An Indigenous 'Voice to Parliament' --- rejected

Indigenous leaders have decried Malcolm Turnbull’s rejection of the Referendum Council’s recommendations as a “real kick in the guts”, having “broken First Nations’ hearts”, and derailed the process and likelihood of Indigenous constitutional recognition.

The council had recommended a referendum be held to change Australia’s Constitution to establish an Indigenous “Voice to Parliament”. While details were to be worked out in discussion with Indigenous communities, it was envisaged that such a body would empower Indigenous people to have a voice on legislation and policy that affects them.

This idea followed an 18-month process of consultation and debate, including six months of regional dialogues with Indigenous people across Australia. At these dialogues, Indigenous people documented their feelings of voicelessness in Australian politics.

The process culminated in a constitutional convention at Uluru, where around 250 delegates agreed to the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

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Further reading: Listening to the heart: what now for Indigenous recognition after the Uluru summit? and Towards an indigenous voice.

Commemoration of the Execution of two indigenous freedom fighters in 1842

On behalf of the Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner Commemoration Committee, I would like to invite you to attend the Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner Commemoration which will be held at the Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner monument at midday, Saturday 20th January 2018 at the corner of Victoria St and Franklin St, Melbourne.

In 1842 two indigenous freedom fighters, Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner, were the first men executed in Victoria. Since 2004 the Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner Commemoration Committee has worked towards the building of a monument in Melbourne to mark this pivotal event. The Melbourne City Council, led by Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, had the foresight and courage to support this project and funded the building of a monument at the execution site, at the corner of Victoria St and Franklin St, opposite the Old Melbourne Gaol, in September 2016. This is the first monument to the Frontier Wars that has been built in a major city in this country.

Reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians is based on the recognition tens of thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men, women and children died as a result of the colonisation of this land. On the 20th January, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Freedom Fighters Day, the Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner Commemoration Committee holds a public ceremony to honour the indigenous men, women and children who, during the colonisation process, were killed for protecting their lands, their families, their culture and a way of life they had practised for over 40,000 years.

The Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner Commemoration Committee believes your participation in this ceremony on Saturday 20th January 2018 would help to kick-start the stalled reconciliation process between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

We hope to see you on the day.
Dr. Joseph Toscano / Convenor Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner Commemoration Committee

Australian Aboriginal Quakers?

From Sally O'Wheel posted on the Facebook site of Quakers Australia ---

Sally O'Wheel shared a link.

https://www.goodreads.com/…/34089412-into-the-heart-of-tasm…

This is so interesting! Earnest Westlake was a Quaker, (his mother was a Neave). He collected thousands of stone tools but also interviewed Aboriginal people. At this time they were considered to be 'extinct' and his interviews were discounted by later historians because they weren't regarded as 'real' Aborigines. But in fact these people had kept their culture and language alive. I am reading about the descendants of Fannie Smith (née Cochrane) and about their spirituality which Earnest Westlake thinks is very Quakerly. 

He says: 
' I seem to have discovered what was missed by those excellent Friends, Backhouse and Walker in their reports on the Tas Blacks, ie that the Blacks were themselves Quakers, in that they sought for the guidance of the Spirit, and lived more or less in the light of it. Certain it is that Mrs Smith, who had come under Christian influence, was a Quakeress of excellent quality.' Fascinating book!

Into the Heart of Tasmania

In 1908 English gentleman Ernest Westlake packed a tent, a bicycle and forty tins of food and sailed to Tasmania. On mountains, beaches a...

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IMA Women's Only Morning Tea with Professor Marcia Langton at the Islamic Museum of Australia

Islamic Museum of Australia

Have you purchased your tickets for the IMA Women's Only Morning Tea? Join us for a morning of stimulating conversation with our guest speaker Professor Marcia Langton, Chair of Indigenous Studies at The University of Melbourne.

With an array of delicious treats, engaging performances, entertaining games and prizes - this event is not one to be missed.

Tuesday September 12
10.30am - 12.30pm
$40 Per Person

Book your tickets online: https://islamicmuseum.org.au/tickets/?ee=88

Hurry - tickets sell out fast!

Parliament of the World's Religions : Indigenous highlights

A new United Nations document urging more effort on the human rights of Indigenous Peoples around the world

 From a World Council of Churches Press Release:

New UN document enables churches to do more for indigenous rights

The WCC Indigenous People’s representatives in New York for the UN World Conference on Indigenous PeoplesScattered throughout the recent history of Indigenous Peoples are national treaties, declarations and laws that languish in obscurity or are brushed aside and ignored.

