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Saturday 22 June, 2019 -1pm to 3pm 

Ryde Library:

After the Apology

Free Filmscreening

Aboriginal Grandmothers fight for their grandchildren

 

After-the-Apology

Ryde Library, Wallumatta Room
1A Pope St. Ryde

Saturday 22 June, 2019 -1pm to 3pm

Suellyn thought FACS would only remove children in extreme cases until her own grandchildren were taken in the middle of the night.

This award winning feature documentary, about four Aboriginal grandmothers who are challenged to alter government policies to bring their grandchildren home, will be shown at Ryde Library.

For the event on facebook: please click here

For the flyer: please click here

For the leaflet for printing: please click here

For the event on eventbrite: please click here

RSVP Judy MacGregor

judy.apple87@gmail.com or 0403 3489 25

Hosted by the Bennelong Reconciliation Group

 

 

 

 

 

'concerned Australians' invite you to the launch of a Statement from
Eminent Australians calling for an end to 10 years of the
Intervention in the Northern Territory

Monday, 28 August 17 - 5.15pm - 7.15pm
at the Melbourne Law School

Further details:
please click here

Invitation flyer: please click here


Laynhapuy Homelands Aboriginal Corporation Statement: please click here

"10 years since the Federal Government Intervention and everyone needs to remember that we experience the failings of that invasion every day." Yingiya Mark Guyula MLA, Independent member of Nhulunbuy and Elder and spokesperson of the Yolŋu Nations Assembly.  From his recent Open Letter to the Northern Territory Government: Genuine outcomes for Yolngu communities, June 1st  2017 here

 

The Northern Territory Intervention

10 years of
Australia's shame




- Events to commiserate the


Intervention's 10th Anniversary

 

 


Wednesday, 21 June 2017 -  6pm

Forum and Discussion
Redfern Community Centre

29-53 Hugo St, Redfern, Sydney

Facilitator: Jeff McMullen, Journalist and Filmmaker

Speakers:  Amelia Pangarte Kunoth-Monks, Stephen Hodder-Watt Bunbadgee, Josie Crawshaw and Nancy McDinny from the NT, Nicole Watson

For more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/459055084443182/
(please like and share)

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/WgarNews/status/865528593924866049 and https://twitter.com/WgarNews/status/865851216957329410




Saturday, 24 June 2017 - 1.30pm 


Northern Territory Intervention - 10 years of racist shame

Sydney Rally and March

Meet at Archibald Fountain, North end of Hyde Park
and march to Redfern Park


Speakers from the Northern Territory

For more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/492712027519174/ (please like and share)




For the poster (A3):
please click here


For the colour leaflet (A5): please click here

For the leaflet double-sided for printing: please click here

For the leaflet: please click here

 


STICS T-Shirts for sale: please click here



The sudden and brutal upheaval of Aboriginal people’s lives in the Northern Territory in June 2007 by the Howard Government called the “Intervention” & its extension in 2012 by the Gillard Government for 10 years the so-called “Stronger Futures” has caused widespread havoc and distress.

The statistics tell us that:

• Child removals have increased; children are not safer.
• Housing is still overcrowded and in an appalling state
• Indigenous incarceration rates are increasing rapidly
• Suicide and self-harm incidents have increased
• The gap has not closed
• Violence is a continuous threat
• Poverty, trauma and despair is ongoing
• 99-year leases are just a Land grab

This racist, paternalistic policy denies First Nations peoples their Human Rights and is maintained by both major parties. It must be repealed and First Nations peoples be given the right to self-determination and build their own future.



Let’s use our Collective voice to finally help


REPEAL THE INTERVENTION!

 



Satellite Events:



Monday, 19 June 2017 – 5pm for 5.30pm start


THE INTERVENTION TEN YEARS ON:
Northern Territory Women Speak


Room 005, Level 3, Dr Chau Chak Wing Building (Building 8), 14-28 Ultimo Road, Ultimo

RSVP: Registration essential, click here.


The Northern Territory Intervention, launched by John Howard in June 2007, was the biggest attack on Aboriginal rights in many generations. The Australian Army was sent into Aboriginal communities and the Racial Discrimination Act was suspended to push through a host of draconian measures to allow the Commonwealth to take control of Aboriginal people and their lands.

A decade later, the Intervention has disappeared from public debate, but Aboriginal communities continue to deal with severe breaches of their human rights. Many of the measures remain in place, extended until at least 2022 under ‘Stronger Futures’ legislation. Conditions in communities have deteriorated, with many social indicators such as rates of incarceration, child removal, attempted suicide and school attendance going backwards. Intervention policies such as the quarantining of welfare payments and withdrawal of resources from remote Aboriginal communities have spread out across Australia.

