Rally against Federal Intervention

This morning at 10:00 am in Raintree Park there was a fantastic turn out for a protest rally against the Federal Government's intervention into Aboriginal communities.

A crowd gathers in the shade of the Banyan tree in Smith St Mall

Powerful message great singing!

As the Federal Government has imposed it's will on indigenous people, dissolving their rights as citizens and legislating against whole communities collectively across the Northern Territory many of us are asking:

"What's this legislation got to do with saving the children?"

Amazingly as if the legislation isn't discriminatory enough, many non indigenous people, Including the minister responsible for alcohol in the NT, are lobbying for 'non-indigenous' visitors to Aboriginal communities to be exempt from these laws!

It is astounding that in the midst of this crisis people are asking "Why should these rules apply to me? I'm not an Aboriginal! This law is for 'them' not us!" The scariest thing about this attitude is that it is being taken seriously and exemptions have already been made along clearly discriminatory lines.

If it's still available check out what Chris Burns said in the NT News article Grog bans watered down. It's a great laugh in a tragic kind of way.

In the article Mr Burns is quoted as having said:

"people who are not from Aboriginal communities should be able to camp and fish in these areas with alcohol."

He qualified this with the following statement

"This isn't about discrimination"

Either the minister has no comprehension of the meaning of the word 'discrimination' or he is a brilliant comedian and master of irony. With statements like this he leaves political satirists with no where to go! The punchline has been taken! All they could possibly do is repeat his words verbatim.

But enough about our jokes and jesters there was serious business at todays rally. Many great speeches were made, songs sung and injustices exposed. There was a great sense of unity throughout the crowd. However the discontent was visible and shared by Indigenous and Balanda Australians alike. The demands were simple; justice and equality for all Australians, safety for our children. The Government are asked simply to "Say Sorry and Listen.

This group could be called the coalition of the caring

There is a strong feeling that the decision makers and voters east of the Great Dividing Range have little understanding of how their decisions will affect real people living in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. As there will soon be a federal election, more action has been planned to bring this to the attention of interstate voters.
On Thursday 27th September there will be another rally. People from all walks of life will unite and walk from Raintree park in Darwin's CBD and proceed to march all the way to Mindil Beach Market. A demonstration will be made to the Federal Government and all interstate onlookers that this new legislation is seen as an abuse of the rights of Aboriginal people and offers little in substance for improving the lives of Children.

The local scene

Last night the Environment Centre hosted a fantastic Film Night at the Deckchair cinema! A reasonable group of supporters came along to watch a wonderful film called 'Cave of the yellow dog'. This must have been my first night at the cinema for over a year! It was kind of overwhelming! Seriously! I am so unused to being able to sit through a whole movie...
With nothing to do but enjoy the atmosphere I was in wonder and awe of the whole experience! It was such a lovely film and the night was perfect!
Thanks ECNT!

Get on yer bike mate!

Wednesday 17th October will be National Ride to Work Day ... in Australia that is...
A small but growing mob of us have decided to host a ride to work breakfast at Charles Darwin University!

If you live in the area and would like to join the fun, just get that bike out of the shed / garage or wherever, pump the tires up and check the brakes then ride on down and join us!

Our breakfast will be held at the Student Square BBQ area at Charles Darwin University, Casuarina NT. 7:00 to 9:00am

I know it's still a few weeks away... Think on this as fair warning. You have time to organize your bike and resolve all those petty excuses you may have come up with in the past for not cycling to work!

The Longrassers series

My mate Geoff is an artist.
A couple of years ago Geoff entered two paintings to the Royal Darwin Show, they formed a series called the Longrassers. The theme of the competition he entered was Darwin Topical.

I like these paintings very much; occasionally I drop in to look at them.
What astounded me at the time and disheartens me now is that the officials rejected them both and would not show them. The reason given was that they were not in theme with the topic.


