Invasion Day

Well, it has come and gone, the latest invasion day. Jan is presently writing up her heated response to the meeting that was held to announce/softsoap the bull..t.

I was very heartened to hear the community leaders speak very clearly and well about their opposition to any changes to the permit system and the proposed take-over of the lands by 5 year leases in exchange for investing money in what has been such a shoddy infrastructure for so long. It's hard to imagine that five years could make any difference (does that bring it up to the next election year?)...but anyway that's not the point. We were made to sit down and listen to a lot of public servants waffle on in vague support of the pathetic little plot, all except one were an embarrassment and boring to boot. Wafflemongers selling bureaucratspeak. So it was great when Sid Anderson and Michael Nelson (he designed the mosaic/painting out the front of new Parliament House) spoke so well - and they were the only ones to receive any applause.

I spoke to Sid later and told him I wished I'd had my video camera there so we could send something to ICTV to broadcast and he said that the community leaders in other communities are saying the same things and that they probably don't need any encouragement.

It's blackfella business to say what they want after all. And it's the job of people like us to make sure they are heard and that the response is flexible and open enough to allow the change that people want and not what the government wants. So I encourage you all to write and sign petitions and pray and activate in whatever way you can to support the principle of land rights and the right of self-determination which has been so eroded in the communities out here.

The Little Children are Sacred Report can be accessed by following the link on my list. Please do whatever you can to support the findings of the report rather than the political idiocy that is designed to make all of it irrelevant.

Here are Jan and I on the road to nowhere and enjoying it immensely - she is collecting materials for an artwork and I am just enjoying being in the drivers seat...