Black Deaths are Policing Norm 3 It’s Not a Stereotype if it’s True 6 Cat Cafe to Open in Sydney 8 Community Closures 15 Engo Grill, Half-Baked 27 We, the Indigenous Collective ask you to join us in acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation upon whose stolen land the University For Police, Black Deaths are the Rule, Not the Exception of Sydney is built. It is a privilege to learn and gather on Aboriginal land, even though the land has changed the ancestral spirits of those who lived on this land still remains. Black lives matter, but to who? Rafi Alam explores the connection between the appalling The Gadigal people are the traditional owners, custodians and caretakers of the land where Sydney’s CBD and Inner City stands. It would be just rates of black deaths at the hands of police in the United States and Australia. as accurate to say that this land is the traditional owner, custodian and caretaker of Gadigal people. In truth, there is no way for us to accurately express the complex, symbiotic and spiritual relationship Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island nations share with their sacred lands. We acknowl- edge that the Gadigal people and those of the greater Eora nation were the first to suffer, resist and survive the brutalities of White Supremacy in Around the time I was asked to write this By 2009, African Americans made up 40 deaths by pointing to the alleged crimi- In Australia, police were formed soon Australia. The centuries-long resistance of Australia’s Indigenous community endures as non-Indigenous Australians continue to benefit from the article on police murders of black people per cent of the US prison population, de- nality of black people in Australia and the after colonisation to scatter Aboriginal colonisation of sovereign Indigenous land. in the United States, another high-profile spite comprising only 12 per cent of the USA. Whether this is intended as pure people and make room for settlers. Lat- case had just occurred: Freddie Gray in total population. In Australia, around 3 observation or to imply that black peo- er, they assumed the position of ‘protec- We acknowledge the atrocities of the Stolen Generations: the untold destruction it inflicted on Indigenous families through forced child removal, Baltimore. At the time of print, it is likely per cent of our population is Indigenous. ple are simply racially driven to commit tors’ of Aboriginal people in reserves and the identity struggles it gave rise to then and those who continue to struggle as a direct result. This genocidal attempt to ‘breed out’ Indigeneity has there will be another case, albeit less well Australian prisons? One quarter Indige- more crimes, these supposed answers ig- missions. The discourse surrounding this permanently changed our people and identity. The ongoing kidnapping of Indigenous children and calculated attempts to dismantle our families known. After all, police or vigilantes kill a nous. An Indigenous youth in Western nore the real structural reasons why black punishment and abuse was out of a ‘genu- continue today, with more children than ever being taken away by the colonial Australian government. black man every 28 hours in the US. Australia is 52 times more likely to be in people in both nations are more likely to ine desire’ to better the lives of Aboriginal We acknowledge the current crimes of the Northern Territory Intervention. This military occupation of sovereign Indigenous soil blatantly disre- prison than a non-Indigenous person. In face jail time and death at the hands of law people. Today, police still arrest Aborigi- gards the Colonial State’s own legal obligations and highlights its moral bankruptcy. We condemn the gross fabrications of ‘paedophile gangs’ and This excludes black women, who make up Australia, 18 per cent of all deaths in cus- enforcement. nal people ‘for their own good,’ police still ‘child sex rings’ used to justify this intervention. These are nothing but archaic, colonial stereotypes of deviant black sexuality, mobilised to facilitate around 20 per cent of black deaths at the tody – including custody before conviction enable the displacement of Aboriginal new colonial goals of control, dispossession and criminalisation. hands of police in the US. Like Natasha – are Aboriginal people. The police in both countries have evolved people from their lands through dispro- With bi-partisan backing, the White Australian government’s legacy of disregard towards Indigenous people, land and culture continues. McKenna, a mentally ill woman who was parallel to the histories of domination, portionately high rates of arrest that move We acknowledge the role of the police in continuing to suppress the Indigenous population through racial profiling, police brutality and alarming shackled by police and then tasered to sovereign people from their lands to state- rates of deaths in custody. These everyday injustices contribute to the fact that this country’s Indigenous people continue to be one of the most death. Or Rekia Boyd, who was shot in run prisons. They still allow the settlement over-policed, over-incarcerated populations in the world. We acknowledge the struggles of Indigenous wom*n, who face the highest rates of sexual the back of the head by a cop – the judge of sovereign lands, moving Blackfellas off assault and domestic violence in this country and Indigenous men, who experience the highest rates of incarceration and suicide in this country. We in her case found that involuntary man- The Block or out of remote communities stand with our non-binary Indigenous family and acknowledge that our culture’s progressive stance on gender and sexuality was first suppressed by slaughter was too light, and that he should in Western Australia. conservative settlers and their repressive laws, later to be whitewashed by liberal ones. be charged with first-degree murder. So he threw it out of court. This is not unique. The Native American We offer our deepest respect to Indigenous leaders throughout history, who fought to defend our land, our culture and our people. We pay our population in the United States is more respects to the brave warriors of the Frontier Wars who are continually forgotten in Australia’s war histories, to the scores killed by foreign disease, Even less heard of are black trans wom- prone to police violence than white Amer- to every Indigenous child, adult and elder who has died at the hands of White Supremacy and to all those who continue to live in the face of it. en, who are continually harassed, assault- icans and Canadian Indigenous folk have Join with us in acknowledging that Australia is not a post-colonial nation: ed and murdered by police. One of these prison rates frighteningly similar to that That this land was never terra nullius – a myth, retrospectively concocted by a colonial regime to justify the genocide and dispossession it was al- ready perpetrating. women, Deairra Michelle Venable, was of Australian Aboriginals. It is important harassed and arrested at a protest in Bal- as residents of this country to fight for That Indigenous sovereignty was never ceded. timore. The mainstream media was large- justice. Police are unlikely to pursue jus- That White Australia has a Black history. ly silent on the issue, focusing instead on tice for the people they have been trained black men who they accused of rioting through history to oppress – which makes and thuggery. Then there’s Mya Hall, a While the majority of these cases involve enslavement and colonisation. In other it even more unbelievable that they are Editorial black trans woman and sex worker who males, in the last decade, the Aboriginal words, the very nature of police is entan- tasked with investigating themselves. was gunned down by police after making female population has doubled and now gled in oppression. Many police forces in Another year goes by and, again, I find myself huddled up in the Honi Stevia Coke Life: not worth all the hype. 3/10, do not recommend. a wrong turn into Baltimore’s NSA head- comprises a third of the female prison the United States started as Slave Patrols We must remember the names of the peo- office for a few more weeks. I’ve been overusing Facebook ‘stickers’ Would not try again. Editing Indigenous Honi, however, is something quarters. She found no justice and even in population—many see this as the state used to keep black slaves in check. Now, ple who die from police brutality. We must as unrelated reaction images amidst a flurry of typing, laying up and that I’ll always come back to with fondness, no matter how much stress death, she continues to be misgendered by continuing the incarceration of Aborigi- police keep African Americans in check remember that they are real people, killed begging my contributors to please send their work in so I can edit it! and heartbreak it causes me. the press. nal people in a time when so many Abo- through stop-and-frisks, pulling them because of the colour of their skin and To be blunt, there’s so much pressure on me as an Aboriginal girl to riginal men have already been imprisoned. over and searching their car; the War on where they came from. Julienka Dhu. TJ I’ve been so snowed under over the last few weeks that I didn’t even make this newspaper perfect – there are always people around you Black deaths are treated as unimportant. Most of these are for petty crimes like not Drugs is the biggest reason for spikes in Hickey. Cameron Doomadgee. Michael have time to read the nutrition information on a bottle of Coke Life waiting for you to trip up so they can pigeonhole you as flawed, lazy It is usually only when something else oc- paying fines, effectively creating a debtor black incarceration, but it doesn’t target Brown. Rekia Boyd. Mya Hall. Tamir that I decided to try. I’m not a regular consumer of Coke, so don’t take or incompetent. Not because you’re human, or because your task is curs alongside it, such as a riot, that people prison system for black women. white people: it only gives police forces Rice. Freddie Gray. The names of only a my word for it, but I wasn’t impressed by the flavour. I was however challenging: but because you’re Aboriginal. start paying attention. This is not dissimi- legislative rationale to continue the har- few of the many black victims of police pretty incensed to find that the ~healthier~ Coke Life I thought I was lar to instances of black deaths in custody It is easy to rationalise the highly dispro- assment and murder of black people. racism. We can’t allow this to become so trying during this editing saga wasn’t entirely sweetened by Stevia. I hope I have delivered. I hope you enjoy what I’ve pulled here in Australia. portionate numbers of black arrests and normal that we just resign ourselves to it. Shockingly, 250mL of this liquefied glucose contains a ridiculous 17g of together for you to learn, to see and to consider. sugar! Compare that with the 27g of sugar I would’ve had by drinking - Madison x 250mL of regular Coke, and you can see why I felt utterly betrayed by this measly 10g drop in sugar. Stories from the Graveyard Shift Credits One of the Redfern Tent Embassy’s most dedicated supporters, Tenaya Alattas reports on rude awakenings. “Fuck off, ya white cunts! This is my land!” which statistics translate into the every- asbestos, cycles of homelessness and drug is welcomed into RATE at 7:05am. He Editor-in-Chief, Creative Director: Madison McIvor Proofreaders: Mariana Podestá-Diverio, Georgia Kriz, Cover Artist: Emily Johnson a man screams at my friend and I—both day. How a decade less of life expectancy use. The two percent of our country that states his intention, “I just watched First Naaman Zhou, Julia Readett, Madison McIvor, Daniel non-Indigenous supporters of the Redfern becomes real and familiar around the constitutes 26 percent of the Australian Contact and want your advice on how to Contributors: Andy Mason, Laura Webster, Georgia Ergas, Andy Mason, Rebecca Wong, Jim Clifford, Artists: Emily Johnson, Katie Thorburn, Cabbage, Aboriginal Tent Embassy (RATE). He’s Embassy in the phrase: “Funeral to go to.” prison population. Broken families, stolen say hello to my neighbours.” Mantle, Madison McIvor, Shareeka Helaluddin, Bridget Harilaou, Chiara Angeloni, Aaron Lowth, Max Stephanie Barahona, Elise Bickley, Max Hall, Samantha riding a bike. It’s 5:05am and now, the How in sixteen days’ time, RATE will generation on-going. Anna Hush, Bridget Harilaou, Ruthy Scheinberg, Hall, Astha Rajvanshi, Riki Scanlan, Tara Waniganayaka, Jonscher, Alexi Polden disgruntled cyclist out of sight, we relax as celebrate its one year anniversary and yet, But in asking his ‘question,’ he takes up the Claire Sadler, Haidarr Jones, Bianca Williams, Tenaya Christina White, Edward McMahon, Rafi Alam we realise it’s not a tangible threat for us as a regular, I cannot remember the last My weariness grows as I string together mantle of quiet, patronising power over Atalas, Patrick Madden, Victoria Cook, Tom Gillard, InDesigners and Photoshoppers: Max Hall, Georgia to respond to. In any case, this is not the time I have seen the Aboriginal flag flown more and more of the ways in which these younger kids just waking up. Redfern— Camilla Corbett, Nathan Sheldon-Anderson, Chloé Moral Support: Laura Webster, Georgia Mantle Kriz, Joanna Connolly, Peter Walsh, Dominic Ellis, nicest way to start the day. at full-mast. It hangs at half-mast, if at all, statistics morph into the experience of the Embassy—is not his neighbourhood Hazelwood, Rebekah Hatfield, Peter Walsh, Astha Astha Rajvanshi, Madison McIvor, Rafi Alam, Alexandra in respectful mourning of those who have trauma and resistance every day for the in which to ask that question. Rajvanshi, Rafi Alam, Ebony Hill, Jethro Braico Crisis Management, MVPs: Max Hall, Andy Mason, Mildenhall As with the nature of any graveyard shift, passed. mob at Redfern. Peter Walsh I am weary, though there is more to this I can’t explain everything to you. But seeing weariness than too much caffeine, too All those deaths in between the gap There are some harder-to-explainpatronising white people again and again, Disclaimer: Honi Soit is published by the Students’ Representative Council, University of Sydney, Level 1 Wentworth Building, City Road, University of Sydney NSW 2006. The SRC’s operation costs, space and administrative little sleep and the sting of sacred fire that are explained by other gaps: low statistics, though. Apparently, six out of I do understand why we non-Indigenous support are financed by the University of Sydney. Honi Soit is printed under the auspices of the SRC’s directors of student publications: Christopher Warren, Serena May, James Rusiti, Ilya Klauzner, Charlie O’Grady and smoke in my eyes. educational attainment and high ten Aussies have never met an Aboriginal. supporters get called white cunts. Alison Xiao. All expressions are published on the basis that they are not to be regarded as the opinions of the SRC unless specifically stated. The Council accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of any of the opinions or morbidity in a Western country with This becomes reality for us when a white, information contained within this newspaper, nor does it endorse any of the advertisements and insertions. I am weary from witnessing the ways in preventable diseases. Houses bathed in balding, middle-classed man from Albury 2 3 of critical thinkers that will also one day rights for asylum seekers then you ought donate a dollar to Headspace for every Stand Up, leave this place and take on the future of to sit down and shut up. vote in the board election—but ask for Haidarr’s Story our nation. everyone reading to vote regardless. Fight Back Ben James think of. I stopped counting how many now study a Bachelor of Media (Creative how many others have had it much worse. Your letter is nothing more than a whinge Arts II Anonymous places I’d lived in when I hit number 20 Arts). At university, I’ve done great You have to realise your potential: if I Dear Paul Dempster, and actually covers very minor issues, and I moved to Bathurst at age 15. My things, things that I’ve never done before. made it to where I am at right now with which have been exaggerated because family never had a stable home because we I’ve been the President of the Flinders my resources, imagine what you can do Firstly, thank you for writing to Honi last you’ve entered the real world where people were constantly moving between women’s Indigenous Student Association and with your resources! We all need to realise week. One of the things that I admire will actually say what they think rather On Headspace No More Froth shelters and public housing, fleeing I’ve been the Indigenous Officer of the that we can do more, take advantage of most about our student paper is that it than act like ‘yes men’. domestic violence. As a result, I never had Campus Student Council. I finished my the opportunities around us and count our provides an opportunity for all students Dear Honi, Dear Honi, any friends and was constantly surrounded first year of university with a Distinction blessings. to have a say in what they think should So instead of crying about people by drug-addicted people, domestic average. I’ve had an internship, too. The be happening in our sandstone buildings, interrupting a politician as a challenge I’m writing in response to the article As I familiarised myself with Honi’s USU violence and involvement in crime. I was funny thing is, I did all of this while I Before university, I was too afraid to tell which have been filled with over a century to ongoing problems such as racial and ‘What Really Goes on at Headspace’. election coverage on the first day of polling the only one among my siblings to learn was living at a youth homeless shelter by my story. I was too ashamed and didn’t of debate and controversy. This is what I gender inequality, why don’t you focus on last week, I found myself on Eastern from the mistakes of those around me myself over that 12 month period. want to be judged by my peers. But truly believe is brilliant about universities the real issues impacting so many more I understand that some people (like the Avenue, Fisher-Coffee-Cart-Double- during my childhood. now, I’m proud to tell people that I’ve in general. other than you? article’s author) received bad treatment at Shot-Cap in hand, pursued by a board A note from Editor-in-Chief, Madison My dream was to just get a job and live lived my whole life through poverty and Headspace. The thing is, my experience candidate who won’t be named (though McIvor: my friend, Haidarr Jones generously I ran away at 15 to find a dream, to live like every other person, eat like every other homelessness, because it shows that one However, what I can’t believe is that some Regards, has been really good. Previously, I saw his shirt did remind me of the purple haze allowed me to transcribe his life story and that dream. I learnt how to think about person, sleep like every other person… person can overcome their circumstances how you have managed to do nothing but Kyol Blakeneny two different psychiatrists and another upbringing my conservative background share it with you all. Haidarr’s is a rich tale of what was possible and to stop accepting now I’ve made it way beyond that. Last with resources around them and it proves ramble and miss the point entirely with 87th President psychologist prescribing ineffectivenever allowed me to have). After I dodged strength, passion and extraordinary ambition that my mum, brother and sisters had year, I lived in a residential college where we can all achieve greatness. I have spent your conservative critique. Students’ Representative Council drugs (or none at all). None of these him (because I already knew his policies, for someone so young who has fought through made choices that had to impact on me, I got 3 meals a day! It was so great to have almost three years studying a Bachelor University of Sydney appointments seemed to deliver any not out of disenfranchisement), I first so much. I am incredibly proud and humbled too. After running away, I lived in several a steady roof over my head where I could of Media (Creative Arts) at Flinders “A know-nothing undergrad without a improvement and were absurdly expensive. sipped my coffee, realising my mistake. to know such a stoic, determined individual. different youth homeless centres, but I leave my things, something that many of University in Adelaide. I managed to pair of shoes”[?] Really? I don’t think a I had no idea where any candidate stood We are blessed to have the opportunity to be made sure I still got to school every day. In us take for granted. overcome the issues and break the cycle just person not having shoes takes away their I now see a psychiatrist and mental health on the rapid downhill spiral which has inspired by someone who is truly a trailblazer. these shelters, I would be kicked out every by getting to university. This achievement legitimate concerns and right to dissent Missing nurse at Headspace who I’ve been with continued to new lows at (USU owned) Haidarr’s life has placed him in the unique day at 8am and couldn’t return until 5pm. My family, my past and my experiences in itself makes me feel successful. publically. You’re a bit classist mate. for over a year. They are both friendly and Fisher Coffee Cart. You see, my ‘cap’ was position of being able to offer very considered, I’d take my bag, which had everything I have made me the person who I am Furthermore, do you actually believe that the Point professional. I’ve improved dramatically less ‘uccino’ and more room temperature worldly advice at just 22 years of age. Haidarr owned and I’d go to class. I couldn’t sleep today. If I never saw the true effects of In my final year of my undergraduate those who hold postgraduate degrees are throughout this time through the milk, without a semblance of caffeine, is currently studying a Bachelor of Media in. I couldn’t play games. I had to get drug addiction, would I be here today? degree, I reflect on how life has granted the only people entitled to an opinion? “… Dear Honi, assistance of medication and management chocolate, or just plain froth (the latter, (Creative Arts) at Flinders University. myself out of this situation by myself, so Would I be in the same state of mind me the opportunity to view the world you are not a tenured professor—you do techniques. While this article will probably alone, would have at least given me the I encourage you to join me in learning from I did. as I am now? Would I have this drive differently and speak my mind freely. not have the right to say whatever you like, I’m writing in response to the letter ‘Sit get the attention of Headspace—I’m jumbo-sized babycino I’m always too the wisdom he passed onto me below. to acquire the power to change people’s I understand that power in the world whenever you please.” Down, Shut Up’ where the author gives hoping it doesn’t deter other individuals ashamed to order). Despite trying, I failed Years 10 and lives? One thing’s for sure—without these revolves around money and education. It his opinion that “you do not have the right from seeking help. It is difficult to find et me first tell you bout my 11, and when I made it to my final year experiences, I could not be so humble. only took me a dollar and a dream to come I’m pretty sure they do. In fact, in order to say whatever you like, whenever you treatment and I believe Headspace is a The side of the cup (you may have seen childhood… My mother is an of high school, I learnt that I had to be to university, but I had to get my hands on to make it as far as a tenured professor, please” in response to protesters disrupting good solution. It’d be good for anyone to it before) makes various claims in ‘funky’ LAboriginal woman from Queensland. I’m diligent about going after what I want. I What I want everyone to learn from my both of those, first. one of the first steps is to express your Bill Shorten’s speech. I’m not going to send their experiences anonymously to fonts. A selection of those the ‘coffee’ the middle child of four and I’ve never had to apply myself, to motivate myself. I journey is: there is always a person who own perspective of the world. I think you discuss whether the right to free speech Headspace because I’m sure they’d take failed to meet include: ‘coffee’, ‘rich-blend’, met my father. My mother did everything had to do it for myself, by myself and only has lived in worse situations and come To my Indigenous brothers and sisters— even mentioned the idea of a “democratic really exists or whether the protesters were note. ‘caution hot’, ‘warmth’ (this seems to be a she could to provide us with a meal every then would I be able to live out my dream, further, and I’m not talking about me. show the true potential of one Aboriginal institution” in your letter last week. It “unwashed”—but rather the necessity of fallback if the preceding claim wasn’t met, day and put a smile on the five faces she which back then was just to get a job. I I have seen so many other people live person—go to uni and achieve the should also be cleared up that Bill Shorten the perhaps mildly irritating protest you’re As for the Brain and Mind Research but unfortunately even that low bar wasn’t had to care for. finished Year 12 with all As and Bs. tougher lives and have a great future ahead unachievable; go back to your home or is not at all a foremost thinker. He is a complaining about. Institute, they have ongoing research jumped), ‘ethical’ (if Coffee Cart faced a of them. Every week, I see people unhappy community and be a role model. mere politician. Somebody who is trained regarding mental health. For example, I lever, it would ‘solve’ it by shouting “next While growing up, I lived in the worst I was lucky enough to get a place at with the way they are. So many people to say anything for the outcome of a vote I understand that, like many others, you was asked to take part in a sleep study and please”—I think that counts as a ‘no pull’), areas of just about every town you could Flinders University in Adelaide, where I talk about their issues. You just don’t know and has innately moved into his field for might find the chants and loud voices take an MRI. I was shown my anonymous and ‘relax’ (with each of the three sips I a position of power. In fact it is actually irritating. I understand. Sometimes identifier that researchers will see and got through my blood pressure increased more HIS role to “sit down, shut up and it feels a bit repetitive and maybe the compensated for my time. The results were dramatically, to the point where the coffee listen” (as you so elegantly put it) to the chants would be better to music or also sent to my psychiatrist to assist with finally successfully met one of its claims: I To USyd academics, teachers of the Department of Pointy of Sydney just don't want to teach. lawyers and scientists of tomorrow, then people he one day wishes to lead and something. You’re missing the point. The my treatment. I don’t believe they would ‘woke up’). Headed Elitists. They aren't doing it to we are in serious trouble. This is to say represent. protesters were not intervening because have used your information in research Let's just get one thing straight. I hate bulk up their resume. They spend entire Given what some of my friends have said, nothing of their role in training their own they were complaining about the quality without permission. For as long as Taste is overrun by too-long that I have to write this anonymously nights writing incredibly thorough emails, my incredulity is more than a little naïve. successors to be the slightly less smelly, I can also confidently say to you that of his zingers or his party’s position on lines and (wannabe) law students, Coffee to protect the name of a dear friend. I addressing every concern that students While most academics won't admit that marginally less ignorant, still completely there will be no shortage of guests at this taxation—but rather that we’re probably Like the author, I’m writing Cart will be the choice of long-term hate that I cannot address the relevant could have—with a particular emphasis they themselves resent teaching, they have unpunctual academics of tomorrow. university as a result of stunts like these. violating the convention against torture. anonymously—fearing the stigma of library dwellers. How long until the USU academics directly, the actual department on the ickle firsties, some of whom (bless no problem admitting that the general I’m not sure how inexperienced you are mental health. Mental Health is still takes leadership on training its staff? that I know to be guilty of negligence their hearts) don't even know what a cover academic consensus is that teaching And a little bit of appreciation might not but I can assure you that it is stunts like I don’t care how much irritation it caused severely underfunded and ignored. I and—let's be honest—of cruelty to their sheet is. responsibilities are the most unfortunate, go astray. Last I checked, the majority these that actually make people focus on you, because if the protesters intent was to recommend Headspace myself but Best, students. I regret that this is going to loathsome and pointless of their roles of protesters against staff-cuts and the an institution such as ours. It makes it stop the current Australian government regardless I hope people seek treatment Ryan Hunter. take the form of a generalisation, despite Their recent project, a good example in the academy. Most academics would steady deterioration of your staff working interesting, exciting, adventurous, bold, (or future governments) violating the with either Headspace or elsewhere if JD I. my knowledge of plenty of academics of how far above and beyond they are rather be rid of the obligation to teach conditions were students. We were on and leads to a very well informed body rights of children or for basic human necessary. I support the USU’s pledge to who take their teaching responsibilities prepared to go, was a modest proposal smelly, ignorant, tardy little gnomes like the picket lines with you. We were there seriously, and who love passing on the very for increased representation of what ourselves. The luckiest of academics are on your behalf. And the truth is, there same knowledge they spend their careers students find relevant to today's world in those whose research takes up all of their is nothing you could do individually or advancing. But enough is enough. the teaching syllabus. And after leading professional life. Suffice to say, it would be collectively to dissuade us from doing so We Want to Hear from You! my friend on rather shamefully, the inaccurate to characterise this attitude as again. We know that you are deserving of I have a friend. You know them as a Student academic staff of the Department of Shits anything but totally unacceptable. your rights; of supreme respect as workers If you have thoughts, feelings, or opinions please email: [email protected]. Rep. I know them as one of the most and Giggles stonewalled them. Between and as intellectuals. Please try acting like dedicated, intelligent and selfless people I consoling my distraught friend, assuring The propagation of knowledge is at least as it for a change. For up to date news and additional coverage: have ever met. Out of a schedule already them that they couldn't afford to take it important as its advancement. If academics Like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/honisoitsydney and; packed full of tasks they find extremely personally, and discussing the incident cannot respect and appreciate, let alone Sincerely and with great esteem, Follow us on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/honi_soit stressful, my friend donates their time to with other students, I came to a shocking acknowledge, the paramount importance act as a liaison between the students and conclusion. Academics at the University of training the historians, artists, doctors, Anonymous. 4 5 If You’re Aboriginal, Why Are You White? My Uterus is not Unhygienic Men not only legislate what you’re allowed to remove from your uterus, Georgia Mantle is a powerful, young woman studying a Bachelor of Arts. She is currently serving as an Indigenous Office Bearer. but are also are in charge of how you manage it on the monthly, writes Madison McIvor.