This forum offers a unique opportunity to hear directly from Aboriginal women from the Northern Territory about their experiences of life under the Intervention, their struggles against injustice and their vision for a positive future.


The panel will be hosted by Prof. Larissa Behrendt, Chair of Indigenous Research at UTS and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, UTS.

Speakers include:
Pat Turner -
An Arrente woman with many years experience campaigning for Aboriginal rights and working as a senior public servant, including as Deputy CEO of Centrelink and CEO of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. Pat is currently the CEO of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Heath Organisation.

Nancy McDinny -
A Garrwa and Yanyuwa woman living on her homelands near the Borroloola community in the Gulf country. Nancy is an artist, linguist, Elder and community leader who has campaigned strongly against mining developments on her lands.

Kylie Sambo -
A Warlmanpa and Warumungu woman living in Tennant Creek, Kylie was 14 years old when the intervention was launched and has consistently spoken out about the negative impacts on Aboriginal youth. Kylie is a hip hop artist and played a leading role in the fight to protect her traditional lands at Muckaty from a nuclear waste dump.

For more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1672735183035409/ (please like and share)




Thursday, 22 June 2017 – 6pm for 6.30pm start


“Politics In The Pub”


Gaelic Club, 1/64 Devonshire St, Surry Hills NSW


Speakers:  Stephen Hodder-Watt Bunbadgee, Lardiland Eva Cox

For more info: please click here

 

 

Events in other cities:



Alice Springs



24-26 June 2017

10 years ago on June 21 2007 the NTER (Northern Territory Emergency Response, aka the Intervention) was announced...
There will be a convergence from June 24 -26 2017 in Alice Springs. Barbara Shaw is calling out to people to come together to talk about it all, and work together to come up with ways to overcome these problems. We want to talk about all the issues, such as youth (in)justice and children being taken from their families. ...

You can see Barb’s call out at https://youtu.be/0mDHM5WapEA

For the poster: please click here

For the workshops: please click here

For more info about the Intervention, its measures and effects:
https://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/10-years-of-the-intervention/




Melbourne



Wednesday 21 June 2017 - 6pm - 7.30pm

Public Meeting
The Northern Territory Intervention: Aftermath!
Evangelist Uniting Church, 4 Elm St North Melbourne
 
Speakers:
Joe Morrison (CEO Northern Land Council), 
Muriel Bamblett (CEO Victorian Child Care Agency) 
Thalia Anthony (Associate Professor of Law researching the treatment of Aboriginal youth in detention) 
 
Facilitator:
Jon Altman (Professor at Deakin University and long-term critic of the Intervention).
 
For the poster: please click here

Further info:
http://arena.org.au/event/aftermath-10-years-of-intervention-into-nt-aboriginal-communities/

The Northern Territory Emergency Response Intervention: Ten Years On
(page 5-6)
http://ipcs.org.au/pdfFiles/IPCS%20Newsletter%20Mar%202017.pdf





Thursday, 29th June 2017 - 2.45pm for 3pm – 5.45pm


A Conversation with NT Aboriginal Elders and Community Leaders
10 YEARS OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY INTERVENTION
& WORKING TOWARDS TREATIES

RMIT Building 80,  4th level, Room 11, 445 Swanston St, Melbourne - Directions here or Tram stop (route 64, stop 7)


Introduction:
  Jon Altman, research professor in anthropology at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University


Speakers:
Josie Crawshaw, Elaine Peckham, Uncle Harry Jakamarra Nelson, Frank Baarda


For the poster: please click here

For more info:   https://www.facebook.com/events/1416115268445355/  (please like and share) and http://melbournecatholic.org.au/About-Us/forum-to-mark-10-years-of-nt-intervention

Message from Rev. Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra OAM, senior Elder and Dhurili political Clan Leader of the Yolngu people of North-East Arnhem Land

In 2007 under the Howard Government Aboriginal peoples’ lives in the Northern Territory were suddenly and brutally traumatized. Labeled the ‘Northern Territory Emergency Response’ or ‘NT Intervention’ the policy was later expanded in 2012 by the Gillard Government for ten years and rebranded as ‘Stronger Futures’. These imposed Government policies have caused widespread havoc and disempowerment amongst First Peoples’ communities in the NT, breached human rights and United Nations guidelines, and were not consented to.

The policies are failing. Aboriginal land rights have been weakened and the Gaps are widening.

The people have long called for this LEGISLATION TO BE SCRAPPED.
The sovereignty of the clans and First Nations Peoples must be recognised and respected.
There has been a resounding call for substantive reform and PATHWAY TO TREATY/IES.

