Black Nations Rising ISSUE 5 by The Black Rising Magazine

issue #5

APRIL 2016

www.facebook.com/blacknationsrising

ISSUE 3

Photo credit: Dan Lanzini

contents Destruction - Sandra Onus-Kappatch-Jarr

JUMP! You wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t - John Williams and Maria Clague

Mapuche Resistance - Marisol Salinas

Changing Education - Shawn Andrews

Warrior Profile - Kaahmit Ogtagnog Klowej

Aboriginal Tattoos - Cameron ManningBrown

#FreeWestPapua

Decolonising Theatre - Kamarra Bell-Wykes

A History of Exploitation: A Common Enemy (part one) - Meg Rodaughan

Black Nations Rising (BNR) magazine is published by Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance (WAR) in both print and online. If you would like to contribute &/or subsribe to BNR send an email to blacknationsrising@gmail.com We thank all who have made this publication a reality; the writers, photographers, and artists, along with the organizations assisting with printing and distribution.

Australian Manufacturing Workersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Union Brisbane Aboriginal Sovereign Embassy Community Food Program Inc Electrical Trade Union

Co-editors: Pekeri Ruska, Anita Goon Wymarra and Callum Clayton-Dixon

National Tertiary Education Union

Printing/ Distribution Coordinator: Merinda Meredith

Queensland Council of Unions Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre Inc

Layout/ Design: Tahnee Edwards

United Voice

Front cover illustration: Jade Slockee

PRINTED AND/OR DISTRIBUTED BY:

Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance B L A C K N AT I O N S R I S I N G

Destruction Sandra Onus-Kappatch-Jarr Yigar / Kilkarra / Eurite / Gilgar / Kerrup Mara / Gunditjmara / Dhaurtwurrung

It is a shame, a great disgrace that members of the Mara Race, did go into a sacred place and cause a mass destruction! A place of Murder years ago, by Henty, Learmonth and Co, the blood of Mara which did flow, for sitting on their country. Now Brolga, Emu, Kappatch flew, at sounds of dozer coming through, they fled their homes, what to do, just sitting on their country!! Now they were told this Mara Mob the Sacred of the stones, they schemed and planned, continued on, they did not care.... and that was wrong!! Destroying, spirit, dance and song!! Scarred trees alive, they knocked them down, our stones disturbed which for so long, a part of our volcanoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s song, which has been silent for so long, and now he weeps in sadness.

Photo credit: Sandra Onus-Kappatch-Jarr

ISSUE 5

To My People,

JUMP! You won’t…. We would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land which we stand at present, the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation and pay respects to elders both past and present. Sovereignty has never ceded. This letter is addressed to the youth/elders to jump up and get back into culture and out of the drug scene and jailing system. We are looking for support from you elders on the basis of you already having established businesses, your country and your contacts for cultural camps. We NEED YOUR HELP! The story of one of our youth, is an all too familiar experience amongst us: I know personally how hard it is to cease using drugs. Coming from a big family myself we acted like were were a happy family, but yet all my elders just stood by and did nothing. They just sat there and watched my world fall apart. I looked for help amongst my brothers and sisters. The way I beat my demons was to go walkabout. It was in my travels that I realised that I was not using drugs, the hunger was suppressed and I realised that we, the youth are on our own. As I was going through my mission of going through country, and got talking to our youth in different states and countries, it was made clear to me that the ‘support mechanisms’ are poor and literally non existent in the communities. Hearing this story and the way we are living tore us apart and left us disillusioned. By asking our brothers and sisters the right questions, we came up with some ideas on how to attract the youth and start making change for our future including: • Cultural and arts (dance/ music/ art/ hunting/ gathering); • Workshops giving the youth its voice (eg. music); • Action camps (eg. urban camping); • Elders country camps - walkabout; • Medicines/ healing camps; • Sex education; • Oral hygiene; • Mobile library; • Lore/Law workshops;

B L A C K N AT I O N S R I S I N G

• Welfare and DOC’S workshops; • Self defence trainings; • Hosting events/ fundraising; • Media broadcasting (radio/ tv/ newspapers); • Human rights training; • Legal training (magna carta, natural lore, sovereignty, property ownership); • Mentor program with youth and older people; • Ceremony (women’s business and men’s business); • Self-esteem training; • Responsibility training - becoming a man and becoming a woman; • Holistic care workshops; If we start getting the youth off the streets and off the drugs, we need to know that we have adequate support with businesses, camps, events, venues, training to engage and feed that hunger. There are so many talented brothers and sisters now with so much to offer, so we ask: How can we teach the youth if we have not been taught ourselves? We need to be taught before we can teach! We need our teachers back! The choices we make in life now determine the people we will become. It is time to properly invest in US so we can handle the responsibility some of us have inherited and for those who will eventually inherit. Will you JUMP and equip us with the necessary knowledge, to be your future leaders? Yours Sincerely, The Youth

*This letter acknowledges the work of John Williams, a Butjula/Waka Waka man and Maria Clague, a Yaegl woman. It is not intended to represent the views of all youth, just those who participated in discussions across Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane throughout 2015. ISSUE 5

Mapuche Resistance Marisol Salinas

For over 500 years the Mapuche People have been fighting. First against the Spanish crown invasion, second the Chilean Invasion, and now the invasion of the multinational corporations.