“You don’t look Aboriginal.” “Yeah but In society, skin colour is often a racial a ‘lack’ of Aborigingality, but rather a for ourselves. Is your perception of fter picking up a discreetly periods can be uncomfortable, Why haven’t we addressed reminds us that men project you’re not like fully Aboriginal right?” signifier: light skin has always been damning refection on the extremely Aboriginal culture holistic and does it packaged zip-lock of De Jour painful, unwelcome and annoying, this issue in a better way for their power into almost every “What percentage?” “You don’t really count associated with privilege, however in racist policies that mar our country’s account for past racial discrimination TamponsA from the SRC freebies bin, but they’re not gross, they’re just menstruating folk? Oh wait, maybe crevice of society, uteri included. as Aboriginal though.” “Do you just tick Indigenous Australian culture, that history. The idea that I have to justify which has caused many Indigenous I was shocked to read that De Jour normal. it’s because the people in charge The phrase “someone’s on their the box to get the benefits?” story is filled with more complexity and explain ‘how’ I am Aboriginal or people to be robbed of direct links to is the only female-owned tampon don’t menstruate and don’t care. period!” with an eyebrow raised is than this. In a country where to what extent my blood is black is a their mobs, languages and cultures? company in the country. This led me First, let’s talk about how problematic Consider those who can’t afford the one we’ve all copped, regardless of These are real statements I’ve been assimilation policies were implemented ridiculous and insulting request, coming to consider why menstrual products this term ‘feminine hygiene products’ cost of these products, consider your whether you have a uterus. It’s odd faced with all too frequently when I by a racist government and systematic from the same people who mocked and I do not deny my white skin and the are marketed as ‘feminine hygiene really is. Feminine? Aren’t we done ancestors, who in the most metal that so many men think women shockingly reveal my cultural identity attempts to dilute Indigenous genetics tormented my grandmother for being privilege that comes with it, but I will products,’ almost as if to say “your with using gender-specific, isolating way possible would’ve just surfed make irrational decisions when as an Aboriginal woman. To me, my were advanced, it’s no wonder so many black. also never allow myself to be pressured uterus is kind of dirty and I don’t terms yet? I mean, come on: not the crimson wave in a down-to- we’re on our periods, when in fact, culture is not surprising… it is simply Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander into denying—like so many of my want to talk about it, let’s watch the everyone with a uterus is female, earth way instead of worrying about our testosterone levels are higher an intrinsic part of who I am. My people are disconnected from their I urge non-Indigenous Australians to community have been—my cultural footy and crack open a tin instead.” and what, if you don’t menstruate, “leakage freakage” and avoiding at that time, making us much more Aboriginal identity is not represented culture. This white skin I and many reflect on their ideas of what it means identity. I will not be bullied into are you exempt from femininity? white fabric that week. hormonally similar than at other through my pale skin, but rather other Indigenous people have is not a to be an Indigenous person and to ask hiding my culture for fear of being It’s no wonder that in this male- times — so if my period’s a problem through my very essence and being. At privilege, but rather a grave injustice if this view is rooted in stereotypes discriminated against and I will not dominated industry, some degree Next, let’s deal with the word As for the word ‘products,’ well… for my decision making, then men are the root of questions and statements that my people have suffered. Light- and racist ideology, or if it’s better let outsiders decide if I am Aboriginal of ‘ya nasty’ factor exists within the ‘hygiene.’ I’m sorry* if you think my that can stay. I’m not that angry rendered shit decision makers ALL like these lies a lack of understanding of skinned Aboriginal people do not reflect left to Indigenous people to decide ‘enough’ for them. Aboriginal identity is name of the very product they’re uterus is some sort of contaminated about this element of period stuff—I the time. Raise your eyebrows at Indigenous culture and identity. and always will be defined by US! selling. The practice of period germ bin, but let’s not go pretending just prefer to term pads, tampons, that! In fact, estrogen levels actually shaming is often perpetrated by that without these products, moon cups and the like as ‘menstrual increase in men as they grow older. It’s Not a Stereotype if it’s True non-menstruating folk, which anyone who menstruates is dirty. products,’ because it’s less isolating, Maybe they’re trying to catch up. pressures those who do to feel Insert humble reminder that it projects less shame onto those who Yes, you are being racist: Laura Webster explains why. embarrassed about a completely is indeed these very products in use them and it’s actually more normal and natural process. the form of tampons that are accurate. *I’m not actually sorry, deal with my ducation is often lauded as plain wrong” answer sheet. represented in the criminal justice household income for a working If periods didn’t exist, neither would heavily associated with the deadly, ute, m8. the driving force for social system, but this isn’t due to a higher Indigenous family is only 60 per cent you, buddy. They’re not disgusting— bacterial Toxic Shock Syndrome. Even the word “menstrual” itself Eand political change—the way to “They’re drunks and drug abusers” crime rate. High imprisonment rates of that of a non-Indigenous income combat sexism, classism, ableism, This is considered the biggest problem are indicative of harsher sentencing and this disparity is only increasing queerphobia, and racism is through an in the Aboriginal community and is the practices applied to Indigenous as unemployment rates rise. There are education system that gives students most common stereotype that’s thrown Australians, along with more restrictive various contributing factors at play here, the ability to recognise the fact that around as it’s arguably the oldest, due bail terms and a tendency to resort ranging through social, economic and discrimination and stereotyping are to the connection these substances have to custodial sentences as opposed health aspects, but perhaps the largest tools of oppression. Stereotypes, with repressing trauma and mental to alternatives. Aboriginal people is education. Aboriginal people are not in particular, are becoming more illness. Due to a lack of affordable and are constantly subjected to ‘select afforded the same access and quality of Cupid of Sydney commonly employed as the identifying accessible health services and education, policing’—we are 15 times more likely education that their non-Indigenous characteristic of Aboriginal people. This most who do turn to these substances to be the target of police behaviour than counterparts are. Described as “the most exciting thing I’m reading on Facebook,” amidst calls for a book release and television series to follow, social mechanism stifles any attempts do so as a way of effectively ‘numbing’ any other member of the community. Indigenous Honi brings you a blog by Patrick Madden documenting the intricacies of how best to engineer romance. to combat entrenched discriminatory the pain they are experiencing. This There is a strong argument that the It is at this point I hear “what about 2/3/15 Two guys in my yoga class al- found their soulmate. It appears that group again and the post has been de- Me: “Yeah, I am.” views, because stereotypes simply is predominately the case for people current structures of the criminal justice all those alternative entry schemes ways awkwardly chat to each other one went to the other’s work drinks on leted. I assume he was just posting to WE ARE ON SPEAKING TERMS. reinforce them. In 2014, Beyond Blue with mental health issues; a recent system which facilitate this engagement and special courses you get?!” To this before and after class. Last week, they Friday and was a hit with his friends. his friends and didn’t expect randoms And yes, I strategically timed my jour- reported that the stereotypes driving health study found that over half deny political agency and power, barring day, Aboriginal students only make up walked to the changeroom together and to like it?? SO CLOSE TO PENE- ney up the stairs to follow them. common perceptions about Aboriginal of Aboriginal people who consume targets from pursuing their right to self- 1.3 per cent of university students in were getting some really good banter 23/3/15 Spotted having a smoothie to- TRATING THE INNER LAYER people have become so pervasive in alcohol or cannabis in high quantities determination and sovereignty in order Australia. going before arriving at their respective gether before class this evening. OF THE COUPLE I CREATED. 12/05/15 I positioned myself between society that one in two Australians no also suffer from mental illnesses such to reinforce White dominance and lockers, where they both fell complete- both of their lockers and listened in on longer recognise explicit examples of as anxiety, bipolar disorder or clinical rule. Social stigma is the most effective So there you have it. My no-nonsense ly silent and didn’t even say goodbye to 31/3/15 Missed my yoga class yester- 27/4/15 Success! They kissed each oth- their conversation as we got changed. verbal abuse towards Aboriginal people depression. The lack of community means to discredit a group of people, guide, explaining why what you’re each other. This week, I was determined day and will miss next week because of er goodbye! It’s official—they’re a cou- YCG 1 put on a shirt, which prompt- as discriminatory. centres, diversion programs, and basic while imprisonment further reinforces saying, about to say, or hearing is racist, to get them to go on a date. So when Easter. What could happen with Yoga ple! Sydney’s premium dating service ed YCG 2 to say, “Is that new? It looks medical facilities that city dwellers White dominance and removes the discriminatory and/or baseless. There both of them were in the shower, I Couple within the next fortnight? The (me) strikes again. A Yoga Couple guy really good on you.” I smirked at the Nurturing Aboriginal participation take for granted means that social right to liberty and freedom of person. is no greater or more powerful tool slipped a note into their lockers saying, discovery of irreconcilable differences? (‘YCG’) smiled at me when we crossed love radiating between them: they saw in the education system and media is progression is hindered in Aboriginal on earth than that of a critical mind “Free for dinner after this?” Moving in? Marriage? paths in the change room. My theory me. “We met in this changeroom, you gradually bringing these fields towards communities, further contributing to “Bunch of lazy, uneducated dole that questions everything around it. is that he clicked on my profile after I know,” YCG 2 said to me. a more accurate reflection of Aboriginal drug and alcohol abuse. Despite the bludgers” Xenophobia and stereotypes are forever Both came out around the same time, 14/4/15 It appears that their routine liked his post and he now recognises me “Oh, really?” I replied. On the inside, perspectives. Despite this, I find myself ‘drunk Aboriginal’ existing as the most This is a biggie. The idea of “passive paraded through the political and social read the note, smiled at each other and is to meet at Newtown station, go to as the creep who liked the post featur- I was screaming. “I MADE YOU. I constantly bombarded with xenophobic prevalent stereotype levelled against welfare culture” has always struck arena as a way of creating difference left the change room together, this a nearby health food place for a fruit ing his address (and the reason he de- CREATED THIS MOMENT. I AM and discriminatory attitudes, exhibited Aboriginals, the statistics don’t agree me as odd. We live in a world that and reinforcing White hegemony. The time talking about their days at work. smoothie, then to yoga together. Pro- leted the post.) Is this the beginning of YOUR GOD.” Officially on speaking by people who don’t fully understand with this perception. Since 25 April bolsters structures of discrimination discourse of Indigenous people as being And at their wedding, they will tell the posal before Christmas? Here’s hoping. a new friendship? Or are they onto me? terms. The infiltration begins.... why their remarks are wrong, even 2015, 29 per cent of Aboriginal people and marginalisation—the modern ‘too different’ and inferior was first story of how they thought the other had those who are tertiary-level educated. It have not consumed alcohol in the last Australian workplace confirms this. employed by the First Fleet in order written each other a note when indeed 24/4/15 Due to wet weather on Mon- 04/05/15 I walked up the stairs to the Patrick Madden is available for roman- seems that the education system in its 12 months, more than double that of Data shows that Aboriginal people to establish themselves as the ‘superior’ an unknown stranger had. day, not many people attended yoga change room behind them after they tic setup consultation and can be con- current form, from primary education to their non-Indigenous counterparts. under 18 participate in the workforce as race and to justify their oppression class. On the Facebook group for the finished a workout next to each other tacted via his blog. His current goal is to tertiary, is failing to equip students with Aboriginal people are also more likely the same rate as non-Aboriginal people of Aboriginal people. This is the 9/3/15 They greeted each other with class, a guy posted “Since not many on the rowing machines (cute). One of secure a selfie with Yoga Couple. Fans the tools and mechanisms to be critical to abstain from alcohol consumption do, but a gap of almost 20 per cent attitude that is still actively informing a kiss on the cheek. Might be an ear- people were there on Monday, feel free them dropped his water bottle and I of the blog are suggesting that Patrick members of society and dismantle altogether compared with non- appears once we hit the age bracket of our current policy, legislation and ly call, but I helped two soulmates find to have a few drinks at my house.” caught it from behind. should serve as flower boy at the official these structures of social oppression. So Indigenous people. How about that? 18-64. This gap is widened further in the government practice. each other. It was ONE OF THE YOGA COU- YCG 1: “Oh, thanks for that.” Yoga Couple wedding. please find below a handy “this is why white-collar market, with less than 15 PLE GUYS!!!! I liked the status, which Me: “No worries.” the stereotype you’ve just pointed to is “Aboriginals are all criminals” per cent of Aboriginal people employed Do you really want to take part in that? 16/3/15 They are slowly climbing the I guess indicated I was going to turn YCG 2: “You’re in our class normally, To follow Yoga Couple Updates, see problematic/discriminatory/racist/just Aboriginal people are disproportionately in high-skilled jobs. The weekly gross spiritual path to realising they have up to his house. I’ve just checked the aren’t you?” http://cupidofsydney.weebly.com/

