No Apology Forthcoming

Paul Silva confronts NSW Corrections Services Commissioner, Peter Severin, to demand an apology for the death of his uncle, Dhungutti man, David Dungay, who was killed at Long Bay Gaol in 2015, when set upon by a group of prison officers after refusing to hand over a packet of biscuits. The Commissioner declined to provide an apology.

A coronial inquest wound up today in Lidcombe, finding no criminal conduct against the officers.

More pics to come.

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Dawaandi

An evening of story, poetry, music, philosophy and culture, themed around ‘Dawaandi’ (‘Reflection’), with Bundjalung, Gumbaynggirr and Dhungutti man, Bernard Kelly-Edwards.

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Trans Day of Remembrance Vigil

Yesterday, around 200-300 people from the trans community gathered for a vigil to remember the 331 trans people who were murdered around the world in the last year.

A list of the 331 names of each victim was read out to silence, as candles were laid and as sobs broke out amongst the crowd. Included in that list was Mhelody Polan Bruno, a 25-year old trans woman from the Phillipines, who was due to return home in the week that she was killed in Wagga Wagga in September earlier this year.

The Trans Day of Remembrance is held every November the 20th to honour the victims of violence against trans people. Since 2008, more than 3,000 trans people have been murdered. According to Sally Goldner from Transgender Victoria, trans people experience violence at 12 times the rate of the general population.

Yesterday’s vigil was MC’d by Hayden Moon and Charlie Murphy from Trans Action Warrang. Speakers included April, Zaya Barroso and Bhenji Ra. The event was held in Newtown, Sydney, Warrang, Gadigal.

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Rawia

Rawia came with her family as a refugee to Australia from war-torn Sudan in 2003.

Earlier this year, Sudan broke out in mass civil protests across the country with some of the largest protests ever seen in the nation’s history. After decades of iron hand rule by Omar al Bashir, Sudan stood at the crossroads between continuing dictatorship and a more democratic system. During the unrest, scores of civilians were killed by government troops and militia loyal to Bashir. With rising tensions, a power sharing agreement was finally reached in August, allowing a 3 year transition to democracy. Doubts remain, however, as to if the agreement will hold and if Sudan will ever see free and fair elections.

Despite the tragedy of her father’s recent death, Rawia and her family have thrived in Australia. She and her 3 siblings have all gone to university. Her brother is an aspiring top tier soccer player. Meanwhile, Rawia is currently nurturing a successful career in the public service and maintains an interest in fashion, design and photography.

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National Call To Action: Solidarity Protest for Kumanjayi Walker

On Wednesday, around 2,000 people gathered at Sydney’s Town Hall, Warrang, Gadigal, to demand justice for Kumanjayi Walker, a 19-year old Warlpiri man who was shot dead by police in the remote Aboriginal community of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory last Saturday night. After a healing ceremony and speeches, the protesters marched from Town Hall to the Sydney Police Centre in Surry Hills where they were met by a large contingent of riot police.

Over 400 Aboriginal people have died in police custody since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

The policeman who allegedly shot Mr Walker has been charged with murder, one of the few police officers to be charged for the death of an Aboriginal person in the history of European occupation of the Australian continent, and since Captain Cook’s landing party shot a Gweagle man on the shores of what is now known as Botany Bay in 1770.

In anticipation of push back by the police, the NT Police Commissioner cryptically warned that officers should “remember their oath”.

Wednesday’s rally concluded peacefully with calls for justice and a statement by one of Mr Walker’s family members that “business was not finished”. The event was part of a nation-wide protest calling for an independent investigation into Mr. Walker’s death.

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Snap Action: Funding For Bushfires, Not Coal Mining and Gas Fields

Around 600 people demonstrated outside the NSW Parliament this morning to demand action on the unfolding climate emergency.

As bushfires raged across the country - in one of the nation's most catastrophic fire events ever - the NSW parliament was in the process of passing legislation that will remove considering the issues of climate change and greenhouse emissions when approving new coal mines and gas-fields.

NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian said that now was not the time to talk about climate change. She backed her deputy this morning on ABC radio, saying that she didn’t blame him for describing people who wanted to raise climate change now, as “a bloody disgrace“.

Meanwhile, in Canberra today, the Upper House of Federal Parliament passed the government’s so-called ‘big stick’ legislation, which will keep old coal-fired power stations open longer, further contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and to climate change. Elsewhere, Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce claimed that two of the victims of yesterday’s fires “most likely” voted Green.

Speakers at today’s rally in Sydney included those living in the affected bushfire areas and families who had lost their homes. They urged that now was precisely the time to talk about climate change.