8000 Mapuche without land who are in the process of reclaiming their land expropriated by non-indigenous occupiers and multinational corporations with the backing of the Chilean state.

Treaties between Chile and the Mapuche, recognising the indigenous people’s rights to land and self-determination, have not been respected. The Chilean state has and continues to militarise communities that are fighting for their land. These communities are referred to as “communities in conflict” because they are defending their land from plunder and dispossession perpetrated by the state, multinational corporations and nonindigenous occupiers.

There are several educational projects organised by the Mapuche communities to recuperate their culture and language. Most of these communities are in the process of teaching their children Mapudungun (“Language of the Land”) and all the traditional ceremonies. Between the communities, they organise the troika (trade) by which they exchange what they produce. They also organised the Tragun (general meeting) where different community leaders discuss new ways to organise. For centuries, the Chilean state has been using lies and religion to manipulate and divide Mapuche people creating rivalries between Mapuche communities. But today, more than ever, leaders from the different Mapuche communities are getting together to organise and fight back for the land.

The Mapuche now live all over Chile and Argentina, but the majority are concentrated in the Ninth Region of southern Chile, as well as Bariloche, Neuquen and surrounding areas in Argentina. Mapuche people across both countries are defending their land and themselves from multinational corporations and the state. Further repression by the Chilean state, facilitated by military and police is giving strength to the Mapuche people to continue fighting for their land. There are over

For protecting their lands, the Mapuche have been accused of terrorism by the Chilean state. The Chilean state applies Pinochet-era anti-terror laws exclusively

B L A C K N AT I O N S R I S I N G

to Mapuche activists when they protest, and leaders are routinely jailed until their case is heard (which can be anywhere up to or over a year under these laws). At present there are over 40 Mapuche political prisoners in Chile. Thanks to the support of some human rights lawyers, these Mapuche leaders have been able to prove their innocence, but the accusation remains on their criminal record. Every time the police jail Mapuche leaders from one particular community the relatives and members of the other communities go everyday to the jail to protest outside demanding justice and to show their support. The anti-terrorist law allows the Chilean state to utilise witnesses who can cover their face and transform their voices when accusing the Mapuche leaders. There have been over 30 cases of Mapuche leaders jailed with accusations of stealing an animal, burning a truck, carrying a gun or knife, disobedience, organising protests. But all these accusations and charges were proven to have be made by the Chilean police and non-indigenous occupiers as a way to repress them and make them an example for the rest of the communities that are trying to fight for their rights and land.

Mapuche who have been displaced from their land, live in the main cities facing daily racism, humiliation and discrimination. But they’ve found the strength to fight back for their culture, teaching themselves their language and maintaining connections with their communities in the south. The Mapuche struggle is important, but no more important than the struggles of all other indigenous communities around the world. What Mapuche communities are facing today has happened and continues to happen to many indigenous communities globally. We are learning from our brothers and sisters around the world how to be strong and fight back. Many communities have been able to move back to their land. The reclamation of land is a long and difficult process, but the connection with the land is so strong. Regardless of whether the police come and evict them and put them in jail, the community will come back, again and again. Mapuche means “people of the land”. So without land, you cannot be a Mapuche. And this is just the beginning. The Mapuche people are fighting for their land, sovereignty and autonomy for the Mapuche nation in the Wallmapu. The Mapuche people have been trying to have dialogue with the Chilean government of the day, without any positive response or willingness to talk about the Mapuche Indigenous land issue. The last Mapuche

attempt to be heard by the current Chilean government of Michelle Bachelet has failed once more. No positive government response. The repression continues and many communities remain militarised. During the land reclamation process the Mapuche face violence, surveillance, humiliation, intimidation and abuse from police, the military, non-indigenous occupiers and paramilitary security forces. On Monday 28th of September 2015, the Special Forces Police violently raided the Mapuche community of Coñomil Epuleo in Ercilla (southern Chile). With a number of bullet-proof police cars, government helicopters and cannons shooting tear gas. During the raid, José Coñalinco, a Mapuche leader was shot in the face by police in his backyard in front of his family and community. This was a continuation of the repression, militarisation and violence from the Chilean police and state, displayed earlier in September, when Chilean Police shot their guns as part of the violent eviction of Mapuche (including elders and children) from their protest in the CONADI (National Corporation for Indigenous Development) building in Wallmapu, Temuco at 5am on the 7th of September. Even more recently, the Antinao community from Pidima-Ercilla, our lagmien (brother) Moises Lienqueo was wounded by policeman. The special police forces GOPE used tear gas bombs

