3/22/09
Robbie Thorpe on Indigenous Freedom fighters Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner
11/30/07
JURY STILL OUT ON RUDD'S APOLOGY TO INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS
Date: 29 November 2007
Auckland 6am: There's mixed reactions from the Aboriginal community to new Aussie prime minister Kevin Rudd.
Rudd swept to power on Saturday, sideswiping Liberal Party leader, John Howard but there's caution from the Aboriginal community.
Some have told Pacific Radio News that Rudd, whose been hailed for speaking Mandarin, is no better than Howard, who sent soldiers and police into the Northern Territory Aboriginal communities, claiming they needed to be controlled because there was widespread child abuse.
But others, like Sydney magistrate, Pat O'Shane, and Sam Watson, a community worker from Brisbane, believe the Rudd administration should be given a chance.
O'Shane says Rudd has already promised to apologise to Aboriginals for the pain and loss suffered at the hands of white Australians and consecutive governments.
She says Australians across the board are happy to see the back of Howard and that the apology will be welcomed in particular by the Stolen Generation. (listen)
Sam Watson is also urging people to allow the Rudd administration to show what it can do to improve the lives of Aboriginals as well as Australia's race relations record. (listen)
But Robbie Thorpe, an Aboriginal activist from Victoria, says the wrongs of the past may be too much for any Australian government to front up to, honestly. (listen)
Sina Brown Davis, a Maori Samoan, from Melbourne, whose been working alongside Aborigines, says both the Labour and Liberal Party have shown their disregard of indigenous communities and can't be trusted. (listen)
11/22/07
STOP THE ONGOING GENOCIDE IN VICTORIA
The Old Victorian Aboriginal Health Service at 136 Gertrude Street Fitzroy is a site of Historical Significance to the Victorian Aboriginal Community and an invaluable symbol of Community Control and Self Determination.
Founded in 1973, the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service (VAHS) moved from 229 to 136 Gertrude Street in 1976 after signing a 99-year lease for the premises with the State Government. Many Aboriginal People were dying in the streets due to prolonged oppression and denial of basic human services. As staff worked without pay due to lack of funding, Aboriginal Elders including Alma Thorpe and Dr. Bruce McGuinness pioneered to establish critical community controlled preventative health care to ensure the survival of Aboriginal Communities in Fitzroy and nationwide.
In 1991, VAHS lodged an official complaint to the Minister of Police and Aboriginal Affairs regarding 'ongoing brutalisation' of Aboriginal people in the community, which continues to this day. Since the official opening of the new VAHS at 186 Nicholson Street in 1993, the old Aboriginal Health Service in Gertrude Street has been left abandoned and derelict for 15 years. Mission Australia recently won a tender to redevelop the site into a 'bush tucker' restaurant where Kooris would be trained to 'serve' as waiters under the Mission banner. How much more insulting and low could the system go in trying to extinguish Victoria's history of Aboriginal struggles for self-determination and human rights? With no Community Cultural Center in the vicinity of Fitzroy, the local Aboriginal community want to see this site resurrected as a crucial Community Meeting Place for healing, traditional culture, and in honor of the many brave Aboriginal Ancestors and Elders who fought for so long to live and die with dignity.
Following the National Weekend of Action (Nov 16 –17) members of the Fitzroy and Victorian Indigenous Communities and supporters will stage a week-long vigil outside 136 Gertrude Street to bring overdue attention to these injustices at 07' Election time. Each sundown the Sacred Fire Traditional Smoking Ceremony is being reignited across the road in Atherton Gardens for community healing and to pay respect to all who have not lived to see the struggle for justice end.
Statistics published by the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission on Indigenous child abuse show Victoria has the worse track record of abuse, with nearly 5 times more cases than anywhere else in Australia.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics recent census revealed that the Victorian Koori population suffers the highest rates of recent and chronic illness in the country.
The 2004 United Nations Human Development Report exposes that Aboriginal People in Australia have the second worst quality of life on the planet. With China ranking last and Australia's general population coming fourth, the UN study measured areas of education attainment, life expectancy and median income levels.
Another recent report by the World Health Organisation states that Indigenous Health in Australia is 100 years behind the rest of the whole population.
Such shameful genocide continues as the Australian government invades Aboriginal communities in the NT, intervenes by force in Aboriginal affairs country-wide, and refuses to sign the UN Declaration on Indigenous People's Rights because of the word "self-determination."
United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
Article II...genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such :
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group
For further information email; robbiethorpe@gmail.com
7/8/07
Robbie Thorpe Black GST/Camp Sovereignty NDA Melbourne Press Release
It is no surprise to see that the four countries that are blocking the passage of the Draft Declaration of indigenous rights through the United Nations, Australia, New Zealand, United States & Canada, they are the same four states that as part of APEC are raping the marine ocean environment in the Pacific, and are further oppressing & eroding the hard won rights of their Indigenous Nations & Peoples through out the world and within their own countries.
