Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective

Film Screening: Our Generation

2011-10-17T21:32:00.000-07:00

Saturday, October 22
8:30pm

Occupy Melbourne, City Square, cnr Collins & Swanston sts, City

OUR GENERATION is a powerful and upfront documentary on the Australian Aboriginal struggle for their land, culture and freedom – a story that has been silenced by the Australian Government and mainstream media.

Driven by the remote Yolngu of Northeast Arnhem Land, one of the last strongholds of traditional Aboriginal culture in Australia, as well as the voices of national indigenous leaders, historians and human rights activists, the film explores the ongoing clash of cultures that is threatening to wipe out the oldest continuing culture in the world.

With music by John Butler Trio, Yothu Yindi, Xavier Rudd, Gurrumul, Archie Roach, Goanna, Saltwater Band and more.

Film screening hosted by Occupy Melbourne Indigenous Working Group.

For more info on the occupation, visit http://occupymelbourne.org/

BALLERRT MOOROOP STRONG SPIRIT FESTIVAL

2011-09-05T23:45:00.000-07:00

Friday, September 16 at 6:30pm

Northcote Uniting Church

251 High St

Northcote, Australia

Keep checking in with http://ballerrtmooroop.org/ for more updates on the campaign.

Join us for a very special night to celebrate Indigenous culture and raise awareness of the struggle to save Ballerrt Mooroop College, Melbourne's last Indigenous school. The Ballerrt Mooroop Strong Spirit Festival brings you an amazing mix of four of the most gifted Indigenous performers in the country and the high energy, socially conscious music of Melbourne's best local talent. There will also be a deadly Koori kids dance performance, a Welcome To Country ceremony by Auntie Barbara Williams Weston, speakers from the school and an art auction where you will have the chance to bid on some unique pieces donated by local and international artists. This is a licensed event and food will be available.

This promises to be an amazing night you definitely won't want to miss!

KUTCHA EDWARDS is a Mutti Mutti man from Balranald, New South Wales. As well as being an exceptionally talented singer/songwriter, he has received numerous awards for his work in human rights and Indigenous education. In 2001 he was named National Indigenous Person of the Year for his leadership in education and performance as well as the the Best Male Artist at the Deadly Vibes Awards. [http://www.kutcha-edwards.com/]

JOHNNY MAC and MERIKI HOOD, aka LADY LUCK are two of the most gifted MCs in the country. Johnny Mac has been writing and performing hip-hop for10 years and has been a presenter at 3CR community radio, where he has won awards for the “Beyond the Bar” prison broadcasts. Meriki Hood is the Queen of Payback records where is taking the music industry by storm and showing the world what a real Aboriginal female MC can do! [http://www.paybackrecords.com.au/]

JESSIE LLYOD is from far north Queensland and comes from a strong lineage of Australian Aboriginal musicians. She studied music in Perth where she performed and toured with her award winning band Djiva for seven years. She is now a successful solo performer and in 2009 was nominated as Female Artist of the Year at the Too Solid Awards. [http://www.jessielloyd.com/]

JULIA MAHATUWE has been described as “Bjork meets Madonna meets John Pilger.” Peacefully armed with a provocative fusion of original songs, D.I.Y-synthesiser sound-tracks, dance-ritual and footage gathered from around the world, her music manifests to make a difference. From refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border to Britain's Glastonbury festival, she unites music with a commitment to Indigenous rights in a powerful, moving performance.

MATTRIKS is a Melbourne based artist making a name for himself with his unique blend of hip-hop, folk-hop, beat-box and good vibes. Currently spearheading the positive charge from community record label Kinship Records, he has released two albums as well as playing at many festivals around the country where he always pleases audiences with his positive, socially aware music. [http://www.reverbnation.com/mattriks]

SQUID SQUAD are a a theatrical, high-energy 7 piece act who fuse funk, soul, hip-hop, metal, jazz, dubstep, electronic samples and gypsy grooves with booty shakin' ease. They are regularly joined by many different artists such as dancers and a magician and with a guaranteed conga line at every performance, their music is not to be missed! [http://www.myspace.com/squidsquadband]

We acknowledge that this event takes place on Aboriginal land.

Online Petition to Save Melbourne's Last Aboriginal School

2011-08-22T06:16:00.000-07:00

To Martin Dixon, MP, Victorian Minister of Education

Whilst the Ballerrt Mooroop College (BMC) committee were planning to improve their current programs and further meet the needs of Victorian Indigenous educationally disengaged children and youths, the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) and the Glenroy Specialist School (GSS) were holding meetings to not only poach BMC's adjacent sporting and the community open-space reserves, but to bulldoze the school's cultural precinct and the multi purpose Gymnasium / 'Gathering Place'.

BMC was not properly consulted throughout this process, in fact, were not told of the plans at the beginning of the process at all.

Following the protest by BMC a mediation process between GSS and BMC was put into place and a 'compromised draft plan' was being developed between the two schools. The Victorian Government through DEECD completely undermined the mediation process and outcomes and ordered the GSS original plan to be built while BMC were waiting to discuss the issue with you, which your department was well aware of.

We request that work on the building is stopped immediately and proper consultations are put into place with all parties, including local residents, who are losing their valued open-space recreational land. Many local residents have advised us that they don't like the way the DEECD is seen to have set up one disadvantaged group against the other.

We also request a meeting with you to further explain our situation.

Go here to sign the petition:
http://www.ballerrtmooroop.org/node/77

Statement for Amnesty Homelands campaign from Rosalie Kunoth-Monks

2011-08-22T05:43:00.000-07:00

Hello,

My name is Rosalie Kunoth-Monks. I am an Amntayerr and Alyawerr woman born by a creek bed in a small community called Utopia in 1937.

Today I am fighting for that community's survival, and I am asking for your help.

My homelands, the place where my family and community have lived for generations, could soon be lost. The government is stripping funding for essential services on our homelands; effectively forcing us into larger towns and cities like Alice Springs.

This means we could soon be forced to choose between living in third world conditions in our own country, or abandoning our way of life. If we are forced to leave it will sever our sacred connection to the land that has held us, our language and our traditions since time immemorial.

What we've learned is that the government isn't listening, so we need to come together as Australians and speak out. Will you stand with me, and call on the Australian government to respect Aboriginal homelands? http://ow.ly/5ZkFw

Rather than listening to us, the government still acts like they know what's best for Aboriginal people. But on my homelands life expectancy is longer and health is better. In Utopia, we've been 'closing the gap' for a long time!

That's because here we can live with our way of life intact. People like my aunt Kathleen, who has exhibited her art in Milan and Tokyo but still paints her stories of this land most days at the local women's centre. Or Joycie - a talented young community health worker who combines traditional bush medicine with Western medicine. We don't want to move to larger towns where we'll be dispossessed of our land and feel like second or third class citizens.

This is our way of life, our culture, our home - and the government has no right to make us abandon it. Together we're turning a special painting into a visual petition - with each name represented in a dot on the painting. Add yours now: http://ow.ly/5ZkFw

The thought of leaving my homelands - I couldn't imagine it. I want my grandchildren to be citizens of the globe - but first and foremost, to be solid in their identity as Aboriginal people of the Alyawerr and Anmatyerr tribal groups; with their language, their responsibilities and the care of their land intact.

Help this untold story be heard and stand in solidarity with me now: http://bit.ly/DontAbandonHomelands

Thank you,

Rosalie

Second NT intervention on table

2011-04-16T15:36:00.000-07:00

from The Australian 6 Apr 2011

A SECOND federal intervention into the Northern Territory is being considered by Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin.

Ms Macklin said significant action was still needed to improve conditions on remote communities.

In Adelaide yesterday, Ms Macklin said the Gillard government would not rule out a another federal takeover of key services when the intervention, initiated by the former Howard government in 2007, ends next year.

"The legislation for the NT emergency response goes until August next year, so all of these issues will be considered over the next year or so," Ms Macklin said.

"If we look around the Northern Territory, we can see that there has been some significant improvements," she added.

"But I'll be the first person to say there needs to be a really, really serious long-term investment by the commonwealth and the Northern Territory in services and support."

Ms Macklin said indigenous communities needed a good police presence, strong school attendance rates and healthy children.

The NT government refused to comment on the possibility of another intervention.

However, Opposition Leader Terry Mills said he would support one if Aboriginal people were involved in the development of programs, and it was carried out "with conviction" by the people on the ground.

"There is no question as to the requirement of an urgent response," Mr Mills said. "We can't afford a casual or a delayed response."

Both the Central and Northern land councils refused to comment.

The Howard government launched the intervention in 2007, on the back of the Little Children are Sacred report, which identified high levels of child abuse in indigenous communities.

Last month, Tony Abbott called on Julia Gillard to work with him on developing a new intervention, which would see more police and teachers sent into the Territory, compulsory work-for-welfare programs established and stricter enforcement of alcohol restrictions.

Ms Macklin's comments yesterday comes as the Australian Federal Police's role in the intervention and a trial program to boost school attendance rates wind down.

Officers from the AFP were sent into remote communities in 2007, with the goal of establishing police stations and building trust between law enforcement and locals.

The officers will leave the Territory by July 1.

Support the Lake Tyers Blockaders!

2011-04-07T04:44:00.000-07:00

ANTaR Victoria has been in touch with the government regarding the current dispute at the Lake Tyers Community and is appealing to raise funds to support the Lake Tyers Blockaders. ANTaR Vic is currently accepting donations on their behalf. Donations can be made by cheque, money order, credit card, cash or through Give Now.

Address: ANTaR Victoria, 67 Brunswick St, Fitzroy VIC 3065
Phone: (03) 9419 3613
Email: antar@antarvictoria.org.au

Alternatively, contact blockade spokeswoman Leanne Edwards directly to donate into her account on 0488 195 217.

Jenny Macklin you can't hide, you're committing genocide!

2011-03-08T03:55:00.001-08:00

MAIC activists showing that Jenny Macklin should not be able to go anywhere in this country without protest.

Chanting outside the windows where Minister Jenny Macklin was speaking: "Stop, stop, stop the Intervention, sack, sack, sack Jenny Macklin!"

MAIC activists leaflet unionists and IWD marchers. Many of whom signed petitions and made donations. Great support!

TODAY!! Snap action against Jenny Macklin's IWD cocktail party

2011-03-07T05:36:00.000-08:00

Join MAIC at the 'International Women's Day Rally for Equal Pay', today at 5.30pm at the State Library of Victoria.

Jasmine Ali will be speaking for MAIC, specifically addressing the inequalities that Aboriginal women face due to the exploitative NT Intervention.

We welcome people to join the march following the speeches. Alternatively, MAIC welcomes activists to attend a protest of Jenny Macklin's appearance at a IWD cocktail party at the Bella Union bar (inside Trades Hall, cnr Lygon and Victoria Streets). We will begin the protest at 6.30pm, but welcome people to attend after the march as well.

MAIC supports the objectives of IWD, however the hypocrisy of the Minister of Indigenous Affairs speaking at this event, whilst administering a program that is continuing the oppression of Aboriginal women, is not something we can let go without criticism...and action!

Please invite everyone you know to this snap action--women and men are welcome at both. See you at the rally and then at Trades Hall!

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Last year, a resolution was released by Indigenous women at the Defending Indigenous Rights Conference Alice Springs 6-9 July 2010, it is timely to re-publish this statement below.

Women’s Statement

To Prime Minister Julia Gillard:

We, the women, mothers, grandmothers, aunties, sisters in support of our men who are the shared caregivers of the NT wholeheartedly demand the NTER be abolished immediately.

The media has heralded your promotion to PM as a breakthrough for women. All this talk is a slap in the face for Aboriginal women whose communities are being devastated by this government’s racist intervention.

For three years the removal of our human rights has been justified with lies about protecting women from violence and feeding our children. We are living proof of the damage it has caused to us as Indigenous peoples of the NT who are trying to survive, live and practice our way of life. Shame on you!

We call on you, and Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, to abolish this law that takes away our human rights as Indigenous peoples of this country.

Minister Macklin consistently claims that women support Income Management and the Intervention. This is not the truth. Under current policies we have no choice and no change and now a big cloud is covering our struggle and journey. The Working Futures policy is about closing our homelands and communities. This is damaging and destructive to our families, our language, law, culture, everything that is important to us. This is our identity, passed down through generations, and this is what makes us the oldest unique culture in the world.

Income Management, cuts of the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP), the bi-lingual education ban in schools, compulsory five year leases over our land and housing – all these measures are taking away our control over our lives and our communities. Your legal discrimination against us has given a licence to racists to abuse us in the street, in supermarkets and to attack our kids at school.

We call for the immediate end of the NT Intervention and the resignation of Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin.

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Women earn on average 18% less than men and the gender pay gap is getting worse! This International Women’s Day, take to the streets to demand action on pay justice.

Rally Tuesday 8 March, 5:30 pm
State Library, Corner of Swanston Street and Latrobe Street
Followed by a lively march to a range of city targets ending at Parliament House!

We demand:
• Wipe out the gender pay gap: equal pay for women!
• End the NT Intervention: Scrap the basic cards; fund jobs and services in Indigenous communities on award wages!
• Abolish youth and disability wages: pay the full adult rate for all!
• Stop the exploitation of overseas students and temporary residents – prosecute employers who pay less than the award wage!
• Fund pay equity: tax the rich, scrap handouts to big business and stop the war!
• For affirmative action & fully funded training programs to end the sex segregation of the workforce!
• End the mandatory double domestic shift: Free 24 hour childcare! Fully funded social services! All carers to be paid a living wage!
• Scrap Centrelink enforced dependency on partners and parents – an independent living wage for all!
• Victory to the community sector workers and federal public servants now – no gradual phase-in period!
• Union democracy: the right of union members to decide the goals and priorities of their unions through full discussion and majority vote. Free speech within unions!
• Strengthen our unions: scrap WorkChoices lite! Abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission!
• Solidarity with low paid and exploited workers everywhere!