ISSUE 5

and extreme violence to raid the Antinao community shooting at close range indiscriminately no matter if there were children, women and elderly present. The Chilean mainstream media did not show what happened and tried to portray this as a confrontation between the police and the community. That is why alternative media like this is so important. We need to support and create our own indigenous media to stop the corporate press colonising our voices. There may be differences in communities, but they know very well who is the enemy and they unite and work together and concentrate on what is best for the communities.

Marisol Salinas Mapuche Aboriginal Struggles for Indigenous Land (MASIL) Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET) Marisol is Mapuche, a member from the Huilliche tribe of Chiloe, Chile. Marisol is Project Co-ordinator of MASIL, a not-for-profit organisation run by volunteers who believe in and respect indigenous rights organising with the permission of some indigenous communities an exchange in this case between Mapuche (Chile/Argentina), Aboriginal (Australia), Canada, Bolivia and Maori (Aotearoa/NZ). For more information about MASIL go to www.facebook.com/MASILproject

Presenting to international students at the Asia Pacific Youth Forum

Changing Education Shawn Andrews, Yugambeh / Mununjali

How do I begin to explain how I feel? Where do I start? What are the necessary words that I need to say to ensure the you actually hear me, understand me, connect with me? I know who I am. I am a man who is not black enough. Or white enough. I am part of a forgotten generation, from a divided family. A family that was stolen, mistreated and led to believe that Aboriginality is shameful. I grew up in an environment where my grandmother told me repeatedly that it is better to tell everyone that I was Maori and not Aboriginal, because “if you tell people you’re Aboriginal they’ll put you down”. I still vividly remember her pushing her thumb down hard on the table as she said “they’ll put you down”. As a child I often wondered what she was squashing with her thumb, now I know she was trying to squash the painful memories of the past.

As a child I was sheltered from a lot of my families’ pain, my mother, a strong woman, came to the conclusion that my life would be better if she moved us from Katherine, Northern Territory to a small country town in the Western District of Victoria. Her decision to move us from family must have caused her great distress but she did as mothers do and carried the pain in secret. In some sense for me growing up in small country town in Victoria was like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire, well at least in the sense of identity. There I was, an Aboriginal boy that kept being told he’s not Aboriginal. A boy who played with any child of any race or religion in Katherine who was now being told not to play with the boys from Framlingham as they are Aboriginal. I was stuck in a place where everything was wrong and everything they wanted me to be I couldn’t be.

B L A C K N AT I O N S R I S I N G

During the 80’s and 90’s I was repeatedly told lies at school that real Aboriginal people didn’t exist, that Aboriginal people were weak and were easily defeated by the English. That Aboriginal people are savages, dirty, horrible people that are unable to be educated and that the history of this country started in 1788. That time of my life was very challenging I often felt isolated and alone and I always had a deep sense of shame. The pain I suffered during that time inspired me to make some changes in my life. The first thing I changed was to own my identity. I decided that I would no longer suppress my deep indigenous connection and that I would be the one to heal our families’ pain. I soon realised our ancient existence, how strong we really are as a people, that we are beautiful and clever and lived a sophisticated yet humble lifestyle prior to 1788. I started to research my family and after ten long years I was able to put all the pieces together, I revisited family and Elders I sat and listened, and at the very end I returned to my Grandmothers country to reconnect. All the years of listening to Elders, Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people had filled me with the confidence to embark on a journey of learning. Part of this learning meant hearing and feeling the grief and sorrow, but the greatest pain I felt was the generational pain of my ancestors. The pain of being treated as if we are second-class, or even less than second-class. The guilt associated with being Aboriginal and the fact that I was constantly bombarded with the statements ‘the problem with Aboriginal people is’ and ‘we can fix Aboriginal people through programs that help them’. I remember sitting at my special place on

Teaching year four students about bush foods and their uses

logical conclusion that in order for us to fix these problems we need to understand the historical context of how they were created. The reality is that very little of this content is being taught in schools, there is no mention of our side of history, no mention within curriculum requirements of the White Australia Policy, Half-Caste Act, the various massacres or of government deliberate attempts to wipe us out through their assimilation policies.

