Readings

Readings

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1. Aboriginal people of NSW

It is known from the work of archaeologists that human occupation of Australia dates back at least 60000 years. These readings give a brief history of READING: 1. Aboriginal people in NSW

  • Reading 1A Before 1788
  • Reading 1B First contacts
  • Reading 1C The Frontier War
  • Reading 1D Under the Act
  • Reading 1E 1967 - 1997

Aboriginal Australia Aboriginal People of NSW
Produced by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission 1997
(c) Commonwealth of Australia 1997 ISBN 0 664 10152 0

2. The Legacy of History

"It is important that we understand the legacy of Australia' s history, as it helps to explain the deep sense of injustice felt by Aboriginal people, their disadvantaged status today and their current attitudes towards non-Aboriginal people and society...."
Chapter 10 of Volume 2 of the READING: 2 The Legacy of History: National Report Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody

  • Reading 2A : Aboriginal Society Prior to the British Arrival
  • Reading 2B : The Dispossession of Aboriginal People
  • Reading 2C : Frontier Period: Diseases and Violence
  • Reading 2D : Police
  • Reading 2E : Aboriginal People and the Law

Royal Commission in Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
National Report, Volume 2, Chapter 10
Australian government Publishing Service Canberra 1991
Full report available on the web.

3 . Jack McPhee & Edward Eyre

READING 3: Jack McPhee & Edward Eyre

The ramifications of the choice about seeking exemption status are well described by Jack McPhee, who speaks of the period in Western Australia between 1939 and 1941.

  • Reading 3A : Jack McPhee

The famous explorer Edward Eyre set out to explain why Aborigines attacked frontier settlers. He gave seven reasons. EJ. Eyre, Journals of Expeditions of discovery etc., 2 vol., London, 1845

  • Reading 3B : Edward Eyre

4. Paul Keating’s Redfern Speech

This speech, on indigenous issues, was given by the then Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating, at Redfern Park in Sydney on 10 December 1992 (For non-Australians, Redfern is an inner city suburb of Sydney with an historically large Aboriginal population).
Australian Launch of the International Year for the World's Indigenous People

READING 4 : Paul Keating Redfern Speech

5. Bringing them Home - History

READING 5: Bringing them Home - History

  • Reading 5A NSW practices 1788 - 1936
  • Reading 5B Assimilation 1937-1975
  • Reading 5C Towards self-management
  • Reading 5D Jennifer's story
  • Reading 5E Children's experiences

Bringing them Home
Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
April 1997
Full report available on the web.

Note: Link-Up is an Aboriginal organization founded in 1980 and based in New South Wales. Link-Up works with Aboriginal adults who were separated from their families when they were children. They may have been raised by non-Aboriginal people in institutions, private homes or foster homes or adoptive homes.

6. Trauma and Grief

Indigenous Australians have been affected by extreme personal, collective, and cultural trauma, and the effects are cascading, cumulative and transgenerational. The effects of trauma in one generation are the causes of trauma in the next generation, creating a continuous cycle which is very difficult to break.

READING 6: Trauma and Grief

Reading 6A: Introduction
Reading 6B:Transgenerational trauma
Reading 6C: Post Traumatic Stress
Reading 6D: Collective Trauma
Reading 6E: Destruction of Indigenous ways of dealing with trauma
Reading 6F: Cultural Trauma

7. Apology to Australia's Indigenous Peoples
House of Representatives Parliament House, Canberra 13 February 2008

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
"I move: That today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history. We reflect on their past mistreatment."

READING 7: Parliamentary Apology

8. Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature

READING 8A: Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature
READING 8B: David Unaipon 1872-1967
   Traditions and customs
    Voice of the Great Spirit
READING 8C: Ooodgeroo Noonuccal 1920 - 1993
    Petition for Aboriginal Advancement
    Poem
READING 8D: Charles Perkins 1936-2000
    Letter to the Editor
READING 8E: Mick Dodson 1950 -
    We All Bear the Cost if Apology is Not Made

9. People on Country

READING 9: People on Country

  • READING 9A: The book People on Country
  • READING 9B: Epiphany II A short walk with Junun on Kuninjku country
  • READING 9C: Land and Property Rights

10. Why were we not told

READING 10: Why were we not told?

