Newsletter date: 24 March 2013
Contents:
* STICS: Protest against NT Intervention and income management on UN Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination
* NITV's coverage of STICS Sydney protest
* NIRS: Sydney rally calls to end racism
* Pip Hinman, Green Left: 'No harmony in income management', say protesters
* Background to 'Stronger Futures' new NT Intervention laws
* Background to the Northern Territory (NT) Intervention
* Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: Yolnu youth should not be finishing up in prison says Richard Trudgen
* Diane Fieldes, Socialist Alternative: Aboriginal people fight for justice
* Background to Aboriginal imprisonment and Deaths in Custody
* NITV News: Indigenous Australians welcome forced adoptions apology
* NITV News: Government urged to fund Indigenous health
* The Wire Audio: Indigenous health to suffer without Government funding
* ABC Indigenous Video: Close the Gap campaigners want end to health inequality
* SBS Radionews Audio: Call for action on Indigenous mental health
* NIRS: COAG urged to ad mental health to Gap targets
* AHRC: Record-breaking National Close the Gap Day calls for critical funding to be continued
* NIRS: Gooda: Governments should commit to closing the gap
* ABC Indigenous: Calls for renewed funds on Close the Gap Day
* SBS Radionews Audio: Queensland health workers say cuts fail Gap commitment
* ABC AM Audio: Preventable death rates too high in remote communities
* NIRS: Katter calls for Stolen Wages compensation
* STICS: PROTEST AGAINST NT INTERVENTION AND INCOME MANAGEMENT ON UN DAY FOR ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
- Media Release
Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney Media Release:
Protest against NT Intervention and income management on UN Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination
http://stoptheintervention.org/uploads/files_to_download/Facts-Info-PR/M...
21 Mar 13: "The Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney (STICS) will rally today at the office of Federal Labor Minister Tanya Plibersek. The rally will mark the UN Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and National Close the Gap Day.
STICS is calling for the repeal of the Stronger Futures legislation, which extends the draconian Intervention into Northern Territory Aboriginal communities until 2022.
The rally is also launching a push to stop the further roll out of the income management system for Centrelink payments, which was first introduced under the NT intervention and expanded to Bankstown in Sydney in July 2012. ...
"March 21 is the anniversary of the massacre of anti-Apartheid activists in Sharpeville, South Africa in 1960. But while this is officially sanitised as 'harmony day' in Australia, our very own apartheid is continuing in the NT, with explicitly racist Stronger Futures laws", said Paddy Gibson from STICS. ... "
* NITV'S COVERAGE OF STICS SYDNEY PROTEST:
- Video
NITV News - 21 March part 1
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/video/22803523637/NITV-News-21-March-part-1
[starts at 8.10]
- Past Event
Event: Thu 21 March 2013: Broadway, Sydney, NSW
Rally Against Racism
Protest:
On the International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination
and 'National Close the Gap Day'
STOP 'Stronger Futures' - NO to 10 more years of Intervention
STOP the expansion of income management:
Not in the NT, not in Bankstown not anywhere
STOP Black Deaths in Custody
- Justice for Kwementyaye Briscoe and all victims
Speakers include:
* Rosealee Pearson, Yirrkala, NT
* Sue Gillett, Bankstown Aboriginal activist and STICS member
* Ray Jackson, Indigenous Social Justice Association
Event details: [scroll down page] http://stoptheintervention.org/
Event details: http://nsw.greens.org.au/content/march-21-rally-against-racism
Event details: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151391541035141&id=1...
Event details: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-the-Intervention-Collective-Sydney/10...
Event details: https://www.facebook.com/events/355507234562134/#!/events/355507234562134/
Poster: http://stoptheintervention.org/uploads/files_to_download/Past%20Events/1...
Flyer: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Redfern-Waterloo/attachments/folder/733234...
STICS Statement: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/53557
STICS info: http://stoptheintervention.org/
ISJA info: http://www.isja-msg.com/index.htm
News: http://www.southsydneyherald.com.au/stronger-futures-fundamentally-racist/
WGAR Background to the Northern Territory (NT) Intervention: http://indymedia.org.au/2012/04/22/background-to-the-northern-territory-...