the side of Mount Noorat reflecting on those statements and thinking to myself that there has to be a better way. I sat in silence for a long time, I knew what I needed to do but I was frightened to do it. The same pain that my grandmother tried to squash with her thumb was present in me. I felt as though she was there with me on the mountain, she was pushing me to create change and I knew then that I needed to create an indigenous education program for schools. A program that teaches non-Aboriginal people about us. A program that is embedded in school curriculum that is developed by Aboriginal people and taught by Aboriginal people. At that stage I had no idea of how to make that happen or even where to start. That day I decided to go to university and study as much as I could. I knew that I needed to learn about education, how the system worked and how it viewed Aboriginal ways. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was the day Indigicate was born. The Australian Government has lied to us, they have failed in so many ways and the greatest failure they have had within education is their inability to educate all Australians about Aboriginal culture. The government would argue that there has been giant leaps in the teaching of Aboriginal culture over the last fifteen years and no doubt there has been,

however the truth is that the majority of the educational content being taught in schools isn’t being taught by Aboriginal people and that the current curriculum lacks Aboriginal input. Australia needs to rewrite history and it must begin with our schools. In my experience working with schools I have learned that the perception of Aboriginal culture is that it is all boomerangs, artefacts, dreamtime stories and bush tucker. Schools employ Aboriginal people to teach lessons on this content and when the lesson is over they leave feeling that their work is done and that the students now have an Indigenous education. The reality is that these lessons (although important) are only surface based lessons and don’t encourage the deeper learning that is required to make significant changes. To put what I am writing into perspective we need to understand the current climate in education within Australia and to fully understand this we need to understand our past. Take any contemporary problem that exists between Aboriginal and nonAboriginal people, now ask yourself why do we have this problem? Most likely your response will be based on colonisation and that the colonisation of Aboriginal people, the massacres of Aboriginal people and the displacement of Aboriginal people have led to the various issues that exist today. Therefore it would be the

ISSUE 5

The question that kept consuming my thoughts was how do I approach schools and make them understand that this content needs to be taught? I know that Aboriginal methods of teaching and learning are brilliant. I know that we can heal the wounds of colonisation through story sharing and talking about Aboriginal culture. I know that we need local Aboriginal people adding their own stories in schools on their country. What I didn’t know was where to start. After facilitating a couple of cultural sessions it occurred to me that I needed to think big. I decided that I could create a business that would aim to create an Aboriginal curriculum in one school then use that curriculum as a model for other schools. I want to put an Aboriginal teacher in every school in Australia and all I need is one school to commit. I didn’t ask for government funding as I wanted the schools to commit their resources because they believed it was important to change Australia. I started with $20, no car and no idea what to do. That was twelve months ago. Since then Indigicate has contracted two schools and two outdoor education companies to long term commitments that allow us to create Aboriginal curriculum and teach it. I feel that change is coming, that we are a generation of change and that we can create a better Australia for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.

warrior profile Mi’kmaq Warrior: Kaahmit Ogtagnog Klowej

1. What is your name and who is your mob/ tribe?

3. Why did you get involved in the resistance?

My spiritual name is Kaahmit Ogtagnog Klowej, which means ‘standing northern star.’ I received that name in a shaking tent ceremony in 2008. My colonialist name is Paul Francis and my tribe is the Mi’kmaq, or people of the Dawn Land. We are located on the eastern side of Turtle Island (Canada)

It was around 10 September 2013, and I was in Bangor Maine raking blueberries (under the Jay Treaty, ‘Canadian’ born Aboriginal citizens are able to cross the “border” and find work). While i was in town for laundry and food, my mum made contact with me. She was telling me about a fracking company going to New Brunswick to test wells and do seismic testing. She also told me the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) were mishandling our people while they exercising their right to peaceful protest.

2. How do you define ‘warrior’? The main focus of a warrior should be maintain the peace, one who will try everything in his power to keep the peace. But if these peace talks fall on deaf ears, a warrior will pick up the hatchet and defend those laws given to you by your ancestors, those which plea to keep the land and people pure for the next generation, the land we walk on is not ours but the ones yet to be born into this world.

B L A C K N AT I O N S R I S I N G

Within a few weeks, I was on my way home to join with my people to defend our land against fracking, and after that is history. We settled on the highway for almost four weeks until 17 October and the fight just escalated after the raid. About 40 to 50 people were arrested for protest related “crimes”. Elders, pregnant women and many others unable to fight for themselves were the first to be assaulted by the RCMP, but as soon as the warriors stood up they settled down and then wanted to send in the mediators. I do wonder if the RCMP were afraid.

