Mervyn Bishop, a Murray man, was the first Aboriginal person to work at a major metro daily newspaper, joining the Sydney Morning Herald in 1962. In 1971 he was named Australian Press Photographer of the Year. He would go on to cover major events, including the anti-war protests of the 1960s, the Bicentennial in 1988, and Aboriginal community life in remote regions of Australia.
He was also a photography lecturer at the University of Sydney, a film photographer, and he held his first retrospective solo show in the 1990s.
His work was featured at the Art Galley of New South Wales as part of NAIDOC Week, a commemoration of the resilience, culture and achievements of Aborginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Djiringanj Dancers, a group of women cultural performers, singing about the “West Wind” at the Corroboree grounds, during the Yabun Festival.
The Yabun Festival is a celebration for Survival Day. The 26 of January is a national holiday that marks the day British ships arrived in Australia and began the genocide of Indigenous Australians. Survival Day is a day led by Indigenous Australians who affirm the resilience, creativity and excellence of First Australians. This year, the Invasion Day Protests, which aim to change the date and meaning of Australia Day, ended by protesters joining Yabun at the end of the march to enjoy music, stalls, cultural performances, speeches and more.
The legendary singer-songwriter-guitarist Kev Carmody was amazing at the Yabun Festival. He told fun stories, he was self depreciating but very witty, and he was inspiring.
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Video and image descriptions:
Video: Aboriginal women and girls in traditional dress and body paint perform a cultural dance, singing whilst dancing around a circle, waving their arms up and down with local plants, symbolising sacred connection to country. ]
Photo 1: large crowd, majority Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. A few have pitched tents – sensible, it’s a long and hot day!
See a live update with video and photos of the Invasion Day protest in my previous post.
No pride in genocide! I am in Sydney, land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, who have looked after these lands for over 75,000 years. I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.
The 26 January is a painful day for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is a date commemorating the day British ships (”the First Fleet”) arrived on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lands. It is a day that marks the decimation of First Australians; the dispossession of their land; the removal of children to be raised in Missions and in White foster homes with no ties or knowledge of their culture (“the Stolen Generation”); amongst many other human rights crimes. This history impacts Indigenous life chances in the present-day.
On the 26th, I joined 10,000 people in Sydney who marched in solidarity with Indigenous Australians to tell the Australian Government to change the date of Australia Day so that First Australians aren’t being excluded through a national holiday making genocide. Another 50,000 people marched in Melbourne, and tens of thousands more did the same in cities and town around Australia.
Below, you can read my tweets of the protest as it unfolded.
Intergenerational crowd protesting for Indigenous rights on 26 January 2017.
The Protest
The Invasion Day protests are family friendly! We’ll march from Redfern to Yabun Festival. Standup for what’s right and enjoy music!
https://twitter.com/OtherSociology/status/824414721709273088
Observed “minute of silence for 229 years of terrorism.” Since the Royal Commission into Indigenous Deaths in Custody, the number of deaths in custody have doubled. The number of children forcibly removed from family has quadrupled. 6,500 Aboriginal children are now in out of home care and suffering. Grandmothers Against Removals Sydney stand against children growing up without culture and connection to country. Grandmothers Against Removals Sydney are asking everyone to start a conversation about the reality of history. It’s been 10 years since the Northern Territory Intervention which has been incredibly damaging.
Muslim activists now speaking on importance showing solidarity to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Migrants benefit from living in this nation. We need to acknowledge our privilege and continue supporting Indigenous Australians.
A young Indigenous man in Sydney today is 44 times more likely to be in jail than non-Indigenous youth.
https://twitter.com/OtherSociology/status/824424281232732160
“Forget about it they say. It’s in the past. Ok. What about we forget about ANZAC Day then?”
https://twitter.com/OtherSociology/status/824429094951489536
https://twitter.com/OtherSociology/status/824434544967196674
https://twitter.com/OtherSociology/status/824435610416926721
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https://twitter.com/OtherSociology/status/824442949547159552
https://twitter.com/OtherSociology/status/824448552273207296
https://twitter.com/OtherSociology/status/824453060852211712
See my follow-up post on the Yabun Festival
[Top video: people are marching down a main road chanting, “No pride in genocide.”]
The 26th of January is Australia Day and a national holiday. Various events happen all over Melbourne, but some of these recognise that this day raises important issues about Indigenous culture in Australia. Protests over colonialism have been ongoing since Europeans settled in Australia in 1788. On the 26th of January 1938, 150 years after the decimation of Indigenous people began, William Cooper (leader with the Australian Aboriginal League) together with Jack Patten and William Ferguson (the Aboriginal Progressive Association) declared the first “Day of Mourning,” a day recognising the history of colonial violence and dispossession. Survival Day events represent the resilience and contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, who collectively make up the world’s oldest, continuous culture.
I attended the Share the Spirit festival, hosted by Songlines Music. This event has been running at the Treasury Garden since 2002. Together with similar events in Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and elsewhere, they are amongst the biggest Indigenous cultural events in Australia.
The most recent Australian Census of 2011 finds that 548,400 people identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin, representing 2.5% of our national population. This was an increase of 21% since the previous Census in 2006. New South Wales has the highest number of Indigenous Australians (32%), while the Northern Terriory has the highest rate of Indigenous people as a proportion of the population of any state (27%). Victoria has the smallest proportion (1%).
The median age of Indigenous Australians around the country is 21 years, in comparison to 38% for the non-Indigenous population. Conversely, Indigenous Australians have a considerably smaller proportion of older people aged over 65 years only 4% compared with 14% for the rest of the nation, representing the lack of access to adequate healthcare provided to our Indigenous population.
In 2013, Michael Mansell, lawyer and activist from the Palawa, Trawlwoolway and Pinterrairer people, noted that “Australia is the only country that relies on the arrival of Europeans on its shores as being so significant it should herald the official national day.”
In mid-January 2015, Former Australian of the year Dr Tom Calma, Aboriginal elder of the Kungarakan tribal group and a member of the Iwaidja tribal group, argued that Australia Day, also known as Survival Day amongst Indigenous Australians (to recognise the resilience of Indigenous Australians despite colonialism), is an opportunity to learn about Indigenous history, something that is not formally acknowledged as part of our national celebrations.
Pictured here is raper PHILLY, WembaWemba man based in Melbourne, and winner of last year’s Unearthed, who was amazing onstage at the Share the Spirit festival. He had many skilled MCs join him as guests.
