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Volume
10 Issue 26…Dedicated
to the Dialogue on Race…June 29, 2007
Venue for an Artist
Message from the Front Line
By STEP (Striving Together Equals Progress Inc.)
We are out on the front line,
Trying to maintain a clear mind.
Low on ammunition can't waste no time.
For the love of the people, here to stay.
"For the next generation,"
The coming of a new day.
Call home base…. and let them know,
our uniforms are shabby,
supplies are real low.
Enemies and their agents fire rapidly,
forward role to cover,
Not sure if we will all make it,
Can I get a copy ….Over!
Spirit of Malcolm, Kwame Ture, Harriet Tubman
keeps us moving forward.
Drugs, Guns, Gangs, Prisons.
This fight is not for cowards.
We are out here on the front line,
our soldiers are few.
Many slaughtered… wounded and maimed.
But what can we do.
This has to be done.
Another generation to come.
So we are out here on the front line,
till the work is done.
Uniforms… Red, Black and Green.
Mission… Crystal Clear.
We fight in behalf of all oppressed people,
Particularly "You" who are close and dear.
The bullets fly, people die. Unjust laws being passed
Prisons bursting at the seams with my people
Tell me, how long will this last…
To you who reap the benefits
Of those who fight for the cause,
Understand that it is your duty to assist in the struggle,
Not to sit back and applaud.
AWAKE ! You sleeping giant MOTHER AFRIKA so dear.
We are out here ……..on the Front line
AND OUR MISSION ….. IS CRYSTAL CLEAR!
About Me: S.T.E.P. (Striving Together Equals Progress
Inc.) A Rites of Passage and Manhood Training program based in Newark, N.J.
Quigley Down Under (1990)
Rated PG13, Quigley Down Under is a modern day western and romance shot on
location in the deserts of Australia. For its cinematography alone, the movie
is worth watching, but it is more than that, because it tells a great story
about the European settlement of Australia.
The film opens with the title character, played by Tom Selleck, embarking on a
long voyage to Australia to take up a sharp shooter's position on the outback
station owned by Elliot Marston (Alan Rickman). An excellent marksman with the
long rifle, Quigley finally arrives at the station and finds out that the job
is much more distasteful than shooting dogs on a range. Insulted by the job's
description, which basically entails murdering native Australians, Quigley and
Marston become enemies and the story becomes an epic struggle between good
versus evil.
Quigley explores heavy subjects that include racism infanticide, misogyny,
genocide, convict transportation, colonialism and even some Aboriginal
mysticism. Its treatment of these topics is not so weighty that one gets bogged
down. It is a little long, but worth the rental!
Jandamarra (c. 1873-1 April 1897)
In the early 1880s, Europeans brought their animals and ideas into Bunuba
lands, which are located in the far north state of Western Australia. At the
time, the indigenous people had no idea that their fertile lands were great
economic opportunities coveted by Europeans as the key to the financial success
of Western Australia for white people.
When the white settlement of Bunuba land began, Jandamarra, also known as
"Pigeon", was six years old. In 1883, Jandamarra got his first job
working at the Lennard River Station, which backed onto the Napier Range,
Western Australia. Strong, intelligent and good at just about everything,
Jandamarra quickly learned the skills of a stockman and station hand. By the
time he was 14, he was the fastest shearer in the district, a skilled horseman
and good at a whole range of farm work.
In 1888, Jandamarra returned to his tribe to become a man. After being with his
people, the young man began to understand the threat posed by the white man and
his animals. Coincidentally, the region was experiencing a severe drought.
While the Bunuba took special care not to consume all the food, so something
would be left for others and later years, the animals, especially the white
man's sheep, ate everything in sight. With nothing left to eat, the Bunuba
thought it was only fair they should eat sheep. Of course, whites did not
agree.
Given the only other option was starvation, Jandamarra killed stock from local
cattle stations. He was arrested and sent to prison. However, instead of
serving a sentence, he worked for Derby police, honing his tracking, shooting
and horseman skills.