RSVP to Pia at info@concernedaustralians.com.au by 26 June 2017




New Book: Published 1 May 2017




'And there'll be NO dancing'


Perspectives on Policies Impacting

Indigenous Australia since 2007



Editor(s):

Elisabeth Baehr, Barbara Schmidt-Haberkamp
Contributors:
Leon Terrill, Dorothee Klein, Barry Judd, Victoria Herche, Victoria Grieves, Lindsay Frost, Michelle Dunne Breen,  More...


Book description:

... Fourteen essays by scholars from Australia and Germany examine (historical) contexts and discourses of the Intervention and subsequent policies impacting Indigenous Australia since 2007 from the perspective of diverse academic disciplines including history, sociology, law, Indigenous studies, art history, literature, education and media studies. They invite readers to engage in the debate about human rights, about Indigenous self-determination, and about the preservation of Indigenous culture.

For an extract: please click here

For further info:
http://www.cambridgescholars.com/and-therell-be-no-dancing

 


TIME FOR TREATIES

STICS Public Forum

“Men speak out for Treaty”

 

Monday, 14 March 2016 - 6 pm for 6.30 pm start

Redfern Community Centre, 29-53 Hugo Street Redfern

 

Following on from STICS’ successful 2015 forum, First Nations ‘Women Speak out for Treaty’, this event will feature five First Nations Men, followed by Q&A:

 

SPEAKERS:

Yingiya Mark Guyula, Djambarrpuyngu Nation, Yolngu Nations Assembly Spokesperson

Terry Mason, Awabakal Man, Chair of NTEU A&TSI Policy Committee

Tony McAvoy SC, Wiri Man, Barrister

Tauto Sansbury, Narungga Elder and Aboriginal Advocate

Chris Sarra, Gurang Gurang, Founding Chairman, Stronger Smarter Institute


Facilitator: Jeff McMullen
, journalist and film-maker



For the poster (A4)
: please click here

For the leaflet (A5, double-sided, good for printing and circulating): please click here

For the pamphlet: please click here

For more info: please click here


 
********************
Friday, 27 March 2015

NITV aired a one hour program titled

'Opinion
Piece - Women Speak Out For Treaty'


'Opinion Piece - Women Speak Out For Treaty' features a panel of articulate women including Arrernte-Alyawarra Elder Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, Gurindji/Malngin/Mudpurra artist Brenda Croft who organised the 45th Anniversary Commemoration of the Wave Hill Walk-off in 2011, which former Australian Prime Minister, the late Malcolm Fraser sent a video message to. Brenda shared the video clip at the forum, as a reminder of a what great leaders like Malcolm Fraser can contribute to the cause for Aboriginal rights and recognition.
Also on the panel, Wiradjuri artist Amala Groom, who is a board member of National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples and Gamileraay writer, Natalie Cromb.
The forum was moderated by journalist Jeff McMullen and organised by the Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney to mark the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination 2015. Additional video supplied courtesy of ‘concerned Australians’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sT3Dn4U8tk&feature=youtu.be
 
To watch it again: please click here (50mins, expiry 26 Apr.)

*****************************

For more info about the Forum:
http://stoptheintervention.org/past-events/20-mar-2015-treaty-forum


Further info about Treaty(ies): http://www.respectandlisten.org/treaty.html


*****************************

For John Pilger's new documentary
UTOPIA
: please click here


STICS Forum on 21 March 2014: please click here


Dismantling the Land Rights Act
-
99 year leases: please click here


New 'concerned Australians' book: A Decision to Discriminate:
Aboriginal Disempowerment in the Northern Territory: please click here or here

For Amnesty's Redfern Action Group: please click here

Yol?uw Makarr Dhuni (Yol?u Nations Assembly) Statement from the second Yolngu Nations Assembly meeting, Maningrida, 11-13 October 2012: click here

The Northern Territory Coordinator-General for Remote Services Report - June 2011 to August 2012: please click here (pdf) or
http://www.territorystories.nt.gov.au/handle/10070/241806 or here


Olga Havnen's speech
of 28 May 2013: please click here

**********************************

Australia’s First Nations Political Party Media Release July 2013: please click here

*****************

Sixth Anniversary of the Northern Territory Intervention:
"Striking the Wrong Note"

please click here or
http://www.concernedaustralians.com.au/

For a summary/excerpt of the article in German: please click here

WGAR News: Sixth Anniversary of the Intervention - Striking the Wrong Note: 'concerned Australians' -
http://indymedia.org.au/2013/06/19/wgar-news-sixth-anniversary-of-the-intervention-striking-the-wrong-note-concerned-austral

Marking SIX years of the NT Intervention

 Repeal 'Stronger/Stolen Futures' Legislation!