Fiona Lee, her partner Aaron Crowe, and their daughter Pepper had their family house completely destroyed after fire tore through the tiny rural community of Warrawillah on the state’s mid-north coast on Friday. They emptied a bucket of ashes they brought with them from their burnt out property in front of Parliament to demonstrate the devastating effect of the fires and of the current environmental catastrophe.

With no substantial rain forecast for the the foreseeable future, the fires in Queensland, NSW and Western Australia are predicted to burn on in coming days, and possibly for weeks.

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^ To help Fiona, Aaron and Pepper, you can donate here.

Fiona's Ashes

Fiona Lee sits outside NSW Parliament with a pile of ashes from her family’s burnt out home after fire tore through the tiny rural community of Warrawillah on the state’s mid-north coast on Friday.

As bushfires rage across the country today - in one of the nation’s most catastrophic fire events ever - the NSW parliament is in the process of passing legislation that will remove climate change as a consideration when approving new coal mines and gas-fields.

Fiona and her family drove to Sydney to participate in today’s protest rally to demand action on climate change.

More pics to come.

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Save Medivac - Rally for Refugees

This month, the federal government will attempt to repeal the Medivac legislation, which provides urgent and critical health care in Australia for refugees held on Manus and Nauru Islands.

On Saturday, around 200-300 people gathered at Sydney’s Town Hall to call on the Australian parliament to reject the government’s legislative attempts to repeal the Medivac laws, and to demand human rights for those refugees languishing indefinitely in offshore detention.

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Dub Circle: Dark Procession - EDGE

Images from yesterday’s ‘Dub Circle - Dark Procession’, a part of the Inner West Council’s EDGE series of events.

Featuring DJ Semper-Fi and Gabrielle Bates.

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Woolloomoolivin' Community Festival

The Woolloomoolivin’ Annual Festival of Urban Arts and Culture - down at Woolloomooloo, featuring the A-Team Black Label All Stars from the U.S, as well as 101 Doll Squadron, Cross Colours Crew, 2ooLit, The Pioneers, Sonny Johnson, George Olsen and the Studio 101 Performance Squad.

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Viva Mapuche, Viva Chile - The Right To Live In Peace Rally

Yesterday, around 200-300 people marched through the streets of Sydney, Gadigal, to demand the resignation of the Chilean president, Sebastián Piñera, who is currently overseeing a violent crackdown on protesters in the Chilean capital, Santiago.

There have been reports of mass disappearings, killings and many injuries across Chile as demonstrators push for economic equality, political freedoms and greater rights for the indigenous Mapuche peoples. The latest estimations are that 20 people have been killed so far and more than 1300 injured. There has been a long history in Chile of persecution and genocide of the Mapuche, including in recent times.

The Chilean diaspora in Sydney is significant, swelled in numbers by those who have fled Chile over decades, especially during the Pinochet dictatorship in the 1970s and 80s.

Yesterday’s march started at Sydney Town Hall and was led by Mapuche flags and accompanied by traditional Mapuche instruments. It ended in Belmore Park where speeches were made denouncing the right-wing Chilean government of Piñera and pledging solidarity with other current civilian movements across the world, including with the Kurds in the Middle East, the protest movement in Catalonia, the current situation in Lebanon, and with the ongoing struggle in Hong Kong and elsewhere.

The day ended with music and dance at Belmore Park, a celebration of culture and community.

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Nup to the Cup

The only horses I want being ridden over the next week.

Shot at Luna Park, Sydney, on a Nikon F2AS, Illford 125, black and white 35mm film.

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A Visit to the Djab Warrang Embassy

Images from a flying visit to the Djab Warrang Embassy in western Victoria.

Despite ongoing discussions, the duplication of the Great Western Highway is still earmarked to pass through Djab Warrang country, destroying many trees, including a sacred 800-year old birthing tree.

Protesters, led by traditional Djab Warrang owners, have been camping at the site to protect these trees for almost 18 months, as court action plays out. They are demanding the highway be re-routed around the trees and away from sacred Aboriginal sites. The Embassy is calling for support on the ground, as well other forms of assistance.

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Rally at Origin Energy AGM: Don't Frack the NT

Traditional land owners from the Northern Territory descended on Warrang, Sydney, today, to voice their opposition against fracking on their homelands. Around 200 people showed up at a rally in Martin Place to signal their support.

The rally and visit by traditional owners coincided with an AGM for Origin Energy, who plan to begin fracking at the Beetaloo sub-basin, south east of Darwin.