WGAR Background to 'Stronger Futures' new NT Intervention laws: http://indymedia.org.au/2012/04/22/background-to-stronger-futures-new-nt...
WGAR Background to Aboriginal imprisonment and Deaths in Custody: http://indymedia.org.au/2012/12/17/background-to-aboriginal-imprisonment...
WGAR Background to the justice for Kumentjaye Briscoe campaign: http://indymedia.org.au/2012/12/17/background-to-the-justice-for-kumentj...
* NIRS: SYDNEY RALLY CALLS TO END RACISM
- Audio
National Indigenous Radio Service: Sydney rally calls to end racism
http://www.nirs.org.au/blog/NEWS/article/28881/Sydney-rally-calls-to-end...
21 Mar 13: "A rally against racism against Indigenous Australians will be held in Sydney today, coinciding with National Close the Gap Day. The demonstration will voice opposition to the Northern Territory Intervention, income management and Indigenous deaths in custody."
* PIP HINMAN, GREEN LEFT: 'NO HARMONY IN INCOME MANAGEMENT', SAY PROTESTERS
- News
Green Left: 'No harmony in income management', say protesters
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/53693
23 Mar 13: "A protest against racism outside Labor MP Tanya Plibersek's office on March 21 demanded an end to the Northern Territory intervention and its expansion into areas such as Bankstown in south-west Sydney. Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney (STICS) organised the rally, which highlighted the small but significant steps being taken to bring Aboriginal communities, unions and others together to prevent the spread of these apartheid-like policies." Pip Hinman
* BACKGROUND TO 'STRONGER FUTURES' NEW NT INTERVENTION LAWS:
Last updated: 16 March 2013
http://indymedia.org.au/2012/04/22/background-to-stronger-futures-new-nt...
* BACKGROUND TO THE NORTHERN TERRITORY (NT) INTERVENTION:
Last updated: 20 February 2013
http://indymedia.org.au/2012/04/22/background-to-the-northern-territory-...
* GERRY GEORGATOS, THE STRINGER: YOLNU YOUTH SHOULD NOT BE FINISHING UP IN PRISON SAYS RICHARD TRUDGEN
- News
The Stringer: Yolnu youth should not be finishing up in prison says Richard Trudgen
http://thestringer.com.au/yolnu-youth-should-not-be-finishing-up-in-pris...
21 Mar 13: "Richard Trudgen is a community development educator in the Arnhem who is worried that the rule of law has become too confusing for the Northern Territory’s Aboriginal peoples. He is concerned that the Yolnu people of Elcho Island are being treated with indifference and heavy-handedness by the NT Intervention authorities and by the NT police. Aboriginal people make up about 28 per cent of the total NT population. Mr Trudgen told The Stringer that people are becoming confused by the demands of the NT Intervention - which are effectively to assimilate." By Gerry Georgatos, contributing editor of The Stringer, a life-long human rights and social justice campaigner, a multi-award winning investigative journalist
Gerry Georgatos: http://thestringer.com.au/gerry-georgatos-contributing-editor-and-journa...
See:
Background to the Northern Territory (NT) Intervention
http://indymedia.org.au/2012/04/22/background-to-the-northern-territory-...
* DIANE FIELDES, SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE: ABORIGINAL PEOPLE FIGHT FOR JUSTICE
- Analysis / Opinion
Socialist Alternative: Aboriginal people fight for justice
http://www.sa.org.au/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=7689:aborigina...
21 Mar 13: ""We created history today in Doomadgee!! For the first time this community made a STAND!! And fought for our rights as Aboriginal people!! Freedom!! Liberation!! We are a Sovereign Nation!!... It’s the first time they’ve looked the white man in the eye and said, we will no longer take this, we will no longer be your little black jackey jackey, we will no longer let you bully us, we will no longer let you kick us and treat us as second class citizens." So wrote Aboriginal activist Alec Doomadgee after leading a mass march on the Doomadgee courthouse on 7 March." Diane Fieldes
* BACKGROUND TO ABORIGINAL IMPRISONMENT AND DEATHS IN CUSTODY:
Last updated: 7 March 2013
http://indymedia.org.au/2012/12/17/background-to-aboriginal-imprisonment...
