.

However, their loss leaves them both searching for their place in a world that doesn't seem to want them. While Billy takes his own destructive path, May sets off to find her father and her Aboriginal identity. Her journey leads her from the Australian east coast to the far north, but it is the people she meets, not the destinations, that teach her what it is to belong. In this startling debut, Tara June Winch uses a fresh voice and unforgettable imagery to share her vision of growing up on society's fringes.

In the near future Australia is about to experience colonisation once more. What have we learned from our past? A daring debut novel from the winner of the 2016 black&write! writing fellowship.

A single mother resorts to extreme measures to protect her young son. A Nigerian student undertakes a United Nations internship in the hope of a better future.

Jacky was running. There was no thought in his head, only an intense drive to run. There was no sense he was getting anywhere, no plan, no destination, no future. All he had was a sense of what was behind, what he was running from.

Jacky was running.

A recently divorced man starts a running group with members of an online forum for recovering addicts. Ranging from New York to Istanbul, from Pakistan to Australia, these unforgettable stories chart the distances in their characters' lives u whether they have grown apart from the ones they love, been displaced from their homeland, or are struggling to reconcile their dreams with reality.

Swallow the Air is the story of living in a torn world and finding the thread to help sew it back together.

The Natives of the Colony are restless. The Settlers are eager to have a nation of peace, and to bring the savages into line. Families are torn apart, reeducation is enforced. This rich land will provide for all.

This is not Australia as we know it. This is not the Australia of our history. This Terra Nullius is something new, but all too familiar. An incredible debut from a striking new Australian Aboriginal voice.

A collection of prodigious depth and variety, After the Carnage marks the remarkable evolution of one of our finest young writers.

RESPECT AND RESPONSIBILITY Online Training Working or studying from home? Catch up on new online training from Respect and Responsibility! Learn about practical ways to fight gender-based violence and build your leadership skills. The training was co-designed with VU students, is practical and is based on real life examples.

Consent and Respectful Relationships A respectful relationship is everyone’s right. This training looks at respectful relationships and consent through interactive scenarios and real-life examples.

Bystander Awareness and Action Everyone should have a safe place to learn. This training gives you practical strategies for challenging everyday sexism. It is important that we all take action to show that sexism and harassment have no place at our university.

Each module takes about 20–30 minutes. Go to bit.ly/VU-RESPECT to access these modules within Collaborate. bit.ly/VU-RESPECT vu.edu.au/respect-responsibility

page 102 | Indigenous 2020

Films & Documentaries

he Aboriginal story has been buried deep beneath the 247-year-old accepted Australian narrative. In OCCUPATION: NATIVE, Aboriginal filmmaker Trisha Morton-Thomas, bites back at Australian history.

Captain James Cook, a hero to most Australians but a thief to Aboriginal people, stole the continent with a British flag. Of course, the Aboriginal people had no idea what Cook was up to.

They continued on with their lives, blissfully unaware that their 80,000 year kinship with their lands was about to be tested beyond their worst nightmares.

Aboriginal people fought back against white domination, but numbers and guns were against them. In a long, ugly war, brave men, women and children died in defense of their country, yet the European narrative buried their heroic stand and failed to mention their names and deeds.

But the voices of Black Australia would not be quieted. Their spirit and resilience became a contemporary political issue, and the concept of reconciliation became an ideological mantra. Achieving that goal became a political football for decades, and is still getting a good kick around the park today.

Ten-year-old Dujuan is a child-healer, a good hunter and speaks three languages. As he shares his wisdom of history and the complex world around him we see his spark and intelligence. Yet Dujuan is ‘failing’ in school and facing increasing scrutiny from welfare and the police. As he travels perilously close to incarceration, his family fight to give him a strong Arrernte education alongside his western education lest he becomes another statistic. We walk with him as he grapples with these pressures, shares his truths and somewhere in-between finds space to dream, imagine and hope for his future self.

The Australian Dream tells the story of Goodes' life, from before he became a professional footballer through to his later career as an activist for Indigenous rights in Australia. It includes archival footage of as well as recent interviews with a range of Australians, including Indigenous and non-Indigenous people – politicians, sportspeople, politicians, media commentators and Grant himself.

