Assimilation & Oppression

The Western Australian Department of Housing has not been properly monitoring remote communities services and have not applied their 'apparent' eligibility criteria since 2008. Now, all of a sudden, when Barnett wants to close communities down to save money and make the land available for mining and other interests, his department is saying there must be at least 50 members per Homeland community and and that 24 Homeland communities don't meet the criteria. Throwing in the report that surfaced at the same time that some communities have Uranium contamination demonstrates appalling neglect.

The NT Government-commissioned Wilson Review recommends sending Indigenous high school students to boarding schools in regional centres.

"People in communities are saying we don't feel like we've been consulted," he said. "The Government has come and told us, 'This is what we're doing'." Prominent Indigenous educator Yalmay Yunupingu, a former teacher at Yirrkala school in East Arnhem Land, also said there had not been enough consultation.

Colin Barnett has stepped away from his controversial rhetoric about closing 150 communities down by revealing plans for a "hub and orbit" strategy. Colin Barnett is so pathetic, he thinks he will get away with putting up a new plan that takes people away from their Homelands and dumps them on the doorsteps of larger communities - away from 'country'. Now there's a recipe for disaster if we ever did see one ... if it ever happens ... and in the mean time he closes down all the small Homelands communities.

For over two centuries, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia have had to endure brutal agression against their societies. Every year on Australia Day, Australians celebrate the arrival of the First British Fleet, on 26 January 1788, on the coast of Eora Country. But today, the first peoples of Australia still call it « Invasion Day ». This difference in perceptions bears witness to the political and cultural gap which separates Aboriginal people from other Australians.

Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Peoples have the potential to operate as an independent sovereign Nation state by virtue of the fact that they have an entry permit system (equivalent to a visa) and they have veto powers in respect to applicants seeking to come into their country. However, when the veil of power is lifted from their governance, it is evident that the Lawmen and women of the APY Executive Board do not understand the extent of their unlimited powers and most of their lands have been negotiated away through Indigenous Land Use agreements.

A South African writer has claimed Australia is more racist than her homeland, where segregation by skin colour used to be law. She said the treatment of Aboriginals is worse than apartheid South Africa and that Australians are denying there are no differences between races. 'Last week I opened the newspaper and read a story about a white woman who called a family of neighbors who are originally from Sierra Leone "jungle bunnies" and "monkeys." In the story her racist rant had been filmed on their phone. I was chagrined, but others I spoke to weren't: They argued that the paper was "just trying to be neutral."

In the announcement made in recent days, Aboriginal communities in South Australia have suffered a 90 per cent cut to their funding. APY Lands – including Amata, Pukatja (Ernabella), Indulkana – have received no funding at all. These include big settlements as well as smaller communities and homelands. There is no funding for the Maralinga Lands. WA has accepted a one off $90 million for their 'transfer' grant and consequently announced 150 communities would be closed down. This has received much publicity, and the South Australian situation is much less known.

This is an analysis of "APY food showpiece becomes a ghost town" written by Michael Owen and published in The Australian 27 March 2015. The Watarru First Nations Community is in APY Lands in north west South Australia which sits at the foot of Mount Lindsay and the community has at times been known as "Mount Lindsay" - A market garden offered hope to the young community members, but it was defunded by the government and closed down before it was properly established, leaving everyone confused and hurting.

This is an analysis by Megan Bliss of "Aborigines must face up to the hard question" written by racist Gary Johns and published in The Australian 24 March 2014. Comment is given for the purposes of education and understanding, to speak up for the truth, to act, because history tells us that evil reigns while good people do nothing. The writer deliberately used an racist terms, patronising attitudes and tried to conveys disrespect towards all First Nations Peoples and encouraged the readers to accept his negative slant.

Here are the videos of the Canberra gathering, smoking ceremony, speeches and march. The speakers were Senator Rachel Seiwert (Greens), Nova Peris (Aboriginal Labor MP), Alice Haines (One of the key SOS Global organisers), Ghillar Michael Anderson (Sovereign Union), Nicole Culbong (Perth), Shaun Harris (WA), Gerry Georgatos (WA), Rod Liddle and Hamid Bin Saad (Kimberley). Stop the Forced Closure of Aboriginal Communities was an Australia wide rally and online event with international support.