Rally: Kids Off, Everyone Off! Close Nauru Close Manus!

Around 2,000 people gathered at Hyde Park North today to protest against the indefinite detention of asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Islands by the Australian government. There are currently 52 children languishing in these detention camps. Many are suffering from mental and physical stress. The government has been accused by psychiatrists of ignoring evidence of the unfolding mental health crisis of children on Nauru.

Mandatory and indefinite imprisonment on these islands for refugees attempting to escape from persecution to Australia by boat has been a bipartisan policy of both the Liberal-National coalition and the Australian Labor Party for years.

Today’s speakers - including Reverend Rod Bowers, lawyer George Newhouse, Hazara community leader Najeeba Wadefadost and Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Collective - all denounced the major parties for their cruel approach to asylum seeker policy, which is increasingly being looked to as a model by right-wing and far right governments around the world.

Recently, 6,000 Australian doctors signed an open letter calling for children to be removed from these camps. Médicins Sans Frontierés was recently removed from Nauru, having also called for the immediate evacuation of all asylum seekers from detention on Nauru. The United Nations has condemned Australia’s policy on refugees and asylum seekers, calling it ‘unlawful’.

Pressure is mounting on the Australian government as the next Federal election approaches and as its refugee policies come under increasing scrutiny. Further rallies are planned in the coming weeks and months.

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R.I.P. Uncle Cecil Bowden

A tribute to Uncle Cecil Bowden, who has passed.

He was an elder, artist, Redfern identity and staunch champion of the Stolen Generation, to which he belonged. His story, through the Kinchela Boy’s Home, can be read here.

The image below was taken in 2015 at the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy.

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No More Harm: Academics for Refugees Readings

Today, academics and students held simultaneous actions on university campuses around Australia to protest against the government's ongoing and indefinite detention of refugees, including children, on Manus and Nauru Islands.

At the University of Technology Sydney, academics read from Behrouz Boochani’s, ‘No Friend But the Mountains’, a book about his long years in Manus Island Detention Centre. Boochani, a Kurdish Iranian journalist, artist and refugee, is still being held on Manus, after 5 years of imprisonment, with no sign of release.

The action was organized by Academics for Refugees and the National Teachers and Education Union (NTEU).

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Portraits of the Cross

A few impromptu portraits in Kings Cross and surrounds, Sydney.

35mm Tri-X film, black and white.

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Defend The Sydney Opera House - Rally

Several thousand people filled the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House after the NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, caved into the demands of right-wing shock-jock, Alan Jones to allow the projection of horse racing advertising onto the sails of the world heritage building.

In response, protesters concerned about the integrity of the Opera House, brought with them torches, projectors and lights to disrupt the advertising and called for the end to government through vested interests, including the undue influence of the broadcaster, Alan Jones.

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Community Demand Retrial of Bowraville Murders

Simultaneous community protests were held in northern NSW and in Sydney today to demand the NSW government take unprecedented action to appeal to the High Court for the retrial of the murders of three Aboriginal children, Colleen Walker-Craig, Evelyn Greenup and Clinton Speedy-Duroux, in Bowraville almost 30 years ago.

Below are images from the Sydney rally which was held outside the NSW Parliament and then marched to the Supreme Court, where a retrial was ruled out last week.

Speakers included Gavin Walker, Jasmine Speedy, Leone Duroux, Vanessa Turnbull Roberts, Leetona Dangay (mother of murdered Aboriginal man, David), NSW Greens MP, David Shoebridge, Tasman Keith and other family members of the Bowraville Three.

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Bowraville Murders Appeal Dismissed

Today, the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal to have the murders of three Aboriginal children from Bowraville retried.

Over a period of five months in 1990-91, Colleen Walker (16), Evelyn Greenup (4) and Clinton Speedy-Duroux (16) disappeared. Two of the bodies of these children were later recovered. Because Colleen Walker’s body was never found, a trial of an accused man only focussed on the murders of Evelyn and Clinton. Family members of the children had hoped for a retrial so that all three murders could be considered in one trial.

Today’s decision, after a ten month delay, was devastating to the community and to the Walker, Greenup and Speedy-Duroux families. Justice, they say, has not been served.

Here, family member, Ronella Dolly Jerome, breaks down while addressing the media after the court’s verdict.

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Silent March - Kings Cross

Below are images of one of a series of 'Silent Marches' through different suburbs of Sydney, yesterday, this particular one through Kings Cross. The Silent Marches aim to bring attention to ongoing Aboriginal deaths in police custody. 

As the public looked on, photographs of Ms Dhu, David Dungay, T.J. Hickey, Rebecca Maher, Eric James Whitaker, John Pat and many others were quietly paraded around the streets of Kings Cross to highlight their deaths.

