Whatever you say, don’t say it tice If you find your ideas in anyone else, disown them The man who hasn’t signed anything, who has left no picture Who was not there, ...
March 6, 2013
“We recognize international law …” Every country that is a member of the United Nations recognizes international law, Bob, at least as far as it serves their purposes. It seems to me that every nation also ignores any aspect of international law that puts some aspect of their own commercial or national value at risk. Every nation has at its heart not the rest of humanity, but it’s own nationalistic ...
January 23, 2013
It is sillier than the vain futile cawing of a senseless crow to try to talk to others about one’s own deep sorrow! (Wakayama Bakusai (1885-1928) trans. Robert Wood Clack) On Sunday afternoon while painting at Palm Beach, I received an email from my good friend Mr Julian Moti QC, the former Attorney-General of the Solomon Islands. Attached to Julian’s e-mail was one he had received from his friend and former ...
January 22, 2013
#IdleNoMore is a growing movement of indigenous activism that started with Canada's First Nations taking a stand against a long history of systematic, institutionalized abuse from the Canadian authorities. ...
January 7, 2013
With the Inauguration of President Obama for his second term fast approaching (20 January, 2013) it is worth considering just how far the United States and indeed the West has fallen from the lofty ideals that underpin the West’s claim to moral, if no longer financial and technological, supremacy. This West’s claim to moral superiority has again been put to the test and has again been found wanting. I’m referring ...
November 21, 2012
Last week one comment on twitter to some of the Blak and Black crew resulted in considerable discussion about the underlying intent of this wee blog. The commenter, apparently thinking that Bakchos was proselytizing in his post A Hypocrite for a Prime Minister, a Hypocrite for a Chief Minister, fired off this somewhat surprising reply: Some of the crew were online at the time and promptly replied to the ...
November 1, 2012
Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation—BULLETIN http://yindjibarndi.org.au/ Wednesday 31 October 2012 No amount of corporate spin, bulldust or threats can save Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) from the continuing revelations of whistleblowers and freedom on information documents that show the under-handed tactics and bullying they ply for profit. * Today Solicitor Kerry Savas, who spent more than a year representing the interests of the splinter Wirlu-murra Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation, told The National Indigenous Times that the ...
July 12, 2012
Dr. Janice Harper has graciously agreed to her paper being republished on Blak and Black, for which we are most grateful. This is the paper referred to in the post To fight the grizzly or run: a comparison of fortunes. More of Dr. Harper’s writing and insights can be found at the Huffington Post, her professional website and her blog The Chocolate Covered Kitchen. Please take the time to read this article and her ...
July 7, 2012
It was freezing last night where I slept in my travels, below freezing in fact. In Bangerang country, home of the Yorta Yorta people, Mother Nature may have frozen the water in every dog’s bowl and garden hose, but she balanced the frigidity with a crystal blue sky and gleaming sun as it rose. The breeze has remained cool enough to nip at my heels, but even a white woman’s ...
July 3, 2012
NAIDOC week seems a fitting time to diverge a little from the normal themes of Blak and Black and have a peak into what was our culture prior to the British lead European invasion of our lands, which commenced in earnest on 26th January 1788. Prior to this faithful day, all 700 or so Aboriginal cultures inhabiting continental Australia had their own religion, law and lore. Those of us living ...
June 24, 2012
Many things in life can leave a person disillusioned – the loss of a loved one, the breakdown of a relationship, losing a job, losing a child are all traumas with which most people can empathize; but the disillusionment that comes from realizing that the democracy in which you live is a veneer papering the surface of a fractured substrate with a progressively worsening stability is perhaps one of the ...
June 22, 2012
Men, in general, seem to employ their reason to justify prejudices, which they have imbibed, they cannot trace how, rather than to root them out. The mind must be strong that resolutely forms its own principles; for a kind of intellectual cowardice prevails which makes many men shrink from the task, or only do it by halves. Yet the imperfect conclusions thus drawn, are frequently very plausible, because they are ...
June 6, 2012
This post, originally posted by Cate Bolt on her blog An Ordinary Life, is reposted here with permission. Her open willingness to question the status quo and ask how best we can work together to end Indigenous racism in Australia, to acknowledge that perhaps help is not what the Aborigines want, but rather respect, is a reflection of the sort of attitude that Blak and Black wishes to emphasize. Thankyou ...
May 24, 2012
Sydney: city of mystery, city of marvels. Sydney: its foreshores once teeming with Gadigal; now a captive city pregnant with memories, enveloped by memories of a Gadigal Atlantis. The traditional Gadigal are all but gone, however their presence remains. Though brutally murdered, their legend survives. By telling their tale, we resurrect their Atlantis. By reviving their legends, we awaken their spirits. Their souls haunt the city still. Their presence pervades ...
May 20, 2012
Last weekend I took a stroll through the Mesopotamia exhibition at the Melbourne Museum. While reading the commentary attached to a number of the artefacts I realised, in a profound way, that what we call civilization is actually a reaction to and against nature. Some cultures, those we choose to call ‘primitive’, ‘savage’ or ‘uncivilized’ attempt to live in harmony with nature, or at least attempt to develop a rapport ...
April 26, 2012
Australia takes pride in its multi-ethnic, multi-racial democratic and freedom loving façade, but that’s all it is a façade. You don’t have to scratch the surface very deeply to expose the true nature of the Average Australian. The sickening events that unfolded on a train travelling between Central and Rockdale in Sydney on Monday morning provide ample testimony to the true nature of the so called Aussie spirit. More poignant ...
April 25, 2012
There is a battle going on in this country, one the majority would rather ignore. It is a battle for equality between anything to marks a person as not conforming to the mainstream. Like any war, the boundaries keep moving as allies are formed and concessions are made. We are, as a society nominally convinced of the right of each person to equal treatment, but when it comes to the ...
April 22, 2012
My mind has been drawn to another of Rilke’s poems – Dreaming: This my labour: crowned by desire to wander the paths of days. Then sturdied, strong, send rootlet streamers down deep into life as I may — and through its pain mature far beyond it, and long past the end of time. I treated myself today to a luxury I rarely allow myself – a trip to the cinema, ...
April 16, 2012
Blak and Black is saddened to hear of the passing of Yindjibarndi Elder Mr Ned Mayaringbungu Cheedy at the age of 105. Mr Cheedy was custodian of the Yindjibarndi stories which he endeavoured to pass onto successive generations and also took an active interest in the battle of the Yindjibarndi to protect their sacred lands from indiscriminate mining at the hands of Fortescue Mining Group. Blak and Black expresses out ...
April 7, 2012
Media have divided the working class and stereotyped young African-American males as gangsters or drug dealers. As a result of such treatment, the media have crushed youths’ prospects for future employment and advancement. The media have focused on the negative aspects of the black community (e.g. engaging in drug use, criminal activity, welfare abuse) while maintaining the cycle of poverty that the elite wants. Balkaran, S., 1999, The Yale Political ...
March 24, 2012
On August 30 last year Blak and Black lodged a petition on the GoPetition website calling for a Royal Commission into the Australian Federal Police (“AFP”). Blak and Black has set out in detail the reasons why we believe a Royal Commission into the AFP is necessary. Without going into the minutiae of the issues raised by Blak and Black in its petition preamble, they all revolve around a core ...
Design by ITS