* NITV NEWS: INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS WELCOME FORCED ADOPTIONS APOLOGY
- Video
SBS World News: Indigenous Australians welcome forced adoptions apology
Source: Jeremy Geia, NITV
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1748970/Indigenous-Australians-welcom...
21 Mar 13: "Five years after the apology to the Stolen Generations, Indigenous Australians have welcomed the Prime Minister's apology over decades of forced adoptions separating hundreds of thousands of parents and children. Tens of thousands of people were illegally taken from their parents and they included many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. "Today, this Parliament, on behalf of the Australian people, takes responsibility and apologises for the policies and practices that forced the separation of mothers from their babies, which created a lifelong legacy of pain and suffering," began the Prime Minister’s speech."
See:
The Stringer: The Prime Minister's Apology to Victims of Forced Adoption
http://thestringer.com.au/the-prime-ministers-apology-to-victims-of-forc...
21 Mar 13: "The forced removals and adoptions were driven largely by religious groups, churches and ultimately conservative social morays during the 1900s post-war period, when it was widely considered in the best interests of children to be raised by well to do, white, married couples. In a 1973 journal article Dr. Ferry Grunseit, from the Children’s Department at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, wrote: "In New South Wales most unmarried mothers… are more likely to be poor, undernourished and of low intelligence, if not actually retarded."" By Jennifer Kaeshagen
The Wire: Forced adoption apology
Produced by Daniel Fitzgerald
http://www.thewire.org.au/storyDetail.aspx?ID=10160
21 Mar 13: "In the sixties and seventies, thousands of young pregnant women were forced to give their children up for adoption. Today those mothers and children affected received a formal apology from Julia Gillard in Canberrra. ...
Featured in story:
* Lee Hubbard - Chair of Vanish, oranistion assisting in searches for birth relatives
* Joe Fraser - mother who was forced to give up her child for adoption
* Pauline Kenny - Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Family Studies"
* NITV NEWS: GOVERNMENT URGED TO FUND INDIGENOUS HEALTH
- Video
SBS World News: Government urged to fund Indigenous health
Source: Matthew Sadler, NITV News
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1748974/Government-urged-to-fund-Indi...
21 Mar 13: "On National Close the Gap Day, Indigenous leaders have warned of dire consequences if funding to vital health programs does not continue. They say the progress that has been made will be threatened. The $1.6 billion funding package for Closing the health gap expires in June. It's underpinned many programs which deal with the crisis affecting all levels of Indigenous health around the nation. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda says that funding must continue beyond June."
* THE WIRE AUDIO: INDIGENOUS HEALTH TO SUFFER WITHOUT GOVERNMENT FUNDING
- Audio Interview
The Wire: Indigenous health to suffer without Government funding
Produced by Alexander Tate
http://www.thewire.org.au/storyDetail.aspx?ID=10165
22 Mar 13: "Close The Gap Day aims to increase awareness of Indigenous health issues. With Government funding not secured from June 2013 there's a danger mortality rates will remain higher than for white Australians. ...
Featured in story: Gracelyn Smallwood - Associate Professor at James Cook University"
* ABC INDIGENOUS VIDEO: CLOSE THE GAP CAMPAIGNERS WANT END TO HEALTH INEQUALITY
- Video
ABC Indigenous: Close the Gap campaigners want end to health inequality
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-21/close-the-gap-campaigners-want--en...
21 Mar 13: "Co chair of the Close the Gap campaign Jody Broun joins ABC News Breakfast to discuss health inequality." Beverley O'Connor
* SBS RADIONEWS AUDIO: CALL FOR ACTION ON INDIGENOUS MENTAL HEALTH
- Audio
SBS Podcasts Radionews: Call for action on Indigenous mental health
By Hannah Sinclair
http://www.sbs.com.au/podcasts/Podcasts/radionews/episode/259222/Call-fo...
21 Mar 13: "Governments are being urged to include mental health in their plans to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The National Mental Health Commission says mental health issues are contributing to the shorter life expectancy of Indigenous Australians, and should be targeted separately. Hannah Sinclair reports. ... Commission Chair, Professor Allan Fels says he's confident COAG will consider the wider implications of including mental health in the targets."
