2016 David Hunter Memorial Lecture
Rod Little: The Importance
of the Redfern Statement
Rod Little is a current Co-Chair of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples and a former chairperson of the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body. He is of the Yamatji and Nyoongar nations from Geraldton and Perth in Western Australia.
Rod leads a broad alliance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders and supporter organisations who are signatories of the Redfern Statement. This statement aims to reset the relationship with the Federal Government and Parliament to ensure effective engagement for policy and service delivery improvements for First Australians.
For more information about the Redfern Statement see:
www.nationalcongress.com.au/the-redfern-statement/
Thursday 3rd November 2016
5.30 pm for 6.00 pm start
Please join us for refreshments from 5.30 pm.
Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture
15 Blackall Street, Barton
Enquiries: info@antaract.org.au
David Hunter was one of the founding members of ANTaR, and an enormously supportive and inspiring activist on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues. In October 2000 he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, and he died in December 2003. Since then, ANTaR ACT has hosted an annual memorial lecture in memory of David’s contributions to reconciliation and Indigenous rights.
Upcoming events – put them in your diary now!
Keep our hands moving!
ANTaR ACT has a collection of ‘hands’ in six colours, which are suitable to prompt discussion of reconciliation and recognition. If you would like to borrow our hands for an event or learning opportunity, email us at antaract@yahoo.com.au. For an example of how the hands have been used previously, please refer to the 2014 ANTaR ACT newsletter (under ‘Publications’) which features an article about the successful ‘Sea of Hands’ installation in February 2014 to celebrate the sixth anniversary of the National Apology and the 50th anniversary of AIATSIS.
Thursday 29 October 2015: David Hunter Memorial Lecture – ‘Countering racism in the media’ with Stan Grant
6pm for 6.15pm: Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, 15 Blackall Street, Barton
ANTaR ACT invites you to attend the annual David Hunter Memorial Lecture. Please join us for refreshments from 6pm. Further information about the lecture series is available at: https://antaract.wordpress.com/campaigns/
Wednesday 19 August 2015: Politics in the Pub – ‘Closing the Gap’ on Indigenous Health with Kirstie Parker
6-7pm: Lounge Bar, Level 3, Uni Pub, 17 London Circuit
The Australia Institute, in cooperation with Oxfam and ANTaR ACT, invite you to hear Kirstie Parker speak about the Close the Gap campaign for Indigenous health equality.
No RSVP required. Drinks and snacks available for purchase at the bar.
Wednesday 12 August 2015: Screening of ANTaR justice reinvestment videos
6pm: Manning Clark House, 11 Tasmania Circle, Forrest
Please join ANTaR ACT for the screening of a series of short videos about ‘justice reinvestment’, including a reflection by ANU College of Law lecturer Mary Spiers Williams. Justice reinvestment is a new evidence-based approach to reduce the disproportionate incarceration rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by addressing the complex causes of contact with the justice system.
Further information: http://antar.org.au/campaigns/justice-campaign
Free entry – donations welcome
Thursday 9 July 2015: NAIDOC Community Celebration – Land and Learning
11am-2pm: The Smith Family Office, Crn Launceston and Easty Streets, Woden
This year’s NAIDOC theme will highlight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ strong spiritual and cultural connection to land and sea. This theme is an opportunity to pay respect to country, honour those who work tirelessly on preserving land, sea and culture, and to share stories. Join us as we celebrate NAIDOC through story telling, artwork and a yarn with our respected Elders and future generations. Catering: Traditional Torres Strait Islander food and a BBQ will be provided.
www.naidoc.org.au/event/naidoc-community-celebration-land-and-learning
Saturday 30 May 2015: National Reconciliation Week Afternoon Tea
2-4pm: Lena Karmel Lodge Rooftop, 26 Barry Drive The ACT Greens are hosting a National Reconciliation Week afternoon tea. The event will feature a panel of speakers who will share their reflections on issues that are significant for Indigenous Australians living in the ACT. Entry is free although a donation is welcome, as well as any contributions of delectable snacks for the afternoon tea. Guest speakers include:
- Ms Roslyn Brown, Co-Chair of the United Ngunnawal Elders Council (UNEC)
- Ms Caroline Hughes, Centre Director of CIT’s Yurauna Centre, also alternative member of UNEC
- Mr Ross Fowler, member of the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body (ATSIEB)
- Ms Jo Chivers, member of ATSIEB
- Ms Robyn Martin, Manager Beryl Women’s Refuge and this year’s ACT’s Woman of the Year
There will be opportunities for a Q&A session and more informal discussions over afternoon tea. This event is open to all Greens members, their families and friends. Further information is available on the ACT Greens website.