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Details of the event that the Minister of Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin is speaking at:

International Women's Day (IWD) is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. In some countries like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, IWD is a national holiday. The first IWD was run in 1911. International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.

This year is the IWD Global Centenary and we think that's something worth celebrating! The ACTU and the VTHC are proud to be hosting a cocktail evening at historic Trades Hall.

Join Ged Kearney, President Australian Council of Trade Unions and Melba Marginson, Executive Director, Victorian Immigrant and Refugee Women's Coalition to mark this important date

Tickets $20.00 including food service and the musical stylings of La Mauvaise Reputation.

To register, contact Debbie Gower, ACTU Event Manager by telephone03-8676-7263 or email dgower@actu.org.au

For more information about International Women's Day - CLICK HERE!

We sent them a message

2011-03-04T15:40:00.000-08:00

What a way to start the year for MAIC! 300 people braved the Melbourne cold and drizzle, standing in solidarity with exploited workers in the Northern Territory, demanding Aboriginal rights. We chanted for equal pay and jobs with justice. We called for an end to the 'work for rations' system of many Aboriginal people living under the racist NT Intervention.

Friday's protest was at its most lively when we took to the march along Swanston Street. We reclaimed the corner of Bourke and Swanston, the symbolic heart of Melbourne, and heard from Jenna Tipuamantumirri from the Tiwi Islands. Jenna explained the devestating impact that welfare quarantining has had on herself and her family. Highlighting the racism of the BasicsCard system, Jenna made the case that the government's assimilationist policies were motivated by the desire to push Aboriginal people off their land.

The march then continued up Swanston Street to Federation Square. For a moment, we claimed the stage of Fed Square chanting 'Always was, always will, Aboriginal land'. Jacob Grech as a representative of the Victorian Trades Hall Council accepted the thousands of signatures that we have received on our petition demanding justice for CDEP 'Aboriginal work-for-the-dole' workers.

There will be video of the protest to come. But if you have any photos, please email them to us! melbourneaic@gmail.com

This protest has given us a big boost for taking the campaign onward. The next step is to get more people involved and aware of what's happening under the NT Intervention. Come to our next MAIC meeting, which is a special forum THIS MONDAY.

Eye Witnesses to Intervention Speak Out!

Aboriginal Rights and Jobs With Justice:

ACTU Fact Finders report back on the NT Intervention with the Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective

Adam Frogley - National Tertiary Education Union
Michele O'Neil - Textile Clothing and Footwear Union
Lucy Honan - Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective

Monday, 7th March 2011, 6.30pm at Trades Hall (New International Bookshop)

Australia's peak union body - The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU)

sent a delegation of union officials on a fact-finding mission to Central Australia in mid-November last year to speak to communities affected by the NTIntervention. The delegation comprised over 15 representatives from unions across the country. They met again in February to discuss union action on Indigenous rights.

Of particular concern is the new CDEP scheme, where Aboriginal workers in the NT are only paid a Newstart allowance through Centrelink. In many cases, workers have 50 per cent of these payments ‘quarantined’ onto a BasicsCard, to be spent only at designated shops.

MAIC is holding a public meeting to hear about the experience of the trip and discuss how ordinary people and unions can help stop the intervention. This is your chance to come and hear what they saw, heard and learned.

Promote this event! Click here for a flyer.
Contact Lucy 0404728104 or melbourneaic@gmail.com

THIS FRIDAY!

2011-03-02T22:34:00.000-08:00

Protest: Stop the Racist NT Intervention!

Equal Pay and Jobs with Justice!

5pm, Friday 4 March 2011
State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective demands an end to the exploitation of Aboriginal workers in the Northern Territory. Under the Intervention policies, Aboriginal people are working for rations whilst living in extreme poverty with the government denying basic services. The NT Intervention is a determined attack on Aboriginal self-determination and has only lead to further disadvantage.

This rally demands an end to the NT Intervention, and we are drawing particular attention to the unfair working conditions that many Aboriginal people are being forced into. MAIC supports the 'Jobs with Justice' campaign, and we will be gathering signatures for a petition which will be tabled when parliament resumes.

The petition is being sponsored by the CFMEU (Construction Forestry and Energy Union) and Unions NT. It has a particular focus on the use of CDEP workers by the $672 million Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program (SIHIP). We are demanding backpay at appropriate award rates for all of these workers, along with an end to arrangements forcing people to work for the BasicsCard and investment in community based employment programs across all Aboriginal communities.

Stand up against racism. Stop the racist NT Intervention!

ABC report: Aboriginal leaders call for end to intervention

2011-02-26T20:21:00.000-08:00

27 February 2011

Aboriginal leaders in central Australia have welcomed comments from the man who designed the Northern Territory intervention, agreeing that it has failed.

Former Liberal Indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough introduced the intervention under the Howard government in 2007.

The policy banned alcohol in communities and restricted welfare payments.

Since Labor won government the intervention has remained in place, but Mr Brough says Labor has not delivered it properly.

Rosalie Kunoth-Monks from Utopia, 230 kilometres from Alice Springs agrees, although her agreement with Mr Brough ends there.

"It was a violation to human rights right from the beginning," she said.

"What we really needed was real empowerment. In other words, real investment and people to earn and merit what we've got on the communities."

Richard Downs from the Ampilatwatja community says the entire policy is wrong.

"[Mr Brough] waffles on about 'the next stage'. I don't know what the next stage is but he has totally disempowered the people here," he said.

"You know, I mean [they are] asking for a disaster, which is what they're getting now, with people migrating from homelands communities into townships into Alice Springs, Katherine, Tennant Creek."

Ms Kunoth-Monks and Mr Downs want the Government to end what they say is a racist approach.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/27/3150052.htm

THIS FRIDAY!! Stand up against the exploitation of Aboriginal workers

2011-02-26T15:53:00.000-08:00

The momentum for this Friday's rally to 'Stop the Racist NT Intervention' is certainly building. Don't stop now!

MAIC activists have been out at various community events collecting signatures on the petition, leafletting for the protest, and talking to people about the campaign against the exploitation of Aboriginal workers.

In the process we have been making some important links with unionists, environmental activists, media workers, performers etc. The campaign is going forward in great leaps. We welcome our supporters to get more involved to take advantage of this rising tide in support of Aboriginal rights!

MAIC has weekly meetings held at New International Bookshop in Trades Hall every Monday at 6.30pm. As well as organising protests like the one this Friday, we have also in the past toured speakers from the NT, held film screenings, done band nights, special forums, organised pickets, banner painting, you name it! The more people we have involved, the more we can do.

There is much to be done before the rally on Friday. We need all our supporters to make that final push in getting the word out there. Please share the event on Facebook every day. Send emails around to folks in your networks.

Write letters to the newspapers and call up the ABC/SBS and ask them to cover the campaign against the NT Intervention. Make a call to your union, church or community group, asking them if they are going to be marching behind a banner at the protest. Print off a poster and put it up in your staff room or front window of your house.

All of these things are a big help. Also, just coming along to the protest on the day with some family, friends or work colleagues.

See you on Friday at 5pm at the State Library!

Protest: Stop the Racist NT Intervention!

Equal Pay and Jobs with Justice!

5pm, Friday 4 March 2011
State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

Vale Mark Fordham

2011-02-15T16:23:00.000-08:00

It is with great sadness that Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective passes on the news of the death of Mark Fordham. The collective extends its condolences to Mark's family and friends.

An inspiring Aboriginal rights activist, Mark may be best known to people in Melbourne through his public battle with the Barkly Shire over work conditions in Ampilawatja in the Northern Territory. Mark leaves an enduring legacy through his courageous stance over this issue as well as his other work campaigning against the injustice of the Northern Territory Intervention. The community of activists and unionists in Melbourne that have been fighting in solidarity with those in the Northern Territory were spurred on by Mark's commitment. He will not be forgotten.

The ordeal that Mark was put through after he stood up to the management at Barkly Shire was appalling. After reporting on a public health hazard, a risk both for the workers he was responsible for and the broader population of Ampilawatja, Mark was fired from his job and he and his two sons were evicted from their house with only two hours notice. Mark experienced further persecution when ridiculous charges were made on him by police, all for his vigorous defense of the dignity of a town being strangled by oppressive government policy. It is highly commendable that Mark withstood the avalanche of personal attacks and held firm his determination to fight for what was right.

In July of last year, I saw Mark give his first public speech at the Defending Indigenous Rights conference in Alice Springs. Like many activists in Melbourne, I had heard Mark's story of his experiences at Ampilawatja and I was eager to hear him tell his story in person. It was one of the highlights of the conference and inspired myself, and I'm sure many others, to get further involved in the Aboriginal rights struggle. Following on from the publicity generated by the scandal at Ampilawatja, Mark embarked on a speaking tour where he told his story and detailed the exploitation of Aboriginal workers on the CDEP 'Aboriginal work-for-the-dole' scheme. In Brisbane and Sydney, he was able to raise awareness of what was happening under the NT Intervention to hundreds of workers on construction sites and wharfs, as well as students and activists.

Mark was passionate about winning justice for Aboriginal workers, and this was reflected in his most immediate plans to organise amongst construction workers in the town camps of the Northern Territory. He was also slated to be the CFMEU delegate at this week's ACTU Indigenous Conference in Darwin.

That an inspiring Aboriginal activist has lost his life at such a young age, only 37, is a tragedy and a profound loss to the campaign for Aboriginal rights in Australia. We take heart from the strong spirit that Mark showed, particularly in these last couple of years where we fought alongside him against the Intervention. We will draw on Mark's legacy to keep fighting for the dignity of Aboriginal workers that he was so passionately dedicated to.

Alex Ettling on behalf of Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective

Mark Fordham's funeral will be held on Thursday 17 February 2011 at the mosque in Alice Springs.

Help build the upcoming protest

2011-02-07T20:26:00.000-08:00

Are you starting to see those red, black and yellow hands all over Melbourne?

Over the last couple of weeks, MAIC volunteers have been all over town, putting up posters and leafletting.

The campaign against the NT Intervention is definately kicking up a gear, and MAIC welcomes anyone who would like to get more involved to get in touch with us. Come along to our weekly collective meetings!

On alternate weeks, we have a meeting where sit and make decisions about the campaign group and our activities.

And then on the other weeks, we get down to activity, which also provides an opportunity to more informally discuss what's happening with the NT Intervention. On these days, we might be painting banners, working on articles, going off in a small group to put up posters, writing media releases etc.

If you have any special skills, we would love you to share them with us! Or if you are just enthusiastic and want to lend your had to fighting for Aboriginal rights--that's great too! Get in touch.

If you can't make the Monday meetings, there are there are other useful things to do. Promote the upcoming protest in your community, workplace, school etc. We have a bunch of posters and leaflets that can be collected any time from the foyer of New International Bookshop. Getting your union or community organisation to endorse the rally and circulate information on the campaign is also a really useful thing to spread awareness about the degradation of the Intervention and the need to fight against it.

This week, from Thursday to Sunday, there will be a range of events that will be of interest to Aboriginal people (art openings and film screenings). We hope to leaflet for the rally and gather signatures for our petition. If you would like to join in, send us an email: melbourneaic@gmail.com.

Together, we can defeat this racist Intervention!

Protest: Stop the Racist NT Intervention!

Equal Pay and Jobs with Justice!

5pm, Friday 4 March 2011
State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

We are calling for endorsement for this rally, and we invite community groups and unions to march alongside us.

If you would like to support the campaign and collect signatures for the petition at your workplace/campus/ neighbourhood, please get in touch with us or come along to our weekly meetings.

MAIC meets every Monday at 6.30pm at the New International Bookshop in Trades Hall.

Support this event on Facebook by clicking here:
www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=183732604983257

Support MAIC by joining the Facebook group:
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=91084301876

website:
www.maicollective.blogspot.com
www.jobswithjustice.wordpress.com

email:
melbourneaic@gmail.com

Print some leaflets and posters by clicking here:
www.maicollective.blogspot.com/p/protest-march-4th.html

Print the petition to collect signatures here:
www.jobswithjustice.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/sihip_cdep_petition.pdf

Conversation with Elders from the NT

2011-01-26T20:22:00.000-08:00

concerned Australians presents...

A Further Conversation with Elders:
Bringing you up to date with the impacts of living under the Intervention
Monday, 7 February 2011, 5.45pm - 7pm

In May 2010 elders, Rosalie Kunoth Monks OAM from Utopia in Central Australia and Rev. Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra OAM from Galiwin’ku in Arnhem Land joined in conversation with Professor the Hon Alastair Nicholson AO giving their views on the Northern Territory Intervention.

Since then they have visited Geneva and shared their concerns with the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. On 7 February 2011 Rosalie and Djiniyini will visit us in Melbourne to share with us the response of the United Nations.

They will be accompanied by a number of other elders and leaders from across the Territory and together they will share with us what has been happening in the period since last May and highlight the changes that are taking place in the various communities and homelands from Arnhem Land to the Central Desert. Those who met with Rosalie and Djiniyini last year will remember their distress and despair brought about by over three years of Intervention.

Guest Speakers include:
Professor The Hon Alastair Nicholson AO RFD QC, Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne

Rosalie Kunoth Monks OAM from Utopia in Central Australia

Rev. Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra OAM from Galiwin’ku in Arnhem Land

Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumanm AM, from Daly River, south of Darwin

Yananymul Mununggurr, from Yirrkala East Arnhem Land

Again we are fortunate to have Mr Jeff McMullen AM joining us as the facilitator for the evening.