In 1891, Jandamarra returned to Lennard River Station, where he befriended
Captain Richardson with whom he discussed his dilemma of working with whites
and being loyal to his tribe.
In 1894, during a patrol of the Napier Ranges in West Kimberley, Jandamarra
helped to capture a large group of his people. They were held at Lillimilura
Police Post. Belatedly, Jandamarra's tribal loyalties came to the fore. He
gunned down Richardson, stole a number of guns and set the prisoners free. An
armed fugitive, Jandamarra escaped into his country.
On the November 7, 1894, Jandamarra and his followers attacked a group of settlers
at Widjana Gorge, capturing weapons and a cache of ammunition. In the battle
two men were killed. This was the first time that Aborigines used guns against
European settlers in an organized fashion; it began what became known as
"The Bunuba War."
Outraged by Jandamarra's actions, a posse of police and settlers attacked
Jandamarra and his followers. Although wounded, Jandamarra escaped. Police
attacked a number of Aboriginal camps, killing many people solely on suspicion
that they had ties to Jandamarra's band. At the time, this was regarded as a
normal police action.
For three years, Jandamarra led a guerrilla war against police and European
settlers. His hit and run tactics and his vanishing tricks became almost
mythical. The Bunuba elders talked of his ability to move unseen through the
country. It was said he could fly like a bird and disappear like a ghost. Only
a man who shared these powers could kill him. This spooked the Aboriginal
police guides, who led their masters away from the magic man. Without trackers,
the police were helpless. Jandamarra played upon this vulnerability. Over
several days, he ran a siege, tormenting and taunting the police at night as
they hid inside Lillimooloora Station. He raided their stores of food and left
his footprints in scattered flour.
Jandamarra's war ended when police recruited Aboriginal tracker Roebourne
Micki, who knew the terrain well. Micki tracked Jandamarra down and shot him to
death at Tunnel Creek on April 1, 1897, ending the saga of a man whose only
dream was to give his people a fair go. (Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/, www.abc.net.au and www.brookvale-p.schools.nsw.edu.au
)
Disgruntled feels: Outrageous!
When Dick Cheney chose himself as George W. Bush's 2000 running mate, it was
generally assumed Cheney brought gravitas to the dynamic duo. Given all that
has transpired in their two terms in office, we can now say the gravitas has
gravitated to the top such that Cheney seems more in charge that Bush. Without
a doubt, they both seem to think they are above the law; it is outrageous! What
is more outrageous is the fact that they seem to be getting away with violating
the law, especially since Congress has taken impeachment off the table.
Disgruntled wants
to know: The CIA is finally declassifying documents detailing some of
the agency's most nefarious abuses during the 1950s to the 1970s. According to
preliminary news reports, the documents will detail abuses from assassinations,
domestic spying and wiretapping to kidnapping and human experimentation. With
this grand gesture of coming clean, we are supposed to assume the CIA no longer
employs these kinds of practices in its spying operations. Yet, given the US'
close ties to countries such as Israel, Egypt and Pakistan, which have no
problem engaging in torture, assassinations and other crimes against humanity,
who really thinks the CIA's hands are clean now that it has come clean about
past practices?
Disgruntled says:
While I realize things have changed immeasurably since 9-11, the last time I
checked the US Constitution was still the law of the land. It has not been
amended in years. So, the US is still a republic and not a monarchy. It used to
be when elected officials assumed more power than the law allowed, there would
be press coverage exposing the abuse and other officials would vigorously
pursue the wrongdoing too. Now, there appears to be a certain amount of abuse
of power acceptance. And, with it comes the feeling that the US is being ruled
by a fascist junta.
Stealing Australia
By John Burl Smith
Since 1788, British and Australian officials have ignored the fundamental
rights of Aborigines. More than 200 years ago, they declared sovereignty over
Aborigine lands based on terra nullius, the land was devoid of human
inhabitation. Australia's development began in the 1700s, as Europeans
spread out all over the world in search of land, natural resources and people
for labor.