Protesters marched from Martin Place to Angel Place, where the AGM was being conducted. Several traditional owners attended the meeting, where they spoke out against Origin’s plans, which endangers traditional lands and water, as well as sacred sites and the health of numerous Aboriginal communities.

The rally was organised by SEED.

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Extinction Rebellion Protest - Spring Action, Take Back the Streets

Around 500 protesters took to the streets today in Sydney to demand action on climate change. They marched under the Extinction Rebellion banner, a loosely affiliated global movement aimed at using disruption as a tactic to leverage greater political action on the environment.

Today’s rally marched from Belmore Park near Central Station to Broadway, where protesters set up a pink water tank in the middle of the street. Several people had chained themselves inside. They were later cut free and arrested by police. Slogans on the outside of the tank read, ‘Water is Life’ and ‘Blood of the Earth’.

In the meantime, dozens of other arrests were made by a large contingent of heavily kitted riot squad members and police. Many of those arrested were elderly, including Martin Wolterding, a 75-year old environmental scientist, who was put in a wrist lock and dragged to a waiting van. It’s not known what charges were laid, although several draconian anti-protest laws around Australia either have recently been passed, or are about to be introduced.

The march ended in Central Park where protesters peacefully dispersed. A week of action has been planned by Extinction Rebellion.

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Portraits: Justice for Bowraville

A few impromptu portraits of some of the family members of the three Bowraville children who went missing from an Aboriginal community in 1990-91.

Their disappearance and murders have yet to be fully investigated. A protest was held today at Sydney’s Town Hall to demand justice.

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Protest: Justice For Bowraville - No More Delays

Around thirty years after the disappearance of three young Aboriginal children from the northern NSW town of Bowraville, families gathered today at Sydney’s Town Hall to demand that authorities relaunch the investigation and retrial of a man suspected of abducting and murdering the children.

The families are calling on the NSW Attorney General, Mark Speakman, to act on promises to initiate legislation that would facilitate the retrial after attempts earlier this year failed. Six months after the recommendations of an inquiry into such legislation, the Attorney General has yet to respond. The families vow to continue their fight until justice is served.

 

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Museum of Fleas

Images from last night’s ‘The Museum of Fleas’, a cabaret show of music, dance, poetry, performance and art at the Imperial Hotel in Erskinville, as part of Sydney Fringe 2019.

The event was produced by Rogers & Urquhart and was MC’d by Vashti Hughes. Performers included Paloma Negra, Luke Rogers, Peter Urquhart, Sister Ursuline, Marguerite Montes, Niche X Sentii, Charles Freyberg and Alison Marshall. Painting, photography and video by John O’Driscoll, Glenn Lockitch and Roger Foley Fogg.

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Global Climate Strike

As part of the Global Climate Strike, around 100,000 people, mostly students and young people turned up at the Domain in Sydney yesterday to demand action on human induced-climate change.

Hundreds of thousands rallied around Australia and millions around the world as part of a global student-led movement against persistent refusals by governments and big corporations to make structural changes that will ensure the reduction of CO2 emissions and the protection of the planet.

Climate change impacts the poor and disenfranchised in the first instance. Aboriginal and First Nations peoples are often at the forefront of the impacts of environmental degradation. Pacific Islanders stand to be the first to see their entire homelands inundated with rising sea waters. And those who live in poverty are the most likely unable to effectively respond against such change.

Earlier than usual bush fires and crippling winter droughts do not bode well for this coming summer in Australia.

The rally was organised by Students Strike 4 Climate.

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Rally For Permanent Protection For Refugees, Not Temporary Visas

Around 500 people gathered at Sydney’s Town Hall yesterday to demand more protection of refugee rights and urge that Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) and Safe Haven Enterprise Visas (SHEVs) be made permanent. It’s been 8 years since Temporary Protection Visas were introduced in Australia, leaving many refugees with a life in limbo, unsure of their future and without their families.

Since then, the Government has begun a controversial ‘fast tracking’ process of TPVs, which some claim lead to “a fundamentally unfair process that essentially removes [refugees] right to a fair hearing, and could well amount to a fast track to danger.”

Speakers spoke of the harsh living conditions these visas result in, leading to a second-class of residency, unable to access many critical services and without the ability to reunite with their families, all of which mean a life compounded by poverty, uncertainty, discrimination and mental, psychological and emotional stress. Their pain in the face of the intense politicisation of the issue was palpable in the personal stories recounted at yesterday’s rally.

The event was organised by Justice for Refugees with the support of Refugee Action Coalition.

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