Air shot of the standoff between the RCMP and the Mi’kmaq people

4. What is decolonization to you? Decolonization is dropping the 1900’s mindset of society, of wanting to keep the racial divide between the classes and make a “them vs us” mentality prevalent. Because it gets to the point where even our own people attack each other for “not being Aboriginal enough,’ ‘not dark enough’ or not taking part in enough ceremony or arts. It is up to the individual if they want to be the one on the frontlines to defend the peace, or the one spreading the message through social media or music. It is their choice which no one has made them do, they have chosen that path for themselves. We need to respect them and their choices.

5. What do you see as the biggest issues your people face today? I believe the fighting between ourselves is our major downfall. We need to unify and create a model reminiscent of the UN where it is the Nations of Turtle Island, like it was before colonisation, governing our own land and resources. The Canadian Government has not done a very good job of keeping up with its own environmental regulations. Examples of this include the Mount Polly Disaster, a loose oil tanker on the BC coast, multiple pipeline eruptions and explosions all over the country - this list goes on.

ISSUE 5

Aboriginal Tattoos Cameron Manning Brown, Gommeroi

For our people, cultural expression is a critically important way of showing who we are and what we represent. Traditionally, body marking, scarification and tattooing have been and are still essential ways for different indigenous people to express who we are. For myself, I choose to represent my culture through the modern medium of tattoos. Although traditionally not a part of Aboriginal culture, in recent times our people have begun to use tattoos as tools to identify with our culture, our people, our language and our stories. Aboriginal culture incorporates many different ways of expressing our deep connection to our land. For example, we use artistic mediums such as dancing and playing music which have been used for thousands of years to pass on our culture, strengthen our spirituality and our identity. Over the the past few years, detailed tattoos of tribal totems and images depicting dreaming stories have become much more popular. Some of these tattoos depict stories of creation which give important life lessons to our children, guiding the way we live and interact with our environment.

Tattoo and photo credit: Lou Tatulu Conlon

Not only has this created some globally recognised, deadly skin art, it has also got a lot of our people, including younger generations, going back to families and elders, asking questions about their totems and other elements such as food sources and special sites to use in their tattoo designs. Tattoos have recreated conversations and knowledge about culture within many indigenous families, alongside re-instilling pride in our people. It is also worth noting, that due to the often personal nature of many custom designed Aboriginal tattoos, which use particular totems, and have been developed through extensive consultation with families and clans, are tattoo designs that belong to the wearer. Please keep in mind that it is important to understand that you should never copy an Aboriginal tattoo, even if that particular tattoo is of the same totem as your own, or it is from the same mob, to Tattoo and photo credit: Lou Tatulu Conlon 12

B L A C K N AT I O N S R I S I N G

do so is essentially taking someone elseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s story. As a proud Gommeroi man, I have always looked for ways to display my culture and strengthen my connection to my people. I found tattoos as a way to permanently display and educate both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people about my culture. My tattoos tell my own personal story, as well as stories of my tribe and my family. I am often approached by people asking about the meanings of my tattoos and what they represent. I see this as a great opportunity to share my culture and the stories behind my art work. I am able to share my knowledge about important traditional aspects such as totems and kinships systems. The animal totems are an integral part of our dreaming, our culture. They represent our ancestors, who we are, and where we come from, essentially they are our identity.

Tattoo and photo credit: Mark Powel

To be able to use my tattoos to help explain some of this is enlightening, not just for me but also who I am talking to. I also have some tattoo portraits of deadly, inspirational people such as Aboriginal cricketer Eddie Gilbert and inventor, David Unaipon who have influenced me as a black man to resist colonisation, stand proud and represent my culture to the fullest. I am honoured to speak about the achievements of the inspirational Aboriginal people I have tattooed on me, as their stories are often not heard or ignored by white society. Aboriginal tattoos can be seen as another way of asserting our sovereignty and keeping our culture alive for our families and future generations of Aboriginal people. Our people use modern ways to connect with each other and strengthen our cause. An example of this is social media. It has become a vitally important way for us to organise, develop and implement strategies to fight against colonialism and develop ways to educate people about our struggle. I believe Aboriginal tattoos are also a modern way in which our people can display our culture and highlight our struggle to the broader population, as well as helping us to gain a deep sense of identity and pride in ourselves as a people. For myself, since I have got my tattoos I have gained so much pride and self confidence in the way I speak to people about my culture, the way I do my work as a mentor to Aboriginal youth and in the way I carry myself as a proud Gommeroi man. ISSUE 5

Illustration credit: Jade Slockee

B L A C K N AT I O N S R I S I N G

#FreeWestPapua West Papua has been under Indonesian rule since 1963 and have been subjected to the genocidal hand of the Indonesian government since. Over 500,000 people have been killed and thousands have been raped, tortured and imprisoned. The Indonesian Government have banned media reporting from West Papua. The world needs to know about this ongoing military occupation. West Papua “want the freedom to choose their own destiny - a freedom they have always been denied under Indonesian military rule”. In June 2015, West Papua were granted observer status on the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) which was considered by many a step forward. However, the push for this status on the MSG saw over 160 West Papuans beaten, arrested, jailed and tortured within one week for publicly advocating for the move. Black Nations Rising and Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance stand in solidarity with West Papua. To follow this movement and learn how you can support it, follow ‘Free West Papua’ and ‘The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP)’ on social media.