6 7 ocial media continues to play an bodies and faces. Cat Cafe: Opening in Sydney this July enormous role in empowering Sminorities by giving them direct access Cultural appropriation is defined by its lack Ruthy Scheinberg brings you the announcement you’ve been waiting fur. to online communities, publicity and of consent, the absence of participation in freedom of speech. On March 6 2015, a culture or community and the double truggling with the existential crisis that a pop-up kitten café in Paddington last in the café. These kitties would otherwise videos of cats slapping mugs off tables?! #BlackOutDay was trending on Twitter standard applied when those in power use arises from being just a mere dot in the week, complete with adoptable kittens if have to live on the streets and battle the after it was launched by creators T’von, and abuse a culture. Smassive universe? Love cats and coffee? you feel the urge to take one home with elements (plus other, bigger animals) or The crowd funding effort to open Cats- Marissa and Nukirk. They started this The soon-to-be space themed cat café you. It seems that Sydney’s love of kittens alternatively live at shelters and possibly mosphere was extremely successful, with social media campaign to encourage White women at a music festival donning opening in the suburbs of Sydney is your was too overwhelming as the event was face euthanisation. Their new home in- some pledging up to $1000 for the privi- Black people to upload selfies, GIFS bindis and Native American safe haven. Opening in July, ‘Catmosphere’ booked out weeks in advance—a clue as side the cat café will bring them as much lege of naming a space kitty. Bookings are and videos using the hashtag headdresses as fashion boasts an array of drinks and food, along to how competitive bookings will be once happiness as petting them will bring you! now open at their website #BlackOutDay. #BlackOutDay statements show disrespect with the option of purry cuddles from res- Catmosphere opens its doors. www.catmosphere.com/sydney, with pric- intends to celebrate to the communities that these ident cats. The café will draw inspiration To keep in line with health and safety reg- es ranging from $20 to $200 (if you’re Blackness and challenge The Power of the Hashtag cultural items belong to by from their Chiang Mai counterparts and Although the kitten café offered the op- ulations, the food and drinks will be served ready for a party with 10 people and cats). stereotypes of Black people failing to consider the cultural have a crew of catstronaughts available for tion to adopt, the permanent Catmosphere in a separate room from the interactive portrayed by the media. significance of what they’re playing, cuddling and Instagramming. establishment will not. The cats who will kitty space, which, in reality is probably Get ready for some great space adventures doing. They are not being used take up permanent residency are friendly, a good thing—I love my cat, but cat hair with space cats, and probably some great Soon, millions of people flooded within the culture, as part of a To give us a taste of what’s to come, the loveable strays, collected from nearby or in my food is definitely a downside of his coffee too.Catmosphere opens in July on Twitter with self-love and ceremony or at the invitation founders of the Sydney Cat Café set up local rescue groups and rotating in shifts cuddly nature. Plus, have you seen those Foveaux Street, Surry Hills. positivity, allowing the Black Bridget Harilaou reports on two movements of a person from that culture. community to reclaim more and that have flourished online. The women almost definitely do more online spaces like Tumblr, not contribute to empowering these Instagram and Facebook, and communities back home: if they did, reaching media outlets like BuzzFeed they would know not to wear such items and the BBC. On their website, T’von at a music festival. As white women, they stated that he wanted to give ordinary hold the power and privilege to be seen Black people their moment to shine as “edgy” and “fashionable” while wearing and to be represented in the media. This these cultural items, while millions of movement is about challenging white- South Asians and Native Americans face centric notions of beauty and saying discrimination when wearing traditional loudly and proudly that Blackness is dress. beautiful. It is worth noting that People of Colour Positive narratives of Black people, the rampant appropriation of South this campaign was that their culture is not or those also affected by racism can still be diversity, and self-love are not what Asian culture at Coachella music festival. a costume. Additionally, many pointed guilty of cultural appropriation by wearing mass media is generally known for—so, Women who identify as South Asian, Desi out the hypocrisy of traditional dress and or using cultural items that do not belong Equality in Representation Reflections naturally, #BlackOutDay was a huge and Hindu took selfies wearing bindis, cultural difference being a point of racism to their culture. For example, an East success. The online community that was some displaying their traditional dress, and discrimination for South Asian Asian woman would be appropriating an Gomeroi boy Tom Gillard once built a complete Storm Trooper suit. Rebekah Hatfield forged through #BlackOutDay and the and celebrated their beauty and culture. women, while bindis are seen as a mark Indigenous culture if she dressed up in support and love that shines through from The constant theme running throughout of hipster fashion when adorning white their traditional clothes for a party. This 015 has already been a great one for seems to be playing more of the Luke hen I left the country to move end of it. But I also know there is another Black people all over the world reveals just person is higher up on the racial hierarchy, equality amongst Star Wars fans. We’ve Skywalker type of character in the sequel to the ‘big smoke’ to attend part of me that would love to move home how meaningful this movement is. and they are still perpetuating racism and 2been teased with two trailers from Episode trilogy. university,W I didn’t know that I would and live the simple life. It is almost as if enacting violence on a racially oppressed VII: The Force Awakens (TFA), along with change so much. my identities are at war. Can people even Unfortunately, as YouTuber and Black group. gameplay footage from Battlefront III, the There are also a range of strong female have more than one identity? activist Francesca Ramsey pointed out newest instalment in the first-person- characters that suggest more diversity: It’s funny how time and experiences in her video on #BlackOutDay, the racist The autonomy of the South Asian identity shooter series popularised in the early Daisy Ridley’s Rey seems to be even change us into people we would have I remember one of my aunties making backlash was inevitable. To be clear: that underpins #ReclaimTheBindi is vital 2000s. more powerful than Carrie Fisher’s hardly recognised a few years ago. a comment about university and how it no, we DON’T need a White Out Day to the movement. It aims to take back Princess Leia of the original trilogy, and “makes you think white.” When I first and yes, oppressed racial minorities can online spaces and ownership of South So what do these two things have in Gwendoline Christie, famed as Brienne We are braver, stronger and fiercer than heard this, I rolled my eyes and thought celebrate and take pride in themselves Asian culture by South Asian women, common, and how do they promote of Tarth on HBO’s Game of Thrones, will we ever thought we could be, but for some to myself: “How can you know? You never without it being racist! Take a look at our to fight back against “fashion trends” equality in the Star Wars fandom? be playing the “Chrometrooper,” Captain of us, myself included, our connections went to one.” However, the more I think media: every day is White Out Day… that have co-opted their traditional and Phasma. to family, culture and country slowly get about it, the more I think she has a point. and who colonised and enslaved whom, sacred cultural items, and last of all prove Firstly, the main character in the TFA pushed to one side. They are no longer again? Ultimately, #BlackOutDay was that South Asian girls absolutely wear it trailers is Black. We know that black And what’s more, recently news emerged our whole world, but one part of ourselves; Studying at university has changed the received very positively, particularly in better. Brown bodies are beautiful, the characters in Star Wars aren’t new—Lando that after Star Wars Celebration VII, for the the new person we have become has new way I think, the way I speak... It has light of the events at Ferguson and the South Asian community is strong, and was a cool guy, as was Mace Windu, and first time we will see that the characters dreams and ambitions now, too. changed my thought processes and what police murders of Michael Brown, Eric #ReclaimTheBindi has shown just how it was James Earl Jones’ voice that really in Star Wars: Battlefront can be female too, things I choose to give priority to. It has Garner, Tamir Rice and many (many) fantastic social media movements can be. made Darth Vader’s character. However, unlike the male first-person character who It’s not that we don’t treasure these carved my interests and paved a path for more. Continuing to celebrate Blackness these black characters that we look to for previously seemed to be the only option things—I know I love my family and my ambitions. and reclaiming online spaces with positive Both of these hashtags show an exciting representation were all flawed in some way, in the series. By allowing for racial and my culture. I hate seeing my fellow narratives is an exciting win for African domination of social media with self-love, too. Lando was a sell-out who betrayed gender diversity, The Star Wars franchise brothers and sisters suffering and I will But in the whirl of all this, parts of me Americans and Black people who are all the creation of more online communities his oldest friend. Mace Windu had a dark will embrace a fundamental shift from do everything in my power to create are missing out. What is nurturing my stereotyped, profiled and systematically and empowerment for oppressed racial side and was more of a grey Jedi than traditional representation and allow the opportunities for young Aboriginal and cultural identity? Have I lost the person I discriminated against in modern society. groups. Let’s hope that these movements anything else. And Darth Vader—well, audience to reimagine its characters in Torres Strait Islander people: but is this used to be, or have they morphed into this continue, and that Indigenous, Black, he was responsible for so much death and new and diverse ways. enough? new version of myself? Similarly, #ReclaimTheBindi was People of Colour, Women of Colour and destruction that after a while, even that a hashtag used in conjunction with other racial minority communities can voice couldn’t redeem his motives. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, So often I have felt conflicted about These are complex questions and I am sure #CoachellaShutDown to protest against show the world that they are amazing! there was possibly more equality in that doing something for myself versus doing I am not alone in struggling with identity What we have seen so far of John Boyega’s galaxy than in our own today. We are something for my community—and I issues. All I know is that we can only Finn has been quite promising. Yes, he’s behind the times, but Lucasfilm seems to am sure I’m not the only one who feels strive to be the truest versions of ourselves, undoubtedly going to be flawed, but he be bringing us up to speed. this way. As it stands, I just want to get to take pride in ourselves and to remain through uni and have a fulfilling job at the strong in our identity. 8 9 Indigenous Marvels Indigenous Futurisms, Decolonial Futures Comic book expert Nathan Sheldon-Anderson delved into a stack of back-issues to bring you this analysis of comic book representation. Shareeka Helaluddin navigates a forty-six minute interstellar journey of galactic proportions.