The Aborigines, who are related to people of New Guinea, had inhabited
Australia for 40,000 years, developing a culture closely tied to the land. Made
up of some 500 tribes, each with its own language, 300,000 Aborigines inhabited
Australia when the British laid claim.
European settlers considered Aborigines sub-human. Many Aborigines died of
diseases, such as smallpox, measles, venereal disease, influenza, pneumonia,
and tuberculosis brought from Europe, while those that survived suffered harsh
and brutally inhumane abuse. The British drove them off their lands, segregated
them by restricting their rights to employment, property ownership and denied
them political representation.
The Yorta Yorta are a classic example of the British land theft history with
Aborigines. A river-based people, whose land ran along what became the border
of Victoria-NSW, the Yorta Yorta fished a network of rivers, lagoons, creeks
and lakes, while regarding the land as their source of life. The Yorta's
traditional lands were both rich and abundant in natural food sources and
resources. They have filed 18 claims trying to regain their tribal lands and
for compensation for injustices suffered, since they were invaded and
dispossessed in the 1840s.
The Yorta Yorta population before the first contact with whites was
approximately 2,400. Within the first generation after the European invasion,
they were decimated; their population was reduced by 85%. The Yorta were on the
verge of extinction.
Dispossessed of their traditional lands and left to eke out an existence on the
edges of European settlements, as other Aborigines, massacres occurred when Aborigines
resisted the wholesale confiscation of their land. Relocated to Malaga Mission
at Murray River in 1874 and relocated again to Cummuragunja in 1889, the Yorta
regrouped after their holocaust to become the base of the Aborigine political
movement in the 1930s, including the Australian Aborigines League in Melbourne
(1932) and the Aborigines Progressive Association in Sydney (1937). These
groups worked to raise the consciousness of the general community about the
plight of Aboriginal people. They demanded that Aboriginal people be given full
citizenship rights, including the right to land and to retain their own unique
cultural identity.
Between 1860 and 1993 there were some 17 separate attempts by the Yorta to
obtain land and compensation. The land, granted under inalienable freehold
title, was a mere fraction of their traditional land base. The Yorta have
exercised their natural rights as the indigenous occupants and owners of their
ancestral lands. Furthermore, they have shown through oral, documentary and
material evidence that their social, spiritual, economic and cultural links to
their land have not been broken since time immemorial.
Thinly Veiled Racism
By John Burl Smith
Pushing Australia back to a time when Aborigines had no rights, Prime Minister
John Howard put forth a plan to restrict welfare payments to Aborigines living
in the Northern Territory. He claims his actions will prevent money from being
spent on alcohol and gambling. His approach mandates how parents spend their
welfare payments and will be linked to a child's school attendance.
Offering to pay their expenses, Howard called on state governments to send
police to the Northern Territory to address problems on Aborigine lands. Basing
his ham-handed plan on a child abuse report commissioned by the Northern
Territory government, Howard said, "This showed drinking was a key factor
in the collapse of Aboriginal culture, contributed to neglect of children and
creates opportunities for pedophiles... I am restricting the sale, possession
and transportation of alcohol on the Aboriginal-owned land for six
months."
Conducted by "an indigenous health worker and a government lawyer,"
the report alleged that children were being sexually abused in all 45 remote
communities visited. Unfortunately, much of their findings relied on anecdotal
evidence and they were unable to independently verify the sexual abuse or its
extent. Even more problematic is their statement that abusers were both Aborigines
and non-Aborigines operating in or near their communities. Making 97
recommendations, the report points out that unemployment, poverty and other
factors are also responsible for the breakdown in traditional society and
should be addressed as forcefully as alcoholism and child abuse.