#PapuaMerdeka

ISSUE 5

Decolonising Theatre Kamarra Bell-Wykes, Yuggera / Butchulla

I was lucky enough to see a few plays as a kid; the original production of Bran Nue Dae and Up the Road as well as Funerals and Circuses in Fitzroy when I was about 11 years old. Mum and I are standing in the foyer with the rest of the audience and strangely, a few heavy looking security guards when this old koorie parkie comes in and heads to the bar. Next thing the security guards start grabbing him and dragging him to the door, everyone stands back to watch the show, looking rather uncomfortable in their passive racism, not mum though; “Hey get your hands off him, you can’t do that ya dogs! Let him go!!” I wasn’t too surprised because that’s mum. The security guards tell her to stay out of it but mum only gets louder, talking about land rights and police brutality finally a staff member comes up to her and whispers, “mam It’s ok, it’s just a part of the show.” I can’t remember exactly what happened next but somehow the realisation hit mum that we were watching a rehearsed scene designed to gauge people’s reactions to overt racism (I would discover years later this is typical Boal Theatre of the Oppressed – the ultimate decoloniser and that this same scene was performed before each performance in small towns and cities across Australia with very different results; sometimes the security guards were met with anger, sometimes with applause. These reactions were a pretty accurate gauge of the race relations in each town; years later they toured the show again to the same venues and the reactions barely changed). It wasn’t until 2001 that I wrote my first play. Not having ever studied theatre in a formal setting but being prone to the pen and paper my whole life I thought, “how hard can it be?” Shrunken Iris consisted mostly of recycling old bits of poetry and diary entries and placing them into the mouths of two actors, playing the same character on stage – inner and outer Lexi a heroin addict three days clean; to tell you the truth not much really happened just a whole lot of talking – addiction in prose. Still it got an enthusiastic reception. Reviews read, “never seen before in Aboriginal theatre.” Perhaps it was that I was talking openly about drug addiction

B L A C K N AT I O N S R I S I N G

always thought they were going to die from Hep C or when long suffering drug users would tell me “those words were my life.” Or when people would point out something about a certain line or a monologue that I had never even thought about but was exactly the truth of what the source had written. Sometimes people would ask me, “when are you going to write a real play?” You know one with an opening night and a box office but to me the reactions of prison, community and school audiences was far more gratifying then some wanky review in the Australian.

Photo credits: Ilbijerri

on stage or perhaps that it wasn’t the classic biographical one-woman-play which Aboriginal women had become so well known for. Unfortunately though, many still assumed it was the story of my life which proved to be problematic, particularly when my father came to see the show and in the last scene it is discovered that the Lexi was molested by her father. In reality this couldn’t be any further from the truth and after that traumatic experience my dad didn’t come to see another one of my shows for 15 years! Yes parts were loosely based on my experiences as a drug user, but I had to keep explaining to people there is this thing called an imagination and that Aboriginal people also have them. Over the next two years I took Shrunken Iris to various conferences across the country including the International Youth Playwrights Conference, Interplay. We were assigned to work in groups with four or five other young playwrights from across the globe and a dramaturge (a German word for well…. I’m not sure but they basically help you make your script better). We were to all read each other’s work and then discuss each play in turn. When it was time to discuss Shrunken Iris my German dramaturge (he actually was German) said to me with a slightly annoyed look on his face, “this is not a play…. I don’t know what it is but it is not a play.”

back home – everyone there is reinventing theatre.” I don’t think I’ve been given a bigger compliment since. So I continued to write shows based on instinct - well more like I was given words from the source, they flowed through me from another place and sometimes, I would look back and barely remember writing them but somehow the words were there. When I first started out, I insisted that I was a writer full stop not an Aboriginal writer but I soon found I couldn’t avoid writing about being Aboriginal; spirituality, creation metaphors, language, black humor and politics keep resurfacing in my work again and again. So I stopped fighting it, and let the source flow through me. And I knew I was on the right track when hardened jailbirds would come up to me crying after my show Chopped Liver to tell me they