This is a free public event however r egistration is required to attend.
Please register here.

If there are particular topics you would like to be covered in the Conversation, please send a brief email and if time permits we will endeavour to include it.

Venue Theatre G08
Address Ground Floor Melbourne Law School 185 Pelham Street, Carlton
Contact Person For queries: Dianne Costello
Contact Details d.costello@unimelb.edu.au or Tel: (03) 8344 1153
RSVP Contact Via the on-line registration form

Invasion Day: Join MAIC at the Share the Spirit Festival

2011-01-23T02:27:00.000-08:00

Date and Time: Wednesday, 26th January - 1pm - 4pm
Location: Treasury Gardens, Spring St and Wellington Prd, Melbourne

Join MAIC at the Share the Spirit Festival this Wednesday . We will be holding stall, come along to find out what MAIC has coming up in 2011 and to sign the petition in support of SIHIP workers in the Northern Territory.

Celebrate the country’s Indigenous culture at Share the Spirit Festival on Invasion Day in the Treasury Gardens, East Melbourne.

It's that time of year again and Songlines has put together its best ever lineup for this years FREE Share the Spirit Festival.

Taking place every year on Survival Day, otherwise known as Australia Day or Invasion Day – Share the Spirit has been created by Aboriginal people for all Australians to come together and celebrate the country’s Indigenous culture through music, performance workshops, information stalls, and most importantly through personal exchanges between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.

On top of the non-stop music, Share the Spirit will also host community market stalls where Indigenous artists and designers from all over Victoria will be selling locally made crafts, traditional artefacts, t-shirts, bags, CDs, photographs and paintings.

www.songlines.net.au

MAIC returns to activity this Monday!

2011-01-12T22:24:00.000-08:00

MAIC and campaigners against the NT Intervention all around Australia are gearing up to continue the fight. We are very excited to hear of new groups being established in South Australia and Queensland. The momentum is building!

Join us for our first meeting of the year: 6.30pm, Monday, 17th January at our usual meeting place, New International Bookshop in the basement of Trades Hall (cnr Lygon and Victoria Sts).

We will be discussing the sort of activity we want to do in 2011 to put pressure on the government to scrap this racist Intervention.

At the end of last year, MAIC decided to hold a rally in early March. We will be discussing how to build this big action, and the events surrounding Invasion Day (January 26th) and the anniversary of the apology (February 13th).

We are collecting signatures to demand 'jobs with justice' for Aboriginal workers in the Northern Territory. Help us with this task by organising a stall.

Come along to the meeting and meet other like-minded activists and make stuff happen!

Protest:

Stop the racist NT Intervention.

Jobs with Justice now!

5pm, Friday 4 March 2011

State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

We are calling for endorsements for this major action next year. Please email melbourneaic@gmail.com in order to confirm the support of your community organisation, union, church, student group etc.

Update: Defending Melbourne's Aboriginal School

2010-12-16T02:08:00.000-08:00

Dear MAIC supporters,

We have been supporting the campaign to defend Ballerrt Mooroop College because we think a great injustice is occurring. The imposition of this non-Indigenous school on Aboriginal land is an attack on the idea of educating in a cultural way. Simply put, it is an extension of cultural genocide against Aboriginal people.

What we see in the Northern Territory under the Intervention, we see happening in Melbourne. Will not give up the the fight to defend Aboriginal self-determination. We will fight to save this school!

The demonstration on Wednesday night in Bourke Street mall was a fantastic showing of supporters around the school. Over a hundred people gathered to listen to speeches from prominent activists such as Gary Foley and Robbie Thorpe, and educators around the school. We also heard from Greens MP Sue Pennecuik and had John Leemans in the Northern Territory address the rally by phone to offer solidarity from those fighting against the NT Intervention.

We chanted "education and land, goes hand in hand!" and "always was, always will be Aboriginal land", and got many signatures for the petition. A great show of support for Aboriginal education!

On our publicity material we passed on notice that the bulldozers were scheduled to roll in to the school grounds to demolish the gymnasium THIS FRIDAY. As a result of our ongoing campaign, it appears that the bulldozer has been called off... for now. This is a great victory for us, and all those that have supported the campaign should be very excited that we are having an impact!

The community around the school has asked that supporters still come to the school THIS FRIDAY to offer their solidarity and to join in discussions about where the campaign is at. This is their message:

Gathering: Friday, 17 December 2010

Come down at 9am for a brief on where the school stands with the government and building blockage. We need your support.

Come for breaky – bacon and eggs. Come and be ceremonially smoked at our ceremonial grounds. Sausage sizzle lunch.

Last day of the school year!!!!

If we want to preserve what we have made for ourselves here for all the years to come please come and show how much you want Ballerrt Mooroop College and this land on which it stands.

TODAY!! Save Aboriginal Education

2010-12-01T06:18:00.000-08:00

Stop the Bulldozers!

At Melbourne's only Aboriginal School

5pm, Wednesday 15 December 2010

Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne

See the MEDIA RELEASE here

Speakers:
Gary Foley: Academic/Writer/Activist

Dotty Bamblett: President of the school council

Gary Murray: Broadmeadows Local Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (BLAECG)
Sue Pennicuik: The Greens

Will it only be a matter of weeks of the Liberals being in power before the Baillieu Government sends its first bulldozer into a Victorian school?

The Department of Education has approved the construction of another school directly on the land of Ballerrt Mooroop College. To make way for this new school the Aboriginal community is losing their gymnasium and ceremonial grounds. Why must this new school be built on Aboriginal land?

Following more than 200 years of brutal dispossession, Aboriginal people deserve the right to educate their children in their own culture, with full access to the best resources.

Ballerrt Mooroop College is the only Aboriginal school in Melbourne. The state government has made several attempts to close the school, and has already closed down the primary school and years 11-12, leaving only years 7-10. There was no proper consultation with the school community when the decision was made to allow Glenroy Specialist School to build on their land. The government is now pitting one disadvantaged school against another, forcing them to compete for the same meager resources. Glenroy Specialist School should be found an appropriate site that does not require the appropriation of Aboriginal land, and they should be given all the resources they need for their students.

The reality is that the government is trying to strangle Ballerrt Mooroop College out of existence, and they are attempting to force Aboriginal children into mainstream schools. However, there is insufficient support in mainstream schools for the particular disadvantage and experience of racism that many Aboriginal students have to endure. Mainstream schools don’t value Aboriginal culture, language and families. This is why Koori schools were set up in the first place, and why people fought so hard to save Northlands Secondary College when the last Liberal Government shut it down back in the 90s.

Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective (MAIC) has been campaigning in support of Aboriginal self-determination and against the attacks on bi-lingual education as part of our fight against the Northern Territory Intervention. We support the fight back against these same racist methodologies here in Melbourne.

We ask people to join us in protest to defend Ballerrt Mooroop College and support the following demands written up by the school community:

• Don't demolish our gym
• Proper funding for facilities for health and culture
• Allow increased enrolments of Koori students
• Rights to consultation and proper planning for the school.

Contacts:
Jasmine Ali 0405 317 787
Dotty Bamblett 0433 090 933
Sharon Firebrace 0401 414 967

Further information on the campaign can be found at the Treaty Republic website.

Put yourself down as 'Attending' on Facebook and share the event to your friends.

Print a colour poster or a b+w version, and put it up in your workplace, school etc.

Print some leaflets and also put this text on the back.

Also...

Music Day @Ballerrt Mooroop College

noon to 5pm, Sunday, 12 December 2010

Ballerrt Mooroop College, 208 Hilton Street, Glenroy, Melways 16 H1.

Gold coin donation. Contact: 0430167145 or 0433090933

Featuring: Tjimba and the Young Warriors, Bart Burns Band, Johnny Mac and Lady Luck (open mic).

The school community is putting on a gig to help support the school. All are welcome to come along to the school and enjoy some cultural music and a BBQ.

Join the Community Blockade!

9am, Friday 17 December 2010

Ballerrt Mooroop College, 208 Hilton Street, Glenroy, Melways 16 H1.

Three blocks from Jacana Train Station

Please note the new time that supporters are being asked to congregate at the school.

Sack Macklin Protest @Readings

2010-11-27T16:34:00.000-08:00

Reportback: Another excellent action by MAIC! Jenny Macklin was so intimidated by our our presence that she didn't dare show up to spread her lies. We held a lively speak-out outside Readings and spoke to lots of new people about the NT Intevention and our next action concerning the attack on Ballerrt Mooroop College. There were some excellent speeches, and we gave out lots of flyers. We'll be out in force again on December 15th!

Tuesday, 5.30pm, 30 November 2010
Readings Bookstore, 309 Lygon St, Carlton

Breaking news!! We have heard that due to our protest action, Jenny Macklin has pulled out of the event. This is the power of our dissent at work!

We are not sure if it is just a red herring, and she will still turn up though. The protest is still on, and whether Macklin shows or not, we can be sure she knows about us, and will be keeping tabs on our action. Let's show the racist backers of the Intervention like Russell Skelton that we are not going to put up with any more lies about Aboriginal communities.

"Stop, stop, stop the Intervention! Sack, sack, sack Jenny Macklin!"

Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin will be at Readings Bookstore promoting Russell Skelton's new book 'King Brown Country'. Macklin has spun many lies and a great deal of deception surrounding the NT Intervention. No doubt, she will be using Skelton's book about Papunya as another opportunity to justify this racist policy.

MAIC will be setting up an information stall outside the shop and standing in opposition to the racism of the government.

There has never been any decent consultation with Aboriginal communities about the Intervention, yet Macklin is free to tell her racist lies all around the country at events such as these.We will be distributing information that Macklin does not want you to see. This is the real testimonies and opinions of Aboriginal people who have been living under the NT Intervention.

Bring your placards, banners and loud voices. Stop the racist NT Intervention!

Invite people to attend on Facebook by clicking here
Print a flyer for the action by clicking here

From the Readings website:

Set with the backdrop of Papunya, a Northern Territory Aboriginal community whose history showed so much promise but whose dysfunction is now more prominent that its famous artwork, King Brown Country is a book that has to be published. It goes to the core of Indigenous issues today to expose unmitigated misery, shocking levels of domestic violence and sex abuse and extreme alcohol and substance dependency. But above all, it reveals how a powerful fiefdom was allowed to rule unchallenged and unchecked to the great detriment of a once secure community and explains why the intervention was necessary, and why it may not work. King Brown Country is a powerful and shaming portrait of a community in crisis.

Russell will be in conversation with Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin.

Free, but please book on 9347 6633.

www.readings.com.au/event/russell-skelton-in-conversation-with-jenny-macklin

Chris Graham and Gary Foley Public Talk + MAIC music fundraiser

2010-11-19T15:16:00.000-08:00

Racism in the Media:

The Lie that Built the Northern Territory Intervention

A special presentation by Walkley Award-winning journalist Chris Graham
With an introduction by Gary Foley

Reportback:

It was a great night, on Friday! Thanks to Chris Graham and Gary Foley for their insightful and engaging words. And thank you to all the MAIC supporters for getting behind another successful event to accelerate this campaign.
Hopefully you were inspired by Friday night's events. We are calling people out for is the "Sack Macklin Protest @Readings" on Tuesday at 5.30pm. Bring your placards and loud voices. We are going to show Jenny Macklin that there is opposition to this racist Intervention!

Friday, 7pm, 26 November 2010

Venue: New Council Chambers (next to the Bella Union Bar), Trades Hall (cnr Lygon and Victoria St), Melbourne

Cost: Free (donations accepted)

Join Chris Graham for an expose about a fraudulent ABC Lateline program which aired in the lead-up to the intervention, entitled ‘Sexual slavery reported in Indigenous communities'.

The Lateline story helped the federal government mount the case for the NT intervention. But as Graham will reveal, the story was built on a gigantic fraud. The scandal surrounding this story has already destroyed several careers, sparked a series of parliamentary brawls and high level government, an apology to federal parliament, not to mention police raids on homes in Canberra and Central Australia.

The spotlight on Lateline's reporting has already seen an ‘anonymous youth worker' unmasked as a ministerial adviser, and a doctor caught prescribing Viagra to an alleged paedophile.

"The scale of the fraud perpetrated by Lateline, and the determination of the ABC to whitewash this scandal and avoid any further scrutiny will leave your head spinning," said Chris Graham.

"If you think you know what media behaving badly looks like, then you need to think again.

"Lateline's reporting led directly to the greatest human rights abuse against Aboriginal people certainly of my time, and probably in the last half century.

"The Northern Territory intervention has harmed Aboriginal people; it's caused starvation; it's seen a dramatic rise in reports of self-harm incidents; it's driven children away from school; it's wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. In short, it's been a disaster for the nation's most disadvantaged citizens, the people who could least afford it.

"The media has always played a crucial role in creating an environment where governments can get away with race politics during election campaigns. In this case, the government couldn't have done it without Lateline."

"I've worked in the media for more than 20 years, almost half of that in Indigenous affairs, so I already had a pretty mixed view about the conduct of many of my colleagues.

"Even so, I've always had a very positive image of ABC news and current affairs. It was one news source I felt I could really trust.

"I don't feel that way anymore."

Chris Graham is a Walkley Award-winning journalist, and a former editor of the National Indigenous Times.

Promote the event! Full size poster available here

Invite people to attend on Facebook by clicking here

Please stick around after the event for 'Liberation Bound', a music fundraiser in the Bella Union Bar for MAIC featuring hip hop and reggae acts. Cost is $10/8, or $5 if you have attended the Chris Graham event.

