We assembled at 12 noon, Saturday 9th Feb Musgrave Park at the tent embassy and lit the sacred fire. At 1pm about fifty (50) people marched to the indigenous all stars game at Lang park over the river.
Before we marched Boe Skuthorpe-Spearim, Coco Wharton, Michael Anderson and Aunty Karen spoke.
This what Coco Wharton had to say before we left.
After today’s 1000 Warrior March reached Suncorp Stadium, some noticed that the Aboriginal Flag wasn’t flying and that there was an empty flagpole there. The embassy kindly lent staff one of our flags and Auntie Karen Fusi raised the flag.
Before Aunty Karen raised the flag there was an open forum at Lang park which lasted for about an hour till 3pm. The speeches were extremely good and varied. One allstars fan got up and spoke about the need for unity and to get land rights for his tribe out near Mitchell. Maybe next year we will march over at little later because many people didn’t arrive until after 5pm. That was our first go, maybe next year we will get 1,000 warriors.
The Indigenous All Stars won a great victory!
Indigenous All Stars 32 d NRL All Stars 6. Ben Barber scored a hat-trick before half-time. Over 30,000 people turned up for the game and about 80% were Murris, Kooris or Torres Strait Islanders. Maroochy Barambah sang a Turrbal song before the game and there was a spectacular dance with spears by Nunnuccal dancers and great dig playing by Shannon Ruska. The Indigenous women’s team were great but defeated by a bigger non-indigenous Australian women’s team.
Before the game I spoke with a mapuche indian from chile. He told me a horrific story about how the military put political prisoners in the football stadiums there after the military coup in 1973. I hope they never do that here.
10 Feb 2013
References
Idle No More posted in 1000 WARRIOR MARCH, Brisbane
The Title Deed to the Cultural Centre site is heritage listed (as is the rest of Musgrave Park).
Yet neither the state government nor the Brisbane City Council seem to pay need to the laws that they introduced when they put out the sacred fire, disrupt aboriginal gatherings and disrespect the land of the first nations people … but that shouldn’t surprise us … the law is for the rich
My task is to kiss the land My love my soul Roam and hunt with my band Of blacks Whilst forever The kangaroo fears your white skin But will stand in my shadow With a crocodile Behind any anthill When the land swallows your white arse You will call me as you have always done The blacktracker Heatwaves are bandwidths to my freedom Out here Where I talk to the spirits Where I feel my aboriginality Where I am the guardian of all That is really Australian A White death knell Our sacred interior Our black space No technology No water And No Blackman skills You will take your chance without me My land tells me all I need to know And has done for forty thousand years So I ask What have you brought to this land That would make me change my mind Or My Aboriginal purpose by Paul ButtigiegSee this rather condescending article in The Australian … at least gary foley got through …
by Rick Morton
INDIGENOUS rugby league stars learn about their heritage in the Queensland bush.
It is a history lesson from Aboriginal academic and activist Gary Foley, who helped establish the Aboriginal tent embassy in 1972, that really rouses the boys.
It is as if they hear — really hear — their own history for the first time. That may not be so far from the truth.
Foley’s father, Bill, he tells the players, was captain of the Tenterfield Tigers for a decade of consecutive premiership wins in the middle of last century when things were “really racist”.
“The power of rugby league meant that I wasn’t ever subjected to racism in those first few years of my life because my dad was a local hero,” he says.
When he is done, setting out the advancement of the Aboriginal struggle for rights and recognition, the room stands. Some kernel of inspiration has flourished within.
Sarra, who speaks privately with the players at the end of the camp, says he wants to draw out of them what it is that makes them feel disconnected and what it is that makes them feel “solid” in their skin. “There’s something powerful about knowing you carry the blood of the first Australians and we’re the only Australians who can say that,” he says.
“It’s important to understand it’s about embracing that, not to alienate white Australians but to feel powerful enough to stand alongside them. It’s not about putting white-skins down, it’s about asserting our place with a sense of power and passion.
“There is this very real prospect we can use the game as a means to facilitate better outcomes in health and education. Domestic violence, you know, if some of these elite players are strong enough to not engage in that, and man enough to stand up and say that it’s not a part of our culture then there are going to be so many young black men and women hearing that message.
“It creates the extra layer of complexity to these guys, an extra sense of responsibility but it’s one they understand and they’re ready for. These are great, young men who are leaders. Four or five years ago they would have been kids kicking a footy in the park and today they are living the dream.”
Their guide, Blackman, tells the tale of a local Aboriginal stockman Charlie Chilli and his family who were removed from the land before a complaint from his white station manager WH Westaway.
“Old man Westaway wrote letters to the government to stop the Chillis being sent to mission,” he says.
That was in 1914 and the story has a happy ending.
Charlie was returned to country, the land he knew and loved.
There’s something analogous about the story of these young NRL players who have grappled with their own history for so long.
“I always had a connection, I just didn’t feel comfortable within myself growing up because of other people around me and the environment I grew up in,” Inglis says. “I grew to embrace it more and more and be more passionate about it.”
There’s research out there that attempts to open up exactly what it is about forging cultural connections in human beings that make them feel safe, secure and at peace.
It might more readily be explained by a preoccupation throughout history of exploring, adventure and, ultimately, going home.
Home can just as easily be in the mind as it can be on the footy field. See http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/back-to-roots-at-culture-camp/story-e6frg6z6-1226570316306