Fast forward 15 years and my urge to write straight pen to paper plays is fading away and I am becoming more interested in working with marginalised groups to create work. I know what I’ve got to say, I want to help other people say what they want to say – who better to be the storyteller of our own lives then the people whose story it is and every blackfulla is a born story teller. In late 2014, I started working at the ILBIJERRI Theatre Company in the role of Education Manager and was lucky enough to come on board just as Beautiful One Day was listed on the Year 12 drama playlist where VCE students from across the state would be learning about the Protection Act and Deaths In Custody through theatre. Beautiful One Day was about the irrepressible life and times of Palm Island and the death in custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee. It was the most powerful piece of theatre I had ever seen, a living, breathing historical archive, a history lesson told by the oppressed which broke down the chains of colonialism in one foul swoop. Fast forward a few months and I was lucky enough to get tickets to see Brecht’s Mother Courage at Belvoir (the first time I had seen Epic Theatre in the flesh). It was during this time, I had the somewhat late realisation that the best theatre has always made a statement about society and that the beauty of Aboriginal theatre picks, borrows, manipulates and recreates from all theatre movements be it Epic, Poor, modernism, realism, or Verbatim. On top of that we have some pretty deadly moves of our own; not bad considering we only discovered the art form in the last 50 years or so (and they say we are slow learners!). I sit here now on the beach on Palm Island, writing this article a week before we finally bring Beautiful One Day home after performing to rave reviews in Sydney, Melbourne and London. It showed people one of the many untaught stories of Australian history and I realise with the most humbled gratification that as we decolonise the world of theatre, theatre decolonises the world.

I felt stupid perhaps writing a play wasn’t as easy as I thought it was, perhaps I did need to study my craft, perhaps I needed to know where I was coming from to know where I was going, or perhaps I should just quit while I was ahead. This was until a very hip young, African-American writer from New York said to me, “this would get eaten up in the underground theatre scene

ISSUE 5

A History of Exploitation: A Common Enemy (part one) Meg Rodaughan, Jaadwa-Jardwadjali

Timor Leste is situated 610 kilometers northwest of the Larrakeyah nation, with a gas pipe from the Timor Sea ashore not far from Wadeye community to the west. We are Timor Leste’s closest neighbors. But the murderous Australian government’s history when it comes to Timor Leste is anything but friendly or neighborly.

1942-1943

1972- 1974

1975- The Invasion

Australia sent troops over to East Timor when Japanese forces invaded.

By 1970, Indonesia was Australia’s biggest aid recipient, regardless of the fact that only five years prior, Suharto led a coup and brutal genocide that saw 500,000 to 1 million Indonesian people killed.

On the 28th of November 1975, after several years of political opposition of the colonial rule of Portugal, East Timor declared independence after centuries and the Portuguese withdrew. On the 7th of December 1975, a day meant to mark the birth of a republic, Indonesia militarily invaded Timor. The Australian Government had forewarning of Indonesia’s plans, yet did nothing to assist the impoverished nation, an hour and a half north of Darwin.

Unaccustomed to the rugged and harsh terrain of the Timorese jungle, the small Australian deployment struggled, with many of them close to starvation and lacking equipment as basic as a radio. The Timorese assisted as porters, providing shelter in their villages, they supplied food and water and medical assistance, some took up arms to fight aside Australian soldiers and assisted setting up ambushes for the Australians. Most importantly, the Timorese provided vital support in providing Australian soldiers with intelligence on the movements of the Japanese, with whole villages acting as the Australians’ eyes and ears. Without the aid of the Timorese, the Australian soldiers would have perished, either at the hands of the Japanese or the inability to survive the Timorese jungle. The Timorese paid an immense price for the providing assistance to the allied forces. The Japanese massacred villages and executed anyone suspect of providing intelligence or support. From 1942, Australian forces were withdrawn, but their Timorese helpers were left behind to face the Japanese alone. It is estimated that between 40,000 to 60,000 Timorese people died.

Former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam visited Jakarta in 1973 to meet with Suharto which resulted in Australia increasing military aid to Indonesia four fold, stating that Suharto had brought peace and development to Indonesia and had restored “the principles of harmony and justice, democracy and freedom”. In other words, they had opened up the Indonesian-Australia economic relations through mass blood shed. Gough advised Suharto that Independent East Timor would be an “unviable state” and declassified evidence demonstrates that during this meeting in Jakarta, Australia encouraged an otherwise undecided Suharto government that Portuguese Timor should become part of Indonesia. For the domestic audience in Australia, he cautioned that the incorporation into Indonesia should appear to be a natural process arising from the wishes of the people. This support was all that Suharto needed, essentially a green light had been given that sealed the fate of the 200,000 people that died in the Independence war of East Timor.