Cherry picked through this report, like George Bush's justification for war in
Iraq, Howard pretended not to remember that Australians are descendants of
British criminals, and if they can evolve to such a high moral state,
Aborigines should be looked upon as "works in progress" also. Putting
an even finer point on the subject, in 1897, the Aboriginal Protection and
Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act authorized the removal of Aboriginal
people to reserves. These powers of removal continued until 1971, but Howard
doesn't feel such wholesale uprooting of entire communities of Aborigines
caused any residual dysfunctional social behavior.
Between 1910 and 1970, about 100,000 Aboriginal children were taken from their
parents and raised by European-descended Australians. The program was designed
to hasten the extinction of Aborigines. The Aboriginal Act of 1940 introduced
the policy of "assimilation." The Aboriginal Protection Board was
abolished and replaced by the Aborigines Welfare Board. In the name of
assimilation, the Board concentrated on the revocation of reserves and the
relocation of Aborigines into towns.
This policy was opposed by whites and led to further segregation. Mixed-race
children were taken from their Aboriginal mothers to be assimilated into
mainstream society. Although many victims of assimilation found employment in
the cattle and sheep industries, they were paid less than whites; sometimes
they were forced to work just for rations. Unable to achieve economic
independence, many have become alcohol and welfare dependent.
These policies are at the root of the poverty, unemployment, alcoholism and
lack of education among Aborigines. Today, Aborigines live in communities that
lack rudimentary housing, health care or water supplies. They continue to be
'legally' removed from their lands without compensation and are twenty-six
times more likely to be in custody than other Australians.
Prime Minister Howard's draconian restrictions are a thin veneer designed to
hide another land grab by whites. His justification is thinly veiled racism and
moral demagoguery calculated to benefit government, developers, and expand
uranium mining. Such an expansion would give mining corporations greater access
to resources on Aborigine lands without negotiating and rather than
compensating Aborigines, mine owners would pay the government. So much for
encouraging an 'enterprising' culture in indigenous communities when they lack
the power to lease their land to businesses!
(Sources: www.getup.org and www.qld.gov.au/about_queensland/history)
Native Americans Déjà Vu Aborigines
By John Burl Smith
Once the Spanish and Portuguese mastered the art
of navigation, life for Indigenous people the world over changed forever. The
doctrine of terra nullius (no man's land) denied the existence of any
human beings outside the then known world. The New World was inhabited by
heathens, people only fit to be slaves. Their lands were up for grabs by any
white man that showed up and enforced their words.
It mattered not whether the conquers were
Spanish, British, Dutch, French or Arab Sudanese, or whether the people and
lands were in Africa, the Pacific Islands, the Americas or Australia, the
pattern and results were the same. Today, indigenous people the world over
suffer the same socioeconomic, political, health and educational ills.
Consistently, Europeans to a man and country make the same denials of
responsibility, while offering the same disclaimers, "I haven't
discriminated against anyone, all of that happened a long time ago. Why should
I have to give up what I have worked for or pay for something I had nothing to
do with?"
The same denials, discrimination, racism,
disparate treatment, hostile environment suffered and endured by Indigenous
people are true for slave descendants in America. However, we point out that
our claim for reparations is based on the continuation of the same inhumane
treatment today. Moreover, we say, there's never been a time when slave
descendants were not subjected to these conditions, so the debt remains and the
bill is due.
Native Americans in the US fair even worse than
slave descendants. Synonymous to Aborigines in Australia, they were slaughtered
for their land, forced to live on reservations on what was believed at the time
to be worthless land. However, once something of value was discovered on it,
they were forced to relocate again. They were lied to and cheated out of their
royalty payments by the government. Given rotten food, blankets covered with
disease brought from Europe and denied health care, education, employment and
enterprise, they were branded as lazy and blamed for being on welfare. Native Americans
were driven to near extinction.
Today, the known world is up for grabs in the Middle East. Israel is the New World conqueror, and Palestinians are the new slaves. Backed up by the United States, Arabs are caught in a pincer that extends back to the 1400s. White people run the world and everyone else are slaves. Others have no rights that a white man is bound to respect. People of color share the same fate, divide and conquer, either we must find a way to work with each other or we will continue to be picked off one at a time!
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