What is happening to our brothers and sisters in the NT, is part of that process, part of that genocide.
On the 14th July Indigenous peoples worldwide stand united in their opposition to these agenda’s, invasions and to the unending dispossession & disrespect shown to our peoples.
To my Brothers & Sisters of the Four winds, who replied to our call for Unity & Solidarity. United and strong, together we can defend what is ours for our generations to come. Deepest respect.
As the Indigenous Peoples of Australia, we weren’t afforded civil rights and as such we weren’t recognised and we’ve missed that process for the last two hundred years. I don’t think you can have any laws that are appropriate for Aboriginal people in this country until you have a treaty, which ends the war. Before you have a treaty you have to have an end to hostilities. Before those processes take place, you can’t talk about having a civil rights society.
One of our rights being breached is the right to consent. Aboriginal people haven’t consented. If you do things without consent, it’s considered rape. Now, a lot of crimes have been committed against Aboriginal people. There is a history of denial, which has gone on, and these crimes are continuing.
They won’t take the fundamental steps towards establishing a civil society. They need to have a treaty; they need to end the war against the Aboriginal people. We know we’ve had a war here, but they can’t tell you what day it ended. That may be the national day this country could celebrate.
Until they have that treaty with Aboriginal people we can’t talk about making laws for Aboriginal people or applying it to them. The treaty will give them that basis of law to do it.
They’ve had 200 years in isolation from the rest of the world to do exactly what they wanted to do. They’ve lied all the way - terra nullius - they’ve said they lied about that. They’ve admitted that they stole children: that’s article (e) of the Genocide Convention. They’ve had an inquiry into the deaths in custody, killing members of the group. They’ve caused mental stress on Aboriginal people - and everything that’s in the Genocide Convention, Australia’s breached. I can’t believe that it gets swept aside each time. It’s like you’re talking to a brick wall.
Well, the treaty gets written by our people, and signed by white-fellers. Our elders are to put it into place. Our people write the treaties, and the white-feller signs it because he’s on our land, and that’s the deal. We write it. We write it in aboriginal language, we write it in white-fella language, and we write it in Latin if you want it. We’ll get the interpretation deadly, because we’ll do it. We’ll interpret it; it’s our treaty. We’re allowing it to happen; it’s up to us to consent to this. You know what I mean? Otherwise they’ll remain the illegitimate bastard-child of England, Australia. That’s what they are.
"Today we are remembering our eldest elders, those who initiated the long struggle of resistance against the arrogance of Power and the violence of money. They, our ancestors, taught us that a people with pride are a people who do not surrender, who resist, who have dignity." - from Our Word Is Our Weapon
Robbie Thorpe: Black GST & Camp Sovereignty
Robbie Thorpe: 0437 967 039
Robbie Thorpe is from the Krautungalung people of the Gunnai Nation, the traditional owners of Lake Tyers
Stop the Genocide on Stolen Aboriginal Land
* End Aboriginal deaths in Custody! Justice for Mulrunji and all killed
in custody.
* Implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into
Aboriginal Deaths in Custody!
* Land rights not mining rights! No new mines, no new dumps!
* Fund community controlled services, not troops, cops and martial law!
Social well-fair, not social control!
* Aboriginal control of Aboriginal affairs! Treaty NOW!
* International Day of Action
Saturday July 14th Kulin Nations (Melbourne Australia)
International Indigenous Unity
Aboriginal Australia
Black GST
Camp Sovereignty
Aotearoa
Te Ata Tino Toa
Conscious Collaborations - Global indigenous Network
Mana Wahine
Komiti Pasifika
Whakaminenga o Te Paatu
Aocafe (Aotearoa Cafe)
IA Imagine Native Action
Indiginz
Hone Harawira, Maori Party MP Te Tai, Tokerau
Te Ururoa Flavell, Maori Party MP, Waiariki
Metiria Turei List MP Green party Aotearoa/NZ
Great Turtle Island
American Indian Movement
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
MNN Mohawk Nation News
Mapuche Solidarity Coalition
7/3/07
Fire First
Check out the Fire First Show with Robbie Thorpe & the Black GST
crew ,pro indigenous ,anti colonial, anti capitalist
Can catch us at 11am (Melbourne time)each Wednesday, which is 1pm
Aotearoa time.
Fire First
Indigenous contemporary and historical issues
http://3cr.org.au/streaming/index.php
http://blackgst.revolt.org/about.html
being doing shout outs to the the Crews from Aotearoa foreshore
6/26/07
Rise Up
6/22/07
Always Was Always Will be
Invasion Day rally for Aborginal justice, Melbourne 2007, some fine stuff here from Robbie Thorpe, talking up the business, solid & deadly stuff bro.