B L A C K N AT I O N S R I S I N G

The Australian Government excused the violent re-colonisation of East Timor and deliberately mislead the Australian public. The Australian Government raised no concerns over what was unfolding on their doorstep, even when their own citizens were being killed (Balibo 5 journalists). The oppressive Indonesian occupation lasted for 27 years and was backed by both Australia and the United States of America. East Timor’s Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation report detailed the multiple large scale massacres of Timorese people, concluded that Jakarta made a conscious decision to use starvation against the civilian population, ascertained the deaths of at least 100,000 and as many as 200,000 out of a population of about 650,000, and found that arbitrary detention, torture, rape and sexual slavery, deportations and public executions were routine.

The Timorese Resistance and Independence Struggle The Timorese have always resisted colonialism in all its different forms. The Timorese resistance was strong; it was largely waged guerilla style and low budget. A coordinated network of people joined to form a clandestine resistance with a three tier strategy; the information/support clandestine, the armed forces, and the international diplomacy. Australia refused to recognize the sovereignty of the Timorese and their struggle for freedom, declining to receive Timorese delegates who visited Australia seeking humanitarian support for occupied Timor Leste. The Santa Cruz massacre on the 12th November 1991 was Indonesian forces’ most visible act of violence against East Timorese protesters. In front of international journalists, they opened fire on a crowd amassed in the Santa Cruz cemetery, in what appeared to be an organized attack. The video evidence of the massacre was smuggled into Australia. Australian authorities strip-searched the journalists, apparently after being tipped-off by Indonesian officials, looking to seize the tapes; fortunately they were hidden by a fellow journalist from Holland. Footage from the massacre caused international outcry, finally bringing East Timor some much needed global attention. The Timorese continued to wage a war of independence that was largely ignored by the West. By 1998 the Timorese resistance reached a point where they could organize

above ground and a public swell for democracy meant that the new President of Indonesia announced a commitment to a self-determination referendum in 1998. Again, Australia’s government aided the Indonesian genocide by refusing to send over military aid and withdrawing legal observers that would oversee a peaceful referendum. What ensued was a final fierce assault to crush the independence movement of the Timorese, whereby the Indonesian military attempted to prevent the ballot from taking place and to make the margin for independence as narrow as possible by reigning terror on the Timorese citizens. Several hundred people were killed and as many as 60,000 people were displaced prior to the ballot. Despite this terror, 98% of people who registered to vote did so, making the dangerous trip from their mountainous retreats to making it to the ballot stations and resulting in the 78% majority vote in favor of Independence. The announcement of the independence result in 1999 triggered another campaign of violence and destruction of greater intensity where at least 1,200 people were killed, half the Timorese population displaced and over 70% of the infrastructure destroyed. INTERFET (International Force for East Timor) landed on 20 September 1999 after a stubborn reluctance of the Australian Government and after desperate pleas for crisis intervention from the people of Timor. By the time INTERFET arrived, most of the Indonesian troops had withdrawn. ISSUE 5

INTERFET have been criticized greatly for their passiveness towards the Indonesian military, allowing them to withdraw at their own pace with limited intervention, not stopping the forced deportation of Timorese and the disorganized nature of the provision of food aid to hungry refugees. It has also been described by many activists of Timor and by Timorese themselves, that this was a way for Australia to infiltrate independent Timor and influence economic policy and secure the oil; a beginning to Australian and United Nations neocolonialism in Timor Leste. Timor finally gained independence in 2002, yet the Australian government’s exploitation of our closest neighbor continues.

Viva Timor-Leste! Viva the Maubere People! Down with Australia’s Occupation of the Timor Sea!

#CirculateToEducate #SAVESTRADDIE

#PAPUAMERDEKA #SOSBLACKAUSTRALIA

#STOPMININGSTRADDIE

STOP ABORIGINAL DEATHS IN CUSTODY #JUSTICE4MSDHU #TREATYNOTRECOGNISE

#FREEWESTPAPUA

#GAMILMEANSNO

Join our team!

update your Subscription

We are looking for more people to the join the BNR team. The positions include editors, graphic designers, cartoonists, photographers and printing/ distribution coordinators. The roles require a minimum commitment of two hours of your time each week. Please send your expression of interest to: blacknationsrising@gmail.com

You should have recently received an email if your subscription to BNR has expired. If you would like to update your subscription, please do so here: https://goo.gl/forms/Jgra8Jp7OR If you are unsure of the status of your subscription, please contact us at blacknationsrising@gmail.com or via the Black Nations Rising facebook page.

B L A C K N AT I O N S R I S I N G