he diversity of identities in comic assumption that he is African American. After his first battle alongside the Secret getup disappointingly demonstrates a mix tape opens with a NASA thought, evoking the ‘final frontier’ from Afro-Indigenous peoples and visions primordial ‘artefacts’ of a bygone past. Here, books is growing, yet Indigenous Warriors, he remarked “Total mayhem—I limited knowledge and understanding of countdown. It shifts to the words pop culture representations as one opening of the future where identities emerge the logic of modernity, as a teleological charactersT are rarely seen. From Heroes In the pages of X-Treme X-Men, we kicked a guy in the face! Best day ever.” Aboriginal people. (Yes, even in remote ofA John Mohawk—American Indigenous into Indigenous voyages through space: from the periphery. Simultaneously, it orientation that leaves colonised Others of Colour to a greater representation of find out that he is in fact Aboriginal communities, us Aboriginal people do activist of the Seneca Turtle Reserve. The critiques dominant systems of power and behind, is not viable. The construct of time genders and sexualities, pop culture seems when his omniscient great-grandfather This sarcastic metalhead mutant has the wear pants.) Once he joins The Avengers, beats that follow are ambient, rhythmic “Where the supposed ‘finality’ ofStar subjugation, offering futurist solutions is no longer simply forward-moving. The to be embracing the characterisation of Gateway, finds him. His parents were ability to bend reality, allowing him to he starts wearing this rad black and and transient; each fragment of a song, Trek’s frontier meets the remixed linguistic based on a subversive ethos. present is understood through the prism most identities in books. There’s a Muslim from a people around Uluru who fled to teleport himself and others anywhere. gold costume and begins wielding a speech or manifesto seamlessly morphs flip of NavajoStar Wars, and where the of the past and future. Ms Marvel, a lady Thor, a black Captain New York to escape nuclear destruction He would rather train with the likes spear. Initially, I was concerned by this into the next. Collaboratively produced sounds of comet landings and galactic The mix tape is deliberately America and a Queer Iceman. But have and were forced into mutant internment of Tommy Iommi or Jimmy Page than stereotypical image, but as a teleporter, by Revolution Per Minute (‘RPM’) space dust meet the 6th World encoded in disparate, multi-textual and Of course, this is but one manifestation Indigenous people been skipped by camps. As he grew up, he never got the Nick Fury or Gateway. When his group he needed to have something to hit and Kimiwan zine, the mix tape, titled Indigenous exploration of night-lit skies non-linear; a constellation of of resistance allowing Indigenous this pop culture revolution? Don’t jump chance to learn about his culture until he disbanded, he was approached by Captain back with. The most famous teleporter, Indigenous Futurisms, is an experimental and interplanetary, opaque spaces, our ideas and energies, sounds and peoples to claim space where they are the gun: I’m not going to demand an met his great-grandfather after coming to America to join The Avengers—Captain Nightcrawler embodied Errol Flynn with compilation that explores intertwined people have always been moving.” forces otherwise rendered invisible. It demands Aboriginal X-Man or Avenger. the past. More recently, Bishop became America had recently come to realise they dual swords for a while, so why not? While Afro-Indigenous histories, ongoing a contemplation of history and origin that a bit evil, shot Professor X in the head were lacking in mutant representation. He Eden’s first appearance was problematic, processes of colonialism and the imagining With an electronic backbone composed The creators of Indigenous Futurisms informs a future that does not reproduce That’s because there is an Aboriginal (not fatally, though) and chased fellow primarily works alongside fellow mutants overall, Aboriginal identity has not been of decolonial worlds and beyond. It creates of otherworldly sounds (including A utilise technology in all its realisations, from dominant powers. It counteracts X-Man and an Avenger: Bishop and Eden time-travelling mutant Cable and a baby and former X-Men Cannonball and stereotyped in the actions or personality of a world (or worlds) where the narratives Tribe Called Red, Kelela, Silver Jackson, the galactic machinations presented in the dichotomous notions of identities, home Fesi! messiah through time. In the last Uncanny Sunspot. these comic book characters. and experiences of Indigenous peoples Princess Nokia, Flying Lotus and Erykah compilation to Indigenous speculative and place, past and present and gestures X-Force, he returned to the present and are central, a conceptual process that Badu, to name only a few) the mix tape fiction writing, artistic production, and towards forging new technological Bishop was first introduced inUncanny is filled with a healthy dose of regret and It is common in comic books for creators Ultimately, their characterisation creates converges digital technology with radical is deliberately disparate, multi-textual the potential for space travel, whether and political imaginaries. Indigenous X-Men in 1991 and has been on the self-loathing. I guess flitting through time to dream up characters with identities an interesting dichotomy: Bishop as an appropriations of technology, science and non-linear; a constellation of ideas imaginative or cosmological. Significantly, Futurisms leaves lingering a dialogue main roster of an X-Men series until and going insane while trying to kill a different from their own. This can and older, grim anti-hero and Eden as a positive fiction imagery and audio. and energies, sounds and forces. What the understanding that technology is about the political potential of creative rather recently, when he went all maniacal baby will do that to you. has been problematic with plenty of younger man who supports his friends. connects the work is a commitment to essential to contemporary Indigenous practices and the creative potentials of villain. His mutant power is to absorb characters. It should be noted that non- One is a cop from the future, the other just The description of the “Indigenous portraying complicated and sometimes constructions of selfhood, contrasting political practices. energy, then intensify and redirect it, Bishop has primarily been portrayed Indigenous men created these characters. wants to shred. One learned of his ancestry Futurisms” project follows this line of vexed histories of Indigenous and notions of Indigenous peoples as generally to form concussive blasts or to as a tough and tactical future cop. He’s Two Asian-Americans created Bishop and as an adult and the other knew all his life. amplify his strength. Bishop has had a an anti-hero who had his own police the iconic British X-Men writer, Chris One is from the city, and the other is from Indigenous Futurisms Mixtape: Track List rather mysterious past. He’s from a bleak, procedural. His knowledge of the past Claremont, developed his Aboriginal the country. But they are both Aboriginal dystopian future of the Marvel Universe, colours his interactions with these people, ancestry. When Bishop first learns of his mutants at their core. Reflections of More Than A Dot NASA x John Mohawk—“War, Peace, Na- King Britt—“Moonbathing” where he was raised in mutant internment who are dead to him and are seen as ancestry, the reader is as surprised as he the modern Aboriginal experience can tives” x 2oolman—“Lost in America” Ryan Dennison—“Iina Baa Chanah Hasin” camps after escaping nuclear-devastated insignificant footnotes of history or is. The narration describes his heritage as: be seen within these characters. While Astha Rajvanshi reflects on cultural appropriation. Flying Lotus—“Coronus, the Terminator” Boogey the Beat—“Above Me” x Leanne Australia. In the series, he travelled back in distorted heroes. Once Bishop learnt of “…heir to a tradition as old as the human Indigenous Australians may not have The AfroFuturist Affair—“#BQF NonLo- Simpson “Airplanemode” time to apprehend escaped criminals and his ancestry, he took time to learn more race itself.” His identity as Aboriginal man created them, they are still portrayals of t one Australia Day fair many fashion accessories. In the Rig Veda, the cality Zine Soundtape” Darkstar—“Timeaway (Nguzunguzu Re- becomes stuck there. He then joined the about his culture. then becomes as integral an element of his otherwise overlooked Indigenous identity. years ago, I was taught how to do earliest known Hindu Sanskrit text, the Xquisite Ghost—“Firefall” mix)” X-Men, who in his future are remembered character as his identity as an X-Man and These two characters are great comic book traditionalA Aboriginal dot painting using bindi symbolises many things—the sixth King Britt—“My Tribe Exudes Love” x Kelela—“Do It Again” as legendary heroes. The second character, Eden Fesi, first a mutant. . On the other hand, Eden was superheroes and show that everyone, no the end of a pencil and some watercolours. chakra, the seat of concealed wisdom or Elizabeth LaPensée x Sun Ra Silver Jackson—“From Another World appeared in Secret Warriors Issue 4 back created by an American and Italian writer. matter what culture or skin colour, can At that time, I did not know that what the third eye—but not the use of facial Legends & Lyrics—“Speak to Me of Jus- (feat. Cat of THEESatisfaction)” For most of Bishop’s existence, his ethnicity in 2009 and was recruited into one of His initial appearance in what I can really wear the same shiny, skin-tight costumes I was really doing was treating a deep- stickers for youth at music festivals to tice” Shabazz Palaces—“Forerunner Foray” was never clearly defined, with the general Nick Fury’s hush-hush black-ops teams. only describe as a ‘diaper and body paint’ and save the world. seated cultural practice as a fun children’s score hipster ‘cred.’ Teeqwa—“Wooden Teeth” Princess Nokia—“Biohazard Butterfly” hobby. NASA x Peter Morin—“Time Traveller” Shane Keepness—“Resurgence” Nevertheless, the personal impact of this Moor Mother Goddess— “Parable” Notuv— “Ame” x Navajo Star Wars Funnily enough, over time, I have seen practice has allowed me to better recognise Princess Nokia “Young Girls” Autechre—“Overand” x Jason Edward the appropriation of the dot as a cultural how Aboriginal art is so prominently Impossible Nothing—“Destroy” Lewis—“The Future Imaginary” practice manifest itself in my own culture, misappropriated in everyday life. In DJ Shub—“If You Want the Raw” A Tribe Called Red—“PBC (Feat. Sheldon with the rising trend of wearing bindis as Australia, dot paintings have become a 2oolman X TINC—“T.I.Kay” Sundon)” staple feature of commercial art trade Erykah Badu—“The Healer” Sun Ra—“Journey to Saturn” at best, through to Australian tourism’s Joy KMT— “Origins” souvenir tokens at worst. We must question whether commercial Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art In 2012, New York-based fashion label art allows for the transferral of agency Award for his 2.4 metre by 3.6 metre Rodarte launched a Fall collection to Aboriginal artists. Since the 1980s, a painting with the words “Aboriginal Art ‘inspired’ by Aboriginal art and culture, in rising international Aboriginal art market - It’s a White Thing” leaping out from it. which designers Laura and Kate Mulleavy has helped to improve the economy of Bell told ABC Radio that he was at a loss predominantly featured dot paintings and Indigenous communities and enabled as to why his painting even won. For him, rock art across a range of printed fabrics and access to new avenues for a political voice. the message of the painting was loud and textiles. The label used the licensed work For many, art has become a form of social clear: Aboriginal art presents a microcosm of one Aboriginal artist, the late Benny action, where artists are in charge of their of modern race relations in Australia. Tjangala, who would be receiving royalties own representation and construction of for his work as a result. The question of a modern, collective identity. But at the In the absence of an understanding of whether the ready-to-wear collection same time, the dot paintings that often Aboriginal art presenting a story, life and had ignored an inextricable link between hang off the walls of white middle-class very essence of Aboriginal connection to Aboriginal art, land and spirituality rose homes represent only a certain subset of land and kin, these artworks instead are among artists, scholars, and lawyers. The Aboriginal culture, that which survives reduced to someone’s inspiration for an answer should immediately have been yes; in a vexed marketplace, forced to cater to outfit or an art project. It is after all, a Rodarte’s use of Indigenous art for fashion buyers’ tastes. White thing. was just another instance of blatant cultural appropriation. In 2003, Aboriginal artist Richard Bell won (rather ironically) the Telstra National 10 11 Have you IN A PICKLE? seen an SRC caseworker?

