Third Global Call to Action - Stop the forced closures of Aboriginal Communities
Sydney Stands Up Against Forced Closures of First Nations Communities
28 June - 1pm Sydney Town Hall
Great speakers included:
Jenny Munro (RATE),
King Brown (Nyinika Man WA),
Terry Mason (NTEU),
Jeff McMullen,
Ken Canning (Murri poet) + more
More details at facebook: please click here
Music line up at the Block following the march: please click here
Videos from the event:
Jeff McMullen
Stop the forced closures of Aboriginal Communities - Jeff McMullen on Vimeo.
Brad Delaney, the Chair of the Aboriginal Medical Service Western Sydney (AMSWS) community-elected board
Stop the forced closures of Aboriginal Communities - Aboriginal Medical Service in Western Sydney on Vimeo.
Media Release: Federal Government forcing closure of Aboriginal Medical Service Western Sydney (AMSWS), putting lives at risk: please click here
Petition: please click here
Save the Aboriginal Medical Service Western Sydney on Facebook: please click here
AMSWS website: http://amsws.org.au/
Independent Australia - Recognise and the Government agenda - 6 July 2015
... On 2 June 2015, the Aboriginal Medical Service of Western Sydney (AMSWS) broke the news on the ABC Lateline program that a key performance indicator of funding through the Indigenous Advancement Strategy (IAS) was demonstrable support for Recognise.
A month later comes the news that all Federal funding is ceasing and the AMSWS will be forced to close its doors to the 11,000 patients to whom it provides healthcare....
https://independentaustralia.net/australia/australia-display/recognise-and-the-government-agenda,7904
Terry Mason
Stop the forced closures of Aboriginal Communities - Terry Mason on Vimeo.
Second National Day of Action -
March to stop the forced closure of Aboriginal Communities
Sydney - 1 May 2015
Speakers include: Jenny Munro (RATE), John Pilger, Gwenda Stanley (Gomeroi Sovereign Movement), King Brown (Nyinika man from WA), Ken Canning (Murri Poet) & more!
https://www.facebook.com/events/824338330974046/
Ernie Dingo Speaks Against Forced Closure of Aboriginal Communities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=20&v=jtLQgOa80Zc
King Brown 1st May 2015 Sydney Rally Part 1
https://www.facebook.com/100009603030541/videos/o.202036896476383/1384686805194741/?type=2&theater
King Brown 1st May 2015, Sydney Rally Part 2
https://www.facebook.com/100009603030541/videos/o.202036896476383/1384677011862387/?type=2&theater
John Pilger
John Pilger at the second National Day of Action (1 May 2015) in Sydney on Vimeo.
CAAMA - John Pilger calls WA Premier “the Big Lie” at Sydney Rally - 5 May 2015
http://caama.com.au/john-pilger-calls-wa-premier-the-big-lie-at-sydney-rally
Background Info to John Pilger's speech:
National Unity Government - Colin Barnett pretends to pull back on community closures - Paternalistic policy on the hop - May 2015
Colin Barnett pulls back on Indigenous community closures
... 'The Australian' 1 May 2014
Colin Barnett has stepped away from his controversial rhetoric that up to 150 remote Aboriginal communities in Western Australia will be closed down, revealing plans for a "hub and orbit" strategy that will leave some communities bigger and better resourced, others reduced in services and the smallest ones abandoned....
http://nationalunitygovernment.org/content/colin-barnett-pretends-pulls-back-community-closures
The Guardian - Tony Abbott's Indigenous 'lifestyle choices' remark smacks of racism, says UN rapporteur - 29 April 2015
... The UN’s special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people said Australia had “regressed” in its treatment of Indigenous communities and that a remark by the prime minister, Tony Abbott, about remote communities “smacks of racism”. ...
Speaking to the Guardian in New York, she said: “This whole issue of racist kinds of pronouncements doesn’t really speak well of how governments are supposed to be complying with their human rights obligations. ...
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/apr/29/tony-abbotts-indigenous-lifestyle-choices-remark-smacks-of-racism-says-un-rapporteur?CMP=share_btn_tw
John Pilger - The secret country again wages war on its own people - 22 April 2015
Australia has again declared war on its Indigenous people, reminiscent of the brutality that brought universal condemnation on apartheid South Africa. Aboriginal people are to be driven from homelands where their communities have lived for thousands of years. In Western Australia, where mining companies make billion dollar profits exploiting Aboriginal land, the state government says it can no longer afford to "support" the homelands. ...
Soon after coming to office, Abbott's government cut $534 million in Indigenous social programmes, including $160 million from the Indigenous health budget and $13.4 million from Indigenous legal aid. ...
Both conservative and Labor governments have already withdrawn the national jobs programme, CDEP, from the homelands, ending opportunities for employment, and prohibited investment in infrastructure: housing, generators, sanitation. The saving is peanuts. ...