Bilingual Education forum

2010-11-08T03:57:00.000-08:00

Melbourne Anti Intervention Collective presents a public forum...

The NT Intervention:

Why Teachers and Communities are Breaking the Ban on Bilingual Education

Thursday 6.30pm, 18 November 2010

James Hardie Theatre, Architecture Building, The University of Melbourne

Speakers:

Senior teacher from Bilingual school (to remain anonymous until video link up)

Rosa McKenna, Friends of Bilingual Learning

Mary Merkenich, Teacher and Unionist

Lucy Honan, Melbourne Anti Intervention Collective

Bans on teaching in Aboriginal language for the first four hours of the school day were introduced in 2008 following the roll out of the Northern Territory Intervention in 2007. Under the guise of “closing the gap” on Aboriginal disadvantage the Racial Discrimination Act was suspended, Aboriginal community land has been seized and community organisations, jobs and access to welfare payments have been dismantled.

The attempt to decimate bilingual programs was a territory government decision, but mimics perfectly the punitive logic of the federal intervention. Communities and Aboriginal culture are being attacked for the problems caused by all governments' chronic failure to support programs of self determination for Aboriginal people.

These schools are the first casualties of NAPLAN- NAPLAN data from 2008 was used to justify the bans, but as Senator Trish Crossin and Dr Brian Devlin and have shown, the literacy and numeracy data was deliberately misconstrued to suggest bilingual schools were under performing. In fact, there is overwhelming international evidence that bilingual learning is educationally sound, and the closure of the programs is a human rights violation.

So what is behind the bilingual bans, why are Aboriginal communities resisting the ban and what we can do?

Contact: Shannon Price 0422 802 984

Invite people to attend on Facebook by clicking here

Print a leaflet/poster by clicking here

Print this brochure on bilingual education and MAIC's campaign by clicking here

How The West Was Lost

2010-11-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

Join us This Monday!! as we look back at the past history of unions and Aboriginal struggle, as well as discussing the current situation with the NT Intervention.

Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective presents a screening of...

'How The West Was Lost'
A documentary film about the 1946 Pilbara Strikes
6.30pm, 8 November 2010
New International Bookshop - Trades Hall (cnr Lygon and Victoria Sts, Carlton Sth)

“A fascinating but rarely mentioned episode in australian history.” - The Age.
WINNER! 1987 Human Rights Documentary Film Award.
NOMINATED FOR 5 AFI AWARDS

In the 1940s in the north-west of Australia, a secret congress was organized by Pilbara Elders Dooley Bin Bin and Clancy McKenna, alongside white unionist and communist Don McLeod. It was an unprecedented gathering, with over a dozen interpreters present to deal with the 23 languages of the many Aboriginal groups present.

This congress decided to organize a strike in the Pilbara region to demand better wages and conditions, and to draw attention to the treatment generally of Aboriginal people in Western Australia.

On 1 May 1946, Aboriginal workers walked off the sheep stations, marking the beginning of a carefully organized strike that was to last three years. It is considered one of the most significant (and least known) political actions in Australian history, and went on to inspire the Land Rights movement of the 1960s.

Invite people on Facebook by clicking here.

For more information on the 1946 Pilbara Strikes click here.

Year: 1987

Classification: G

Runtime: 72 min

Produced In: Australia

Directed By: David Noakes

Produced By: David Noakes, Heather Williams

Language: Njangamarda, Wanmun, Injibandi and English dialogue, English subtitles

Over 500 people march for Aboriginal rights in Melbourne

2010-10-29T07:28:00.000-07:00

Friday's rally was surely one of the most inspiring Aboriginal rights rallies Melbourne has seen in a long time! Over 500 people took to the streets to protest against the racist NT Intervention, loudly chanting 'Jenny Macklin, you disgust us, equal rights, and jobs with justice!'.

And 'jobs with justice' was our primary demand, as protesters expressed outrage at the near slave conditions that many Aboriginal people are living under in the Northern Territory.

We demanded 'jobs with justice', we shut down the streets, we made the government take notice!

And we weren't alone, as people protested all around

Australia

--in Alice Springs, Sydney and Brisbane. We had solidarity messages from Perth, Adelaide and Newcastle. And of course, there was the inspriring strike of Gulrindji workers in the lead up to this National Day of Protest. Here are some of the reports from various media outlets: ABC, AAP, Crikey.

To win this campaign we need more of what we saw yesterday. We need bigger, better, and more often. Now is the time to commit to getting more involved. Come along to our special 'Jobs with Justice' meeting this Monday, where we'll talk about the rally and where to go from here.

Adam Bandt, Member for Melbourne (The Greens)

Adam Frogley (Indigenous Coordinator, NTEU)

David Glanz (Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective)

Stephen Jolly (Councillor, City of Yarra)

Kevin Bracken (Victorian Trades Hall Council/MUA)

Parmenio Poveda (Columbian trade unionist)

Gary Foley (historian/writer/actor/activist)

No one can do it alone, we need you to help us build a large, vibrant campaign against the NT Intervention. We want to see lots of new faces at the next meeting, with lots of ideas!

Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective (MAIC) meets every Monday, 6.30pm at the New International Bookshop (NIBS). The bookshop is easily found in the basement of the Trades Hall building (Lygon and Victoria Streets, Carlton).

Details of what's coming up:

1st November (THIS MONDAY!!)

Shannon does a short overview of the ‘Jobs with Justice’ campaign. And we discuss where to now for MAIC and the campaign. A great meeting to come to, if you’ve never been before!

8th November (NEXT MONDAY)

Join us for a rare screening of the documentary film ‘How The West Was Lost’.

In the 1940s in the north-west of Australia, a secret congress was organized by Pilbara Elders Dooley Bin Bin and Clancy McKenna, alongside white unionist and communist Don McLeod. It was an unprecedented gathering, with over a dozen interpreters present to deal with the 23 languages of the many Aboriginal groups present.

This congress decided to organize a strike in the Pilbara region to demand better wages and conditions, and to draw attention to the treatment generally of Aboriginal people in Western Australia.

On 1 May 1946, Aboriginal workers walked off the sheep stations, marking the beginning of a carefully organized strike that was to last three years. It is considered one of the most significant (and least known) political actions in Australian history, and went on to inspire the Land Rights movement of the 1960s.

After the film we will have discussion, including a reportback from Alex who just came back from the north-west of WA where unions and Aboriginal activists are uniting once more. This time it's to fight against Liberal Premier Colin Barnett’s ‘compulsory acquisition’ of Aboriginal land for a Liquid Petroleum Gas Hub.

18th November (Thursday event - special forum)

The NT Intervention:

Why Teachers and Communities are Breaking the Ban on Bilingual Education

6.30pm, James Hardie Theatre, Architecture Building, University of Melbourne

Speakers:

+ Senior Indigenous Teacher from NT Bilingual School (video link)

+ Rosa McKenna, Friends of Bilingual Learning, Ex principal of Yirrkala School

+ Mary McKernich, Australian Education Union Victoria Councilor

+ Lucy Honan, Melbourne Anti Intervention Collective

26th January 2011 (and the weeks leading up to it)

MAIC wants to plan something BIG on this day. It is a day of mourning for many, but it is also a day of resistance! Come along to the MAIC meetings to help be a part of the organising.

Ringo Terrick (Wurundjeri elder) and Robbie Thorpe (long time activist)

TODAY!! National Day of Protest against the NT Intervention

2010-10-26T10:44:00.001-07:00

RALLY: Friday, 29 October 2010, 5.30pm

State Library, cnr Swanston & La Trobe Sts, Melbourne

Speakers: Gary Foley (activist, Gumbainggir), Robbie Thorpe (activist, Krautungalung), Adam Bandt (Greens - Member for Melbourne), Adam Frogley (Indigenous Coordinator, NTEU), Kevin Bracken (Victorian Trades Hall Council), Stephen Jolly (Councillor, City of Yarra)

Welcome to Country: Ringo Terrick (Wurundjeri)
Chair of Rally: Sharon Firebrace (activist, Yorta Yorta)

We demand:

+ Jobs with Justice NOT work for rations!

+ Apply the Racial Discrimination Act in Full!

+ Self determination now!

For more on Melbourne’s campaign: www.maicollective.blogspot.com

For other actions in

Australia

: www.jobswithjustice.wordpress.com

Contacts:

Sharon Firebrace 0401 414 967

Lucy Honan 0404 728 104

Sam Salvidge 0432 803 360

Click here for MAIC's media release.

Click here for a high quality rally poster to print out.

Worse than Workchoices

The NT Intervention promised to deliver ‘real jobs’ for Aboriginal communities. Instead, thousands of waged jobs have been lost and Aboriginal organisations have been crippled as Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) close down.[i]

Under the new CDEP scheme designed by the federal Labor government, Aboriginal people no longer receive wages. They are being forced to work providing vital services such as rubbish collection, school bus runs, sewerage maintenance, construction and aged care in exchange for quarantined Centrelink payments.[ii]

People are compelled to work 16 hours a week for $115 cash, plus $115 credit on a ‘BasicsCard’ which can only be used on ‘priority items’ in government approved stores. Aboriginal workers have described this as a return to the “ration-days’ when they were paid in food instead of cash.

Centrelink is threatening to cut off payments entirely if people do not participate. Unclear guidelines and the vulnerable position of many workers have seen cases of people working 30 hrs or more for no extra money.[iii] This is far worse than anything the Liberals inflicted on workers under Workchoices.

The Labor government committed to halving the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in a decade. But due to a continuation of Howard era policies such as the Intervention, Indigenous unemployment has drastically worsened from 13.8% in 2007 to 18.1% in 2009.[iv]

500 ‘real jobs’ created to replace some of the lost CDEP positions in remote NT shire councils face the axe next year. The Commonwealth is refusing to guarantee ongoing funding of $8.5 million per year needed by the NT government to keep the jobs.[v] Many Aboriginal communities serviced by these shires already suffer atrocious living conditions – 500 more job losses will be devastating.

The NT Intervention shames Australia. Despite recent amendments, the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) ruled in August that Intervention legislation provides clear evidence of “embedded racism” against Aboriginal people. [vi ] The UNCERD report said living conditions had deteriorated for Aboriginal people under the Intervention through loss of land, property, employment, legal rights and opportunities for cultural development. [vii]

Rather than abandon failed policy, the government is planning to spend $350 million (over 4 years) to expand income management across the NT.[viii ] This money is desperately needed to create real jobs in Aboriginal communities and ensure the provision of basic services.

The government must act immediately to:

+ Guarantee the 500 threatened Shire jobs

+ End compulsory income management

+ End current CDEP arrangements forcing people to work for the BasicsCard

+ Turn all CDEP positions into fully waged jobs

+ Provide massive investment in job creation and service provision in all Aboriginal communities

see www.maicollective.blogspot.com for sources referenced

________________________________

How to support:

We seek:

1. Your public endorsement of the ‘Jobs with Justice’ statement (your name will be printed in the Australian unless you state otherwise);
2. A donation of at least $100 to help with the cost of publication.
3. Help advancing support for the statement through potentially
supportive organisations.

Please email your endorsement to jobs.w.justice@gmail.com or phone
Marlene Hodder from the Intervention Rollback Action Group (Alice
Springs) on 08 89525032.

Please forward your donation to:
Intervention Rollback Action Group
PO Box 8488
Alice Springs
NT 0871

Or by direct deposit to:
Bendigo Community Bank
A/c Name: Intervention Rollback Action Gr.
BSB No: 633-000
A/c No: 134 157 049

Please send a notice to jobs.w.justice@gmail.com when you have made a donation.

Many thanks for your ongoing support.

___________________________________________

Look out for the ‘Jobs with Justice’ statement published in today’s The Australian with the help of organisations and people across the country including:

Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement Inc, Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia (ALSWA), Aboriginal Support Circle – Older Women`s Network, Aboriginal Support Group Manly Warringah Pittwater Amoonguna Community Council Inc., ANTaR Armidale, Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, Australian Nursing Federation, Australian Services Union (SA,NT,ACT&NSW branches), Brisbane Aboriginal Rights Coalition, Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association, Communist Party of Australia, concerned Australians, Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, Ethnic Child Care Family and Community Services Cooperative Ltd, Greens (NT & NSW), Gurindji stop-work meeting (October 20), Hoeroa Robert Marumaru (Maori ethnic community Brisbane), Intervention Rollback Action Group Alice Springs, La Perouse Botany Bay Aboriginal Corporation, Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union, Leichhardt Council, Liberty Victoria, Maritime Union of Australia, Melbourne Unitarian Church Mutitjulu Community Aboriginal Corporation, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission, National Association of Community Legal Centres, National Tertiary Education Union, Ngoppon Together Inc, NSW Aboriginal Land Council, Peace & Social Justice Network VRM Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia (AYM office Qld) Socialist Alliance, Socialists Alternative, Solidarity, Solidarity Choir, South Coast Labor Council, Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney, Tangentyere Council, The Greek Orthodox Community of NSW Ltd, The Network of Immigrant and Refugee Women of Australia Inc, Tribal Warrior, Unions NT, UQ/QUT Students for Indigenous Rights, Urapuntja Aboriginal Corporation, Women for Wik, Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom

Prof. Jon Altman, Gil Appleton, Assoc. Prof. Barbara Baird, Prof. Larissa Behrendt, Judith Gamper, Vivi Germanos-Koutsounadis OAM, Dr Peter Gibson & Cathy-Anne Grew, Don & Estelle Gobbett, Rev. Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra OAM,Marcia Guild, Brian Johnstone, John Leemans, Ian MacIndoe, Jeff McMullen, Wendy McMurdo (Greens Councillor Hornsby Shire), Sandra Milne, The Hon Alastair Nicholson AO RFD QC, George Newhouse, James Oaten, Christine Olsen, Linda Pearson, Stephen Sewell, Rachel Siewert (WA Greens Senator), Associate Professor Gracelyn Smallwood, Warwick Thornton,Anne Vadiveloo, Sam Watson, Bethany Wheeler, Alexis Wright, Josephine Zappia

'Our Generation' is launched to a packed Capitol Theatre in Melbourne

2010-10-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

It was an amazing and inspiring night in Melbourne! The launch of the Our Generation documentary filled out the Capitol Theatre. 500 people in attendance!