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Andy Mason and Anna Hush explain what the fuck that profile picture everyone has lately means.

ven clueless middle-class whiteys It isn’t a question of the government’s the kind of political interference which of the Pilbara strike in WA, a watershed would have noticed the current ability to pay—it’s about priorities. Closure is happening now. But with respectful event in the struggle for fair wages Ecountry-wide furore surrounding the of tiny white towns in the middle of support, the potential is there to develop and basic human rights. Remembering planned forced closure of over 150 nowhere where kids move away to work or cultural industries like art and tourism the crucial gains made in the past is a remote Aboriginal communities in study as soon as they’re old enough (most and for education and training programs reminder both of the efficacy of direct Western and South Australia. The never returning) is never dreamed of, so which equip Aboriginal communities to action and community organising, but national conversation has partly been a how is it fair to impose such discussions once again manage the lands they have also of the dangerously regressive nature response to Tony Abbott’s latest round of on Aboriginal communities? lived on for far longer than any human has of contemporary politics. Ernie Dingo, internationally-televised idiocy, in which been in Europe. John Pilger, Aunty Jenny Munro, Gwenda he derided Aboriginal people’s decision The proposed closures are especially Stanley, Ken Canning and women from to live on country as a “lifestyle choice” upsetting because the communities in White conservationists are increasingly the Redfern Community Centre spoke and compared Indigenous communities’ question have provided a wealth of advice realising that the unique biodiversity of this passionately about the importance of conviction to honouring over 60,000 years on how remote Aboriginal communities continent will be lost without collaboration homeland communities, noting the of custodial connection to their land to should be managed. These communities and consultation with Aboriginal imperative to bring the debate to an something like the choice of aging hippies were founded as part of the ‘Homelands’ communities, and Indigenous ranger international scale to shine light on the to move up the coast. movement, which started in the late 60s. programs all over the country are helping atrocities of the Australian government. Aboriginal people all over the country to put this into practice. It strikes me that Although Australian corporate media Of course, the problem runs much deeper (especially in the remote West and North) there’s been well enough talk about lots of continues to brand opposition as a ‘selfish than Tony just shooting his dickhead mouth started to move in small groups back onto this, but not enough action. There’s a lot to rabble,’ this issue is rightfully finally off again. Despite all the ‘Closing the Gap’ their ancestral country after being forced be upset about, but no cause for despair. gaining traction on the global stage as rhetoric, despite decades of discussion onto missions, reserves and cattle stations Aboriginal people have been fighting an indefensible violation of fundamental about reconciliation and despite bipartisan since 1788. for this country for 227 years and aren’t human rights. support for recognition of Australia’s First giving up any time soon. Although the Nations in the constitution, governments Aboriginal people in remote areas have homelands communities are threatened, If you are angry about the closures in at all levels in this country continue to be said time and time again that they need to people have been coming out all over the WA and SA, get involved: go down to fundamentally ignorant of the interests of be able to live on country to have healthy country and even internationally to stand the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Redfern, Black Australia. Indeed, many argue that communities, and a growing academic and in solidarity with them and demand that just across from the station, and listen and the situation is even worse than this – the policy literature has come to agree with the government do the right thing. The learn about what you can do to support white-dominated political mainstream them. Living on country helps to preserve movement is growing stronger—over communities closer to home who are continues to perpetuate the violence of culture and has a positive influence on 100 protests were held on May 1st in fighting the same battle. colonialism, albeit disguised through health and education outcomes compared Australia and around the world. Support their political spin. Aboriginal voices in with the extreme poverty and deprivation poured in from Berlin, Detroit, London, The third National Day of Action will be politics are only tolerated to the extent of life in fringe camps and slums in remote San Francisco, Ottawa and various cities held over the weekend of 26th—28th June. that they tell white leaders what they want mining towns. It also restores a sense of around Aotearoa via social media, with to hear, and communities that stick up for agency and purpose to communities that the hashtag #SOSBLAKAUSTRALIA themselves continue to get punished. had their control over their lives stolen trending at number one nationally. The along with their land. The movement Brisbane rally was especially dramatic, Although conservative politicians say the started as a grassroots initiative—an with over 300 people occupying the City closures are about tightening budgets, the attempt to seize that control back. Of Hall for more than three hours, while over truth is that they could easily afford to course, the homelands communities 10,000 people turned up in Melbourne. keep the communities open if they wanted have not been perfect and are not a total At the Sydney contingent, 2000 people In some of my artworks, I include a diamond set into the foreheads of characters. My fascination with the conditions to. 90 million bucks doesn’t seem like so solution to all of the problems between clad in red, black and yellow filled required to form such a stone – high pressure and heat beneath the earth – symbolise that same pressure much money when you consider that the Black and white Australia. They have Belmore Park and marched to the Redfern in life which can form similarly-spirited people. I am aware that this placement can be problematic and it is with government spent over 300 million on the generally relied on government funding Aboriginal Tent Embassy. The date of great concern that I clarify that I do not intend to be culturally insensitive or to ignore the significance of spiritual ANZAC celebrations the other weekend. to be viable, leaving them vulnerable to the march marked the 69th anniversary 14 and religious symbols. Regards, Emily 15 I asked a few people who accompanied me our experiences together. It’s scrambled, on the Freedom Ride to write a personal just in the same way we all felt unsettled reflection on the experience for this news- when trying to get everything down on Black Stars in the Spotlight paper. Even months on, none of us seem paper. Samuel Beattie, Andy Mason, Sam completely able to articulate the intensity Jonscher, Katie Thoburn, Chiara Angelo- Camilla Corbett is a Kamilaroi woman studying a Bachelor of Music Education and celebrities. of our experience: what we saw, what we ni, Emma Wiltshire, Abril Felman and learnt, what was shared with us. Although myself are all within this poem’s stanzas. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to Jackman posted a photo to his social media their respective fields at the moment. Mauboy. She’s the incredible singer everyone I asked was willing to take on I think it’s a powerful reflection on what meet some A-list celebrities. You may have accounts, which have an absolutely massive who represented both Australia and this piece, nobody proved quite able to get happened, especially now, as we band heard of some of them: Katy Perry, Lily following, with 1.8 million followers on I met Miranda Tapsell in 2013, just after Indigenous Australians at Eurovision last it out. “I’m trying on the reflection. Can together as the Freedom Ride mob and Allen, Iggy Azalea, Rita Ora, Lil Jon, 30 Instagram and over 5 million on Twitter. she had won an AACTA award for her year. With approximately 180 million I not make any promises other than that, work towards the goals we established in Seconds to Mars, Kelly Clarkson, Kristin He broadcasted a powerful message: role in the the iconic film The Sapphires. people watching, Jess performed her song to try?” said a normally bubbly, talkative Moree, Kempsey, Dubbo and Walgett. Chenoweth, Simple Plan, Cody Simpson “While living in a remote community, Just recently, Miranda has done us all ‘A Sea of Flags’ proudly, with a giant Katie Thorburn. Sean O’Grady, master of and Rudimental. Every now and then, I I came to understand that connection proud again by earning the TV Logie Aboriginal flag on the screens behind her. word told me, “Dunno how up to writing Before you read our poem, I’ll leave you tell myself I should mix it up a bit, so I’ll to land is a fundamental part of the Award of ‘Most Outstanding Newcomer’ Being able to see this amazing Indigenous about Freedom Rides I am, still generally with Emma Wiltshire’s insights, which I go and meet a few celebrities in the acting Indigenous identity. Think about the past, for her role in the drama series Love woman performing on the world stage confused and frustrated by the experience. think best explain our collective feelings: Self portrait, by Katie Thorburn business, including the likes of Oliver and have quality conversations. I support you.” Child. Representing Indigenous Australia in Copenhagen whilst watching TV in Will have a think about what I have to “I am still in the process of working out James Phelps, Miranda Cosgrove, Sandra Jackman posted this in support of the proudly, Miranda delivered a moving Sydney was an amazing moment for me. say.” what I think and feel, especially as I had “We were invited into a very intimate space… how Bullock, Will Ferrell, Daniel Craig, Steve SOS Blak Australia movement, which is acceptance speech. She implored the no personal context within which to put can I trust my communicative skills and expect others Carell, Tara Reid, Misha Collins, Chris helping Indigenous Australian to fight audience to support more diverse casting There is so much amazing Indigenous I never received any drafts for reflections this experience. I think that there was a to understand? I guess you could say my reflection is Lilley and the Modern Family cast. against the forcible removal of these in television, saying “Put more beautiful talent out there, and with the celebrities of on the 2015 Freedom Ride. In truth, it was tension on the Freedom Ride. We were in this drawing. There’s this iconic photo of Charlie people from their land. people of colour on TV and connect today fighting for them to be represented different to what I was expecting, though celebrating the initiative and courage of Perkins on the bus with this handsome, contemplative I met Hugh Jackman at the premiere for viewers in ways which transcend race and in the media, I cannot wait to see who I don’t know how. It was exhausting. I the original Freedom Riders, yet the view gaze. The drawing is a kind of self portrait on the Les Miserables in 2012. I want to give a big The photos that will always mean the most unite us.” will be gracing my TV in the future. couldn’t talk, even to close family about it was continually expressed on the bus that revival Freedom Ride, peering over the bus seat, looking shout out to him because of the support he to me are with some fellow Indigenous And, of course… I can’t wait to get some for weeks. Indigenous equality was still not realised. back in contemplation at Charlie. Face half covered by is currently showing Indigenous Australia. Australians who are absolutely killing it in Now, everyone has heard of Jessica photos with them! In many ways, that tension was irreconcil- shadow. To me, it represents that we’re still not out of I decided to tease out why we’re still find- able, and I think that is the main reason the woods – we’re still not completely enlightened in ing it so hard to digest, and I smashed to- for my difficulty in articulating the expe- approaching Indigenous issues.” gether this piece of verbatim poetry about rience.”

