The Palm Island Community Store – self determination and economic development or more government bullshit?

               
Palm Island background from Kalkadoon.org
Palm Island background from Senator Andrew Bartlett
 The Palm Island store is currently owned by the Queensland Government.  It charges inflated prices to subsidise the transport of goods to other Aboriginal communities in Queensland.    The government has recently announced that the store is to be privatised, and there are two competitors for the [...]

Staring at “The Disabled” and seeing nothing.

                              
                      “Alison Lapper Pregnant” by Marc Quinn.
 The controversy surrounding Michael Noonan’s film project “Unlikely Travelers” has raised issues about the representation of people with disability in the media and public. As mentioned in the earlier post  “Laughing at “The Disabled – Power, perception and prejudice”, I claim that those who are defined by society [...]

Fascism and disability in Queensland – The Guardianship and Administration Act.

See also – Picket – Expose the Qld. Office of the Adult Guardian. Stop neglect and cover-up.
 
In Queensland, any one of us can have our rights of freedom of movement and association taken off us for a period of 6 months at a tribunal hearing where we or our representative are not present. There is [...]

Still laughing at “THE DISABLED”

The previous post looks at some of the theoretical issues surrounding the criticism of Michael Noonan’s film project “Unlikely Travellors”.
The following short clip is from Noonan’s work.  This is entitled “Unlikely Skipper”

This clip made me smile! 
 It is clearly the persons disability that is the focus of the humour – he is [...]

Laughing at “THE DISABLED” – power, perception and prejudice.

Background
A recent controversy at the Queensland University of Technology has has resulted in severe punitive action being taken  against two academics, Gary MacLennan and John Hookham who, in the name of speaking up for “the disabled”, publically criticised a Phd. Student, Michael Noonan and his Phd thesis “Laughing at the disabled (later renamed “laughing with [...]

Wow, You tube and prime ministers. My, how times have changed!

Paul Keating’s Redfern statement 10/12/92 

This post is not yet another pointless comment about technology changing and politicians’ adaption to it. This YouTube video of Paul Keating’s famous Redfern Statement on December 10 1992 shows how much indigenous policy and understanding of history has changed. Sure there was much howling of disapproval in [...]

Will Australia invade Poland before the federal election?

  
                                                       
I stole the above election posters from the Broken Left Leg.
The following is an article I wrote for the Dead Roo .  I have reproduced it here for no other reason than as an excuse to publish the posters.

Jackboots in Paradise – Police at Doomadgee

This  video on You-tube “The kidnapping of Gregory Brenton”  is of an incident at the Doomadgee Aboriginal community in North Queensland. It indicates a clear lack of respect by police for Aboriginal residents of the community. As the video shows the police just marched into a private home and grabbed someone, [...]

A dog is a man’s (and a woman’s) best friend

 I am expanding further into the bloggoshere and am now writing for “The Dead Roo”  http://www.deadroo.com/
This is something I wrote for the Roo……..
The ABC presently has a news story “Dingoes touted as wildlife’s saviour”  http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/12/1976539.htm
a quote from the article…….
“Dingoes should be reintroduced into large tracts of Australian sheep grazing country to control feral animals that [...]

National day of Action for Aboriginal Justice 14 July 2007

               
 I will try and get details of other places and include them on this post.   If you know of other events on July 14 please post the details in the comments section. 
Brisbane 
14 Jul 2007 – 11:00am
 11am Queens Park (Cnr George & Elizabeth Sts)                                                          Ph Sam 0401 227 443.
Black Friday – NAIDOC activities 13 Jul [...]

Doing Battle with the Devil 2: denial, ignorance and the psychology of racism

There is currently a discussion thread on the “Online Opinion forum” called “Entitled to sympathy but not an apology”  http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6079
This article contains insights suchs as
“The Dreamtime also exerted a powerful inhibition to experimentation.”
“By 1788, Indigenous Australians and Europeans had the same intellectual potential but their brains had some very different neural networking.”
“As this continent’s occupants [...]

Doing battle with the devil – what? Has he gone crazy and turned Christian or something?

DANGER – The devil lurks amongst us trying to convince us of our own illusions.
Ommmmmmmmmm 
I may have gone crazy but I have not turned Christian.   I am just enjoying the license to be idiosyncratic which is the privilege of a blogger.   If you read beyond the post titles on the following 3 bible studies published [...]

Sunday Sermon – Jesus in the wilderness

If you are not a christian or a bible student then the  link at the end of this post ”Led by the Spirit into the wilderness” is probably not for you.  It is by U.S. theologian Ched Myers, reflecting on his time spent with Aboriginal christians in North East Victoria and the bible story of Jesus’ sojourn into the [...]

Pig City and “the good old days” – it’s a Brisbane thing!

                                                                     Me and Wayne Bennett, the coach of the Brisbane Broncos (on the left) in the good old days.
There has been a bit of discussion of the good old days in Brisbane on a couple of my favorite blogs, so I thought I’d better have my say on the matter too. The upcoming Pig City [...]

What’s the plan? – I mean, really, what is it?

Photo from ABC online
also from ABC
* POLICE SUPPORT INDIGENOUS PERMIT STATUS QUO  http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/07/1972552.htm
“Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough is pushing ahead with his plan to abolish permits needed to enter remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.”
“Now the Territory’s Police Association is expressing concern, saying the permits help police officers in the bush with their [...]