All of MAICs posters and leaflets were snapped up, with people keen to get more of their friends, family and workmates involved in the campaign.

This Friday's rally, part of the National Day of Protest against the NT Intervention, is looking to be an absolute corker!

But now's the time to step it up a grear. The last week leading up to a rally is crucial. To make the rally as big and as successful as it can be, we need to make sure EVERYONE knows about it. More posters and leaftlets are available to be picked up from outside New International Bookshop. Lets plaster the city with them! And go to our Facebook page and invite everyone to the rally. Copy the text below and email all your friends. Send a viral sms around with the rally details and 'pass it on' at the end. Think creatively!

If you're interested in getting more involved in MAIC, we welcome folks to come to the weekly meetings: every Monday at 6.30pm at New International Bookshop in Trades Hall (cnr Lygon and Victoria Streets).

This Monday, we'll be talking over the Jobs With Justice campaign (an introduction for beginners about what this part of the Internvention is all about). We'll also be preparing for the upcoming rally. And we'll perhaps look a bit ahead to what sort of things MAIC can do in the future. Bring your ideas and enthusiasm!

NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST THE

NORTHERN TERRITORY INTERVENTION

Jobs with Justice NOT Work for rations!

Apply the Racial Discrimination Act in Full!

Self determination now!

RALLY: 5.30pm, Friday, 29th October at the STATE LIBRARY, cnr Swanston & La Trobe Sts, Melbourne

Contact: Sharon 0401 414 967 or Lucy 0404 728 104

www.maicollective.blogspot.com
www.jobswithjustice.wordpress.com

Come along to our next meeting on Monday night, 6.30pm at the New International Bookshop in the basement of Trades Hall. Or drop us a line at melbourneaic@gmail.com to ask us what you can do in your community to support the event.

Banner Painting

2010-10-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

Meredith from MAIC is inviting anyone interested to join her for some banner painting for the upcoming National Day of Protest against the NT Intervention.

Get in touch with someone at MAIC to express interest, and find out when and where!

Or call Alex on 0406 685 43 if you get stuck, or want help painting your own banner closer to you.

Gurindji strike against Government Intervention: “History is being repeated here”

2010-10-19T04:37:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday 20th October Gurindji workers and residents from the remote Aboriginal communities of Kalkaringi and Dagaragu will stop work and stage a protest against the NT Intervention.

Gurindji leaders are saying that the closure of the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP), local government reforms and the seizure of land and assets under the Intervention have had a devastating impact on the community. The Labor government promised to phase out remaining CDEP programs and transition Aboriginal workers into ‘real jobs’ but instead hundreds have been forced onto income management and local services are struggling or have collapsed.

Dagaragu is the site of the original Wave Hill walk-off, where Gurindji stockman went on strike against Vesty’s station to fight for equal wages and the return of traditional homelands. The Gurindji people have a proud history of standing up for Aboriginal rights. They say that since the Intervention these hard won rights have been stripped away.

Protest spokesperson John Leemans says the community is sick of being bullied by the government and wants control of local employment, housing programs and Aboriginal Land handed back to the community:

“Prior to the Intervention we had nearly 300 CDEP workers employed in municipal services, construction and maintenance roles. When the government took over and abolished the community council and CDEP everything came to a halt. We went two years without regular rubbish collection because the truck was seized. Houses and buildings are in desperate need of repair but there’s no funding for workers or materials.”
“If you go out to Dagaragu you’ll see the evidence these cuts have had on our people. Everything we built has gone - the old CDEP office, the brick making shed, the nursery, the health clinic, the old family centre. Soon we may lose the bakery. Houses that are now under Territory Housing control are overcrowded and falling apart. The damage is just overwhelming.”

“We now we have around 40 workers left on CDEP and training programs. Many are working 35 hour weeks but under the new laws they’re working for nothing but a Centrelink payment. It’s worse than working for the dole, because half goes onto the BasicCard and can only be spent at approved stores. History is being repeated here, with our people forced to work for rations again.”

Representatives from trade unions and residents of neighbouring communities will join with the Gurindji people on October 20th.

Many Gurindji will also travel to Alice Springs to join national rallies on October 29th calling for ‘Jobs with Justice’ for Aboriginal workers and an end to the Intervention. These protests are being supported by numerous organisation including Unions NT, the CFMEU, Tangentyere Council and the National Association of Community Legal Centres.

“The government has got to listen to the Australian people, the churches, the unions, the UN. Everybody around the world is condemning this intervention and the government can’t ignore the world. They have to demolish this law”, concluded Mr Leemans. The protest will begin outside the store at Kalkaringi at 11am on Wednesday October 20

Contact:
John Leemans on 0438 345 155

Endorsements are flooding in for 'Jobs with Justice'

2010-10-19T03:44:00.000-07:00

LATEST endorsements:

ANTaR Victoria, Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement Inc, Australian Nursing Federation, Australian Services Union (SA/NT) Concerned Australians, Ethnic Child Care Family and Community Services Cooperative Ltd, Greens NSW, Intervention Rollback Action Group, LHMU (NT), Liberty Victoria, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission (NATSIEC), National Association of Community Legal Centres, National Tertiary Education Union, Socialist Alliance, Tangentyere Council, The Greek Orthodox Community of NSW Ltd, The Network of Immigrant and Refugee Women of Australia Inc, Unions NT, Women for Wik, Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF), CFMEU, National Tertiary Education Union, 3CR, RMIT University Student Union...

Add your organisation now!

The Intervention Rollback Action Group in Alice Springs is requesting support for a statement demanding 'Jobs with Justice for Aboriginal workers' that will be launched on October 29 with protest rallies around the country.

The statement highlights the serious breaches of workers' rights and massive increases in unemployment that have taken place under the NT Intervention. We are aiming to print it in 'the Australian' newspaper on the day of the launch. The cost of the public notice is expected to be around $11,000.

The closure of Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) has been one of the main tools used by government to push through their current agenda of assimilation. Without access to proper employment programs in their own communities, the pressure builds up on Aboriginal families to move away.

Similarly, without access to the funding and workers previously provided by CDEP, many Aboriginal organisations are suffering drastically reduced capacity.

Recent revelations of widespread starvation in Aboriginal communities provided to an NT government child protection inquiry underscore the complete failure of the NT Intervention to address acute social problems.

Unless the resources currently being spent on discriminatory bureaucracy can be redirected to employment opportunities and programs based in Aboriginal communities, the well-being and living conditions of Aboriginal people in the NT will continue to sharply deteriorate. Please follow the links provided in the footnotes to the attached statement, or get in contact if you require any more information about these issues.

Pressure is mounting for change. As highlighted in this statement, the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has recently issued another strong condemnation of NT Intervention. And in the recent federal election, strong Greens candidates Barbara Shaw and Warren H Williams outpolled both Labor and Liberal in Aboriginal communities in Central Australia standing on a clear anti-Intervention platform.

The call for support for the 'Jobs with Justice' statement came from a major conference held in Alice Springs in July. Aboriginal community leaders, human rights activists and union members and representatives from across the NT and

Australia

all pledged support. Other early endorsements include the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMU) NT who cover many Aboriginal workers affected by the Intervention and Aboriginal leaders such as Barbara Shaw and Larissa Behrendt.

This letter is requesting:-

1. Your public endorsement of the 'Jobs with Justice' statement;

2. A donation of at least $100 to help with the cost of publication. Please email your endorsement to jobs.w.justice@gmail.com<jobswithjustice@gmail.com>or phone Marlene Hodder from the Intervention Rollback Action Group (Alice Springs) on 08 89525032.

Please forward your donation to:
Intervention Rollback Action Group PO Box 8488 Alice Springs
NT 0871

Or by direct deposit to:
Bendigo Community Bank
A/c Name: Intervention Rollback Action Gr.
BSB No: 633-000
A/c No: 134 157 049

Please send a notice to jobs.w.justice@gmail.com
& jobswithjustice@gmail.com ; when you have made a donation.

Many thanks for your ongoing support.

in solidarity,
Intervention Rollback Action Group Alice Springs

Has your organisation supported the following statement? Do it now!

Stop the NT Intervention – Jobs with Justice for Aboriginal workers

Worse than Workchoices

The government must act immediately to:

Guarantee the 500 threatened Shire jobs
End compulsory income management
End current CDEP arrangements forcing people to work for the BasicsCard
Turn all CDEP positions into fully waged jobs
Provide massive investment in job creation and service provision in all Aboriginal communities.

________________________________

[i] There were approximately 7500 CDEP participants receiving wages in the NT before reforms that came with the Intervention. See Altman, J. Neo-Paternalism and the Destruction of CDEP, Arena90, September 2007 athttp://www.federalintervention.info/docs/issues/Altman_Paternalism.pdf

[ii ] See Gibson, P. Working for the BasicsCard in the NorthernTerritory, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning UTS Briefing Paper at http://www.jumbunna.uts.edu.au/publications/pdf/JIHLBP12.pdf

[iii] The Age, June 16 2010, http://www.theage.com.au/national/for-some-workers-the-struggle-will-never-end-20100615-yd9p.html

[iv] Crikey, June 4 2010, http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/06/04/closing-the-gap-rudd-overpromised-on-indigenous-unemployment/

[v] ABC, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/04/2918143.htmandhttp://search.abc.net.au/search/click.cgi?url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/18/2931143.htm&rank=3&collection=abcall

[vi] ABC, http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2010/s2996077.htmandhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/17/2985720.htm

[vii] A full copy of the UNCERD report is available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/co/CERD-C-AUS-CO-15_17.doc

[viii ] ABC, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/22/2933374.htm

_____________________________________

Visit MAIC's info stall at the Melbourne launch of 'Our Generation'

2010-10-19T03:20:00.000-07:00

Melbourne Premiere of the groundbreaking new documentary on Aboriginal rights, Our Generation.
Taking place at 7pm on Friday 22nd October at the Capitol Theatre, 113 Swanston Street.

“This is a very important film that everyone must see… It will change your life.” John Butler
Our Generation is a rollercoaster journey into the heart of

Australia

’s Indigenous relations, a hidden shame that is pushing the world’s oldest living culture to the edge. Through the stories of the Yolngu of Northeast Arnhem Land, the film examines the Government's ongoing policies of paternalism and assimilation, examines the real issues underlying Indigenous disadvantage, and opens dialogue on ways forward that respect Aboriginal culture and dignity. A fresh and unflinching look at unresolved issues, with music by John Butler Trio, Yothu Yindi and Gurrumul.
The evening will feature:
-Live music by national treasures Shane Howard (Goanna) and Shellie Morris (Black Arm Band)
-Film presentation (73 min)
- Q&A discussion with the filmmakers, joined by Indigenous elders from Arnhem Land Rev. Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra OAM and Djanumbe Gurruwiwi, and journalist Jeff McMullen.
Link to Official Trailer: http://ourgeneration.org.au/trailer
Link to ABC News feature: http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/08/17/2985823.htm
Ticket price: $25 / $15 concessions
For reservations, please email tickets@ourgeneration.org.au
All tickets are payable on the door.

Our Generation
(+61) 420 400 284 / 424 722 705
info@ourgeneration.org.au
www.ourgeneration.org.au

National Protest on 29th of October. It's all coming together!

2010-09-22T05:48:00.000-07:00

Currently, we are busy organising with activists around Austrlia, for a National Day of Protest against the government's racist NT Intervention. We have a poster designed and its about to go off to the printers. Keep an eye out on street poles for it soon. If you're not seeing any, that means we need more help putting them up!

We are also making plans to have a banner painting day, we're gonna be printing t-shirts, we are putting a bulletin together with lots of facts and figures. And we have plans for leafletting and stalls and all sorts of stuff.

But! We could do so much more if you were involved. Seriously. So why not come along to our next meeting on Monday night, 6.30pm at Trades Hall? Or drop us a line at melbourneaic@gmail.com to ask us what you can do in your community to support the event.

We are trying to get as many Aboriginal organisations, community groups, unions and workplaces to support this action as possible. There is a 'jobs with justice' statement that you can get signed. We need money to get an ad in the paper, and we want your logo on our stuff. Imagine if you were working under the conditions that people like Peter Inverway were working in? $4/hr plus a ration card to work on a construction site. That's exploitation. It's racist. It's barbaric.

It's people on the ground that make these actions a success. So grab some posters and leaflets from outside the New International Bookshop to put in your workspace, so as many people know about it as possible. It's a great way to get a conversation happening and spread the word to people who might not ever think about Aboriginal politics.

Let's make this protest a big one and show the government that the Aboriginal rights struggle is not going anywhere.

Stop the racist NT Intervention - "Jobs With Justice now!"

Friday, 29 October 2010

5.30pm, State Library of Victoria (cnr Swanston and Lt La Trobe Streets)

Help us organise the National Day of Protest

2010-09-19T01:56:00.000-07:00

Exciting news for the campaign!

Gary Foley, a legend of Aboriginal rights activism, has agreed to support the National Day of Protest against the racist NT Intervention. Gary Foley will be speaking at the rally on Friday, 29 October 2010, 5.30pm at the State Library of Victoria (cnr Swanston and Lt La Trobe Streets).

