Indigenous Muslim Solidarity Conference Melbourne

ASWAD and the Indigenous Muslims of Australia Network present

INDIGENOUS MUSLIM SOLIDARITY CONFERENCE

This is a special one-day conference for Muslims to be introduced to issues of social justice affecting the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in Australia, including Land Rights and the Northern Territory Intervention.

Featured Speakers:

For the last 40 years, Gary Foley has been at the centre of major political activities including the 1971 Springbok tour demonstrations, the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972, the Commonwealth Games protest in 1982, and more recently, the protests during the 1988 Bicentennial celebrations.  Late in life Foley became a student at the University of Melbourne where he studied history, cultural studies and computer science.  Between 2005 and 2008 he was a lecturer / tutor in the Education Faculty of University of Melbourne, and is about to complete a PhD in History at the Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne.

Chris Graham is the former editor and founder of the National Indigenous Times newspaper, where he won a Walkley Award and a Walkley High Commendation for his reporting on Indigenous affairs.

In addition to discussing the death in custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee on Palm Island, Chris will also be making a special presentation on Racism and the Media. A key part of this presentation is an expose about a fraudulent ABC Lateline program which aired in the lead-up to the Northern Territory Intervention.

"Lateline's reporting led directly to the greatest human rights abuse against Aboriginal people certainly of my time, and probably in the last half century.  The Northern Territory intervention has harmed Aboriginal people; it's caused starvation; it's seen a dramatic rise in reports of self-harm incidents; it's driven children away from school; it's wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. In short, it's been a disaster for the nation's most disadvantaged citizens, the people who could least afford it."

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY THE NATIONAL CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCE IN ISLAMIC STUDIES AND THE ISLAMIC COUNCIL OF VICTORIA

Date: Saturday, 27th November

Venue: Sidney Myer Asia Centre, Melbourne University, Yasuko Hiraoka Myer Room, Level 1

Time: 9:30 AM to 6:30 PM 

Registration for this event is crucial, please email: aamer.rahman@gmail.com by the 20th of November.

Ngati Kahu remain on their ancestral lands in Taipa

Riots in Western Sahara

Riots in Western Sahara no media presence many dead and injured Monday 08 November 2010

Angela Davis on the Prison Abolishment Movement, Frederick Douglass, the 40th Anniversary of Her Arrest

Source

For over four decades, Angela Davis has been one of most influential activists and intellectuals in the United States. An icon of the 1970s black liberation movement, her work around issues of gender, race, class and prisons has influenced critical thought and social movements for years. She is a leading advocate for prison abolition, a position informed by her own experience as a fugitive on the FBI’s Top 10 most wanted list forty years ago. Davis rose to national attention in 1969 when she was fired as a professor from UCLA as a result of her membership in the Communist party and her leading a campaign to defend three black prisoners at Soledad prison. Today she is a university professor and the founder of the group Critical Resistance, a grassroots effort to end the prison-industrial complex. This year she edited a new edition of Frederick Douglass’ classic work, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. We spend the hour with Angela Davis and play rare archival footage of her.

Government moves closer to privately run prisons

Popata brothers and co reoccupy Taipa land

Annette Sykes: Bruce Jesson Lecture 2010

Source
Speech: Annette Sykes

Annette Sykes: Bruce Jesson Lecture 2010

Read full lecture as a .pdf fileKi te kore koe e mau puu ana ki o tikanga me toou Mana Motuhake,
Kua ngaro koe ki te poouri otira e whai kee ana koe i ngaa tikanga a tetahi noatu When you fail to sustain your beliefs, sovereignty, freedom
You become lost to yourself as you are subsumed by those whose customs and practices you must now serve 

In 1980 following the furore which was engendered by the publication of the Maori Sovereignty articles, Bruce Jesson commented:
“Essentially, Maori sovereignty is about the complete incompatibility of the Maori and Pakeha ways of life, and about how economic and political power has resolved this conflict in favour of the Pakeha.”
At the time there was a strident group of Maori radicals who readily identified with the concept of Maori Sovereignty and with Maori resistance to Pakeha intrusion into their territories, their values, their mindscapes and their landscapes.2 The core was drawn from an urban underclass from the communities of South Auckland, Hastings and Wellington. Their message was simple: Pakeha have colonised our hearts and our minds and have substituted our traditional systems and institutions with ones that Awatere described as exploitative, oppressive, dehumanised and spiritually deficient.3 It was time for the nation to turn the page on an era of greed, irresponsibility and injustice and an era of change was demanded.

