AustLit
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"We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution." - Uluru Statement from the Heart
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Through Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples voicing their perspectives, the broader society has an opportunity to share in a dialogue that enables better understanding with each other and work towards a more just society. Voice has been used throughout Australia's contested history (and beyond its colonial history) to ensure that parties and stakeholders negotiated law and shared knowledge. Listed below, we have a number of works which promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voices. We also have links to how this relates to the political needs of First Nation peoples.
For more information on why a voice to parliament is considered important, click here.
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In addition for First Nations people in Australia calling for a Voice to Parliament, the United Nations has declared 2019 the International Year for Indigenous Languages. Language is an integral part of the way human beings practice culture and engage with all aspects of their material and spiritual freedom and protecting languages leads to ethical social, economic and political development. In countries like Aoteroa, the treaty of Waitangi codifies Government responsibilites to language preservation and practice.
For more information on the International Year of Indigenous Languages, click here.
For links to works written in Australian Aboriginal Languages, click here.
For links to works written about Australian languages, click here.
For more information on language revival projects in Australia, click here.
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'In 1938 Jack Patton, a prominent Aboriginal leader of the day, was instrumental in establishing a newspaper aimed at Aboriginal people, written by Aboriginal people and edited by Aboriginal people. The newspaper ran for 6 editions only. During its time, Aboriginal people were able to voice their opinions and demand their rights in a public forum. Many Aboriginal people wrote to the paper to tell their stories of unfair treatment, persecution, discrimination and their own personal battles for justice and equal opportunity. (...more)See full AustLit entry
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The Yirrkala Bark Petitions (1963) were presented to the Australian House of Representatives, Commonwealth Parliament in August 1963, and are historic Australian documents. The petitions from the Yolngu people of Yirrkala were the first traditional documents recognised by the Commonwealth Parliament, and thus the first documentary recognition of Indigenous people in Australian law. The acceptance of these petitions also marked a bridge between two traditions of law.
During the late 1950s the Yolngu became aware of prospecting activities in the area of the Gove Peninsula in Arnhem Land, and the subsequent granting of mining leases over a considerable area of Yolngu traditional land.
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The resistance of Aboriginal Peoples in Australia has a long tradition of inspiring iconic songs. An important song of the resistance is the well known track by Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly 'From Little Things Big things Grow' which recounts the story of when Vincent Lingiari and other Gurindji workers walked off the Wave Hill cattle station in 1966. What began as a strike over wages and conditions became an eight-year long struggle for the return of traditional lands. It ended in August 1975 when Prime Minister Gough Whitlam symbolically poured sand into old Lingiari's hand.
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Zillmere State School, 2003
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'One of the most respected singer songwriters of our time - Mr Kev Carmody returns with his first album project in twelve years. Recollections Reflections (A Journey) is the accumulation of years of writing and recording from the esteemed ARIA Hall Of Fame recipient. Decades of lyrics, sounds and song ideas had piled up in Kev Carmody’s manilla folders and tapes at his home in South East QLD. Eventually the time came to commit these ideas to permanent record – for the ages. The result is 40 tracks, spread over 4CD’s and housed in a beautifully crafted fan deluxe pack; a DVD sized, slipcase and 52 page booklet detailing the recording of the album; the four CD”s are housed in a flexitray with beautiful artwork.
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'This is the first collection to span the diverse range of Black Australian writings. Thirty-six Aboriginal and Islander authors have contributed, including David Unaipon, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Gerry Bostock, Ruby Langford, Robert Bropho, Jack Davis, Hyllus Maris, William Ferguson, Sally Morgan, Mudrooroo Narogin and Archie Weller.
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'An authoritative survey of Australian Aboriginal writing over two centuries, across a wide range of fiction and non-fiction genres. Including some of the most distinctive writing produced in Australia, it offers rich insights into Aboriginal culture and experience...
'The anthology includes journalism, petitions and political letters from both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as major works that reflect the blossoming of Aboriginal poetry, prose and drama from the mid-twentieth century onwards.
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Voices of Aboriginal Australia is a collection of essays, speeches, poetry, articles, interviews etc. mainly by Aborigines, on topics of racism, discrimination, justice & the law, social conditions, land rights etc. for Aboriginal people.
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Presents artwork, prose and poetry of thirty-six contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers from the off-shore island, the Northern Territory, and all six states of Australia.
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'What is it like to grow up Aboriginal in Australia? This anthology, compiled by award-winning author Anita Heiss, attempts to showcase as many diverse voices, experiences and stories as possible in order to answer that question. Each account reveals, to some degree, the impacts of invasion and colonisation – on language, on country, on ways of life, and on how people are treated daily in the community, the education system, the workplace and friendship groups.
'Accounts from well-known authors and high-profile identities sit alongside newly discovered voices of all ages, with experiences spanning coastal and desert regions, cities and remote communities.
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'Eighteen Aboriginal Australians from across the country each share a powerful story which is central to their own lives, and to their family, community or country. Speaking from the Heart provides readers with a very personal picture of the history, culture and contemporary experience of Aboriginal Australia.' (Source: Publisher's blurb) (...more)See full AustLit entry
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'Meet Me at the Intersection is an anthology of short fiction, memoir and poetry by authors who are First Nations, People of Colour, LGBTIQA+ or living with disability. The focus of the anthology is on Australian life as seen through each author’s unique, and seldom heard, perspective.
'With works by Ellen van Neerven, Graham Akhurst, Kyle Lynch, Ezekiel Kwaymullina, Olivia Muscat, Mimi Lee, Jessica Walton, Kelly Gardiner, Rafeif Ismail, Yvette Walker, Amra Pajalic, Melanie Rodriga, Omar Sakr, Wendy Chen, Jordi Kerr, Rebecca Lim, Michelle Aung Thin and Alice Pung, this anthology is designed to challenge the dominant, homogenous story of privilege and power that rarely admits ‘outsider’ voices.
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'Aboriginal women tell the stories of their lives and history on the Lander River in Central Australia. They speak of growing up in the days before Europeans arrived in their country; of learning about social relationships and religious ceremony; of hunting and gathering with the older women. Then come stories about their early encounters with Europeans and the changes that followed.'
Source: Warlpiri Women's Voices, back cover.
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Larissa Behrendt on "Speaking Out" on the ABC
- Academic and Head of Indigenous Higher Degree Research at the University of Technology Sydney, Associate Professor Sandra Phillips.
- Filmmaker and Head of Cultural Resilience, Associate Professor Pauline Clague.
- Communications and Media expert and member of the National NAIDOC Committee, Shannan Dodson.
- Lawyer, Researcher and Phd student, Lachlan McDaniel.
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