Where would the dispossessed go? Where would they live? In six years, Barnett's government has built few houses for Indigenous people in remote areas. In the Kimberley region, Indigenous homelessness - aside from natural disaster and civil strife - is one of the highest anywhere, in a state renowned for its conspicuous wealth, golf courses and prisons overflowing with impoverished black people. ...
In bookshops, "Australian non-fiction" shelves are full of opportunistic tomes about wartime derring-do, heroes and jingoism. Suddenly, Aboriginal people who fought for the white man are fashionable, whereas those who fought against the white man in defence of their own country, Australia, are unfashionable. Indeed, they are officially non-people. ...
The planned closure of Indigenous homelands breaches Article 5 of the International Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP). Australia is committed to "provide effective mechanisms for prevention of, and redress for... any action which has the aim of dispossessing [Indigenous people] of their lands, territories or resources". The Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is blunt. "Forced evictions" are against the law. ...
http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-secret-country-again-wages-war-on-its-own-people
Arena - The Real Cost of Closing Remote Communities - April-May 2015
... Remote community members do better economically than the national Indigenous average by engaging in a hybrid economy that includes the foraging within the customary economic sector, but they do not make as much money as they could if they joined local mining operations. However, by forsaking the potential gains earned by mining, Martu are able to maintain connections to their family and the land, which results in significant ecosystems service contributions. These benefits, provisioned by Martu and enjoyed across private and public sectors, far outweigh the costs of federal support to maintain remote communities. If the goal is to promote long-term sustainable livelihoods, policy makers would be well advised to consider the overall costs and benefits of these different but overlapping economic sectors to determine where to best allocate public funds.
References
J. Altman ...
http://arena.org.au/the-real-cost-of-closing-remote-communities-by-brian-f-codding-douglas-w-bird-and-rebecca-bliege-bird/
Quotes
Ernie Dingo
"A lot of communities - even mine - are up for closure,"
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/thousands-gather-in-sydney-to-protest-against-denial-of-basic-human-right-20150501-1my8p2.html
John Pilger
"People now know there are some very dirty secrets and gross injustices in this country and it has to do with indigenous Australians,"
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/thousands-gather-in-sydney-to-protest-against-denial-of-basic-human-right-20150501-1my8p2.html
More Media Coverage
NITV - REDFERN RALLY : STOP FORCED CLOSURE OF ABORIGINAL COMMUNITIES - 1 May 2015
...Sydney siders sending their message to others across Australia to stay strong for country and culture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9DlwMYLMjU
Press TV, Sydney - 1 May 2015
Australians in Sydney have come out in the thousands to protest the government’s decision to close almost 150 Aboriginal communities living in remote areas in Western Australia.
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/05/01/408992/Australia-Sydney-protesters-aborigines-communities
SMH - Thousands gather in Sydney to protest against denial of 'basic human right' - 1 May 2015
... The peaceful protest was one of 100 rallies held around Australia to draw attention to the plight of Aboriginal people who face eviction from their homes in remote areas. ...
Mr Pilger, whose 2013 film Utopia examined the shocking living conditions, poor health and high incarceration rates of indigenous Australians, said their treatment was an international disgrace....
Actor and television presenter Ernie Dingo said his community was one of those under threat from the West Australian government's plan to shut down almost 150 remote Aboriginal communities. ...
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/thousands-gather-in-sydney-to-protest-against-denial-of-basic-human-right-20150501-1my8p2.html
Te Karere TVNZ - Aotearoa rallies against forced closure of Aboriginal communities
Thousands of people across the world are today rallying in solidarity against the forced closure of more than 150 Aboriginal communities in Western Australia ...
Comment: At 1.31 --- When Hone Harawira was asked “Is there a point to
protesting? “ "He responded, “We want them to see they don't stand alone. OUR OWN GOVERNMENT IS DOING THE SAME THING HERE IN NZ. We can’t let them fight this battle alone.”....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrEir0TC9JU
Sydney March - 10 April 2015
Koori Mail - Rallies oppose closure move - 22 April 15: please click here
Video of Speakers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVa0eQC7NBc
Comment by Georgina Gartland:
Well done Sydney. So great to have fabulous speakers and support of unions, Maoris and others. This is a complete abrogation of Federal Government responsibility."What is clear is that the Commonwealth knows full well that the consequences of the cuts will fall with brute force onto Aboriginal communities least able to defend themselves. Such behaviour is.: contemptible.
Please continue 'ongoing action'. Contact PM Abbott, Minister Scullion , your local Federal MP .
More information: http://www.concernedaustralians.com.au/media/Outstation-closures-Letter-requesting-help.pdf
Continue to speak to friends ...
Strong support also from Maoris MPs . This repor from NZ. MPs planning to sepak with labor MPs and will speak to the Australian High Commissioner in Wellington.
View https://www.maoritelevision.com/news/regional/support-grows-australian-aboriginal-communities-maori-mps
