Gross Abuse

This 'cash for mining' is part of the plan that Tony Abbott, Colin Barnett and Twiggy Forrest have slowly been putting place for the past two years. A plan for government to hand out large sums of money to the big mining companies and forcing Aboriginal people into the mines. With displaced people from the forcing Homeland community members living on the streets allows the government to force them into work at the big mines or starve. This plan also includes government money for training Aboriginal prisoners in mining skills.

In the 1950s the Spinifex people living in the Maralinga region in the Great Victoria Desert were dispossessed from their homelands to allow for atomic testing to be carried out by governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. The people were placed at Cundalee and later moved onto Coonana because of water issues. Coonana lies approximately 170km east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder along the Trans Access Road, Once a busy community but following the government bleeding the community of vital resources, it is now all but deserted.

This story paints is a damning picture with some people believed to be calling for the age of when young people leave foster, kinship/family and residential care to be raised from 18 to 21. However, this must be thought through very carefully, with input from all parties, including the wider First Nations communities. We don't want yet another patch-up job decided by bureaucrats and governments who always look for a quick fix to try and hide the gaping faults already built into their system.

The Peak body for Indigenous legal services was denied funding under the Indigenous advancement strategy as $680m in grants handed out. The NSW ALS had its two applications rejected by the IAS scheme, including one for its existing custody notification service, which provides 24-hour legal advice and welfare support for Aboriginal people arrested in NSW. Some organisations said they did not know if or how much of a grant they had been given, or if funding would continue beyond the next 12 months.

An Aboriginal peak body has concerns about a new 'permanent care order' that transfers parental rights to carers. The government says the new 'permanent care orders' would be in effect until the child was 18 and are designed to provide a more stable upbringing for children unable to live at home. It is virtually the same as adoption without changing the child's surname, birth certificate, birthrights or entitlements. SNAICC CEO Frank Hytten said the new laws could mean that children become lost in the system.

A little before 1892, Archibald Meston who later became the Southern Protector of Aboriginals for Queensland rounded up 27 First Nations people from Wakaya, Kuthant, Kurtjar, Arapa, Walangama, Mayikulan, Kabi Kabi, Kalkadoon and Muralag. There were 22 men, four women and one child. He called his prisoners the 'Wild Australia' show and carted them down the east coast of Australia until he ran out of funds and deserted them in Melbourne. - A Photographic Exhibition aims to reconnect families to their descendants.

Property investors have been promised a suburb "free of Aboriginals," but protesters in Sydney's most well-known Indigenous community aren't giving in without a fight. According to Munro, occupants of the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy (RATE) were slapped with eviction notices at mid-afternoon, and given a 48-hour window to respond. That means activists must take their case to a court before Sunday afternoon. “He served it knowing we won't be able to access the courts. It's just more filthy politics,” Jenny Munro stated.

Aboriginal leaders say the WA government plan to close communities is already driving people out of some of the most remote parts of Australia. Premier Colin Barnett last year announced as many as 150 of the state's 274 communities would be closed in the next three years because of a funding shortfall. Mr Steven Kopp, the Chairman of Mulan homelands community, which sits on top of the Tanami Desert, said some people were so worried about the community's future that up to 20 had already moved away.

On the 13th February, 2014, Grandmothers Against Removals protested in front of Parliament house, Canberra. "Today we march in protest against the unprecedented theft of Aboriginal children from their families by so-called "Child Protection" agencies across Australia. We are in urgent need of protection from the criminal actions of these Departments, who persecute Aboriginal families and mobilise police to terrorise children with forced removals. More Aboriginal children are forcibly separated from their families at this moment than at any time in history. - Diet Simon writes

In a provocative keynote address at the Australian Theatre Forum Ilbijerri Theatre Company's Artistic Director, Rachael Maza, spoke powerfully and passionately about the differences between cultural appropriation and cultural exchange ... It's frightening to see that these condescending productions are accepted and even acclaimed in 2015. These public productions that perpetuate the myths of the invaders is one of the principle reasons that 'Education' urgently needs to provide a more comprehensive understanding of history.