Stop Income Management - not in the NT, not in Bankstown, not anywhere!

Reinvest in community-controlled services and jobs!

For the flyer: please click here

For the poster: please click here
More info: www.stoptheintervention.org, Jean 0449 646 593,

Facebook: ‘Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney’ or https://www.facebook.com/events/231126303695118/

Background article: Solidarity, April 2013: Income Management expansion in effort to break boycott

Response to the 6th Anniversary of the NT Intervention

27 June 2013  Letter in the Adelaide Advertiser
In the Coalition policies booklet which came to my letter box this week, Tony Abbott and Co declare that they will be abolishing the ‘damaging’ mining tax. Well, somebody has to help out people like the richest Australians, Gina Rinehart, Clive Palmer and Co as well as mining companies like the world’s biggest, BHP Billiton, as they take, or will take, the riches belonging to all Australians, out of the ground forever.
With such corporate welfare relief in mind, it becomes even less surprising that the Northern Territory Intervention was begun by the Coalition six years ago tomorrow - June 21st, 2007 and shamefully continued and expanded under Labor. When one sees the current mining exploration licences NT map, licence exploration almost entirely covers the NT. Under the Intervention,  Aboriginal people  have lost their rights to consent and control over the very factors which directly affect their lives. Hardly surprising it has caused such misery and hopelessness. Collateral damage I think it’s called.
Michele Madigan
**********************************

 Keeping Them Home


The most recent data shows that the number of children being moved into out-of-home care in the Northern Territory has just about doubled since 2007. Two-thirds of these children are being placed with non-Indigenous families away from their communities.

Elder Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra, as spokesperson for Yolngu Makarr Dhuni calls for this trend to be reversed by increasing family support services in communities. He has written to the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Adam Giles, asking him for his support. If you would like to support Dr Gondarra, please read the campaign letter below.


Letter from Dr Djiniyini Gondarra to Adam Giles: please click here

Campaign Letter: please click here

Background document: please click here

Jeff McMullen's speech (giving context to the suicide and child removal issues): please click here


Media Releases

STICS 4 June 2013: please click here

'concerned Australians' 20 May 2013: please click here

ACM Sydney 20 May 2013: please click here

SNAICC 15 May 2013: please click here


Media Coverage:

Australian Times of 22 May 13: please click here

SMH - Lisa Martin - 20 May 13: please click here

The Stringer - Nicola Butler - 20 May 13: please click here

SMH - Jeff McMullen - 15 March 2013: please click here

WGAR Newsletters:

13 June 2013 - We have to stop the creation of another Stolen Generation: Paddy Gibson, The Guardian UK: please click here

9 June 2013 - call for action to reduce high number of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care: please click here

5 June 2013 - Do forced adoptions mean forced assimilation?: Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney: please click here

26 May 2013 - Keeping Them Home - Stop the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families: please click here

23 May 2013 - Keeping them Home - What have we learnt from Bringing them Home?: ACM Sydney: please click here

18 May 2013 - Indigenous adoption push prompts Stolen Generation fears: ABC Radio Australia Video: please click here


Background Information:

The Guardian - We have to stop the creation of another Stolen Generation - 12 June 2013
Millions of dollars have gone into bureaucracies to control Aboriginal life, but this has not made children any safer. An alternative is needed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/12/stolen-generation-aboriginal-children

The Australian - Keep care for kids 'within family' - 27 May 2013
THE Australian Centre for Child Protection is calling for more funding to support Aboriginal communities look after neglected children, rather than taking them from their family and culture. Centre director Fiona Arney said yesterday the federal government had wasted millions of dollars on ineffective measures to remove children from indigenous families and take them to regional centres or cities when it could have considered support networks such as extended families.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/keep-care-for-kids-within-family/story-fn9hm1pm-1226650943346

Australian Times - NT Indigenous leaders challenge Chief Minister’s adoption claims - 22 May 2013
Indigenous leaders in the Northern Territory have hit back at comments made by Chief Minister Adam Giles that children that are neglected should be adopted out, regardless of fears that the government policy was reminiscent of the Stolen Generation....
http://www.australiantimes.co.uk/news/in-australia/nt-indigenous-leaders-speak-out-against-chief-ministers-adoption-comments.htm