The hardest part was knowing when to smile and when brought forth the strongest feelings of grief and sadness Return to comfortable lives… to cry, folks wake up with the Same Problems tomorrow, though whisked from place to place, I spoke to an Aunty so strange, buried her brother the Friday before. If you just stick to the script, you get nowhere. “you wanted the world to pause so you could catch your Cancer for another brother coupled with Deaths of young breath people. We were received with enormous passion, energy an overwhelming reminder of the enormous distance be- Felt her life was one of ongoing grief. that desperately fuelled a search for Better Outcomes. tween the world I grew up in and the one we were vis- spoke of searching for her spiritual centre absurd that a tokenistic Poverty tour could solve anything iting” very lost. because we must go further, do better. It’s hard to talk about it. A life lived in Grief is a life tenuously lived. Physical, psychological, spiritual A woman told me there was no point in thinking about division remains, but cannot tomorrow, Even White People cried to me, told me of injustice they if true no point in really living when you know you don't have saw. harmony is to be created. a future. community elders, strong leadership. You have to be willing Much-needed authority. All aboard. "You can't be a person, you can't be your self if you know you don't have a future" The need to connect with culture and the Peace which has been attained, hard fought for it is difficult to articulate - dispossession distance from this connection that Uphill Battles on your own damned land has so eroded these people Disadvantages bring Informs the peace that remains to be won thrown into stark light. A Place Called Bre spoke of feeling like an outsider in the social Meaningful, ongoing reconciliation the Need for renewal is held by all life. structure of their own town, yet to be achieved. challenges of Healing complicate the process, Bianca Williams is a Barkindji woman, currently studying and working at the University of Sydney. of the ongoing schism between White Complexity of factors underpinning issues time for growth, limited. and Black communities overwhelmed: where to start country town of soil brown, a sunburnt landscape He stops for a second one moment in time, he knows I’m Coming into the limits of the town where the smell of people new to somewhere saw it and it made them mad Embracing life requires being nourished by culture. that was my hometown. there, but he’s knows I’m fine. Now I can see old man emu red dirt lifts up off the ground. A cultural hub for tribes On the last night, I remember writing in someone's book My lasting feeling is that Aboriginal Australia deserves A is not far behind, drumming his chest in sync with this abound—the fishtraps is what kept them on that ground, It’s still something I think about a lot. "I think I'll look back on this as a defining moment in far greater peace. The history there is long and old, unfortunately so many beating heart of mine. Brewarrina is a spiritual town, isolated from the modern The overwhelming weight of life my life." stories will go untold. I can only inform you, with bits world and quite away from most towns. The river is sacred The life of that town. Elders confiding in you, If trouble’s what it takes, then Trouble is my middle name. and pieces of my life story, it’s very much a memoir minus Back on the other side of the river you see; a down trodden to you and I, we must look after this life force or it will It was so intimate. some inventory. community, so much devastation and despair, blink while die! Trying to write about it doesn't feel genuine. You felt like you were hearing a secret driving through and you wouldn’t know it was there. I have no point of comparison for what being crushed Entrusted with the task of fighting for what should al- Madison McIvor I grew up on the banks of the Barwon River, fishing and Public drunkenness and drugs abound, that’s all you’ve Rock pools and riverbeds created by Biami to keep his underneath a century of complete and utter shit actually ready be I finish stringing together this poem and I am drained. The swimming for days on end, the land there is my mother got when you’re born and raised in a sun burnt town. people in good stead. A meeting place for all the tribes, a looks like. humbled to insignificance desire for another month or two of reflective silence spills over and will be until the end. spiritual place that connected Aboriginal people and kept There remains great Healing to be done me, in tension with my overwhelming urge to act for my peo- But I’m not discouraged, I can turn my frown upside them alive. But weren’t we insignificant? ple. So much emotion felt within those few days. Riverbank strolling though burs unkind, riverbank down, I will not let my environment bring me down. I To actually see it is very different. Go, visit, strolling to unwind my mind. I stop for a second looking want to live and learn as I go, absorbing each and every so much we saw and learnt passing through observantly as a local marsupial hops between the trees. experience along the road. 16 17 Fuck you, Whitey! argument; one based on economics, budgets colonisation is full industrialisation. Native development approvals will become easier your government and the support our and infrastructure. This has been turned into Title offers no protection or guarantees to secure as we, the ‘Indigenous obstacle’ federal leaders have given in continually Jethro Braico has a theory. a child protection and welfare argument regarding land usage or access, just a mere are removed once again. dispossessing the Kimberley mob of their once again. This is a coordinated effort to right to negotiate over them. The Heritage rights and lands. s a young Aboriginal man who is Minority groups often demonise these white hate within Aboriginal Australia, Thus, we should withhold our anger and industrialise and develop the Kimberley, where Act has been watered down and people The child protection rhetoric and false a student of anthropology, I have people as if their perceptual framework and often, this hate emerges in everyday frustration where possible. We need to Indigenous connection to land, community will no longer occupy many of the areas in benevolence of old is excusing the fact It is an Indigenous human right for the seldomA come across a pan-humanist. was chosen and not prescribed. This social interaction. Of course, this is very acknowledge the appropriate contexts and and culture jeopardise profit. which mining tenements and exploration that community people are second- community of WA to be able to live on This surprises me, because I consider my saddens me. Sadder yet, somewhere along reasonable, considering Australia’s bloody individuals for aggression: these being leases lie. Removal from country means class citizens. The Western Australian their traditional lands—it is not a lifestyle friends and fellow students some of the the socialisation the Man installed in and shameful past, present and impending the institutions that are producing and Here, we are seeing the third wave of that the connection requirement that government’s treatment of Aboriginal choice, it’s a right—it’s what’s right. more socially aware people I know. I’ve them, denial is preventing the truth from future: if we go by the Government’s most perpetuating these out-dated, ill-founded colonisation and genocidal processes to establishes Native Title may not be able peoples is an ongoing human rights seen collectives of extremely intelligent penetrating their consciousness. recent attempts of explicit assimilation. ideologies. achieve development. This third wave of to be maintained or met. Mining and violation. I condemn the actions of minority groups preach solidarity and love But if we as Aboriginal people saw every through mutual hate of the Evil White I’ve seen this happen with my own eyes. I once ‘Gubba’, ‘Migloo’ or ‘Wadjela’ as a potential Understanding how to be a positive force Man, or as they would say, the ‘Yts’ . knew a Northshorian who said (in relation to ally, as opposed to an enemy, then our in the decolonisation of White Australia Scabby Treatment of Indigenous Health the Australian Government’s efforts to ‘close dreams of a better Australia will surely is key in Australia’s progression towards I find such mentalities and attitudes the gap’) that ‘we have done enough!’ be a lot closer than if our anger were to a true multicultural nation that wants to Victoria Cook wants you to know about a disease you’ve never heard of that affects Indigenous communities every day. detrimental to the cause. I believe these exacerbate existing neo-colonial mindsets. close the gap it has created and continues individuals fail to recognise that we are all I then tried to explain in the simplest, yet to perpetuate. Just consider the changes in t’s hardly surprising that you may never The stigma associated with crusted minimal financial backing and a lack accurately, diseases of neglected peoples— victims of the colonisation. By no means most effective way possible the concepts The psycho-sociological theory ‘Contact attitude that the 2014 SBS series ironically have heard of scabies. It’s not a disease scabies leaves its afflicted both unwilling of accountability have resulted in these flourish when lack of awareness and am I suggesting that non-Indigenous of ethnic stratification, institutionalised Hypothesis’ that was pioneered by Gordon titled, First Contact precipitated for its Ithat most Australians are confronted with: and unable to leave the house. These programs leaving a negative impact on political capital prevent responsible parties experiences of colonisation are in any racism and how colonisation is an ongoing W. Allport in the 1950s holds that participants. A reunion was held on an in fact, scabies isn’t a disease that the patients are extremely unlikely to seek the Indigenous communities. Scabies remains (in this case, state and federal governments) way, shape or form close to Indigenous process and not a deceased historic event. interpersonal contact between majority and episode of Insight where some participants West is confronted with at all. However, necessary medical treatment, and quickly endemic, leaving philanthropy to pick up from being held accountable for effective experiences of colonisation: what I am What followed was a series of jilted minority groups is one of the most effective not only boasted of their learning, but scabies continues to affect Indigenous become a repetitive source of transmission the slack. and measurable action. trying to say is that non-Indigenous head nods reminiscent of Tony’s classic and efficient ways of reducing prejudice. also articulated the shame they now feel Australians with a prevalence and ferocity to individuals close to them, undermining Australians are victims of a different kind. 24-second meltdown reaction when asked This technique has proven to be successful towards their previously held conceptions. that overshadows those of even the most efforts to rapidly identify and treat scabies Scabies is a scourge of Indigenous For more information, please see: The collective consciousness of mainstream about the context of his “shit happens” in relation to anti-homosexual and anti- It was clear that some participants were impoverished countries. infections across communities. Like Communities, but it should be a scourge http://1disease.org/ White Australians is founded on lies statement in 2011. What I witnessed was Islamic attitudes. If this is what brief contact still making sense of their experiences, much of the epidemiology and science of the Australian political and social dressed as truths, and these lies that are at like a robot trying to solve a difficult code, can do, imagine the effects of meaningful and this is reflective of the fact that Seven out of ten Indigenous children in surrounding scabies, this process is poorly conscience. Neglected diseases or more the core of their understandings of self and failing over and over. This disturbing scene relationships whilst considering the effects decolonisation is a process; a process in the Northern Territory will be infected researched. other, time and place within Australia. is the denial mechanism at play. of hostile interaction. We need to facilitate which we as Aboriginal people play a very with their first case of scabies in their White Australian people’s opportunities crucial role. Are you a positive or negative first year of life. Its occurrence is so As OneDisease was invited into more Educating Indigenous Children White Australians have been fooled. And If this is how mainstream White to experience truth. That is to say that by influence in decolonisation? There exists widespread to the point that scabies Indigenous Communities, they came they have been fooled well. The people Australians react when presented with having a meaningful relationship or even no better way to encourage enlightenment infections are now considered a normal across many more cases of crusted Claire Sadler is an Indigenous student in her 2nd year to whom I refer (who otherwise exhibit alternative narratives in conversation, at a positive encounter with an Aboriginal than to forge a meaningful relationship. part of a child’s life. Scabies is a parasitic scabies than they had anticipated. At of a Bachelor of Primary Education. all the beauty of the human condition) least in my experience, there is no question person, White Australian people will To save ourselves, we must also save them. mite that burrows under the skin, causing the time of writing, OneDisease had few years ago, I was on the train when I received an offer to mentor and tutor possess inherently Eurocentric ways of what reaction more hostile dialogue would experience what they have been denying in itch and inflammation. Not only are identified 85 hyperinfected individuals Aboriginal primary students in Western Sydney schools. As the people who perceiving the world. and does produce. There circulates a lot of ways in which they can no longer deny it. scabies mites irritating, they also pose a across 22 communities in the top end of enforceA the silent carriage rules on the Blue Mountains line are not to be messed dangerous risk for more serious infection. the Northern Territory, with many more with, I mentally celebrated as the fantastical part of my brain began to wonder how In adulthood, there is a strong causal expected to be identified in communities long it would take before I became the new Erin Gruwell of Western Sydney. I felt link between lifelong scabies infections not yet reached by the program. pretty justified wondering this: my parents are teachers, I’m studying to be a teacher A Letter to Colin Barnett and cardiac and renal failure. These are and I had worked with kids in every capacity possible for years. I was the woman who the two major contributing factors to Although the task is daunting, the magically connected with children—kids are my thing. I was excited and proud about Ebony Hill is a woman from then, Indigenous people of the region The pastoral industry was a booming Trust. In the 80s, when I was born, the the appalling disparity in life expectancy challenge faced by OneDisease should not my new job for the rest of the train ride home. the Soverign Jabirr Jabiir and were forcibly relocated from lands (or one, one which was because of the direct Homelands movement began: Aboriginal between Indigenous and non-Indigenous be viewed as another helpless cause to add Gooniyandi Nations, writing to traditional owners were exterminated) as involvement of Aboriginal people in the people wanted to be and live on country. Australians. to the myriad of issues facing Indigenous You can imagine my surprise at the standard response I got when telling people Colin Barnett, the Premier of a means of removing Aboriginal people Kimberley. Aboriginal people became The Land Rights movement was squashed health. The scale of the problem is daunting, about my new job. People responded to “Aboriginal students in Mt Druitt” the same Western Australia. This is her plea from lands deemed of use to the colonists. aware of their slavery: they knew how the by Premier Court, so people used the OneDisease, originally coined ‘One reflecting an urgent need to direct way we all respond to the announcement of Cadbury’s Vegemite chocolate—with to ‘Colin’, who also represents At first, pastoralism and Aboriginal land industry had been using Aboriginal people Homelands movement to return home. Disease at a Time’ is a charity with the resources and time into combatting basic curiosity and reluctance. I received responses like, “But how could you do it? Is there colonists at large, miners and ownership were at odds and my people in neighbouring country for their pearls, People moved back on country and began aim of combatting neglected diseases in health issues in Indigenous communities. a point to expecting more of them?” or “How much do you get paid? Must be pretty resource giants. Ebony’s message were seen as the obstacle to the access and and of cattle empires built by Aboriginal developing their homes; a dream of the Indigenous communities. Beginning its The response thus far has been high to put yourself through that!” and “Is it easy? How much do those kids really is clear: Aboriginal culture, lands development of those lands. Then, the first jackaroos and jillaroos. They demanded old people after the continuous relocations work by addressing scabies, the charity encouraging: OneDisease has achieved a know?” and community are not lifestyle lot of mining came to the region in the to be paid wages for their work; work around the missions and stations. has been crippled by the sheer scope of working model of Indigenous stewardship choices – they are our life. form of the Halls Creek gold rush. People that was equivalent or often more than infestations and was forced to review its in its programs. OneDisease’s model Needless to say, these people knew nothing. They have no knowledge of the way in were pushed off their homes (or massacred their non-Indigenous counterparts. It was Federal Indigenous monies were handed objectives. The most shocking challenge involves being invited into Indigenous which my students try to cuddle up to me during reading time, how they pat me on ear Colin, as they resisted invasion, development their country after all, local knowledge over to the State’s discretion. The closure the OneDisease team faced while rolling communities and training health care the back and congratulate me for beating them in a maths game, or how they confide and the cession of their sovereignty informing the value of their work. They of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait out their scabies control programs across workers to facilitate community-led, in me and ask for advice on family or playground matters. They don’t understand DI am writing to you pleading that you do over those lands) as stations dominated were denied proper wages, so they walked Islander Commission (ATSIC) has seen Northern Australia was the discovery of a culturally aware intervention strategies. how it feels when a student who is a foster child pretends to nonchalantly ask if not close our Aboriginal Communities. the new frontier. Often, survival meant off the stations. In this new Kimberley Kimberley mob move off of Homelands disturbing infection: “crusted scabies”. The prevalence of neglected tropical you’ll be back next week. They don’t know what it’s like to be constantly receiving Many are in the Kimberley region in involvement in this new industry or living economy, many flocked to townships again and into bigger communities. diseases amongst Australian citizens, little drawings and notes that proclaim that I’m their ‘best friend ever.’ They have no the north of our great state, Western away from their lands. This time marks such as Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Creek Funds were cut, meaning facilities city Crusted scabies is a hyperinfection, especially preventable parasitic disease, idea how it felt to tell a young girl that she can do anything she wants if she really Australia. You know of the greatness I the first exodus of Kimberley people from and Derby. This mass exodus left people mob are afforded were not available to usually limited to immunocompromised such as scabies, is unacceptable. The works for it, and to hear her say in response: “Really? No one’s ever told me that speak of: that’s why you want my people their homelands. displaced and homeless again. people living in those out-stations. The individuals. However, it has become work of independent, compassionate before.” off and out. Community Development Employment apparent that some Indigenous Australians and resourceful individuals such as those This is when the first generation of The Nookanbah protests marked the Projects (CDEP) program provided a way are predisposed to hyperinfection, despite at OneDisease leads one to question Putting myself through “that” was a joy. “Expecting more” of these kids encouraged This is not the first time industrialisation mixed race children was conceived. This second big stand by Kimberley mob for communities to develop alternative seemingly normal immune function. whether, without them, anything would me and each of them to raise our game—in recent years, all of my students have has threatened Kimberley people living gave the developers excuse to further against industry, and the assertion of industries to be created by our mob, such Whereas in simple scabies, a person may have been done at all. increased their attendance levels and successfully finished primary school. A few on homelands, in communities and on dispossess my people of their access and their continued ownership over our lands. as Cultural Tourism initiatives. CDEP only be infected by 5-10 mites at a time, students were rightfully accepted into selective high schools. country. This traces back to the initial use of their lands; Kimberley children Aboriginal people began developing was cut, and so was the opportunity for in hyperinfected patients, millions of The Northern Territory Government colonisation of the region; the expansion were placed in missions, many blocked out stations on Homelands, as well as community development in many cases. mites infect the sufferer’s skin, causing rolled out variations of a ‘Healthy Writing these kids off is “easy”. Understanding them, however, proved more of the southern colony into the North, from lands or forced to assimilate. We purchasing back the cattle stations on Current closures of Indigenous communities “scabbing” or “crusting”. Skin’ program in 1992 and again in worthwhile. Australia’s ‘Wild, Wild, West’. Back were forced on stations and off country. our lands through the Aboriginal Lands in Western Australia began initially as a fiscal 2010. However, inadequate resources, 18 19 src caseworker help src caseworker help

