Newsletter date: 22 June 2015
Contents:
* Interview with Mitch Torres, SOS Blak Australia based in the Kimberley: Solidarity Online: WA community closures: 'Keep marching, keep up the pressure'
* Analysis / Opinion: Paddy Gibson, The Stringer: Assimilation and the push to close communities
* Bio: Paddy Gibson - The Stringer
* Upcoming Event: 26-27-28 June 2015: SOSBlakAustralia Third Global Call To Action - Stop the forced closure of Aboriginal Communities
* facebook: Stop the Forced Closure of Aboriginal Communities in Australia: https://www.facebook.com/sosblakaustralia
* WGAR Background: Plans to close Aboriginal homelands / remote communities in WA and SA (and NT?)
WGAR News Public Google Group: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-GB#!forum/wgar-news
WGAR News - Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)
- Interview
Solidarity Online: WA community closures: 'Keep marching, keep up the pressure'
http://www.solidarity.net.au/highlights/wa-community-closures-keep-march...
20 Jun 15: "Thousands of people have rallied nationwide in response to the Liberal government in Western Australia making threats to close down 150 Aboriginal communities - and Tony Abbott supporting the move with his racist comments that Aboriginal people living on their land is a "lifestyle choice". This decision came off the back of budget cuts which saw the Commonwealth withdraw all funding for remote Aboriginal communities right across Australia, passing on responsibility to the states. ...
Solidarity spoke with Mitch Torres, one of the main organisers of a campaign group based in the Kimberley, known on social media as SOS Blak Australia, about the current state of play. ... "
- Analysis / Opinion
The Stringer: Assimilation and the push to close communities
The Stringer: http://thestringer.com.au/assimilation-and-the-push-to-close-communities...
Solidarity Online: http://www.solidarity.net.au/highlights/assimilation-and-the-push-to-clo...
20 Jun 15: "Paddy Gibson looks at the renewed push to close remote Aboriginal communities and how it began with the NT Intervention from 2007. On 12 May, Four Corners aired a disgraceful hatchet job on remote Aboriginal communities in WA. It was a very useful piece of propaganda for the Western Australian government, which is currently moving to close communities down. The program was full of government officials making lurid allegations, unchallenged by the reporter, of rampant child sexual abuse, precisely the same racist smear campaign that was launched just prior to the Northern Territory Intervention in 2007. ... " By Paddy Gibson
- Bio
Paddy Gibson - The Stringer
http://thestringer.com.au/author/paddygibson
- Upcoming Event
26-27-28 June 2015: SOSBlakAustralia Third Global Call To Action - Stop the forced closure of Aboriginal Communities
https://www.facebook.com/events/434149830098436/
"With Aboriginal communities, culture and land under the threat of forced closures, we are calling on all communities, friends and allies around the world to stand together as one on June 26, 27 and 28. Local event information will be published as soon as it comes to hand, but for now please invite all of your friends and let's make history together. We can win when we unite! Campaign website: http://www.sosblakaustralia.com/ Colin Barnett and Tony Abbott are jeopardising the worlds oldest living cultures, dating back 60,000 years and it's time that we speak in one voice to say "No More!" ... "
Stop the Forced Closure of Aboriginal Communities in Australia, facebook
https://www.facebook.com/sosblakaustralia
"1. Join protests in your area on 26-27-28 June and RSVP at https://www.facebook.com/events/434149830098436/?ref=98
2. Raise your voice and help to promote and build the event via social media. Invite friends, family, media contacts.
3. Make a financial contribution to the campaign. Every amount, large or small, helps. www.sosblakaustralia.com
4. Follow and share content from this and pages like those listed above. The mainstream media are doing their best to ignore us, so we need to serve each other with information as much as possible.
5. Ask sympathetic prominent people (actors, artists, sports people) to show their support by way of a photo, statement, video or speech.
6. Educate yourself on what is happening in WA, South Australia, in Redfern and other places, but think critically about information coming from the mainstream media. If unsure, talk to people involved in grassroots campaigns. ... "
- Background
WGAR Background: Plans to close Aboriginal homelands / remote communities in WA and SA (and NT?)
https://indymedia.org.au/2014/12/08/background-plans-to-close-aboriginal...
(last updated: 14 June 2015)
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WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)
About WGAR News:
https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-GB#!forum/wgar-news
Subscription to 'WGAR News' is free.
'WGAR News' monitors the media, including alternative media, focusing on:
* The Freedom Summit's National Freedom Movement;
* the Australian Federal government intervention into Northern Territory (NT) Aboriginal communities;
* Plans to close Aboriginal homelands / remote communities in Western Australia (WA), South Australia (SA), [and Northern Territory (NT)?];
* Treaties with Aboriginal Sovereign Nations of Australia;
* the Aboriginal sovereignty movement and the Aboriginal tent embassies;
* Justice Reinvestment, Aboriginal imprisonment and Aboriginal Deaths in Custody;
* Aboriginal land rights and mining;
* Suicide and self-harm in Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander communities;
* Removal of Aboriginal children and the continuing Stolen Generation;
* Aboriginal peoples and the impact of the Australian Federal Budget;
* Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing;
* other Aboriginal rights issues; and
* upcoming Aboriginal rights events around Australia.
'WGAR News' gives priority to grassroots Aboriginal voices and grassroots voices in solidarity with Aboriginal peoples' rights.
The role of 'WGAR News' is to facilitate the voices of others, and as such, 'WGAR News' rarely writes its own articles.
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