Gary Foley (centre), with members of The Clash (l-r, Paul Simonon and Joe Strummer)

We encourage anyone interested in achieving justice for Aboriginal people in this country to support their local action. Currently, there are actions planned in Alice Springs, Sydney and Melbourne (note: the Melbourne protest has shifted dates and now ALL PROTESTS around the country will be taking place on 29 October 2010).

Not only does MAIC want you to come to the rally, we want you to tell as many people as you can about it. And if you are especially committed and have the time--we would love you to join us at the organising meetings (every Monday, 6.30pm at Trades Hall).

http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/indexb.html

MAIC Response to Re-elected Gillard Government

2010-09-07T05:57:00.000-07:00

Media Release -- 7 September 2010

The appalling state of Aboriginal affairs has been thrust back into the spotlight with the formation of the new Government.

The announcement of the re-election of the Gillard Government saw Aboriginal self-determination and employment at the forefront of negotiations.

The MP for Lyne, Rob Oakeshott stressed the disadvantage that Indigenous people experience in areas all around

Australia

. The MP for Kennedy, Bob Katter, is also on record as being highly critical of the state of Aboriginal housing, the lack of self-determination and dearth of employment opportunities for Aboriginal people in rural areas.

The ‘Wild Rivers’ policy was a controversial issue for the Independents and is a policy that reaffirms the broader crisis in Aboriginal affairs. The focus on market driven policies and punitive individualism has only seen ‘The Gap’ between white and black

Australia

widen.

Noel Pearson, Director of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership, has been an outspoken mouth piece for the right-wing ideas implemented by successive governments. Though used as prop for parliamentarians on both sides of politics, his views are widely discredited amongst Aboriginal Australia. Mr Pearson’s punitive approach has been shown to have failed, with clear negative outcomes across the board when resources have been withdrawn from vulnerable Aboriginal communities.

The Northern Territory Intervention was one of the most significant issues at the last election in 2007. Three years later, the conditions of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory have degenerated even further.

Spokesperson for the Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective (MAIC), Mr Alex Ettling said “There has been no accounting for the disaster that the Intervention has had on Indigenous people in Northern Territory”.

Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective (MAIC) is campaigning for the scrapping of the Intervention and an increase in funding and self-determination for Aboriginal communities. Mr Ettling says “If the Government is serious about improving the conditions of Aboriginal people in

Australia

, they need to shift away from the racist paternalism that has creeped back into Aboriginal policy making”.

Mr Ettling said “We support ‘jobs with justice’, rather than the arrangements under the Intervention that have seen people like Peter Inverway, a construction worker from Kalkarindji working for $4/hr plus a ration card”.

MAIC opposes the system of welfare quarantining which is punitive, ineffective and a racist throwback to the 1950s. MAIC also condemns the abolishing of bi-lingual education which is undermining Aboriginal culture. MAIC demands Aboriginal communities in the Out Stations and Homelands be fully resourced and serviced, and an end to the ‘hub towns’ policy. Furthermore, MAIC supports the full application of the Racial Discrimination Act to the Intervention laws to allow them to be challenged in the High Court.

On October 30, there will be a protest in Melbourne against the racism of the NT Intervention. This will be part of a national protest that weekend, with demonstrations planned for Alice Springs, Sydney and Perth.

www.maicollective.blogspot.com

Plans galore! MAIC is making stuff happen. But we need more people to help--we need you!

2010-09-05T18:56:00.000-07:00

Come along to the MAIC meetings. We have plenty of things to talk about, and we want to make stuff happen! We need your zeal--seriously. This is the time to step up the activism and get hands on.

Tonight, Shannon will be discussing a detailed letter that Aboriginal Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has sent to anti-Intervention activists. We'll be going through it all, so we're up to speed.

Also on the agenda:

+ MAIC's planned conference about the cuts to bi-lingual education

+ The national protest in support of Aboriginal rights planned for late October

+ organising some sort of event at Melbourne Uni?

+ doing some stalls to get the word out there?

+ putting together a bulletin with information about the NT Intervention?

+ something that you want to get happening?

Hope you can make it! And by all means, spread the word, and bring yr mates.

Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective (MAIC) meets every Monday, 6.30pm at the New International Bookshop (NIBS). The bookshop is easily found in the basement of the Trades Hall building (Lygon and Victoria Streets, Carlton)

Get the message Labor? Aboriginal Rights, Not the Intervention!

2010-08-26T14:27:00.000-07:00

MEDIA RELEASE – MEDIA RELEASE – MEDIA RELEASE – MEDIA RELEASE

August 26, 2010

Event details:
Friday 27 August 2010
12:00pm ALP Head Office
360 King St,
West Melbourne

Get the message Labor? Aboriginal Rights, Not the Intervention!

This Friday Aboriginal rights activists protest against the Northern Territory Intervention.
The action will target the ALP Headquarters, as the Intervention has cost the previous government votes in the recent elections.

The huge swing to the Greens in remote Indigenous communities is a rejection of the paternalistic policies of the Intervention. This is particularly shown in areas affected by then Intervention, where the Greens outpolled the ALP on a platform opposing the NT Intervention.

All aspects of the Intervention have come under increasing criticism following condemnation last year from groups such as Amnesty International and the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights.

The protesters have labelled the Intervention as racist and argue that it has had a negative impact on the lives of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory.

Indigenous Activist, Sharon Firebrace, said “The huge swing to the Greens in remote Indigenous communities is a rejection of the paternalistic policies of the Intervention. It is time for the ALP to ditch the Intervention- it has not mandate and it is not working.”

For interviews or more information contact:
Sharon Firebrace: 0401 414 967
Chris Peterson: 0431 311 520

After the Election: What does it all mean for stopping the NT Intervention?

2010-08-17T12:06:00.000-07:00

Monday, 23 August 2010, 6.30pm

New International Bookshop in Trades Hall

cnr Victoria and Lygon Streets

A few weeks ago Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective held a forum asking the question: “Who will stop the NT Intervention?”

At the event we invited representatives from various political groups and the unions to offer their analysis of how to get rid of these racist policies.

Following the close of polls on Saturday, we will see either a Labor Government committed to the NT Intervention, or a Liberal Government committed to th...e NT Intervention. It is clear that we can not leave it to parliament to overturn these barbaric laws.

During this special post-election meeting, Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective will be presenting an overview of the NT Intervention and a rundown of what the new political situation means for the campaign. Importantly, we will be discussing the sort of action we can take to fight this latest attack on Aboriginal rights.

All welcome for a night of discussion and action!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146480522048680

Federal Election 2010 - Who will stop the NT Intervention?

2010-08-03T01:08:00.000-07:00

On 9 August 2010, MAIC held a forum which discussed the elections and the NT Intervention. Go to our Facebook group to see some clips of the speakers. Here are some photos from the night.

Shannon Price, Chair of the forum

David Glanz speaks for MAIC

Dr Richard Di Natale from The Greens

Kevin Bracken from the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA)

Sharon Firebrace from the Socialist Alliance

The MAIC organisers of the event were pleased with the attendance and the quality of the speakers. There were some particularly good contributions during the questions and comments time as well. Stay tuned for a follow-up event after the election results are in!

Federal Election 2010:

Who Will Stop the NT Intervention?

It will take more than voting to get rid of the NT Intervention.

Even if The Greens hold the balance of power in the Senate it will still require the power of grassroots movements, such as the land rights movement of the 1970s to win real Aboriginal rights.

It is no surprise that Tony Abbott is 100% committed to the failed policies of the NT Intervention. If he is elected he will extend the racist Intervention that his party brought in.

Gillard’s Labor government supported the implementation of the Intervention under Howard and have entrenched Intervention policies—Rudd’s apology to the Stolen

Generations rings very hollow.

The Greens are the only party with members in parliament who have consistently opposed the Intervention. It would be good if the Greens increase their vote in this election, and if Labor remains in power rather than Abbott. This will demonstrate a

clear vote against the continuation of racist policies like the NT Intervention.

We encourage you to join us in discussion about what we can do to take a stand against this latest attack on Aboriginal rights.

Speakers:

Kevin Bracken (Maritime Union of Australia)

Richard Di Natale (candidate for The Greens)

Sharon Firebrace (candidate for Socialist Alliance)

David Glanz (Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective)

Monday, 6:30pm

9th August 2010

Trades Hall

cnr Victoria and Lygon Streets

Carlton South

Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective (MAIC) meets every Monday, 6:30pm at the New International Bookshop. The bookshop is located in the basement of the Trades Hall building located on the corner of Lygon and Victoria Streets in South Carlton. All welcome!

www.maicollective.blogspot.com

Find us on Facebook:

‘Melbourne Anti Intervention Collective’

Videos from the 18 June 2010, Picket of FaHCSIA

2010-06-23T06:49:00.000-07:00

Check out this footage of MAIC's last action against the Government. There were some excellent speeches and a fantastic spirit of defiance. Lets work to make the next protest bigger and even more fiery!

Jenne from the Tiwi Islands talks of her experience on welfare quarantining.

Alistair Nicholson, former Chief Justice of the Family Court, discusses the negative effects of the NT Intervention and slams the ALP.

Steve Patrick Jampijinpa, assistant teacher from Lajamanu in NT, talks about the ban on Indigenous language being spoken freely in schools.

Richard Kennedy talks about the racialisation of the Intervention, and the history of racist 'interventions' into Indigenous society.

Robbie Thorpe talks about racism in Australia.

And if you haven't seen this 5 minute doco on the Picket of FaHCSIA held on 18 June 2010, please do!

If you would like to be involved in organising more actions against the racist NT Intervention, come along to the Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective meetings, every Monday, 6.30pm at New International Bookshop in Trades Hall, cnr Lygon and Victoria St.

5 minute documentary of the June 18th Picket of FaHCSIA

2010-06-21T07:47:00.000-07:00

Check out this excellent 5 minute documentary of the June 18th Picket of FaHCSIA. If you want to be involved in organising our next action and activities--come along to our collective meetings every Monday, 6.30pm at the New International Bookshop in Trades Hall.

http://melbourneprotests.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/basics-cards-a-racist-card-picket-of-fahcsia-office-in-melbourne-18-june-2010/

Come along to the MAIC meeting tonight

2010-06-20T19:26:00.000-07:00

Fantastic Picket on Friday! Joe the MC is right: we want to use the spark that set fire to that racist Basics Card, to ignite this campaign. Come along to the MAIC meeting tonight and bring your ideas and enthusiasm.

Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective (MAIC) meets every Monday, 6.30pm at the New International Bookshop (NIBS). The bookshop is easily found in the basement of the Trades Hall building located on the corner of Lygon and Victoria Streets in South Carlton. All welcome!

You may also wish to join the Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective (MAIC) Facebook group.

Pictures/Video of the Picket:
Did you take any? Send 'em to alexettling [at sign] gmail.com because we would love to use them on our blog and publicity material.

Stop the Racist Intervention – Picket FaHCSIA!

2010-06-17T17:00:00.000-07:00

Stop the Racist Intervention – Picket FaHCSIA!
Friday, 18 June 2010, noon
Casselden Plane, cnr Lonsdale Street and Spring Street

Speakers:
• Ringo Terrick (Wurundjeri elder)
• Steve Patrick Jampinjimpa (teacher from Lajamanu in NT)• Alistair Nicholson (former Chief Justice of the Family Court)
• Nova Peris (first Aboriginal Olympic gold medallist)
• Liam O’Hearne (CFMEU)
• Kevin Bracken (MUA)
• Adam Bandt (The Greens)
• Nova Peris (gold medal winning Olympian)

This Friday we will protest the third year of the NT Intervention. Three years of horrific government policies that have, in almost every way possible, advanced the genocide of Aboriginal people.

The NT Intervention has made Indigenous health worse. It has forced Aboriginal workers back onto working for ration cards and less than $4/hr in cash. It has ripped properly paid jobs out of the communities. It has banned Indigenous languages from being spoken freely in schools. It has stolen back hard-fought-for Aboriginal land, and on top of it, installed white ‘Government Business Managers’ in the only opulent houses in the towns. The Intervention does nothing to empower Indigenous communities or improve their living conditions. The reality is, it was never supposed to.

The NT Intervention was rammed through parliament in the final months of the Howard-era by disallowing the application of the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA). It was implemented in its early days by military force, terrorising remote Aboriginal communities. There are stories of some elders fleeing in terror at the sight of soldiers entering their communities. The trauma of what happened with the Stolen Generations-era is still present in many communities. Aboriginal communities fought for land rights, but now they are having to fight against the Government and mining interests trying to steal their homes for a second time.

The Government has done its best to blackmail economically starved Aboriginal communities into signing over their land. It has withdrawn funding for essential services, only to offer its return in exchange for these communities signing over their land. Is it surprising that the first radioactive waste dump in Australia has just been announced to be located on Aboriginal land in Muckaty, in the Northern Territory?

What about the poor housing conditions that the Government said they were going to address? In the first two and a half years of the Intervention, only 2 houses were built for the Aboriginal community, and only this in Wadeye where they had to move on to leasing their land. Meanwhile, many more houses have been built for the white Government Business Managers, who earn salaries up to $200,000pa. Not to mention the police that have been newly installed in these communities.

What about jobs? Currently, there are Aboriginal people working full-time jobs in essential services, but who are only paid on the CDEP ‘work for the dole’ scheme. An example of this is Kalkaringi worker Peter Inverway who was earning less than $4/hr + ration card for working on a construction site. What about the Aboriginal worker who has been fired from his job for refusing to dispose of sewerage in the town tip? Is this a Government that really wants to improve sanitation in Indigenous communities?!