Longrasser 1. by Geoff ~ Darwin

An Aboriginal man slumped over a wine cask in the long grass on the outskirts of town at night.
The curlew (a bird related to death) in the background is significant.
At the time this was painted a person had been nailing wine casks in the shape of a crucifix trees in scrub land and roadsides all over Darwin. + Thong



Longrasser 2. by Geoff ~ Darwin

White (Balanda) man sitting in the long grass on the outskirts of town. Bloodshot eyes, tattoos can in hand. Wine bladder crucifix nailed to tree thong on the ground, full moon behind him.

The term 'Longrasser' has become widely politicized. The word describes a lifestyle adopted by vagrants, swaggies and town campers in Darwin regardless of their ethnicity. However a couple of years ago it became a popular label for used to stereotype drunk or undesirable Aboriginal people. It is also accepted among indigenous town campers to describe themselves as a minority group. (When asked for an address by government bodies a common reply might be "In the Long Grass")
For a while back then, when the Territory government decided to clean up Darwin's streets by flying troublesome people back to their communities, the bourgeoisie of Darwin took hold of the label and applied it ruthlessly to Aboriginal people in general. To begin with the term 'longrasser' came into common use for any drunken or unruly indigenous people seen about town. Then slowly through various forms of media and amongst the chatter and gossip of family BBQ's the word took root and seemed to be a politically correct way of slagging off at Aboriginal people generally.

Often when people said Longrasser what they were really talking about was undesirables. In peoples minds and in the media references to Indigenous people became inseperably linked with the word Longrasser. Therefor the familiar concept of Aboriginal people being by default undesirable has managed to become a popular and common conclusion among much of the non-indigenous community in Darwin.

I am certain that amongst elements of the Darwin community there was a great sigh of relief. People could go back to slagging off at aborigines without being labeled as racist! finally a loophole had been created that allowed for the vilification of an ethnic group whilst remaining politically correct! Wide acceptance of the word Longrasser as code for Aboriginal people brought forth all kinds of public discussion about what to do with them and and how to get them off our streets... Aboriginal people that is. By now the fact that there were scores of non indigenous people living in the longrass appeared to have been completely ignored.

Somewhere along the line someone came up with the brilliant idea of showing recognition of the Larrakia people, the traditional owners of Darwin and its immediate surrounds. A campaign then began to remind visitors from other communities (most of the indigenous longrassers come from other communities) that they should respect the Larrakia people and act appropriately on their land. Signs were erected as reminders, seemingly for indigenous people, but how were the broader community educated about respecting Larrakia places? I don't recall seeing any education campaign that was directed at non indigenous people. Maybe because the campaign wasn't to to educate us or to encourage respect for country. It was designed to evict aboriginal people from the beaches and parks of Darwin! That is all! What a farce! My apologies to the Larrakia people but from my limited knowledge of the situation, as a non-indigenous person living in Darwin it seems that our government and community are not really interested in recognizing Larrakia people. The whole thing looked to me like an elaborate way of shaming indigenous people away from Darwin. Non indigenous people are not asked to show the same respect for Larrakia protocol or traditions, we are not shown how or expected to abide by any traditional forms of respect for the land we are on, or it's people.
I think that was about the time when the Federal Government cottoned on to the idea of labeling asylum seekers as 'Cue-jumpers'!

In Darwin there are some people who live and sleep out-doors. Some of them are Indigenous and some of them are not. They do this for all kinds of reasons, sometimes by preference, sometimes out of necessity. Although a lot of people in the longrass are male there are also women, they are young and old and there are family groups. Sometimes with children.
Grog affects the lives of many who are out there. People often seek comfort, and friendship through the grog but are led to despair insanity and death. Grog can be both comforter and destroyer. Life in the longrass can be a dangerous place the conditions are harsh and there is sometimes no escape from opportunists or violent and abusive people.