* NIRS: COAG URGED TO AD MENTAL HEALTH TO GAP TARGETS
- News
National Indigenous Radio Service: COAG urged to ad mental health to Gap targets
http://www.nirs.org.au/blog/NEWS/article/28884/COAG-urged-to-ad-mental-h...
21 Mar 13: "Australian governments are being urged to add a mental health target to their efforts to close the health gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. Mental illness is second only to heart disease as one of the main reasons for the health gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, the National Mental Health Commission says."
* AHRC: RECORD-BREAKING NATIONAL CLOSE THE GAP DAY CALL FOR CRITICAL FUNDING TO BE CONTINUED
- Media Release
Australian Human Rights Commission: Record-breaking National Close the Gap Day calls for critical funding to be continued
http://humanrights.gov.au/about/media/media_releases/2013/22_13.html
21 Mar 13: "More than 140,000 people across Australia today will remind political leaders of their commitment to close the gap in health inequality, as critical Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health funding is due to expire. ...
Close the Gap Campaign Co-Chair Mick Gooda said the growing movement of people concerned about the appalling health and life expectancy gap between Aboriginal and other Australians could not come at a more critical time.
"The $1.6 billion funding package underpinning current Closing the Gap health programs expires in June, and we’ve had no solid commitment that it will be renewed," Mr Gooda said.
"This COAG funding, from Federal, State and Territory Governments, is making a real difference to people’s lives, and must continue." ... "
* NIRS: GOODA: GOVERNMENTS SHOULD COMMIT TO CLOSING THE GAP
- Audio
National Indigenous Radio Service: Gooda: Governments should commit to closing the gap
http://www.nirs.org.au/blog/NEWS/article/28880/Gooda%3A--Governments-sho...
21 Mar 13: "Close the Gap campaign Co-Chair Mick Gooda says efforts to reduce the life expectancy gap must be maintained. Mr. Gooda says he wants governments to commit to funding Closing the Gap programs."
* ABC INDIGENOUS: CALLS FOR RENEWED FUNDS ON CLOSE THE GAP DAY
- News
ABC Indigenous: Calls for renewed funds on Close the Gap Day
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-21/calls-for-renewed-funding-on-close...
21 Mar 13: "Aboriginal leaders are using today's seventh national Close the Gap Day to call for a funding boost to ensure a national initiative aimed at improving Indigenous health continues. The current $1.6 billion national Indigenous health funding program expires in June and there has been no commitment from state, territory or federal governments that it will be renewed. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda says the improved health spending has made a real difference."
* SBS RADIONEWS AUDIO: QUEENSLAND HEALTH WORKERS SAY CUTS FAIL GAP COMMITMENT
- Audio
SBS Podcasts Radionews: Queensland health workers say cuts fail Gap commitment
By Stefan Armbruster
http://www.sbs.com.au/podcasts/Podcasts/radionews/episode/259064/Queensl...
20 Mar 13: "Queensland's government is being accused of failing its Close The Gap commitment after slashing Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander health funding and jobs across the state. Many Indigenous health positions have been axed in a cost-cutting campaign which will see an end to 4,000 Queensland Health jobs and many services. The state government says federal funding cuts, little evidence of outcomes, and duplication of services, meant many Indigenous health programs programs had to go."
* ABC AM AUDIO: PREVENTABLE DEATH RATES TOO HIGH IN REMOTE COMMUNITIES
- Audio
ABC AM: Preventable death rates too high in remote communities
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2013/s3720314.htm
21 Mar 13: "An Indigenous rights campaigner is calling on the Federal Government to urgently boost healthcare in regional and remote communities to reduce preventable deaths. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have a life expectancy about 17 years less than other Australians. Cancer Council Queensland has launched its own research into why Indigenous women are more likely to contract advanced breast cancer. Josh Bavas has more."
* NIRS: KATTER CALLS FOR STOLEN WAGES COMPENSATION
- News
National Indigenous Radio Service: Katter calls for Stolen Wages compensation
http://www.nirs.org.au/blog/NEWS/article/28875/Katter-calls-for-Stolen-W...
21 Mar 13: "Bob Katter’s Australia Party is calling on the Queensland Government to fairly compensate the unpaid wages to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people….known as the Stolen Wages members."
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