Scattered throughout the recent history of Indigenous Peoples are national treaties, declarations and laws that languish in obscurity or are brushed aside and ignored.

Adding insult to injury, when many national and local churches attempt to speak out about the denial of rights of Indigenous Peoples they are told by governments that the church has no place in politics, effectively being seen but not heard.

Yet a new “outcome document” of the United Nations World Conference on Indigenous Peoples is about to turn that perspective on its head. The world’s governments are now inviting churches and other civil society groups to be seen and heard when it comes to advocating for Indigenous Peoples’ human rights.  [To read further please go here]

WCC minute on Indigenous Peoples

UN Outcome Document from the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples

UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

World Peace and Prayer Days - 19 to 22 June 2014

From Global Indigenous Initiative:

World Peace and Prayer Days take place June 19 - 22, 2014, with a globally synchronized meditation with communities around the planet. GII's#HiddenSeeds supports this beautiful tapestry of people, worldwide, coming together in a spirit of unity and love for Source, the planet and one another.

Visit #Unify (http://unify.org/) for more information about the globally synchronized meditation. And, read this great article, "Honoring Sacred Sites, World Peace and Prayer Day" by Jacob Devaney:http://huff.to/1lDfky7

Global Diversity in the Asia-Pacifc - Research from Pew

Global Religious Diversity

Half of the Most Religiously Diverse Countries are in Asia-Pacific Region

Several years ago, the Pew Research Center produced estimates of the religious makeup of more than 200 countries and territories, which it published in the 2012 report “The Global Religious Landscape.” The effort was part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, which analyzes religious change and its impact on societies around the world. As part of the next phase of this project, Pew Research has produced an index that ranks each country by its level of religious diversity.

To read more please go here

Creative Ministries Network and Antony McMullen, its new Director

Re-posted from Crosslight

Working creatively

BY DEB.BENNETT ⋅ SEPTEMBER 1, 2013 ⋅ POST A COMMENT

To say Antony McMullen, newly appointed director of Creative Ministries Network (CMN), is passionate about justice in the workplace would be something of an understatement. As a social justice officer with the synod’s Justice and International Mission (JIM) unit, his work often covered areas such as workplace reform for those in some of society’s most undervalued occupations, such as cleaners.

“Work takes up such a large part of our lives and sometimes things can go terribly wrong,” Mr McMullen said.

“It’s not always a matter of pointing the finger; that’s what excites me about the restorative justice approach of CMN. We can see when relationships break down that focussing on people’s faults and solely dealing with things through formal systems may not always be the best way forward; although sometimes it is unavoidable.”

Mr McMullen said he will draw heavily on lessons learnt during his five years with the JIM unit, particularly when he was tasked with examining the criminal justice system.

Please go here to read more

You can follow Antony on Twitter at @antonymcmullen

Edward Koiki Mabo - an Australian hero. His biography written with Noel Loos has been updated and re-issued.

The decision in the High Court of Australia in Mabo v Queensland No. 2 1992 (Cth) which gave legal recognition to the traditional land interests of Aboriginal Australians is a major factor in Australian life to-day.  Across the nation, Aboriginal nations, clans, families are working to make the most of their life in modern Australia based on this recognition and how access to their own land can provide economic benefits and security.

University of Queensland Press (UQP) has now re-issued with some updating the original book written by Koiki Mabo and my friend Noel Loos. My friend Noel is retired these days but had a hectic time with the filming and subsequent media interviews relating to the television documentary, Mabo.

Here is the original blurb about Noel Loos from the UQP website:

Professor Noel Loos teaches the history of black-white relations in Australia at James Cook University in Townsville. He has conducted close research into Aboriginal mission history, frontier conflict, the place of Aborigines in colonial society, and the evolution of government policies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people. In the 1970s he pioneered the development of teacher education programs in Queensland for Aboriginal and Islander people. Professor Loos has published widely on indigenous history and politics, including: Invasion and Resistance; Aboriginal-European Relations on the North Queensland Frontier 1861-1897 (1982); Succeeding Against the odds: Townsville’s Aboriginal and Islander Teacher Education Program (1989); and Indigenous Minorities and Education: Australian and Japanese Perspectives of their Indigenous Peoples, the Ainu, Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (1993). A Friend of Koiki Mabo for 25 years, Professor Loos edited Edward Koiki Mabo: His Life and Struggle for Land Rights, which was published by UQP in 1996

The site for Noel's papers at the National Library of Australia.