Part 3 of the excerpt from Jocelynne A. Scutt’s Women, Law and Culture covers parts 2 and 3 of the contributions to the book. WHN Admin PART II – SPACE & PLACE Karen Buczynski-Lee addresses this question in culture and…
Tag: Indigenous Australians
A Warrior of the People
A Warrior of the People (2016) St Martin’s Press New York. Joe Starita Although a dedicated kindle reader, I picked up this biography and immediately felt the pleasure of holding a well published book. This one is comfortable to…
Apology: Australia 2008
Part 2 The Hon. Brendan Nelson, The Leader of the Opposition’s apology speech followed: Mr Speaker, members of this the 42nd Parliament of Australia, visitors and all Australians, in rising to speak strongly in support of this motion I…
Welcome to Country and Apology: 2008 Australia
Part 1. Background The Whitlam Labor Government introduced the Racial Discrimination Act in Australia in 1975. However, acknowledgement of the particular role and explicit rights of the indigenous people specific indigenous ownership of the land and recognition of the stolen…
CSW 57 – Indigenous Women Unite Against Violence Against Women!
In some regions Indigenous cultural practices still take place, such as female genital mutilation, and forced early marriages, where girls are denied formal education. As Kenyan representative Agnes Leina said, “We are not saying we should get rid of our culture, we love it, but who wants to be illiterate?” The Indigenous women of CSW are calling for support for the positive aspects of their traditional cultures and to leave behind the aspects that are detrimental to the rights of Indigenous women.
Sister, Black is the Colour of My Soul – Part II
I do not say the 1960s and 1970s increased activities of the women’s liberation movement had no effect on me. They did. I had to look at the position of women in society – that is, the position of Aboriginal women and white women. Arguments between black women and white women about women’s oppression did not always have a meeting place. At times a great deal of hostility was expressed by black women towards white women in the women’s liberation movement. This told me just how much black women have been conditioned by white society. Colonialism in Australia was brought about by violence. It introduced into the minds of Aboriginal people the concept of the native. Before the colonisers, there were no natives; later Aboriginal people were defined only in relation to white people, Aboriginal women were defined as against white women – they were compared and contrasted with them, dividing them. Aboriginal society and its values were so foreign to white settlers that many myths and misconceptions developed.
Sister, Black is the Colour of My Soul – Part I
It was obvious to me from my first school days that white people were unpredictable. This understanding of unpredictability came when my big sister took me to school for the first time and introduced me to her girlfriend’s little sister (who was starting school that day too). I thought I had made a friend for life. However that was not to be. Most white kids I met at school did not or would not play with me. Sometimes (rarely) they did. This is where the unpredictability came in. I was never sure when or if they would play with me. Eventually I worked out that they only ever spoke or played with me if there were no other (white) kids around.
Through Life in Pursuit of Equality – Part I
English newspapers contained similar evidence of male arrogance and insensitivity to women’s rights as in Australia. One morning newspaper reported findings of a medical committee inquiring into whether or not women should be permitted some form of pain relief at childbirth. By a majority decision the male members of the committee decided women should not have relief, as pain may be necessary to establish a mother’s love for her child. The two women on the committee recorded a minority finding in favour of pain relief during childbirth.
Aboriginal First, Woman Second – Part 2
We went to a settlement roughly 5 kilometres from inner-city Perth. Five vans had been donated by a mining company – with one toilet, one washing tub, one shower and one light to service all the families living in the vans. That visit above all was upsetting. The babies were sick. The adults showed such loss it is difficult to describe. They are terrorsed by police. The young women are raped; bashings are common. Just a little way through the scrub was a park area where the practising Klansmen bashed Aborigines to the point of death. I was devastated with what I saw. I met a woman about forty years old, who thought I could do something. If only I could. It was hard for her to understand I was there for my own interest, and was not connected to a higher power, or its messenger.