My feelings about the two paintings: The images above are both of men. One an Aboriginal man lost and close to death, the other a white man living on the fringes of society soulless and hard. When I look at the aboriginal man I feel compassion, I can sympathize with him, he is lost but a totem of his people is standing by, watching over him waiting to sing for him. When I look at the other man unfortunately I do not feel the same sympathy, but he is equally damaged. The crucifix may be a symbol of hope or a lost opportunity. I am inclined to think that both are lacking any hope. Geoff says it is a symbolizes the struggle of living a life trapped between two worlds.
Maybe the crosses bear witness to their persistence and ultimately their passing.

Blood Moon ~ A lunar eclipse

A different moon looked down upon me as I cycled home last night. The radio had been buzzing with speculation about how it would look, there were suggestions we would be bathed in crimson moonlight a sight not to be missed.
When my class was over it was quite late and the moon had already begun its arc across the night sky but something was definitely different. Dark and and weighty with deep hues of orange, a dense and dark moon tonight. It was like looking at the face of a friend through the hazy, tumultuous shroud of bushfire smoke.
The street lights obscured my view and whether I was bathed in crimson moonlight or the mottled glow of electric street lamps, regretfully I have to say; the moon was present but did not dominate the light that shone my way!
I peddled on and eventually I found a dark and quiet spot, I turned naturally and instinctively toward the blushing moon. It did look different! It was clear in the sky but obscured by something foreign! Strange to see it like that. Shrouded... Painted? ... Smothered by Gaia it's veil.
What I could see was the reflection of us. Imposed on our small and faithful celestial brother! The shadow of the earth fully cloaking the lesser orb and imposing it's dominance over the helpless globe. Bathed in the deflected light of Sun, the bloody hues a reflection of a crowded and busy planet. Hidden too long from a precious golden star.
The quiet moon bulges in a crimson shade and reveals it's true endeering strength. Somehow shadow does not extinguish the connection between earth and moon but for a few moments they are linked and inseparable.
They travel together, connected but apart... each on it's own orbit but inseparable by nature. The fate of one is that of the other and on the night of the blood moon they may come together and share their secrets hidden from the sun.

Well if not this then something must be going on around here! When I got home I whipped out the binoculars and had a closer look at the moon. The angle of the light on its surface gave it far more depth than I remember seeing! It somehow seemed more dense or three dimensional. Like the lack of glare from the reflected light actually allowed me to see it more fully. I know it's a dumb thing to say but I felt like it was really out there! Close and touchable and big.



When I woke this morning it dawned on me that watching this event is a really special thing. I was actually watching the shadow of the very earth I was standing on cast on the only surface possible of carrying our shadow! That is really special! In that sense it must be more significant than a total eclipse of the sun!

Cool!

Disability Awareness Week

Although I haven't been posting much lately, there has been plenty happening! I just haven't felt much inspiration to bang away on the keyboard about it. (Sometimes this whole blogging thing gets a bit tedious! What is the good in it? Who will even read it? etc... etc...) Oh well what else am I to do? It's 4:30 am, I have only had about 4 hours sleep and for some reason since we returned from Broome my skin has become so itchy that it keeps me up at night! I can't see any cause of the irritation but it gets worse at night and it's driving me crazy today!

Enough about my woes!

It's a big week in Darwin. The Darwin Festival is in full swing with a plethora of entertainment centered in the gardens precinct and branching out to various locations right across town. It also happens to be disability awareness week.
As part of the disability awareness week festivities Geoffrey Yunupingu performed to a select audience at a local university on Monday afternoon. I'd read about the performance in the Darwin festival events calender and decided to get down there to see him. It turned out that the concert was by invitation only! Buy the organizers were very understanding and permitted me to come along, so I gratefully accepted their invitation...
This guy has such a great musical style! His songs are full of emotion and a deep love for his people, his family. Although the lyrics are mostly in Yolngu no interpretation is needed to convey the beauty he expresses. This was the second time I've seen him in a month and I can't wait for the next performance.