What about the crisis in health and the massive gap in life-expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians? Research from the Menzies School of Health, has shown that dietary outcomes have gotten even worse since the Intervention started. Food and transport continues to be poor quality and prohibitively expensive, if available at all.

All reviews of the NT Intervention, including those commissioned by the Government, have been scathing. They point out the lack of consultation which has undermined Aboriginal self-determination. They point out how things are getting worse, despite the Government saying they wish to ‘close the gap’. And yet, the Rudd Government happily takes the baton from Howard’s brutal regime.

Under pressure from activists around Australia, Jenny Macklin has said she will amend some of the laws. An inspection of her proposals reveals that all of the racist Intervention policies introduced by Howard in 2007 will remain—only now labelled as ‘special measures’ to prevent them being challenged with the Racial Discrimination Act in the courts.

Join us on Friday in sending a strong message to FaHCSIA, the Government department responsible for administering the NT Intervention. The ongoing genocide of Aboriginal people will not be accepted without a fight! Stop the racist Intervention now!

Get Involved!
Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective (MAIC) meets every Monday, 6.30pm at the New International Bookshop (NIBS). The bookshop is easily found in the basement of the Trades Hall building located on the corner of Lygon and Victoria Streets in South Carlton. All welcome!

You may also wish to join the Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective (MAIC) Facebook group.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=91084301876&ref=ts

Coming Up in June 2010!

2010-06-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

Come to these two MAIC events in the next couple of Fridays. Lets keep up the campaign to stop this racist Intervention!

1. Public Meeting: Jobs with Justice!
Friday, June 11th Trades Hall, 6:30pm
Special guests: Peter Inverway, Basics Card worker from Kalkaringi; Mick Bull, AMWU member that helped build protest house in Ampilawatja

On the site of the famous Wave Hill Walk-off, Aboriginal people are again working for rations.

As part of the Northern Territory Intervention, Aboriginal people have had their welfare quarantined, their land “compulsorily acquired” and government business managers in control of communities. Community run programs were cut, and with them thousands of Jobs for Aboriginal people.

Now, as part of work for the dole schemes, Aboriginal workers in the NT are working full-time for dole payments that are income-managed, meaning they are effectively working for rations — returning people to '50s era racial discrimination.

2. Picket on 3rd Anniversary of NT Intervention
Noon, Next Friday, June 18th, FaHCSIA offices, Casselden Place, cnr Lonsdale and Spring Streets
Bring yourself, bring your workplace, union or community group!

Kevin Rudd has continued and extended the Intervention policy towards Aboriginal people pushed through in the final days of the Howard era.

The Intervention was based upon the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA), indicating the racist basis of the Intervention. Aboriginal Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin claims her new Intervention legislation is ‘reinstating the RDA’. This is a lie.

Under the new laws all of the racist Intervention policies introduced by Howard in 2007 will remain in place. Government measures to control Aboriginal communities include:

• Government Business Managers on Aboriginal communities
• Signing over Aboriginal land for 5-40 years before housing or services are offered
• Racist alcohol and pornography bans

People will not have access to the Racial Discrimination Act to challenge these measures.

Send a message to FaHCSIA, the government department responsible for administering these policies. This racist Intervention must go!

Contact: Lucy Honan on 0404728104 or Sharon Firebrace on 0401414967

Get involved in MAIC!
Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective (MAIC) is meeting this Monday, 21 June at 6:30pm at 3CR studios, 21 Smith Street, Collingwood. This is a one-off due to the public holiday. We usually meet every Monday, 6:30pm at the New International Bookshop (NIBS). The bookshop is easily found in the basement of the Trades Hall building located on the corner of Lygon and Victoria Streets in South Carlton. All welcome!

Fundraiser in support of the Ampilatwatja Walk Off

2010-02-01T18:27:00.000-08:00

Robbie Thorpe ft M1 (Dead Prez) at Trades Hall Melbourne Anti-Intervention fundraiser

Invasion Day 2010, Treaty statement ( Australian Day)

2010-02-01T17:59:00.000-08:00

Report finds that Consultation on the Intervention was a Flawed Process

2009-11-24T16:36:00.000-08:00

The racial discrimination act (RDA) was suspended by the Howard government in order to introduce the discriminatory policies of the Northern Territory Emergency Response.

Jenny Macklin hopes to reinstate the R DA by stating that she has consulted with Aboriginal communities in the NT and that these consultations demonstrate an overall consent to the 'special measures' of the intervention including the quarantining of welfare and the banning of alcohol and pornography to prescribed Indigenous communities

The Will They Be Heard Report – a response to the NTER Consultations June – August 2009 contains transcripts of three of the consultations carried out by the government in 3 Indigenous communities

These 3 communities showed a lack of support for the Intervention including:

complaints about the discriminatory measure of forced income management
resentment of the signs outside communities declaring them to be prescribed areas, which communities felt stigmatised their communities and imply that they are users of pornography
the perception that the intervention has delivered little in terms of improved services and housing

The Will They Be Heard? report was dismissed by Macklin yesterday as being unrepresentative because it was based on the views of only 3 communities but these communities are a representative sample of community views in the NT and, unlike the government summaries of the consultations, give voice to the voiceless by providing transcripts of the exact words of the participants.

This report also reveals the deep flaws in the consultation process including:

the consultations were carried out by government representatives and not by independent consultants
An absence of interpreters so that many people could not contribute to the consultations
Inadequate explanations of the NTER special measures and how this would effect the reinstatement of the RDA
The 'consultations' appear to have been about decisions already made by the government.

The lack of care taken in the consultations to ensure that Indigenous voices were heard through a well prepared and careful process of consultation shows the racist nature of the government's response to the first nations of Australia.

The Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective congratulates the authors of Will They Be Heard? and will continue to campaign against the NT Intervention and demand the reinstatement of the RDA with no discriminatory 'special measures'

Download report

2009-10-13T23:50:00.000-07:00

Friday 11 September

In this edition:

- Report of recent actions in Melbourne

-Upcoming events organised by MAIC

- NT government homelands plan

- Macklin housing crisis

- Battle over Alice Springs town camps

- UN Rapportuer James Anaya's report

- Ampilatwatja walk-off request for support

Recent activities against the Intervention in Melbourne

Barbara Shaw court case:

On Friday August 28 a dozen protesters came together in front of the Federal Court in Melbourne to support and show solidarity with Barbara Shaw in her attempt to prevent Macklin taking over the Alice Springs town camps or signing leases over the land. The protest was important in showing that town campers are not alone in their struggle to maintain rights over their land. The court case was successful in stalling the take over the town camps: the judge ruled that no deals can me made over the town camps until a decision is ruled after another sitting which will not be until October. The fight over the town camps continues and we will be there again to protest the blackmailing of the town camps and support those resisting the take over.

Jenny Macklin protest:

On Friday 4 September a protest was held by the Melbourne Anti-Collective to protest against Minister for Inidigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin. Macklin has been under increasing pressure over the failure of the Intervention to deliver a single house to an Aboriginal family and over her blackmailing of the Alice Springs town camps. Macklin was speaking at the Fabian Annual Dinner where she was to be congratulated for her work in Aboriginal communities. Around two dozen Aboriginal rights protesters argued loudly that she should be condemned for her work against Aboriginal communities and forced the Minister to sneak in a back door.

Solidarity fundraiser:

On Saturday 5 September the Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective held 'Uprising: Aboriginal Solidarity Fundraiser' at the Horn in Collingwood. Around eighty people turned out throughout the night to enjoy the live reggae music and dj's, show solidarity with those resisting the Intervention, and donate to the upcoming speaking tour of Richard Downs and Harry Nelson. A painting by prominent anti-Intervention activist Barbara Shaw was also raffled to raise money for the Aboriginal solidarity gathering to be held in November in Alice Springs.

Upcoming events organised by Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective

Speaking Tour of Richard Downs

and Harry Nelson

In mid-October we are fortunate to have two leading activists from central Australian Aboriginal communities visiting Melbourne. Richard Downs is from the community of Ampilatwaja, who walked off their community in mid-July in protest at Government neglect, and who are maintaining a protest camp near an old bore on their lands. Harry Nelson is a leading activist from Yuendumu, a community that has consistently and forcefully spoken up against the Northern

Territory Intervention.

On Friday 16 October at 6pm Harry Nelson and Richard Downs will be speaking alongside local Abooriginal activist Robbie Thorpe at MAYSAR 184-6 Gertrude St Fitzroy. It is the conclusion of meetings at Melbourn University on Wednesday 14^th, Monash on Thursday 15^th and with trade unions on Friday day.

Stop the Homelands Plan!

The Northern Territory Government's Working Futures policy launched may this year is one of the most overtly racist and assimilationist policie to come out of the Intervention which began over two years ago. It is an open battle between Aboriginal self-determination and forced assimilation into colonial society. It is the continuation of the genocidal project of destroying Aboriginal people and culture that began in 1788.

Working Futures freezes any new funding to over 600 homeland communities with the stated and clear intention of shifting Aboriginal people off homelands into 'hub' communities where they will have the opportunity to live 'mainstream' lives. The twenty 'hub' communities to receive funding under the policy have worse living conditions and social indicators than in the homeland communities. Report after report has shown people are healthier on homelands. Suicide rates are low on homelands but an epedemic in the towns people are being forced to move.

Another element of this assimilationist project is the attack on bi-lingual education. Teaching in Indigenous language is to be severely restricted, apparently to improve education outcomes. However, the few bi-lingual schools that do exist have had higher attendance rates and better outcomes in English than other remote schools. This is a policy with no respect for the right of Aboriginal children to be educated in their first language and with no evidence to support it.

The move to strenghthen language and culture was central to the homeland movement which began in the 1970s as a response to the failure of assimilationist policies. Aboriginal people have continued to move to homeland communities since the 1970s as it is where self-determination

is practised, albeit on meagre funding. Self-determination for Indigenous people is one of the most stressed elements of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, which Australia has now signed, not just because of human rights discourse, but because it is recognised as essential to indigenous people enjoying a quality life.

Resistance to Working Futures has continued to grow with a strong movement based in the homelands now spreading around Australia. The Get Up campaign has been central to raising support. Almost 30,000 people have signed the Get Up petition for increased funding to homelands, and this week a delegation of Indigenous leaders from homelands travelled to Canberra to meet with key policiticans.

By Joe Lorback

END THE RACIST HOUSING POLICIES NOW

Jenny Macklin, minister for Indigenous affairs says she is committed to Aboriginal housing and closing the gap, but the deeply racist motivations behind the NT intervention and her housing policies have been well and truly exposed.

Macklin is using the intervention policies to sever Aboriginal control over housing and to squander millions of dollars that were intended for desperately needed building and repairs on undisclosed “administrative costs”.

The “economically viable” Aboriginal communities in the NT were told that the 5 year leases suspending aboriginal community control, rolled out at the start of the intervention were not enough to supply adequate housing.

Tangentyere council, the severely underfunded organisation providing housing and basic services to the Town Camps of Alice Springs, refused to sign away control and sign away housing stock to the consistently discriminatory and distrusted “NT Housing”. In May this year Macklin announced her intentions to compulsorily and permanently acquire the Town Camps of Alice Springs.

She has run into strong opposition. Anti-Intervention groups across Australia held demonstrations on the anniversary of the intervention in defense of Tangetyere's right to adequate funding, community control and self determination. Activist groups published a letter in The Australian in support of Tangentyere's strong stance of refusing to be held ransom for the basic services. Barbara Shaw and other Alice Springs Town Campers have issued legal injunctions to halt the process on the grounds that no consultation had occurred with the residents of Tangentyere.

Even where leases have been signed, housing has not followed. The official review into the intervention unsurprisingly found that where community control is denied, damage, disaffection, and disempowerment follows, and millions of dollars are wasted on ineffective projects.

The $672 million Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program (SIHIP) is case in point. Multinational construction consortiums like Parsons-Brinkerhoff (who has made millions in Iraq reconstructions) have contracts under SIHIP to build houses in the wake of the roll out of the Intervention. But to Macklin's and erstwhile NT Indigenous Affairs minister Alison Anderson's embarrassment, it has been revealed that SIHIP has failed to build a single house in 18 months.

By Lucy Honan

The Fight Over the Alice Springs Town Camps

A group of Aboriginal residents in Alice Springs town camps, led by Barbara Shaw, whose current tenancy arrangements are under threat by the Commonwealth Government have initiated proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia in an effort to protect to their current rights and interests.

For over 12 months, the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, has been negotiating with the Tangentyere Council over the investment of significant funding for housing and infrastructure upgrades in the town camps. Tangentyere Council is the Aboriginal representative body for the Alice Springs town camps. ·

During the course of the negotiations, the Minister has been proposing to take 40-year sub-leases over each of the town camps by which the Commonwealth would obtain ‘secure land tenure’. The Minister has maintained that the Government will not invest any funding on housing unless it has control over the town camps. Negotiations between the Minister and Tangentyere have broken down over the question of tenancy management and decision making powers under the proposed arrangements, with the Aboriginal residents maintaining that they wish to preserve their right of self‑determination and rights and interests over the land.

On 24 May 2009, the Minister announced that the Commonwealth Government was commencing the process of compulsory acquisition of the Alice Springs Town Camps, citing the failure of negotiations with the Tangentyere Council. The power to compulsorily acquire the town camps is pursuant to powers granted under the Northern Territory Intervention. The Minister set a deadline of 28 July 2009 for Tangentyere Council to agree to the proposed 40-years sub-leases, or else she would take steps to compulsorily acquire the town camps.

On 29 July 2009, Tangentyere Council indicated to the Minister that it was prepared to enter into the sub-leases because the only other alternative was that their land would be compulsorily acquired.