Australia is home to the world’s oldest continuous culture. A culture whose sacred sites date back further than any of the world’s most famous monuments.

Stonehenge, the Pyramids and the Great Wall of China are all young compared to the 40,000 year-old rock art sites like those that can be found in Western Australia's Pilbara region on the Burrup Peninsula (or Murujuga). These create a dramatic and ancient landscape so sacred that some parts shouldn't be looked upon by anyone apart from their Traditional Owners.

Sadly, encroaching industrialisation and development threaten such sites all over the region, but the people of the Pilbara - forever connected to country, forever responsible for their land – are banding together and fighting back.

Powerful and poignant, Connection to Country explores the relationship that exists between Indigenous people and their land and charts their battle to get their unique cultural heritage recognised, conserved and celebrated.

The Southern Cross is the most famous constellation in the southern hemisphere.

Ever since colonisation it’s been claimed, appropriated and hotly-contested for ownership by a radical range of Australian groups. But for Aboriginal people the meaning of this heavenly body is deeply spiritual. And just about completely unknown. For a start, the Southern Cross isn’t even a cross - it’s a totem that’s deeply woven into the spiritual and practical lives of Aboriginal people.

One of Australia’s leading film-makers, Warwick Thornton, tackles this fiery subject headon in this bold, poetic essay-film. We Don’t Need a Map asks questions about where the Southern Cross sits in the Australian psyche.

Imbued with Warwick’s cavalier spirit, this is a fun and thought-provoking ride through Australia’s cultural and political landscape.

The film begins with Pilger's journey to Utopia to observe the changes that have occurred in Aboriginal Australia between 1985, when he featured the poverty in the documentary The Secret Country and the time of filming, 2013. After almost three decades, Pilger discovers that Aboriginal families are still living in extremely overcrowded and poorly sanitized asbestos shacks, and are plagued by easily curable diseases. The Secretary General of Amnesty International, Salil Shetty, who happens to be in Utopia at the same time as Pilger, ponders why one of the world's richest countries cannot solve the problem of Aboriginal poverty and states that the inequity and injustice could be fixed if the will to do so existed. The film goes on to explore some of the issues currently afflicting Australia such as; failed health policies, Aboriginal deaths in police custody, mining companies failing to share the wealth they have acquired with the first Australians and the disputed allegations made by the media and government that there were pedophile rings, petrol warlords and sex slaves in Aboriginal communities and the resulting 2007 intervention. The film also features a visit to Rottnest Island, Western Australia, where an area that was used as a prison for Aboriginal people until 1931, has now been converted into a luxury hotel where tourists are not even informed of the island's brutal history.

Utopia highlights that Aboriginal Australians in Australia are currently imprisoned at 10 times the rate that South Africa imprisoned black people under apartheid, rates of rheumatic heart disease and trachoma among Aboriginal Australians are some of the highest in the world and suicide rates are increasing, especially among youths. Pilger informs viewers that unlike the US, Canada and New Zealand, no treaty was ever negotiated between the indigenous peoples of Australia and the colonists and that the abandonment of the mining tax in 2010 lost an estimated $60 billion in revenue, which he argues was more than enough to fund land rights and to end all Aboriginal poverty.

Rake-thin Samson, aged 15, wakes in his bleak shanty room and immediately starts sniffing dregs of petrol from a battered tin. Across the dusty track, 16-year-old Delilah wakes to care for her elderly Nana (Gibson).

She administers morning pills, then wheels the old lady to pray in the shanty church, then past the pay-phone that rings but is never answered, to the doctor’s mobile surgery for more pills. Shadowed by the bored, persistent Samson, the two spend the rest of their day dot-painting a large canvas, for which they are promised A$250 when completed.

The relationship between the two youngsters is unspoken, initially revealed only via the spice of Nana’s cackle. There can be few - if any - movie love stories where the two principals converse so little, look each other in the eye so seldom. Nana dies suddenly and Delilah is unfairly beaten by local women for not taking enough care of her grandmother. Samson steals the community’s only vehicle and the two head for the nearest big centre, Alice Springs.