The Australian - Northern Territory agency battles with child-neglect cases - 22 May 2013
CASES of child neglect are falling through the cracks as the Northern Territory's under-resourced child protection agency bounces between crises.
Sometimes the agency is doing more harm than good, its incoming head has warned.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/department-good-at-taking-kids-into-care-but-not-very-good-at-looking-after-them/story-e6frgczx-1226647958868

SMH - Jeff McMullen - 15 March 2013
...The removal of Aboriginal children from their families is also climbing (according to the peak bodies for child protection and the Australian Bureau of Statistics) - to about 13,000 across the nation, or about one-third of the total number of Australian children in out-of-home care. This is disturbing for Aboriginal communities, when waves of cross-generational trauma are still flowing from the original removal of up to 100,000 children during the Stolen Generations.
The madness of the past is still the cruelty of today. With the same misguided logic of assimilation, these Aboriginal children are supposedly removed for their well-being. But around the nation about half are removed from kith and kin. Despite the priority principles agreed to by all Australian governments pledging that such vulnerable children would be put with extended family, in the Northern Territory about 66 per cent are taken away from their culture and community. ...
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/can-nts-first-indigenous-chief-minister-turn-back-the-tide-20130314-2g38p.html

 

Report on Government Services 2013 -
This report was released on 31 January 2013. It has been produced by the Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision (SCRGSP). The report has been published in two volumes.
http://www.pc.gov.au/gsp/rogs/2013

Chapter 15 Child protection and youth justice services
http://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/121780/22-government-services-2013-chapter15.pdf

NT Aboriginal Child Placement Principle
http://www.nt.gov.au/health/docs/fostercare_factsheet_11_aboriginalplacementprinciple.pdf


STICS: 5 years of NT Intervention by statistics

Child welfare:
69% increase in children getting taken into out of home care since 2007. Most are cases of "neglect", which is occurring at a rate far higher than other jurisdictions (Closing the Gap monitoring report part 2), and can in many cases be attributed to extreme poverty.
The NT has lowest rate of "out of home care" placement with Aboriginal families in Australia, less than 20% (Productivity Commission annual report on government services). ...
http://stoptheintervention.org/facts


SNAICC:
SNAICC supports the holistic and preventative approach to child protection endorsed by the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009-2020. Significant action is required to implement this effectively for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and to address their overrepresentation in the child protection system. SNAICC advocates for a child protection system that is attuned and responsive to the specific needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families. In doing so, SNAICC prioritises self-determination in child protection for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as key to ensuring better support, better decisions and better outcomes for our children and families. SNAICC also focuses on ensuring that all our children remain with family, are reunified where they have been removed, and stay connected to their Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander culture and community.
http://www.snaicc.org.au/policy-advocacy/dsp-landing-policyarea.cfm?loadref=36


SBS - 25 May 2012 - Timeline: Stolen Generations

What are the Stolen Generations? Which legal steps were taken to allow the forced removal of Indigenous kids from their families?
The "Stolen Generations" is the name given to at least 100,000 Aboriginal children who were forcibly removed or taken under duress from their families by police or welfare officers between 1910 and 1970, as stated in in the Bringing Them Home Report. ...
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1650953/Timeline-Stolen-Generations


AHRC: Bringing them home: The 'Stolen Children' report (1997)

http://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/bringing-them-home-stolen-children-report-1997

Bringing them home Report 1997 (pdf)
Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/content/pdf/social_justice/bringing_them_home_report.pdf

Community Guide
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/content/pdf/social_justice/bth_Community%20guide_final.pdf

AHRC: RightsED: Bringing them home -8. Laws - Northern Territory
Bringing them home: 8. The Laws - Northern Territory
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/rightsed-bringing-them-home-8-laws-northern-territory

NSDC: The Bringing them home Report
On 26th May 1997 the Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families was tabled in Federal Parliament. The 'Bringing them home' Report, revealed the extent of the forcible removal policies, which were passed and implemented for more than 150 years and into the 1970’s.
The Bringing them home Report represents the first of its kind – a complete analysis of the history of the forcible removal policies of successive Federal, State and Territory governments from the late 1800s up to the 1970s that resulted in the Stolen Generations. It also represents the first true and comprehensive documentation of first hand testimonies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults who, as children, were forcibly removed from their families, communities, cultures and land, and subjected to human rights violations that contravened several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. ...

http://www.nsdc.org.au/stolen-generations/history-of-the-stolen-generations/the-bringing-them-home-report

National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009-2020
An Initiative of the Council of Australian Government April 2009
http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/our-responsibilities/families-and-children/publications-articles/protecting-children-is-everyones-business?HTML


National Apology for Forced Adoptions

On 21 March 2013, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard apologised on behalf of the Australian Government to people affected by forced adoption or removal policies and practices.
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