Taming Centrelink: How to navigate the bureaucratic beast

Centrelink is a difficult place to deal with The delay on getting your first payment Always report income when it is earned. Read everything they send you. We know at the best of times. The bureaucratic can be months. That means a long time They don’t much care if you’ve been paid they send many, many letters and emails, hurdles are so high that many people walk without money. Talk to an SRC caseworker or not – it’s all about when you earn the about many, many (often irrelevant) away without getting the payment they about your options in the meantime. money. If you are working while studying things. However, you have to read them. deserve. Some say that Abstudy is one have a look on the SRC website for the You are assumed to have read them when of the worse payments to try to receive. Centrelink doesn’t treat its workers very leaflet on the Student Income Bank. it comes to challenging stuff in courts. It may benefit you to know the basics on well. They are overworked and underpaid This way you can calculate how much how to deal with Centrelink. and sometimes not very well trained. your payment should be, so you know if If you have any questions at all about Try to be patient with them. It is not they have calculated that correctly. If you Centrelink send an email to help@src. Centrelink deals with thousands of the workers’ fault that you have to wait notice any mistakes here talk to an SRC usyd.edu.au. The SRC is happy to offer people everyday. Everyone has dozens between 45 and 90 minutes just to get caseworker about how to address that independent, confidential advice from of pieces of paper and screens of through to them on the phone. Plan ahead mistake. professionals who are experienced in this computer information to process. It is and have something else to do while you field. not unheard of that something might go wait. The same applies when going to your missing. For this reason, keep copies of local office. EVERYTHING that you give them. If SRC HELP at you have a phone conversation ask them Always report any changes in your for a receipt number. Record that in your circumstances. This includes moving Satellite Campuses diary and keep it until you have graduated. house, getting a new housemate, changing subjects, winning the lottery, going The SRC is happy to help undergraduate (and CET) students on You will probably never need to recall that every campus. We have caseworkers that visit campuses on a regular information, but if they lose one of your overseas, or changes in your relationship basis, and where possible will meet with you when necessary. payments, or if they accuse you of being status. Anything that happens that you do not report can be used as a reason to cut To make an appointment, book a skype meeting or overpaid, you’ll be very glad that you keep just ask a question: 9660 5222 | [email protected] those records. off your payment.

Ask Abe: SRC Caseworker Help Q & A

have some techniques to deal with that. from class can lead to an Absent Fail grade even if you complete and pass all other assessments. Remember to Dear Abe, Talk to the subject co-ordinator to see if you can keep copies of everything that you send the university, informally arrange to do the test at another time, or to I am a student in the Faculty of . My including email conversations that you have when making do some other assessment instead, or to have your other grandmother died and the funeral is in (rural these arrangements. assessments reweighted so that it won’t matter that NSW). I should be away from Sydney for about 2 weeks. you miss that 20% assessment. If that doesn’t work, or Being away from university for two weeks may cause you While I’m away I’ll miss an in class test worth 20%. I can’t if you don’t feel comfortable doing that you can apply substantial stress when trying to catch up from missed afford to lose those marks, but I really have to go to the for special arrangements. The University’s Coursework work. Consider applying for a Discontinue grade for one funeral and be with my family. What can I do? Policy section 69 (1)(a) says “Special arrangements may or more of your subjects to enable you to keep up with the Grieving be made available to any student who is unable to meet required workload. If you are on a Centrelink payment assessment requirements or attend examinations because and you are dropping below 18 credit points talk to an of … essential religious commitments or essential beliefs SRC Caseworker before dropping the subject. There may Dear Grieving, (including cultural and ceremonial commitments”. You be a way to receive an “incapacitated” payment as a part will need to provide documentation to support your time student. I’m very sorry for your loss. Please consider talking to application. someone in Counselling and Psychological Services Abe (or other counselor) about your feelings of grief. It is You can also apply for Special Consideration for the understandable to be upset, and it would be helpful to classes that you will be missing. Unapproved absences

20 21 These pages are brought to you by the officebearers of the SRC. They are not altered, edited, or changed in any way by the Honi editors. Campus Refugee Action Collective Report Imogen Szumer

President’s Report Events of the last few weeks demonstrate Treasurer Joe Hockey seems to think coincidental $40 million “aid” packet, are insurmountable – the boats continue the extent to which, if it goes stopping the boats has a somewhat Australia has hitched a deal with to arrive, because asylum seekers are just Kyol Blakeney unchallenged, cruel refugee policy will different effect. After the recent budget, Cambodia for refugee resettlement. as desperate now as they were before. We be the bipartisan standard. The Campus Hockey said that the Liberals’ “have CRAC held a forum on campus last should not be shifting our responsibilities s Aboriginal and Torres Strait wants to see communities being closed You see, while the people who hold our infringements such as offensive language Refugee Action Collective (CRAC) stopped the boats…As a result, we week to expose the true nature of the on to desperately poor countries, Islander people, we are often told down but we cannot afford to continue living conditions in the palm of their hand rather than actual criminal offences in held a pro-refugee speak-out outside are saving more than $500m from ‘Cambodia solution’. Cambodia is the effectively bribing them to cooperate with thatA we are the problem. We are what to fund them if they choose to live that tell us what is best for us, there were 701 public so many non-Indigenous people opposition leader Bill Shorten’s pre- closing unnecessary detention centres 48th poorest nation in the world and has Australia to undermine international is wrong with society and we should lifestyle.” Aboriginal deaths in custody in the space take for granted. In fact while everyone budget address on campus in recent and…the costs of processing new boat repeatedly refouled refugees– a group of human rights treaties. just conform to the dominant structure of 7 years with a 150% increase since 1991. is jumping up and down about police weeks, where we spoke to many attendees, arrivals.” Savings certainly could be Uighur refugees, from Muslim minority “because it works”. The fact is that it The thing is, I would probably believe On top of that our youth suicide rate has brutality in the U.S.A, Aboriginal people including Labor members, about the made by closing unnecessary detention persecuted by Chinese govt. were sent The Campus Refugee Action Collective doesn’t work. these excuses if, in the process of making increased putting us as the highest suicide are 8 times more likely to be subject to the need to end offshore processing. After centres: refugees could be welcomed and back to China– the next day China is campaigning to end offshore processing these statements, the current government demographic in the world. same circumstances in this country. his address however, Shorten made clear processed in the community, saving the handed over $1 billion in aid. and mandatory detention. To turn the Many of the people who use this line are hadn’t actually doubled the national deficit that a Labor government in power would government more than $7 billion on tide on public opinion and pull down the often people who really have no idea what and simultaneously cut funding to the Most will tell us that we need to pull If you see these same issues that I see be determined to stop the boats. He offshore detention. The Cambodia deal is essentially a way fences, we need to build the campaign kind of lifestyle we live on a day-to-day Aboriginal Legal Service, the Aboriginal ourselves up by our bootstraps and get and the same demographic of people even refused to rule out boat turn-backs. for the government to plug up the holes everywhere. We encourage all students basis. You often hear “I can understand Medical Service, Aboriginal Housing, to work. Well… we would if there were consistently living below the poverty line Shorten uses the same flawed ‘saving lives Instead, the Liberals’ real strategy in its offshore processing system which to get involved with us – we meet every why children were/are being taken away or had not cut the Indigenous Tutorial employment opportunities and health in a 1st world country like this one, ask at sea’ argument as the Liberals. Stopping for saving ‘costs’ is to bully and bribe has been in crisis since day one. But the Monday 11am in the SRC. by their families because there’s nothing Assistance Scheme (ITAS) last year. services for us. We would if there wasn’t yourself if we are actually the problem. boats doesn’t save lives, it kills. our poorer neighbours. Alongside a contradictions in the government’s policy they can do to benefit them.” Or, “Nobody a fear that we would be detained for General Secretaries’ Report Wom*ns Officers’ Report

Chiara Angeloni Xiaoran Shi and Subeta Vimalarajah

n February this year, Max and I were spanning health, employment, education dispossession and colonisation of It’s not enough just to say we’re committed. he Sydney University Wom*n’s Australia, when the suffragettes claimed neo-colonial agenda. Stereotypes about aboriginal communities two of twenty-six University of and interactions with the criminal ‘justice’ Aboriginal communities is still alive and We must act on this commitment Collective acknowledges that our to have won the vote for all Australian are still pervasive and ridiculous, ISydney students chosen to attend the system. well—one need look no further than the by ‘walking the talk,’ guided by the activismT and meetings take place on women in 1902, this did not include Beyond history, we look to the current state particularly those that suggest Aboriginal 50th Anniversary commemoration tour attempts of Western Australia’s Liberal communities themselves. Aboriginal land. Those of us who are Indigenous women. It was not until 1962 of feminism. When the pay gap is quoted culture is inherently sexist. The Aboriginal of the 1965 Freedom Ride, travelling to Australia could soon face another government to shut down nearly one non-Indigenous recognise our complicity that Aboriginal women were given the and provokes anger, it is rarely qualified feminists we know are strong, powerful Dubbo, Walgett, Moree, Bowraville and referendum—this time, calling for the hundred and fifty remote Indigenous In a similar vein, merely celebrating the in the continuing colonisation of right to vote with Aboriginal men. We as a by the effect of race. We know that the activists. We look to our own community Kempsey. We listened to stories about elimination of racial discrimination communities. Further, the 2015 budget 1965 Freedom Rides does not itself do Aboriginal land. As feminists, we know collective do not recognise 1902 as the date pay gap does not represent the structural at Sydney University and to the amazing how the original Riders, led by Uncle towards Indigenous peoples from the failed to undo many of the devastating justice to the legacy of its vision: working that our fight for equality is meaningless of women’s suffrage in Australia, but 1962. disadvantages Aboriginal women face— Aboriginal women we know. In the Charlie Perkins, drew attention to racial Constitution, especially through a clause cuts to vital services for Aboriginal and actively to combat the ongoing reality if the experiences and contributions of This pattern repeats itself through history. we cannot even find the statistic that SRC we specifically recognise Madison discrimination in these communities, and to “preserve the Australian Government’s Torres Strait Islander peoples’ health, law, of racial discrimination that Indigenous Aboriginal women are not centred and Little space in history has been given to does. When Rosie Batty recently spoke McIvor (USYD Vice President) and the gains that were made for Indigenous ability to pass laws for the benefit of employment and education in 2014. To communities face. If the University is recognised. We understand that the Aboriginal women who have lost their out about domestic violence, feminists Laura Webster (SRC Executive). Thank rights after the Ride (including the 1967 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander what extent will constitutional recognition proud to claim the Freedom Riders structures that oppress women, trans and families to the Stolen Generations and commended her. When Aboriginal you for being wonderful friends, activists, referendum). peoples.” contribute to tangible, meaningful as its alumni, it must also act on their non-binary people, are inextricably linked who have constantly fought colonisation women like Amy McGuire want to do feminists and educators. We are humbled change for Aboriginal and Torres Strait vision, which continues to be of pressing to those that have oppressed Aboriginal whilst having their culture forcibly the same thing, they must fear that their by your greatness and cannot wait to see We learnt about the positive changes that The Recognise campaign driving the Islander peoples if the current actions significance today. This is a legacy the people. stripped from them. We look to policies concerns will be used as a weapon against all the wonderful ways in which you will have happened in these communities call for constitutional recognition has of governments indicate they can’t even students on the 2015 Freedom Ride are like the Northern Territory Intervention their community. These are not isolated both make the world a better place. over the past fifty years, but also saw the the bipartisan support of the Australian deliver on their commitment? keen to continue. We regret that the history of feminism has that illustrate how governments have areas in feminism; we can see this pattern many grave issues which they still face, parliament. However, the continued consistently failed to recognise the place paternalistically claimed to be “protecting” repeated in every “feminist” issue. of Aboriginal women. We note that in Aboriginal women whilst furthering their Vice Presidents’ Report

Daniel Ergas

here’s a page on Facebook called Tuesday afternoon”) to strangely generic stop barking at me”). Embassy faces imminent eviction. You Notice of Council Meeting DATE: 3rd June ‘USyd Rants’. True to its name, it commentaries on life (“Is God Dead?”, don’t need to look at ‘USyd Rants’ to see it. isT an anonymous clearinghouse for the a question I can only imagine was posed For this Indigenous Honi, I thought it was I wish you did. I want to believe that these disenchanted and disillusioned. It is a either by an extraordinarily angsty teen or important to reflect on this unique form ‘rants’ are rare and repressed; reading this TIME: 6-8pm strange psyche: its currency of approval, a second-year Philosophy student seeking of discrimination. Comments that are – in Honi, I fear that they are not. likes, ensures that the opinions widely ad-hoc essay help). any other context – vile and unacceptable 87th Students’ liked are widely shared. Its anonymity – comments we would never attach our Thank you to Madi McIvor – the editor LOCATION: Professorial ensures unpopular posts disappear without Unfortunately, its coverage doesn’t end name to – can be shared quickly, freely, of this Honi, and my brilliant co-Vice Representative any criticism directed to their author, there. Safe in its namelessness, USyd easily, with no harm to personal reputation President – who has slaved for weeks and successful posts flourish – with their Rants is a petrie-dish for the self- whatsoever. Discrimination – whether it is over this edition: it is uncomfortable, Board Room (Quadrangle) creator, inevitably, accepting accolades declared ‘disenfranchised’ to sound off on subtle or even unconscious, or anonymous illuminating, and shocking at all once. Council, University from an adoring Facebook public. feminism (“fuck feminism!” is a regular and caustic – is real and entrenched. Sometimes we need to be. I hope that contribution), international students you, too, realise that this – the way we of Sydney Students’ Representative Council, The University of Sydney Hundreds of rants are posted each day: (“Stuck with ANOTHER international Gendered violence is at crisis-point; consider, think about, and treat others – Phone: 02 9660 5222 | www.src.usyd.edu.au from tediously specific condemnations student in my group, FML”), and even international students are routinely must change. (“[t]o the people sitting in the back Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander exploited, and promptly abandoned, by third of the room in BUSS1030 on people (“Lazy fucking Abos near Redfern, our own University; and the Redfern Tent 22 23 supra supra

These pages are brought to you by the officebearers of SUPRA. Last Week at SUPRA They are not altered, edited, or changed in any way by the Honi editors.