The marches are organised by the Indigenous Social Justice Association (ISJA), Sydney Branch.

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Fragmented Topographies

Architectural fragments, surfaces and textures collected from dismantled public housing estates, Canberra. 

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Defend The Right To Protest Rally

A rally outside NSW Parliament this morning urging the repeal of legislation that will diminish the right to assembly on public (Crown) land, thereby reducing the right of protest and freedom of speech.

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Blanket Patrol

Tonight commemorated the first anniversary of the closure of the 24/7 Street Kitchen and Safe Space at Martin Place, also known as Tent City to those living with homelessness around central Sydney.

To mark the date, a new initiative, 'The Blanket Patrol', was launched. The mobile community-led service distributes blankets and other essential items out of a wheelie bin to rough sleepers around the CBD.

It is hoped that similar Blanket Patrol initiatives will be rolled out around the country.

For more information, visit the 24/7 Street Kitchen and Safe Space Community page on Facebook, or call 0404 500 454.

Pictured below, local identity and rough sleeper, Lawrence, models next to one of the Blanket Patrol wheelie bins that will provide essential items to the homeless around Sydney.

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Miho

Traditional Okinawan dancer, Miho, stills herself as she prepares backstage in a storeroom-cum-makeshift greenroom before a performance.

 

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Dylan Voller and Don Dale - 2 Years On - Pt II

Today marked two years since the ABC's Four Corners report on Don Dale, the notorious youth detention centre in the Northern Territory, which saw a series of torture-like abuses of mostly Aboriginal children. One of the most infamous cases was the repeated abuse of then 13-year old Aboriginal boy, Dylan Voller, who was later placed in a 'restraint chair' and covered with a 'spit hood', reminiscent of tactics used at Guantanamo Bay.

Since the Four Corners program, there has been a Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory. That Commission reported last November without any charges being laid against any of the perpetrators of the abuses at Don Dale, despite finding 'shocking and systemic failures over many years in the youth prison system that were ignored at the highest levels of government.' In the last few months, there has been a string of rooftop protests by inmates at Don Dale, and the centre has been deemed still 'not fit for purpose', 'overcrowded and understaffed', despite the Royal Commission.

Below, Dylan Voller watches the original, harrowing Four Corners program, 2 years after the original broadcast caused widespread outrage. The program included graphic footage of Voller being abused and assaulted. Today's event took place at The Settlement community centre in Redfern where speakers and performers responded to ongoing violence against Aboriginal people in custody. Also in attendance was the family of David Dungay, who died in Long Bay Jail after being restrained and sedated by prison officers and whose death is the subject of a coronial inquest, which today was postponed for another 12 months.

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Dylan Voller and Don Dale - 2 Years On

Today marked two years since the ABC's Four Corners report on Don Dale, the notorious youth detention centre in the Northern Territory, which saw a series of torture-like abuses of mostly Aboriginal children. One of the most infamous cases was the repeated abuse of then 13-year old Aboriginal boy, Dylan Voller, who was later placed in a 'restraint chair' and covered with a 'spit hood', reminiscent of tactics used at Guantanamo Bay.

Since the Four Corners program, there has been a Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory. That Commission reported last November without any charges being laid against any of the perpetrators of the abuses at Don Dale, despite finding 'shocking and systemic failures over many years in the youth prison system that were ignored at the highest levels of government.' In the last few months, there has been a string of rooftop protests by inmates at Don Dale, and the centre has been deemed still 'not fit for purpose', 'overcrowded and understaffed', despite the Royal Commission.

Below, Dylan Voller watches the original, harrowing Four Corners program, 2 years after the original broadcast caused widespread outrage. The program included graphic footage of Voller being abused and assaulted. Today's event took place at The Settlement community centre in Redfern where speakers and performers responded to ongoing violence against Aboriginal people in custody. Also in attendance was the family of David Dungay, who died in Long Bay Jail after being restrained and sedated by prison officers and whose death is the subject of a coronial inquest, which today was postponed for another 12 months.

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Simone

Simone.

Tri-X 35mm black and white film.

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Vittorio, Piccolo Bar Cafe, Kings Cross

Local identity, Vittorio, at Sydney's oldest running cafe, the Piccolo, Kings Cross.

Tri-X 35mm black and white film.

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Glenn Lockitch, Piccolo Cafe

Photojournalist, Glenn Lockitch, relaxes at his second home, the Piccolo cafe, Kings Cross.

Tri-X 35mm black and white film.

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Jon Lewis

Photographer, Jon Lewis.

Tri-X 35mm black and white film.

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