Archives June 2015

"Advance Australia Fair" was the national anthem proclaimed as Australia's National Anthem by the Governor-General on 19th April 1984. 'Advance Australia' and 'Fair' are the key words and title of their anthem, and it appears that they were extracted from the 'White Australia March' songbook which materialised a few years after Federation in 1901. The information with the White Australian March sheet music stated; 'Of the National Policy Song, and is intended to express the life, character, and aspirations of the Australian born, depicting in musical form the patriotic spirit of the race ...'

Letter to SU - '... While I fall into the white/migrant category of Australians I would have to be blind not to see the deceitful and exploitative nature of the Crown and its local agents, as well as the 'assimilate or die' tactics used against the Aboriginal people ...

Tolerating the Crown despite its crimes against humanity would amount to acquiescing to those crimes and inviting their continuation.

Researchers established that Lake Mungo's high water mark was five metres higher than previously realised, and results of an international study has revealed that the iconic lake situated 90 kilometres north-east of Mildura, was actually a mega-lake, almost 20 per cent bigger than thought before. "Traces of people's activities are actually embedded in sediment, so that tells us that people were relying on watercraft to get around to exploit what was on the island in terms of animals to hunt," said La Trobe University archaeologist Nicola Stern.

Our brains were our great evolutionary advantage, conferring massive memory, curiosity, inventiveness and observational powers ... By applying our acquired knowledge and insights, we could deliberately choose a path to avoid danger or trouble, and to exploit opportunities. I believe foresight was a huge evolutionary advantage for our species. And that's what is so tragic today when we have all the amplified foresight of scientists and supercomputers, which have been warning us for decades that we are heading down a dangerous path, but now we allow politics and economics to override this predictive power.

Teenager Jordan Chapman can name half a dozen young people in his circle of friends who have taken their own lives. "On Facebook one night she (a friend) just inboxed me, seeing how was I going but I didn't have enough time to reply and I just logged out because I was going to sleep," he said. "I found out the next morning she committed suicide." Asked how someone of his age deals with that kind of loss, 17-year-old Jordan responded quietly: "I don't know. Just play football, go to school, keep my mind off it, don't really think about it."

A young First Nations woman was subject to such brutality in a domestic violence situation, she was inflicted with injuries were so severe, she was left profoundly Deaf and legally blind.

Nevertheless, her life has turned around and Rosie is now an author, and in her spare time she promotes awareness of issues relating to domestic violence as well as the extreme racism towards First Nations people by the Australian government.
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DEREK'S friends got him into stealing in his mid-teens. He was thrown in juvenile detention twice, cut off from his family and missing school, instead surrounded by endless opportunities for further crime. "It's not easy, you got no family to talk to," he said. "They said, as soon as you hit 18, you'll be heading to the big prison, the man's prison." Derek was one of the lucky ones. While on parole, his uncle organised for him to do community service and later to work at a tourism organisation on his traditional Aboriginal country in the Kimberley.

Throughout Australian history, principle has been overwhelmed by economic interest, and the idea of justice embodied in natural rights is voted down by justice made in the image of the majority. The Mabo decision of the High Court in 1992 might be taken as a paradigm case of what has been called "complex space." Instead of assuming a homogenous jurisdiction over Australian territory, the court had to acknowledge the validity of a different legal system and "storied" country inside the national borders. - Theological Critique by Mark Brett, Professor of Old Testament

An Aboriginal elder in Central Australia has shed tears of joy upon the rediscovery of a sacred site lost for the past 70 years. Previous attempts to find the Tanami Desert site, known as Kurlpurlunu, had proved fruitless until Warlpiri elders, George Jungarrayi Ryder and Molly Nappururla Tasman flew over the area in a helicopter last week. The elderly pair had visited the site as children and recognised some of the features, including a distinctive tree and a rock. The site's identity was confirmed by 82-year-old Jerry Jangala.