Parent Picnic Finding SUPRA

SUPRA hosted its first picnic for SUPRA has moved! We’re also easy postgraduate parents and their kids. to find once you know how to find us. The Women’s Officer did an amazing Unfortunately, some postgrads are not job pulling together SUPRA volunteers, used to our new location, so to make life face painters, balloon makers, and several easier, we’ve made a map, and written parents who brought their kids to Botany some instructions for you: The new Lawn. They spent the afternoon enjoying SUPRA offices are on Level 2 of the the sun, watching the kids play, and Holme Building, Camperdown campus. conversing about difficulties parents face To get to the SUPRA offices you can participating in the student experience enter the Holme Building via Science as they juggle school, family, study, and Rd, head through the Holme Courtyard often work. and take the lift (next to the Courtyard Restaurant and Bar) down to Level 2. We want to thank everyone who helped Our new premises are accessible out, from the Women’s Officer who however the nearest accessible toilet is on coordinated the event, to staff and with SUPRA and other student If you’re interested in the budget, or have Level 3 of the Holme Building, adjacent talent who made the event colourful, associations. Many postgraduate concerns with regard to cuts to research to the Holme Courtyard. and to councillors and postgrads who representatives are grateful for the or fee deregulation, please consider volunteered to cook or pitch in a support MUPRA has received during reading up on this issue, and finding out Check out the included map to helping hand. their ongoing issue, and thanks to what student groups are doing to tackle find SUPRA. For a digital map anyone at University of Sydney who these issues. of campus that shows where the We hope that this is a first of many steppd up for MUPRA at Town Hall Holme Building (A09) is, see the events that will involve parents. We on the 7th of May. website . University of Sydney community, who You can learn more about Students for See you at SUPRA! may have ideas for events or activities MUPRA here: https://www.facebook that would engage them or be easy for .com/students4mupra them to bring their kids to. Federal Budget 2015: The Federal In the mean time, check out these Budget was released last Tuesday – and amazing pictures from today’s festivities. according to some early media sources, SUPRA students were let off the hook this year! Postgrad Affairs Well… not really… MUPRA: As some of you know, HAS MOVED! Macquarie University student It turns out many aspects of the 2015- Our new offices are on representatives faced their own university 2016 budget will affect students, and in court on the 7th of May. Macquarie postgraduates. Students and staff at Level 2 of the Holme Building (A09) University is taking seven student university have already expressed concern Science Rd, Camperdown Campus. representatives to the Supreme Court of for example, with cuts to Sustainable Access is via the lift in the Holme Courtyard. New South Wales as an attempt to close Research Excellence (SRE). The budget the Macquarie University Postgraduate also makes no promise to amend the Representative Association (MUPRA). original $173.7M cut to the Research Our hours, phone and email remain the same: Led by the campaign “Students for Training Scheme (RTS), and this will Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm MUPRA, a number of students from all impact the research workforce going (closed for lunch 12-1pm daily) over the Sydney area turned up at Town forward. The Council of Australian [email protected] Hall to support MUPRA, and many Postgraduate Representatives (CAPA) 02 9351 3715 student associations pitched in support released a statement expressing their by other means. concerns with regard to these cuts, and what they mean for the future of the Luckily, the court has yet to charge research workforce. (Source: http:// MUPRA. That said, MUPRA is not out www.capa.edu.au/media-releases/

o n of the woods yet as the Judge ordered cuts-to-research-training-threaten- Court-supervised mediation between future-of-research-workforce/.) the two entities by the 28th of May. MUPRA will be able to access its funds Universities Australia also expressed Social Media to seek legal representation, and the case concern, citing that students will will return to Court for judgment if the continue to be left ‘in policy limbo’ as mediation is unsuccessful. this year’s budget does not address the education cuts announced in previous The Council of Australian Postgraduate years. Of course many assume that fee Associations (CAPA) has expressed deregulation will go forward. ongoing support for MUPRA, along 24 25 The Condescension of The Sir Albert Garter Prize for Death, Ethnic Categories in Contemporary Australian Art Satirical Portraiture Warmed Up The Garter Press is pleased to present the forty-fifth annual Sir Albert Garter Prize, awarded Chloe Hazelwood on politics of identity in art. to a work of exceeding originality in the scope of its satire, and a great level of technical In reviewing Engo Grill, Peter Walsh picks on something proficiency in its execution. Below are the 2015 entrants. inanimate like he is. uring the 1970s, a new politics the stereotype of urban-based work from Lost Together, and it immediately do we re-brand ourselves in a world where of identity emerged that worked as ‘inauthentic’. It seems that urban evokes a hybrid sense of self. Thompson our Indigenous brand has become so Dto overturn the narrowly conceived Indigenous art has occupied an indefinable pays homage to his non-Indigenous great- synonymous with the context and content formalism dominating art criticism of grey area. grandfather Isaac by donning a thick of our work?” the 1960s. While this was informed by an blonde beard, which covers his face from the ethics of collectivity and gave marginalised Urban Indigenous artists found themselves nose down. A bright red humpy partially Enter Brook Andrew, an urban-based groups the opportunity to express their in a double bind when it came to the obstructs our view of Thompson as he artist who complicates the link between personal narratives, eventually identity content of their work. At the same time as rests on a tartan blanket dressed in tartan Aboriginality and the politics of politics became less effective as a form it failed to mimic the accepted aesthetic of garb. Though artists such as Thompson representation. Andrew creates layered of self-representation and more useful as dot painting, it was deemed too political, have been “[m]ired in the muddy waters works that not only reflect his “Wiradjuri a ‘politically correct’ aesthetic orthodoxy or read exclusively as being about ‘difficult’ of Aboriginal identity politics, the colonial and Scottish identities”, but also his queer adopted by the dominant cultural group issues. According to Brenda L. Croft, it discourse of Australia and the burden of sexuality. The artist frames queerness to place the work of culturally diverse “generated the fiercest reaction from the creating racially explicit work”, Humpy “in a deliberately celebratory (and as a Elise Bickley, The Tyrant and The Root Vegetable Elise Bickley, The Root Vegetable and the Tyrant “Deep in the heart of the engineering faculty they serve elsewhere. How do I know they artists into easily definable categories. In predominantly Anglo-Celtic Australian Away From Home deliberately confounds result, to some, confrontational) manner”. Pen and Paper, 800 x 800mm Pen and Paper, 800 x 800mm there is this hole in the wall cafe which does won’t? Well, the Classic Engo Burger isn’t the Australian context, essentialist modes male art ‘Mafia’”. Urban-based artists cultural stereotypes. One of Andrew’s most iconic works is beside-the-highway quality burgers, perfectly particularly good. of classification separated Indigenous art were determined to break down the rigid Sexy and Dangerous (1996) (Figure 2), This piece captures a moment in the Power. Ambition. Vice. Unpleasant breath grilled, complete with beetroot, shredded from contemporary art, particularly the categorisation that forced their work out While artists such as Thompson embrace a digitally manipulated image combining collective, political consciousness. for the next few hours. They sit like stains lettuce, BBQ sauce. The lot. The perfect burger. The patty is a dense, round colon of work of urban-based artists. of contemporary exhibitions. Indeed, their Indigenous and non-Indigenous an ethnographic archival photograph Australians of the day will see something on a work that is designed to move, also in I paid $8, got that, a cup of chips, and a big meat, in which onions are half-heartedly their exclusion from the mainstream heritage, other contemporary artists have of a young man of colour with Chinese of themselves in this meditation on that ink and paper. coke. Amazing.” embedded, the way you might bury an Australian curators, critics and audiences “smacked of paternalism and tokenism”. abandoned the category of “Indigenous” characters and the words “SEXY AND one time Tony Abbott ate an onion. animal in a shallow grave. The bun, which were not prepared for an emerging Artists working in ‘remote’ contexts were entirely. Tracey Moffatt is a prominent DANGEROUS” inscribed across his - Text message from Ryan Hunter, is positively Saharan in both colour and Indigenous artistic practice that challenged not free from these supercilious attitudes figure in the art world, well known for chest in English. At first, the viewer received 7 August, 2014. texture, absorbs all moisture from the their narrowly defined conventions of either – their work was misinterpreted as her refusal “to be locked into essentialist might surmise that this phrase is a direct sauce and then your mouth. But I’m authenticity. The work of urban-based politically neutral, even though painting or fixed identity positions”. While Moffatt translation; however, Andrew plays with ine months after I received that text glad I ordered another one: the Chicken Indigenous artists triggered reactionary their traditional lands was an empowering deals implicitly with Aboriginal issues, predetermined notions of language message, I found myself south of the Burger, which comes with a smokey disapproval; one common and simplistic act in itself. Indigenous artists across all she also questions “the very notion and culture by revealing that he simply Nborder, west of Seymour, in the concrete sauce, lettuce, and “bell peppers”1 is fine remark of the 1980s was that it resembled geographic locations battled against “the of Aboriginality” as white critics and appropriated the Chinese characters from Escher that is Engineering. Engo Grill— and flavoursome, and only held back by “second-rate white art”. There was a rigid ever-strengthening grip of ethnographic curators perceive it. Global perspectives of a street poster. Sexy and Dangerous alludes formerly, I can only imagine, something that bun-dryness which, if it hasn’t been dichotomy between artists from ‘remote’ prescription”, but urban-based artists were contemporary art, such as postmodernism, to “the world of an exotic, unspecified else—has since been subsumed by the emphasised enough, is akin to dissolving Indigenous communities and their urban intentionally pushed to the outer edges of shape Moffatt’s approach. She has ‘other’”: a colonial fear of the unknown chalk-on-blackboard/white tiled aesthetic packaging peanuts on your tongue. counterparts. If the subject matter of the inner art circle. stated: “’[t]he reason why I have been and fetishisation of the colonised body. of the USU. From a distance, it gives you a urban Indigenous art diverted from that successful is that I have avoided allowing Nothing is to be taken at face value; even sense of controlled hedonism, the kind of Each refurbished USU outlet seems to of ‘traditional’ bark painting, where were If the fine art world declined to meet myself to be ghettoised as a BLACK the subject’s white body paint, emulating place you’d die to eat in. Make no mistake: be built around one signature dish, and the familiar visual markers of ‘culture’? urban Indigenous artists on their terms, ARTIST’”. Moffatt is acutely aware of “the ritual application of white ochre”, has Engo Grill gives literal meaning to the while you would be forgiven for thinking As Glenn Iseger-Pilkington observes, they found ways to articulate their vibrant how constricting the Aboriginal ‘label’ can been digitally airbrushed. phrase “eating to live”. the burgers are Engo’s, it’s actually the artists “working in photomedia, video, and creative expression regardless. Christian become, especially after one establishes Ribs. Here, I have to take back what was performance cannot escape the romantic Thompson, an internationally based herself as an Aboriginal artist. In addition, Ethnic categorisation of Indigenous The name Engo Grill might trick you into said about value, as these ribs are $13 notions of traditional custodial practice”. Bidjara artist, conveys “a lived rather than Indigenous contemporary art is burdened contemporary art continues to pose an Katie Thorburn, Garlic: A Retrospective Cabbage, An Unlikely Hero thinking the grill is in use, but the speed ($11.05 on ACCESS), which in my case The conflation of an “Indigenous brand” assigned identity” in his Lost Together by “the compulsion to protest (declare) its obstacle to urban-based artists, despite Pencil Sketch, 1100 x 770mm Digital Sketch, 1000 x 700mm with which you’re served from the funeral worked out to roughly three bones and with an “accepted aesthetic”, such as (2009) series. Humpy Away From Home Indigeneity”. Keen to get to the heart of their multidimensional explorations of procession of a line suggests something a humiliating sleeve of meat. Worse, the Central Desert dot painting, reinforces (2009) (Figure 1) is a photographic image this issue, Iseger-Pilkington asks, “How identity. Looking back the to 1980s, there At the frenzied peak of post-onion Focusing an acid-sharp satirical bent on else is up. Engo Grill takes that feeling side coleslaw and chips are served draped was no space for nuanced consideration of political speculation, new accusations one of the best remembered gaffes of the of purchasing something fresh from the over to conceal the anaemic portions urban Indigenous art in the mainstream – arose that suggested Abbott was a creature year, this digital drawing captures the BBQ after your Under-9s sporting event of meat, almost embarrassingly so, as if the predominantly white, male art clique of the night. Here is a pencil work that imagination of both the public, and the and lets it wilt in packaging beneath the servers are conspiring with the chefs made sure of that. This meant that the preys on, and rebukes the anxiety. PM. It is an heroic undertaking. fluorescent counter lights. Each burger is to minimise everyone’s guilt. The meat politically charged content and stylistic a corpse waiting to be withdrawn, tagged, surrenders itself limply from the bone, less innovations of urban-based Indigenous and identified. the way succulent meat should, and more artists, particularly those experimenting like how an elderly relative passes away in with technologies, was deemed We began with the Classic Engo the night. The menu promises “southern” ‘inauthentic’. Despite these limitations, Burger—beef, cos lettuce, pickles and flavour, which is accurate so long as you urban-based artists gained strength sauce on bun—and, at this point, I have adjust your expectations for our continent. in numbers, defying the essentialist to commend the USU for the price point. Engo Grill’s ribs taste like Adelaide and, classification of their work and the quasi- At $6.90 ($5.85 ACCESS), the Union like that city, the venue is a Monument to assimilationist systems working against is finally gesturing towards a sustainable Nothing: an exercise in straining comfort their success. price for students and, now that they’ve food through a flavourless layer of muslin, proven they can, they would do well to and then having the gall to charge for it. Far-Left: Figure 1: Christian Thomp- apply a similar discount to the sandwiches son, Humpy Away From Home, 2009, C-Type print. 100 x 100 cm. Copy- Stephanie Barahona, Onion-Abbott Wedding, Digital Sketch, 1200 x 600mm right of the artist. 1. This Americanism proves once and forever that the USU’s menus are focus- Left: Figure 2: Brook Andrew, Sexy This insightful digital print asks the challenging question: What if Tony Abbott fucked grouped in some far away nation and imported as written to be distributed among and Dangerous, 1996, digital image an onion and had a child? While the conclusion is heavily implied, the work invites the the slovenly masses. I guess what I’m saying is they’re capsicums, fuck! printed on Duraclear mounted on audience to make up their own mind. acrylic. 183 x 182 cm. 26 27