To read full lecture as a .pdf file - CLICK HERE
ENDS

Tipene (Tautoko ft.Tui Teka)

Statement on Gender, Economic and Climate Justice by Pacific Women Activists

We are local and young women activists in various countries of the Pacific,  gathered in Suva, Fiji on 6-9 September 2010 for the Regional Training and  Consultation on Gender, Economic and Climate Justice that was convened by the Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) and the Pacific Network on Globalization (PANG). The Pacific region is confronted by the onslaughts of market forces through processes of trade, financial and services liberalization, and the implication of environmental changes on food security, water scarcity, sea level rise and intrusion. These are
causing major upheavals and chaos in our social relationships, communities and societies at large.


In this context, we need policies and programs that empower communities, families and individuals, rather then exposing us to market assault and the changes in climate that affect land, livelihoods, handicrafts, indigenous medicines, staple food, symbolic wealth and our caring social relationships
that include women’s informal networks of mutual support.

While we are in solidarity with the struggle of people’s movements and nongovernmental organizations, a political response based on a feminist interlinkages perspective on gender, economic, and climate justice, is yet another way by which we can contribute to the development of an alternative paradigm of sustainable development in the Pacific. Such a feminist approach utilizes concepts of social reproduction and women’s right over our bodies and sexualities as core principles in our political analyses and actions. By this we mean that care of individuals should not be bargained away by governments when they negotiate trade and environmental agreements like PACER PLUS, WTO, UNFCC, CBD, etc. In guaranteeing social reproduction, such as health, education, water, livelihoods, etc. the state must also protect and promote the right of women to control our bodies and our sexualities in all places -our homes, schools, communities, etc.This means putting in place a policy, legislative and program environment that:

(a) gives justice to women who are physically and sexually abused and denied
their sexual & reproductive health life & rights;

(b) provides equal access, control and ownership of resources of both land
and the sea;

(c) ensures women’s meaningful participation in decision making in politics
and citizen’s mobilizations;

(d) supports the empowerment and voices of Pacific women to confront aspects of our culture that are hampering our development and autonomy; and

(e) ends all forms of discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, class,
gender identity, sexual orientation and abilities.


We will therefore adopt various strategies aimed at promoting a feminist inter-linkages analyses and activities aimed at: our organizations; constituents and allies; and regional platforms facilitated through
intergovernmental or social dialogues.


We also strongly commit to continue networking with each other as we continually strengthen and recreate a vibrant regional Pacific feminist women’s movement that engages in a politically interlinked way - locally, nationally, regionally and internationally.




Dated: 20 October 2010


This statement has been endorsed by:
Lice Cokanasiga, Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG), Fiji;
Nerida-Ann Hubert, Nauru Youth Council, Nauru;
Josephine Kalsuak, SPC/RRRT, Vanuatu;
Rosa Koian, Bismarck Ramu Group, Papua New Guinea;
Eweata Maata, Kiribati;
Arieta Moceica, Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC); Fiji;
Reeti Onorio, School of Development Studies, USP, Kiribati;
Ender Rence, Solomon Islands Development Trust, Solomon Islands;
Lu'isa Samani, Women's and Children's Crisis Centre, Tonga;
Kairangi Samuela, Cook Islands Women's Counselling Centre: Punanga
Taturu, Cook Islands;
Filomena Tuivanualevu, Fiji Women's Rights Movement, Fiji;
Sainimere Veitata, Nesian350, Fiji.

Kia Ora Gaza

International Aid Convoy to Gaza

Day 34: 21 October 2010

Notes:

• Times: All times given are those of Egypt and Gaza. Their clock is 11 hours behind New Zealand time.

• Messages: The contents of this bulletin are real time texts from our Kiwi volunteers on their way to Gaza. Texts have been edited for readability.

• Writers: Roger Fowler and Chris van Ryn.

• Photos: Azra to Gaza blog.

http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/

Kia Ora Gaza was part of an international aid convoy that finally reached Gaza today after 34 days of travelling.

The convoy of 400 volunteers from 30 countries driving 150 vehicles was carrying medical supplies worth NZ$7 million and entered the region via the Egyptian-controlled Rafah Gate.
Rafah is the only land entrance to Gaza not under the control of Israel’s military
The team of six Kiwi volunteers joined the aid convoy led by Viva Palestina in heading to Gaza following the shooting of nine members of an aid flotilla by Israeli soldiers in May.

http://www.3news.co.nz/Aid-convoy-finally-reaches-Gaza/tabid/417/articleID/182594/Default.aspx

 

Save Rapanui Benefit Los Angeles

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Lono Kollars, Kaleponi Advocates for Hawaiian Affairs
Phone: 951.534.3750
E-mail: lono.kollars@yahoo.com

SAVE RAPA NUI: EASTER ISLAND IN CRISIS
with Rapa Nui Film, Music, Art and Discussion to Support the Indigenous People in Crisis

When: Thursday, October 28, 2010, from 6:00PM - 11:00PM

Where: Barnsdall Art Park, 4800 Hollywood Blvd, LA, CA 90027

VIP Reception and Seating: $50 (at 6:00pm)
General Admission: $25

Info: Santi Hitorangi, United Nations Representative for Rapa Nui and Longtale International will be co-hosting a screening and panel discussion of the documentary “BEING RAPANUI,” a Rapa Nui perspective, with an exhibition and silent auction of Rapa Nui Petroglyphs rubbings as well as other art donated by La Luz de Jesus Gallery to help support the struggle of the Rapanui indigenous people to keep their ancestral homelands on Easter Island.

