Education

When we have the courage and audacity to reclaim our own humanity, this is how we can heal, this is how we can be better to ourselves and to other people, and this is how we will change the world.

Four Reasons Why Being Pro-Black Isn't the Same as Being Anti-White

 
Wazi Maret Davis Everyday Femenist 16 November 2015 [node:read-more:link]

My Australian-educated friends tell me they were taught at school that all Aboriginal people only counted one, two, three, four and 'many' ... there is abundant evidence of complex Aboriginal number systems extending to high numbers.
 
So why do some people believe the generalised view that all Aboriginal people can't count beyond four when there is abundant evidence to the contrary?
 

Media reporting and policies almost always focus on what is “wrong” with Indigenous Australians. They look at the problems Indigenous people face compared to non-Indigenous Australians.
 
Current government policy is titled the “Indigenous Advancement Strategy”. But its very name suggests that Aboriginal people are in some way “behind” or “lacking”, needing to be advanced

Ballarat indigenous artist Aunty Marlene's depiction of the 1842 hanging. Photo: City of Melbourne

Clare Rawlinson ABC 27 November 2015

A swing set reminiscent of the gallows where two Indigenous men were hanged in 1842 will be erected as a memorial to colonial conflict in Melbourne. [node:read-more:link]

Two film makers are exploring the vital role Aboriginal transport played in the Victorian economy. Seeing the Land from an Aboriginal Canoe is a documentary film which explores the significant contribution of the stringybark canoe. The filmmakers were inspired by historian, Dr David 'Fred' Cahir, who specialises in forgotten Indigenous history. They were particularly drawn to his research into the stringybark canoe and its role in Victoria's waterways. In the film, Dr Cahir said most Aboriginal history was about violence and massacres, and not the Aboriginal contribution. [node:read-more:link]

Archaeologists and Aboriginal elders are hoping the most comprehensive study of rock art in the Kimberley region will confirm the images are among the oldest made by humans anywhere in the world. More than a dozen scientists took part in two field trips to study remote faces on Dambimangari and Balanggarra country. They used pioneering techniques to collect and analyse hundreds of samples to narrow down the timeframes in which the striking images of people, animals and shells were made. Professor Peter Veth, from the University of Western Australia, said they were expecting to have the first results through by the end of the year. [node:read-more:link]