Squatting for weeks under a noisy road bridge, they meet Gonzo (Scott Thornton, the director’s brother), a voluble alcoholic tramp who shares tins of noodles with them. Utterly without money or prospects, Delilah is astonished to discover one of Nana’s paintings with a $22,000 price tag in the window of a trendy art gallery.

Stealing paints and canvas, she makes her own dot-painting which she unsuccessfully attempts to sell to coffee-drinking locals. The gallery owner won’t even look up from his desk.

Things go from bad to worse. Delilah is abducted by local white youths, Samson’s petrol-sniffing intensifies, and something nasty occurs which produces gasps of shock. This is uncompromising story-telling, but Thornton thankfully manages a comparatively upbeat conclusion, finding youthful hope amid the ruins of a once-proud culture.

The film has little dialogue, shot most in the Warlpiri language with subtitles. Gonzo speaks, rants and sings in English - his liveliness and wild optimism comes at just the right moment - and his rendition of the Tom Waits classic Jesus Gonna Be Here is most moving.

The film tells the true story of three Aboriginal girls (as recorded in Doris Pilkington’s Follow the Rabbit-proof Fence) – Molly Craig, her sister Daisy, and her cousin Gracie (played by Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury and Laura Monaghan in the film) – who are taken from their family in 1931 and sent to Moore River Native Settlement. Their abduction is justified by “Chief Protector of Aborigines” A.O. Neville (Kenneth Branagh) as a solution to “the problem of half-caste” – children with Aboriginal and white heritage. The girls escape from Moore River and make the arduous – and long, stretching over nine weeks – journey home to Jigalong and their families, all along following the titular rabbit-proof fence.

Margaret Pomeranz, while describing Rabbit-Proof Fence as a “very good film”, noted that it “look[ed] at the children, rather than ever getting to know them.” Matthew Dillon’s Metro review makes a similar observation, noting that “we’re a little detached from the main characters”. This approach is somewhat explained by the film’s political agenda. As Larissa Behrendt notes (in her book on the film), “this is the film that took the story of the stolen generations to the world.” Australia had only abandoned its relocation program some three decades earlier, and despite the release of the Bringing them home report, the government at the time – led by John Howard – evinced no interest in apologising to Australia’s indigenous population.

Rabbit-Proof Fence’s importance, then, is as much political as artistic. The three girls are representatives of the real women they play, but they also symbolise the thousands upon thousands of children cruelly removed from their homes.

Release in a time when the Stolen Generations were a contentious issue, the film proved controversial; conservative commentators accused it of misrepresenting the facts. Andrew Bolt sneered at what he regarded as “untruths and exaggerations” and “Aboriginal leaders who falsely claim they were “stolen””. Des Moore and Peter Howson – who was Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in the early 1970s – argued that the film’s depiction of the girls’ “forcible removal” was fictitious and that “Neville acted responsibly.” Such naysayers found themselves on the wrong side of history in wake of Kevin Rudd’s 2008 apology. Rabbit-Proof Fence – whose fictionalised elements are all drawn from the accounts of other members of the stolen generations – undeniably played a role in shifting the national conversation around the stolen generations.

Living in a remote Aboriginal community in the northern part of Australia, Charlie (David Gulpilil) is a warrior past his prime. As the government increases its stronghold over the community’s traditional way of life, Charlie becomes lost between two cultures. His new modern life offers him a way to survive but, ultimately, it is one he has no power over. Finally fed up when his gun, his newly crafted spear and his best friend’s jeep are confiscated, Charlie heads into the wild on his own, to live the old way. However, Charlie hadn’t reckoned on where he might end up, nor on how much life has changed since the old ways.

Sweet Country is set in 1929 in the outback of the Northern Territory. Sam is an Aboriginal middle-aged stockman who works for a kind preacher, Fred Smith.

Harry Marsh, returning from the Western Front, is appointed as the new station operator, and Sam is sent out with his wife and daughter to help renovate the outpost.

