Frontier Wars

Educating for Democracy - A letter by Ray Jackson, President, Indigenous Social Justice Association.

Ray reminds us of the hypocrisy in relation to the 'Recognition Campaign' after 227 years of silence, and at the same time in our education system, choosing not to recognise that the First Nations and peoples even existed or that each nation fought a bloody battle for the land and their rights. [node:read-more:link]

The Woolwonga were said to have been exterminated in 1884 at Burrundie about 200 kilometres south of Darwin in reprisal for spearing non-Aboriginal miners.

But about four years ago an 1899 census document was found showing at least one had survived. Exactly how the girl known as Jennie survived the massacre of her people - the Woolwonga of the Alligator River near Katherine - is not known. [node:read-more:link]

Around 80 people attended a rally in Alice Springs calling for the removal of a four metre high statue of explorer John McDouall Stuart, the first European to traverse the continent from south to north in 1862.
A letter was also distributed, written by the elders directly to John McDouall Stuart, accusing him of not asking permission to enter the land and of killing Arrernte people. "You came to Mount Hay and you killed our mob," it stated. [node:read-more:link]

Do yourself a favour and watch this unreal video of historians Henry Reynolds and Bruce Pascoe speaking at the Sydney Writers Festival.

They speak on wars, memorials, the lack of commemorations, agriculture and the mainstream denial of the rich history of one of the world's great continents ... and the world's first bakers, with more than 12,000 years experience baking bread before any other country in the world. - ABC News 24 - 'Big Ideas'. [node:read-more:link]

A rare and haunting image of a young, unidentified Indigenous woman has been donated to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) after being discovered by a family living in the United Kingdom.

The tiny tintype photograph, measuring about 2 centimetres by 3cm, is the only one of its kind to be held by AIATSIS and is believed to be the oldest in its 650,000-strong photographic collection. [node:read-more:link]

When it comes to First Nations people, the government never does anything without having a very devious agenda. So following 100 years of a deplorable lack of respect and disregard for First Nations soldiers, then there is suddenly recognition, beware.

The intensive propaganda campaign is designed to whitewash the real nature of WWI, drown out opposition to war and boost military enlistments. [node:read-more:link]

Around 30 First Nations men, women and children were killed and thrown from cliffs in 1828, in one the many British invaders mass murdering sprees. This is known as the Cape Grim massacre. The remains of one of the victims was a young girl named Naungarrika, who finally arrived back to her home state of Tasmania after 200 years of humiliation as a scientific and curiosity trophy.

The First Nations community will decide how to belatedly farewell Nungarrika, but it is likely to be in her own country. [node:read-more:link]

This audio comprises accounts of relationships that arose between British castaways and their rescuers along the Great Barrier Reef in remote northern Queensland

These castaways were living with the First Nations people before the trauma of colonisation - and sometimes during it. Their accounts provide a fascinating record of that time. They come to us via Iain McCalman's book charting human interaction along the Great Barrier Reef, 'The Reef: a Passionate History'. [node:read-more:link]