The event is sponsored by: KAHA, (Kaleponi Advocates of Hawaiian Affairs), Imipono Projects, VC (Visual Communications), Longtale International and La Luz de Jesus Gallery

Traditional Pacific Island haka and entertainment, live musicc and DJ Ninja Simone (Soul Sessions).

Los Angeles, CA—

Rapa Nui, also known as Isla de Pascua, but better known as Easter Island, is part of the Polynesian Triangle that stretches from Hawaii to the North, Rapa Nui to the East and New Zealand to the South. Easter Island has long been the subject of curiosity and speculation. How and why did its inhabitants carve and transport the massive statues (Moai) which surround the island? What remains of this culture today, and what lessons can we learn from their legacy?

Rapa Nui is one of the most remote places on the planet. Their closest neighbor, Pitcairn Island with fewer than a hundred inhabitants, is about 1,300 miles to the West. Continental Chile is about 2,200 miles to the East. It is a U.N. World Heritage site, famous for its monolithic Moai, stone statues created and moved by the islanders’ ancestors.

Until 1888, Rapa Nui was unclaimed by any foreign country. The island lacked rivers and trees, and a safe anchorage. Chile annexed the island under the impression that it had agricultural potential and strategic possibilities as a naval station. Formal annexation brought little change to the island until 1896 when Chile placed the island under the jurisdiction of the Department of Valparaiso. The island was turned into a vast sheep ranch under the direction of a Valparaiso businessman, Enrique Merlet, who confiscated buildings and all animals left to the Rapanui by the missionaries who had fled the island in the wake of Dutrou-Bornier's reign of terror. Islanders were forced to build a stone wall around the village of Hangaroa and, except for work, permission was needed to leave the area even to fetch water from the crater. Those who revolted against these perverse rules were exiled to the continent, few returned.

As of August 4th, 2010, the people of Rapa Nui have non-violently re-occupied the lands that had been unlawfully taken by Chile from their grandparents. The Chilean government has responded by sending in armed forces. As the Rapa Nui people strive to reclaim their island and independence, the islanders may be on the brink of extermination at the hands of Chilean forces.

A peaceful resolution would be the hope for restoration to the world and a new beginning for Te Pito O Te Henua “the Navel of the World,” what the early settlers called Rapa Nui.

The Indian Law Resource Center in Washington D.C. has agreed to represent the Rapa Nui families and the Rapa Nui Parliament.

Although many people think the island is deserted and the Moai are a mystery, the Rapa Nui are very much alive and has been a civilization of master engineers, artists and survivalists for nearly 2000 years.

For more information about Rapa Nui, contact Susan Hitorangi: (845) 596 5403,
Tepitoproductions@mac.com or go to SaveRapa Nui.org.

The Barnsdall Gallery Theater is owned and operated by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs

All Power To The People (1996) Part 1

A film by Lee Lew Lee Opening with a montage of four hundred years of race conflict in America, this powerful documentary provides the historical context for the establishment of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in the mid-1960s. Organized by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, the Party soon embodied every major element of the civil rights movement which preceded it and the Black, Brown and Red power movements which it helped pioneer. The Party struck fear in the hearts of the white capitalist power structure, which feared it as a terrorist group. During the Nixon years, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, with the cooperation of the CIA, used all means at their disposal to infiltrate and derail the Black Power movement. Methods of state repression included assassination, frame-ups, dirty tricks and black propaganda. Witnesses include not only Party veterans and other Black Power pioneers and political prisoners such as Mumia Abu-Jamal, Dr. Muthulu Skakur and Dhoruba Bin Wahad, but also "establishment" figures like former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, CIA officer Philip Edward Agee, and retired FBI agents. Yet, the documentary is not a paean to the Panthers, for it criticizes the megalomania, corruption, and narcissism of some Party leaders, while it praises their courage and idealism. Whether or not one is sympathetic to the Black Panthers, the film is an important historic look at the political and racial turmoils of the 1960s and an up-close look at the leading players

Kolumbus Day in Amerikkka

Event Guide BPP History Month Oakland Public Libraries

See Also : http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/

AntiCapitalist Public Service Announcement