But Harry turns out to be an ill-tempered and bitter man, and his relationship with Sam quickly escalates. It culminates in a violent shootout, where Sam kills Harry in an attempt to save his own life.

As a result, Sam becomes a wanted criminal for the murder of a white man, and is forced to flee with his pregnant wife into the deadly outback. A hunting party led by Sergeant Fletcher is formed to track him down, but Sam eludes them as he is a clever man and an expert bushman.

Eventually for the health of his pregnant wife, Sam gives himself up. A trial is held in town and when the truth comes out in the courtroom about Sam's actions, he is acquitted. Justice has been served. Sam sets off on his journey home, but soon after leaving town, a shot rings out and Justice is crushed‌ Sweet Country is the Northern Territory in the frontier era of the 1920s and the tale of brutality and injustice in an indifferent country.

page 115 | Indigenous 2020

v u s t u d e n t u n i o n . c o m / b a b h

The Be a Better Human Campaign was launched in 2019 by VUSU after the Australian Human Rights Commission conducted a survey on university students in 2017 and released the National Report on Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment at Australian Universities.

This initiative was created with a group of Flinders students from the ground up, to reflect campus culture. We don’t just want it to be about what we shouldn’t do; we want it to be about selfimprovement for everyone. And when we say ‘everyone’, we really do mean everyone. We’re encouraging everyone who is part of our campus community to take a moment and consider how we can ‘better’ our behaviour.

“Victoria University has a zero tolerance approach to violence in any form, including sexual and genderbased violence. Gender-based violence is a serious social issue driven by gender inequality and enabled by sexist attitudes and behaviours. We work to build a culture of safety and respect, where students and staff are empowered to become change agents to help stop gender-based violence at the University and in the wider community” (VU Respect & Responsibility).

In-line with the VU Respect and Responsibility Department & VUSU Bystander Awareness Training, and Consent and Respectful Relationships Module,

VUSU believes that bringing the BaBH campaign to VU further develops education for students of the west to be a better human.“It is important that we all show that sexism and harassment have no place at our university. Everyone should be treated fairly and have a safe and respectful place to learn.” (VU Respect & Responsibility email).

Launching this campaign last year, and working with Respect & Responsibility was a highlight of my time in VUSU. Together, we can break down stigmas and ensure a safe and equitable education and life for all.

- Cat Abourizk (VUSU President 2019) We believe that this campaign is not centered at spreading a name or a department. It’s about everyone doing better, and their bit to change the culture around sexual assault and harassment. We have widely seen our Consent, Empathy, Respect tote bags and jumpers on campus, at the shops, at concerts and many other places, supporting this movement. Look out for this campaign and more this semester in 2020. BaBH is always developing, understanding, and learning.

TOGETHER we can BE a BETTER HUMAN!

page 117 | Indigenous 2020

De-stress Activity Word find

INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIA DANCE CULTURE FIRST NATIONS TRADITION

TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER BERNARD NAMOK ABORIGINAL ELDERS NAIDOC WEEK SMOKE CEREMONY

HISTORY MOB HAROLD THOMAS WELCOME STORIES ART

#stayhome #staysafe

CONTRIBUTORS the Hyde team could not have done this edition without the help of those who contributed Professor Peter Dawkins, VU Vice-Chancellor and President Karen Jackson, Director of the Moondani Balluk Indigenous Academic Unit Ali Mckeich, Unit Coordinator AEK1203, Moondani Balluk Will Penrose, VU Student Union President Jean Mason, VU Alumni VU in the Community VU Respect and Responsibility Alex Leighton, VU Student Siyu Liu, VU Student Kathleen Beno, VU Student Caitlin, Peppermint Magazine Paulo Vieira, Senior Business Development Officer AIATSIS Gail Harradine, Curatorial Manager Koorie Heritage Trust Rudi Maxwell, Editor Koori Mail Rachael McPhail Pen Thoughts Jenny Nayes, The Sydney Morning Herald James Blackwell, The Canberra Times Mikele Syron, NITV

Victoria University

STUDENT UNION