Friday 22 May 2015: National Sorry Day Bridge Walk
10.45am: meet at Regatta Point; walk starts at 11am at base of Commonwealth Avenue bridge
Welcome to Country by Aunty Agnes Shea
Includes entertainment, smoking ceremony and healthy options for lunch
Tuesday 5 May 2015: ANTaR ACT monthly meeting
6-7.15pm, Civic Library (entry at rear)
All welcome. Enquiries to Peter: 0417 197 382.
Saturday 25 April 2015: Lest We Forget the Frontier Wars ANZAC Day March
Assembling from 11am outside West Block, Anzac Parade
This is an Aboriginal led march which joins on the end of the ANZAC Day March and paraes up Anzac Parade to the Australian War Memorial singing songs and bearing flags, banners and placards naming the battles and massacres of Australia’s frontier wars. An idea whose time has come. Come be there.
Further information: http://anzacpeacevigil.org/
Johanna McBride, Musical Co-ordinator, A Chorus of Women – 0402 050 885
Graeme Dunstan, Master Lantern Maker, Peacebus.com – 0407 951 688
Friday 24 April 2015: ANZAC Peace Vigil 2015: A Call to Peace
‘Kindling the Peace Fire’ – from 5.30pm on Friday 24 April on top of Mt Ainslie: Meeting at the top of the mountain at sunset to light peace lanterns, welcome to country, community singing, an offering of poetry, ‘Spirit Songs for ANZAC Eve’, led by A Chorus of Women and a ceremonial smoking at the entrance to the mountain path.
‘Walking into darkness’ – departing 6.15pm on Friday 24 April from top of Mt Ainslie: Walkers begin their lantern-lit procession down the mountain track. The walk is shared as a meditative walk and the metaphor is of each of us carrying a light down into the darkness of grief. Not for everyone, only the sure-footed. Candle-lit lanterns provided. At the end of the path, walkers will pause in Remembrance Park and gather in some community singing before proceeding into the Australian War Memorial precinct.
‘Sharing the peace fire, sharing lament’ – from around 7.15pm on Friday 24 April at forecourt of Australian War Memorial: The lantern procession will join with other participants in the Australian War Memorial Forecourt about the Peace Fire for the main ceremony of the Vigil. With song, poetry and personal storytelling, we will re-imagine ANZAC, seek, find and share our common ground of lament. For all the dead and maimed of all the wars.
‘Night vigil around the peace fire’ – from around 8.30pm on Friday 24 April at the lake end of Anzac Parade, outside West Block: Departing the War Memorialf or a final lantern walk down Anzac Parade and gathering outside West Block for a campfire with stories, poetry, singing and conversation all through the night. Warming soup will be offered, and also after the ANZAC Dawn Service next morning. Remember to BYO mug, rug and chair.
Further information: http://anzacpeacevigil.org/
Johanna McBride, Musical Co-ordinator,A Chorus of Women – 0402 050 885
Graeme Dunstan, Master Lantern Maker,Peacebus.com – 0407 951 688
Monday 13 April 2015: Painting workshops with Christopher Pease – ‘Painting on a mythic scale’
10.30am-12.30pm and 2-4pm for ages 7-12
Internationally acclaimed Indigenous artist, Christopher Pease, leads a painting workshop inspired by his current exhibition ‘Alive and Spirited’ at the National Gallery of Australia. $25 / $20 child members Bookings essential: BOOK HERE
Saturday 11 April 2015: Christopher Pease artists talk at the National Gallery of Australia
12.45pm, ATSI Urban Gallery, National Gallery of Australia
FREE entry / no bookings required
Christopher Pease’s paintings are currently on show in an exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia – ‘Alive and Spirited’. The paintings brilliantly incorporate Indigenous iconography and international styles to explore tensions arising from European colonisation. He is descended from the Minang people, part of the Noongar nation of Western Australia.
Friday 10 April 2015: Film launch and discussion – ‘Remembering Yayayi’
1-4.30pm, National Museum of Australia, Visions Theatre
Bookings essential: rememberingyayayi.eventbrite.com.au
‘Remembering Yayayi’ is a documentary that weaves together contemporary interviews with previously unseen 1974 footage shot in Yayayi, a remote community in Central Australia, during an important period of transition for Pintupi people.
Join the conversation after the screening with Marlene Nampitjinpa and Professor Fred Meyers.
Wednesday 25 March 2015: Reducing incarceration by testing: Justice Reinvestment theory and methodology: an exploratory case study presented by Jill Guthrie
12.30-2.00pm, Hanna Neumann Building, Room G058 (near Degree Café and Manning Clark Centre), Australian National University
Researchers from ANU are working with the Cowra (NSW, 2794) community on a community-driven research project which explores the theory and research methodology of Justice Reinvestment as a way of reducing incarceration of juveniles.