As a result, the group of town camp residents initiated two proceedings in the Federal Court in order to protect their current tenancy rights and interests. On 6 August 2009, the town camp residents obtained injunctions, which prevented the Minister from entering into the proposed 40‑year sub-leases and also from exercising her powers under s 47 of the NTNER Act to compulsorily acquire the town camps.

A full hearing of the case took place on 31 August and 1 September 2009 before Justice Mansfield. The primary questions before the Court are whether the Alice Springs town camp residents have been afforded natural justice obligations under the Minister’s notice to compulsorily the land, and whether entering into the proposed 40-year sub-leases is contrary to the interests of the members of the housing associations.

By Barbara Shaw and Ben Schockman

ALWAYS WAS, ALWAYS WILL BE!

Analysis of the battle over the town camps:

Whatever governments call it - extermination, protection, relocation, assimilation, integration, self-determination, intervention - they want to control the land. Land may be life to the people, its money to them.

Barbara Shaw et al v. Jenny Macklin is not a fair fight. For a start, the contest is between the first people and the occupying power, the Federal and N.T. governments. It’s long odds. When those governments make the rules, the odds lengthen. And when the venue is the law court set up and staffed by those governments, the chance of coming out on top is very slim.

Yet a Federal Court Judge at the beginning of August stopped Jenny Macklin from using the power she has under the intervention law John Howard made. Macklin’s plan to seize community land around Alice Springs either for 40 years, or forever, was stopped until August 31, 2009, for a matter of weeks. The judge reckoned that the government had not adequately informed the residents that the takeover of leases would mean the loss of their rights as tenants. He also said just because the government has the power to seize land by force, doesn’t mean it can do it without providing ‘natural justice and procedural fairness’.

The leases the communities hold are perpetual ones - the land is theirs forever. Or that’s what people thought at the start of the 80’s after the leases were finally granted. That was the victory after a long, hard fight for land rights and for control of their lives and communities. But the battle couldn’t stop. Even 30 years ago the Commonwealth Department of Housing and Construction didn’t want to consider the design and layout of the houses the residents wanted. The people wanted houses in groups not lines, each group separated by trees. Social relations were as important as shelter. But the Department report said it clearly:

So long as traditional aboriginal groups place inter and intra family relationships, communications, responsibilities etc. above European style pride in possessions, there will be little [DHC] motivation towards construction and maintenance of houses.

By 2009 that lack of motivation of government departments is obvious. Yet even after years of government neglect and denial of resources, doing their best with what they had, representatives of the residents were reluctant to sign away, for 40 years, control over what they had fought for. There was no clear agreement about what control the residents or the housing associations would have left over their lives and their land, or when, if ever, the leases would be returned.

So September 1 came around and it was on again in the Federal Court, those listening on the people’s side knowing that its justice is anything but natural and the procedures never fair.

The lawyer for the Federal government said if Jenny Macklin’s actions weren’t just or fair before, they were now, or they would be if she were given the control she wanted. Residents had been ‘properly notified’ of the changes. Handfuls of leaflets in English had now been delivered to one person in each camp. None, by the way, were written in any of the five languages spoken by the residents.

The lawyer for Tangentyere Council, which represents the housing associations of each town camp, said the 40-year lease agreement already signed by the council was what the housing associations wanted. They couldn’t countenance losing the land forever. He called the choice given to them by Jenny Macklin as Hobson’s choice, Sophie’s choice, no choice. The decision to sign away the leases for 40 years had been made already. Under that agreement the N.T. government’s housing department would issue fixed term tenancies to individuals for up to five years with the power to cancel them at up to 42 days notice.

Most of the people living around Alice in the 60’s were there because of government polices. Extinction, protection, relocation, assimilation – the result was many people from many places with different languages had been forced to live on the fringes of the town. During the land rights campaigns, there were big meetings of people talking in 5 or 6 languages. No English was spoken. No whitefellers were present. Agreement was reached as to where people could live in relation to where they came from. And the town camp communities were established in the land law of Aboriginal society. The people could live on the land as permanent tenants.

Very soon, the Federal Court judge will give his final decision. It will be at best a stay of execution, at worst, an execution date. To stop the execution will take a fight outside their courts, on the land itself. Justice will be delivered by just us.

Since July 2007, relocation, killing language, stealing children, controlling income have all been justified under the NTER legislation as being for the good of the people. The intervention is the invasion continued. It has to stop.

By Tanya McConvell

Excerpts from Statement of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, James Anaya, as he concludes his visit to Australia, 27 August 2009.

During my time in Australia, I have been impressed with demonstrations of strong and vibrant indigenous cultures and have been inspired by the strength, resilience and vision of indigenous communities determined to move toward a better future despite having endured tremendous suffering at the hands of historical forces and entrenched racism. It is clear that these historical forces continue to make their presence known today, manifesting themselves in serious disparities between indigenous and non-indigenous parts of society, including in terms of life expectancy, basic health, education, unemployment, incarceration, children placed under care and protection orders, and access to basic services.
Aspects of the Government’s initiatives to remedy situations of indigenous disadvantage, however, raise concerns. Of particular concern is the Northern Territory Emergency Response, which by the Government’s own account is an extraordinary measure, especially in its income management regime, imposition of compulsory leases, and community-wide bans on alcohol consumption and pornography. These measures overtly discriminate against aboriginal peoples, infringe their right of self-determination and stigmatize already stigmatized communities.
However, any such measure must be devised and carried out with due regard of the rights of indigenous peoples to self-determination and to be free from racial discrimination and indignity. In this connection, any special measure that infringes on the basic rights of indigenous peoples must be narrowly tailored, proportional, and necessary to achieve the legitimate objectives being pursued. In my view, the Northern Territory Emergency Response is not. In my opinion, as currently configured and carried out, the Emergency Response is incompatible with Australia’s obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, treaties to which Australia is a party, as well as incompatible with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to which Australia has affirmed its support.
Given what I have learned thus far, it would seem to me that the objectives of the closing the gap campaign, the Emergency Response, and other current initiatives and proposed efforts of the Government will be best achieved in partnership with indigenous peoples’ own institutions and decision-making bodies, which are those that are most familiar with the local situations.
It is worth stressing that during my visit, I have observed numerous successful indigenous programmes already in place to address issues of alcoholism, domestic violence, health, education, and other areas of concern, in ways that are culturally appropriate and adapted to local needs, and these efforts need to be included in and supported by the Government response, both logistically and financially.
In addition, international human rights norms, including those contained in the United Nations Declaration, affirmatively guarantee the right of indigenous peoples to participate fully at all levels of decision making in matters which may affect their rights, lives and destinies, as well as to maintain and develop their own decision-making institutions and programmes. Further, adequate options and alternatives for socio-economic development and violence prevention programmes should be developed in full consultation with affected indigenous communities and organisations.
Furthermore, it is important to note that securing the rights of indigenous peoples to their lands is of central importance to indigenous peoples’ socioeconomic development, self-determination, and cultural integrity.
Continued efforts to resolve, clarify, and strengthen the protection of indigenous lands and resources should be made... initiatives to address the housing needs of indigenous peoples, should avoid imposing leasing or other arrangements that would undermine indigenous peoples’ control over their lands.

Stop the NT Intervention

Support the

Ampilatwatja walk off!

Dear Trade Unionists and supporters of Aboriginal rights,

We’re writing to you from our protest camp in the desert, asking for your support in our struggle for basic services and rights that many in the cities take for granted.

On July 14 we, elders from the Ampilatwaja community, three hours north-east of Alice

Springs, walked out of our houses and set up camp in the bush. We are fed up with the federal governments Northern Territory Intervention, controls and measures, visions and goals forced onto us from outside. We felt we were an outcaste and isolated from all decision making – there has been no meaningful consultation.

We had been waiting with patience to see where this Intervention was heading, hoping there maybe some humanity and compassion towards our Indigenous people, some respect to bring us back into the discussion process to have a say in what is happening on our community. Instead our leaders and elders are treated with contempt, shown no respect, degraded, treated as lower class outsiders.

The NT Intervention hasn’t brought any improvements to our people’s lives. It hasn’t brought us any new houses. And, despite the fact that in Ampilatwatja, many of us are living in tin sheds with leaking sewerage, Aboriginal affairs minister Jenny Macklin has told us Ampilatwatja won’t be one of the communities to get new houses built.

Instead, the NT Intervention has meant more hardship and shame for our people. We’re suffering under the welfare quarantining system- 50% of Aboriginal people’s welfare payment is converted into Basics cards, which we can only use at certain shops. Elders who have gone through earlier welfare days are feeling degraded - it’s same old ration days of, flour, tea and sugar and some clothing.

We have written to Jenny Macklin with our concerns, and she has ignored us. A recent Intervention “consultation” session was an embarrassment, with our concerns being completely ignored. We no longer have confidence in her, her government, or the government business managers (GBMs) installed in our communities as part of the Intervention. Under the GBM, our community fell into disarray and dysfunction. For us, the last straw was when the government took over our independent, community-controlled store.

Community members are living permanently at the protest camp

We therefore have no intention of going back there. We intend to stay here until our

demands are met. We demand the federal government:

- Stop the NT Intervention

- Genuinely consult with us on any plans that

will affect our lives now and for the future

- Reinstate the full Racial Discrimination Act

without conditions or measures

- Fund housing and community development,

not intervention

- Stop the compulsory five-year leases and

restore Aboriginal land rights

Until these demands are met, we are asking for the help of trade unions and any other

organisations to establish and maintain our new camp.

We seek your assistance in obtaining:

- $20000 to get a bore running so we have drinking

water at the camp

- $10000 to set up toilets and showers

- Tents to provide shelter for the elders and

families. We need 10 and they are $250 each

- Money and donations of food

- A long-term loan/donation of a marquee, chairs and table for and open day and public meeting we are planning.

Through our own savings and community grants we are currently able to contribute $8000 towards these costs. For the remainder, we will be relying on the generosity of supporters around the country.

If you make a donation, or to find out more please contact Richard Downs, Alyawarr language group

spokesperson.

Email: spiritualdesert@yahoo.com.au

Phone: 0428 611 169

NATIONAL SPEAKING TOUR

THE ABORIGINAL WALK-OFF

RESISTANCE TO THE NT INTERvention

From 14^th -16^th October Central Australian Aboriginal leaders Richard Downs and Harry Nelson will be speaking around Melbourne on the effects of the NTER legislation, the resistance to the Northern Territory Intervention and the Ampilatwatja protest camp. The protest camp was formed in mid-July in protest against the continuation of the Intervention by the Rudd Government and inspired other communities to discuss taking similar action. Richard Downs is the spokesperson for the Ampilatwatja protest camp and is touring the country to raise awareness and seek support for the camp. Harry Nelson is an elder and leader from Yuendumu a community that has consistenly spoken out against the Intervention.

The Tour in Melbourne:

Wednesday 14 October at 1pm

Melbourne University Student Union, Joe Nap B

Thursday 15 October 1pm

Monash University (Clayton), venue to be confirmed

Friday 16 October 6pm

MAYSAR 184-186 Gertrude St Fitzroy
This is the conclusion of the speaking tour in Melbourne and will also be featuring local Aboriginal activist Robbie Thorpe

Pictured: Ampilatwatja community members living at protest camp

Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective

Film Screening: Our Generation

BALLERRT MOOROOP STRONG SPIRIT FESTIVAL

Online Petition to Save Melbourne's Last Aboriginal School

Statement for Amnesty Homelands campaign from Rosalie Kunoth-Monks

Second NT intervention on table

Support the Lake Tyers Blockaders!

Jenny Macklin you can't hide, you're committing genocide!

TODAY!! Snap action against Jenny Macklin's IWD cocktail party

We sent them a message

THIS FRIDAY!

ABC report: Aboriginal leaders call for end to intervention

THIS FRIDAY!! Stand up against the exploitation of Aboriginal workers

Vale Mark Fordham

Help build the upcoming protest

Conversation with Elders from the NT

Invasion Day: Join MAIC at the Share the Spirit Festival

MAIC returns to activity this Monday!

Update: Defending Melbourne's Aboriginal School

TODAY!! Save Aboriginal Education

Sack Macklin Protest @Readings

Russell Skelton in conversation with Jenny Macklin

Chris Graham and Gary Foley Public Talk + MAIC music fundraiser

Bilingual Education forum

How The West Was Lost

Over 500 people march for Aboriginal rights in Melbourne

TODAY!! National Day of Protest against the NT Intervention

'Our Generation' is launched to a packed Capitol Theatre in Melbourne

NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST THE

NORTHERN TERRITORY INTERVENTION

Banner Painting

Gurindji strike against Government Intervention: “History is being repeated here”

Endorsements are flooding in for 'Jobs with Justice'

Visit MAIC's info stall at the Melbourne launch of 'Our Generation'

National Protest on 29th of October. It's all coming together!

Help us organise the National Day of Protest

MAIC Response to Re-elected Gillard Government

Plans galore! MAIC is making stuff happen. But we need more people to help--we need you!

Get the message Labor? Aboriginal Rights, Not the Intervention!

After the Election: What does it all mean for stopping the NT Intervention?

Federal Election 2010 - Who will stop the NT Intervention?

Videos from the 18 June 2010, Picket of FaHCSIA

5 minute documentary of the June 18th Picket of FaHCSIA

Come along to the MAIC meeting tonight

Stop the Racist Intervention – Picket FaHCSIA!

Coming Up in June 2010!

Fundraiser in support of the Ampilatwatja Walk Off

Invasion Day 2010, Treaty statement ( Australian Day)

Report finds that Consultation on the Intervention was a Flawed Process

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