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  • Showing only topics with the tag "aboriginal australians". Back to normal view
    1. The 'Voice to Parliament' referendum pamphlets for Yes and No camps have been published by the Australian Electoral Commission

      ABC news article: Voice to Parliament referendum pamphlets for Yes and No camps published by AEC On the Australian Electoral Commission's website: The case for voting Yes The case for voting No...

      ABC news article: Voice to Parliament referendum pamphlets for Yes and No camps published by AEC

      On the Australian Electoral Commission's website:

      The Sydney Morning Herald / The Age newspapers have provided annotated versions of each pamphlet:

      As has been observed in those annotation pages, there is no legal requirement for either of these pamphlets to be truthful or factual, and there is no obligation for the AEC to fact-check them (in fact, the AEC is legally restrained from commenting on those pamphlets in any way - its role is restricted to disseminating those pamphlets, because it must stay neutral).

      12 votes
    2. Yet another variation on the initialism: LGBTQIASB+

      I've been pleased recently to start hearing and seeing another variation on the "LGBT" initialism here in Australia: LGBTQIASB+ Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Intersex Asexual Sistergirl...

      I've been pleased recently to start hearing and seeing another variation on the "LGBT" initialism here in Australia: LGBTQIASB+

      • Lesbian

      • Gay

      • Bisexual

      • Transgender

      • Queer

      • Intersex

      • Asexual

      • Sistergirl

      • Brotherboy

      The latter two terms, "sistergirl" and "brotherboy", are Aboriginal Australian words for people who are gender non-conforming. This includes transgender people as we westerners understand "transgender", but the terms are more inclusive than that. This article explains it better than I possibly could.

      The reason I'm so pleased to see this new variation on the LGBT initialism is because the only other variation which includes First Peoples I've seen is the American one that uses "2S" for these (from "two-spirit"). The first time I saw that (and every other time, to be honest), I felt this was highly parochial and exclusive - which is the opposite of what the initialism should be. So now I'm glad there's a Down Under version, which includes the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

      Are there any other local variations like this?

      14 votes
    3. Today (29th April 2020) is the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook's landing at Botany Bay (Kamay)

      250 years ago, Captain James Cook and his ship the HMS Endeavour landed at Kamay (Botany Bay) on the eastern coast of Australia. He was in the middle of a months-long exploration of the eastern...

      250 years ago, Captain James Cook and his ship the HMS Endeavour landed at Kamay (Botany Bay) on the eastern coast of Australia. He was in the middle of a months-long exploration of the eastern coast. His crew first spotted the Australian mainland on 11th April 1770, and they left Australian waters after taking possession of the continent in the name of King George III on 22nd August.

      This was not the first visitation of Australia by Europeans. That honour goes to Dutch sailor Willem Janszoon in his ship the Duyfken in 1606. Dutch & Portuguese sailors & traders continued to visit the north and west coasts for the next couple of centuries. They called the continent "New Holland".

      But Cook represented the first European power to assume possession of the continent. 18 years later, the English sent their First Fleet of convict ships to the land of New South Wales.


      250 years since Captain Cook arrived in Australia, his legacy remains fraught

      What Australians often get wrong about our most (in)famous explorer, Captain Cook

      For Indigenous people, Cook's voyage of 'discovery' was a ghostly visitation

      10 votes
    4. 'Free the flag': Aboriginal businesses told not to use Aboriginal flag over copyright

      Here's a secondary news article (web-based): 'Free the flag': Aboriginal businesses told not to use Aboriginal flag over copyright Here's the original news article (it's a PDF document from this...

      Here's a secondary news article (web-based): 'Free the flag': Aboriginal businesses told not to use Aboriginal flag over copyright

      Here's the original news article (it's a PDF document from this website): ‘Our’ flag raises questions

      10 votes
    5. Two steps forward, one step back on Aboriginal treaties in Australia.

      This week, two governments in Australia have taken steps towards negotiating treaties with the native Aboriginal people: Victorian Parliament votes on law to negotiate Australia's first Aboriginal...

      This week, two governments in Australia have taken steps towards negotiating treaties with the native Aboriginal people:

      Meanwhile, one government says no:

      It's interesting that the two governments moving forwards are Labor Party governments, while the one that's stopping the process is a newly elected Liberal Party government. It's hard not to draw the conclusion that this is a politically partisan issue.

      5 votes