In addition to an inter-disciplinary research team, the research is being guided by a Research Reference Group comprising representatives of the Cowra Shire Council, representatives from the Cowra Aboriginal Land Council, the President of NSW Children’s Court, an ANU-based human rights lawyer and US-based JR academic.
Jill Guthrie is a Research Fellow at the National Centre for Indigenous Studies at the ANU.
Thursday 19 March 2015: Aboriginal communities in Australia announce a global call to action: Rally from Aboriginal Tent Embassy to Parliament House
Assemble at Tent Embassy at 11.30am for a 12.00pm march to Parliament
Speakers from 12.30-2.00pm
Kimberley Aboriginal communities have declared a GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION to stop the forced closure of Aboriginal communities in Western Australia amidst the growing campaign by state and federal governments to withdraw their support and remove Aboriginal people from their traditional homelands.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has whipped up a great amount of fear, anxiety and doubt among the already marginalised First Peoples when he said that, “What we can’t do, is endlessly subsidise choices, if those lifestyle choices are not conducive to the kind of full participation in Australian society that everyone should have”. Abbott’s statement was in support of the declarations made by Premier of Western Australia, Colin Barnett, in a press statement released on 12 November 2014 which suggested that the state could no longer support 150 Aboriginal communities and flagging the prospective removal of services to these communities by the end of 2015.
We who live in the remoter areas of Australia do not believe it is a lifestyle choice but an intrinsic fundamental human right to live in our own communities and our own country. We hold significant cultural obligations to our ancestors to maintain sovereign ties to our lands. After successive breaches of human rights conventions and the forced removal of the Aboriginal community of Oombulgurri in 2014, we maintain a vote of no confidence in both the incumbent state and federal governments in their actions toward Aboriginal people.
On Thursday 19 March 2015, Australians across the nation are being asked by governments to acknowledge ‘Close the Gap’ Day – but for many of our countrymen the ‘gap’ has been significantly widened, placing increasing pressure and trauma on our people. Starting in the Kimberley at 10am, we will march not for this government agenda, but instead to show our objection to the threatened proposed closures to Aboriginal communities. We stand in solidarity with all other regions in Western Australia and South Australia who have the veil of threatened remote community closures hanging over their lives. We understand that the precedent for a national attack by government toward Aboriginal people living on their homelands, has already been set in the Oombulgurri closure. We ask the national and international community to stand with us in this action, and the subsequent actions that will ensue as we mobilise effective campaigns to secure our cultural rights and entitlements.
Canberra media enquiries:
Amy McQuire: 0487 427 207
Alice Haines: 0447 097 659
Graham Merritt: 0406 470 343
Email: blaksoscanberra@gmail.com
www.sosblakaustralia.com – www.facebook.com/sosblakaustralia – Twitter: @sosblakaust
Official hashtags: #SOSBLAKAUSTRALIA #NOconsent #Lifestylechoice
Calendar of events for 2015:
January
Over long weekend of 26 January: rallies and discussion at the Tent Embassy
February
5 February: Just Reinvest – NSW launch
11 February: Annual Close the Gap report released
13 February: Anniversary of the Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples (2008)
March
8 March: International Women’s Day
Mid-March: Indigenous Advancement Strategy funding recipients announced
21 March: Harmony Day
23 March: Environment Centre Harvest Festival – ANTaR ACT to hold a stall
May
National launch of Justice Reinvestment videos in Canberra (date TBC)
26 May: Sorry Day
27 May-3 June: Reconciliation Week
27 May: Anniversary of the 1967 referendum
June
27 May-3 June: Reconciliation Week
3 June: Mabo Day – Mabo decision was handed down in 1992
August
4 August: National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day
7-10 August: Round 22 NRL – Indigenous Round (Raiders will play Tigers in Canberra)
9 August: International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples
12 August: Screening of ACT justice reinvestment videos
19 August: Politics in the Pub – ‘Closing the Gap’ on Indigenous health
October
29 October: Annual David Hunter Memorial Lecture
December
10 December: International Human Rights Day Environment Centre Christmas markets – ANTaR ACT to hold a stall
Can you please post this upcoming event on your events page? There is to be a second march to stop the forced closure of Aboriginal communities in Perth on Friday, 1 May at 11am at Forrest Chase – https://www.facebook.com/sosblakaustralia/photos/a.1053697864647023.1073741843.1042255972457879/1058197330863743/?type=1
Hi Brian, thank you for your message. We generally only post events happening in the ACT on our website.
I’d recommend that you request the ANTaR WA Facebook page to post your event: https://www.facebook.com/ANTaRWA.
Thank you, Sophie