Yesterday also as part of disability awareness week we went down to an open day at a special little garden in Leanyer called The Plot. It is an amazing gardening and craft space that has been set up in a disused council works depot. In a shady nook of the property a group of students, teachers and support workers have created an oasis of calm and purposeful toil. I was really impressed by what I saw there and hope to be able to give some of my time to their activities in creating what may turn out to be a much needed community space on the edge of town.
This could be exactly what our community needs! A people's space run by the people, for the people! The opportunities this project has already provided it's participants are proof of its future potential! After spending just an hour there I felt empowered and energized enough to see out the rest of the day with a smile on my face!

Broome

I haven't really had the time or the inclination to write about our time in Broome.
As the finer details of the trip are fading and my work/family/study etc... etc... are growing I doubt I will get around to writing the full description of our greatest holiday in, (can't remember how many) years!

Here's a very brief overview...

Left Darwin, I forget what date but it was a day or so later than we expected, so many little things to do before we go!

Easy does it as we roll out of town. Barely made it past the shire limits before we stopped for lunch at Coomali.
Stayed at the Katherine lowlevel caravan park on the first night and struggled with the dramas of having to unpack the entire car in order to get to all the stuff we needed. Night one.

The next day we headed west from Katherine. Everything from here was new to us, neither Sam nor myself had ever traveled any further west than Katherine. The country west of Katherine changed little by little until we reached the VRD and Timber creek where the Kimberly trademark Boab trees began to appear on the landscape... awesome!

Gregory national park looked like it was well worth some more time but maybe on the way back.
We did an average of about 300 - 400 km per day and had plenty of stops. The hidden valley caravan park in Kunnanurra was a pleasant stop with plenty of camping space. The red rocky escarpment all around was a great contrast to the monotonous flat land around Darwin. In Kunnanurra we ran into some friends who'd had car trouble and were stuck there waiting for a new diff!

Onwards we roll. Stayed a night in Halls Creek, I think it was pension day and there was lots of grog around... Not a healthy place to live.. so much drinking and fighting!

The lodge at Fitzroy Crossing was so detached from the township! Heading west you enter Fitzroy by crossing a couple of bridges over the Fitzroy River, but the lodge is on the opposite side of the river separating the wealthy, orderly tourists from the gritty town of Fitzroy and limiting any interaction between the immaculate mostly retired travelers and the reality of the places and people they/we pass.

Did a boat tour on the gorge scoured through an corral reef millions of years gone. Getting closer now to our destination can't remember our next stop but we were soon in Broome!
So many cars on the road as we arrived. We found our caravan park besides the speedway but more quiet and shady than most! Not that there was a choice anyway everything had been booked out for months!

Caught up with an Uncle and Aunty who were traveling the country counter clockwise and headed for Darwin. It was the night of stairway to the moon so we set up camp just in time to join them and their friends at some kind of surreal luxury hotel on a bluff overlooking the mangroves! Our heads were spinning as we mingled in thongs and shorts amongst people from all walks of life. There were more than a few rich and famous at this particular venue the best place to view a fairly irregular event!

The Pigram Brothers were playing too. What an awesome welcome to Broome. Spent a few days down at Cable beach, there was an unusual swell and I got so into body surfing and jumping around in the cool ocean that I wound up snapping a calf muscle and was semi crippled for the rest of the week!

As we had been warned Broome would have been cool about 20 years ago! I still enjoyed the place though! It was NAIDOC week and we spent a fair bit of time attending 'free' cultural events! What a stroke of luck! Thanks to all the people who contributed to such an awesome week especially the ladies who read to the kids at the Library and the folks down at the fish farm who shared their culture and history with us!

Went on a great camel ride with Ships of the Desert. I can highly recommend. They were over booked and gave us an incredible discount for altering our booking! It was a fantastic ride and the personalities of the camels were delightful.

So much happened I can't even begin to tell so I'll end on the note that it was a most excelent holiday! We discussed going back every year, but time will tell.