  • READING 10A: Why Weren't We Told
  • READING 10B: An Unforgettable incident
  • READING 10C: Dispossession
  • READING 10D: Henry Reynolds

11. Our rights matter

READING 11: Our rights matter

  • READING 11A: Human rights
  • READING 11B: International human rights

13. Reconstructing Social Work

READING 13: Reconstructing social work

  • READING 13A:Reconstructing social work
  • READING 13B: Understanding lateral violence
  • READING 13C: Non-judegementalism
  • READING 13D: Cultural diversity
  • READING 13E: Power
  • READING 13F: Empowerment
  • READING 13G: Equality

14. Voices: Positive changes and developments

READING 14: Voices: Positive changes and developments

  • READING 14A: Positive changes and developments
  • READING 14B: Tent Embassy
  • READING 14C: Self-Determination and Self Management
  • READING 14D: Land rights
  • READING 14E: 1990s
  • READING 14F: Rights of Indigenous peoples

15. National Congress of Australia's First Peoples

READING 15. National Congress of Australia's First Peoples

16. An Australian Dialogue Decolonising the Country

READING 16: An Australian Dialogue: Decolonising the Country

  • READING 16A: An Australian Dialogue
  • READING 16B: Dialogue to empower the country
  • READING 16C: A conversation between all Australians
  • READING 16D: Conclusion

17. Statement from the Heart

READING 17: Uluru Statement From the Heart form the conclusion of the 2017 First Nations National Constitutional Convention at Uluru.

 

Upper Hunter Case Study Readings

Readings

101. Rock art & Rocks

The term rock painting is used to describe Aboriginal art where materials have been applied to a rock surface to make a design or picture. These may be elaborate, multi layered and profuse or more simple, like the western concept of a drawing. Paintings and drawings on rock surfaces are found across Australia. There are numerous sites in the Upper Hunter:

READING 101: Rock art and Rocks

  • READING 101A: Introduction to Rock Art
  • READING 101B:Hands on Rock
  • READING 101C:Biame

Tiddalik is the key character in one of the most widely related dreaming stories on the eastern seaboard of Australia.

  • READING 101D:Tiddalik

102. The Upper Hunter History of Aboriginal and European contact Part A

This web site was developed within the Upper Hunter Community. The following are some of the stories of Aboriginal and European contact

READING 102: Upper Hunter History of Aboriginal and European contact: Part A

READING 102A : Aboriginal people in the Hunter Valley
READING 102B : First contact in the Upper Hunter Valley
READING 102C : The Trial of Lieutenant Nathaniel Lowe
READING 102D : The Impact of dispossession
READING 102E : Caroona and St Heliers
READING 102F : St Clair (Mount Olive), Caroona and the Aborigines Inland Mission

103. The Upper Hunter History of Aboriginal and European contact Part B

READING 103: Upper Hunter History of Aboriginal and European contact: Part B

READING 103A : Railway tents, 14 pound hammers and assimilation
READING 103B : Aboriginal Men, Private Contractors and Liddell Power Station
READING 103C : No Time like the Present: A personal note from Deirdre Heitmeyer
READING 103D : Muswellbrook Shire Council document for Reconciliation Statement of Principles

104. Contemporaries

READING 104: Contemporaries

Aboriginal community member

"Personally I am always talking about my colour and our culture, how blacks deal with things, how we think, how we feel and they try to be understanding about that." An Aboriginal community members speaks about experiences of services.

  • READING 104A : Aboriginal community member
CEO of Aboriginal organisation

Some organization don’t understand the needs of Aboriginal people, and all the cultural awareness in the world is not going to change that, because they have their minds set in government departments on how Aboriginal people are supposed to be. A CEO of an Aboriginal organisation talks about services.

  • READING 104B : CEO of Aboriginal organisation
Glen Morris

"My name is Glen Morris. I was born in 1951 in Kempsey on the Mid-North Coast of NSW. Me family lived on a Reserve there called Burnt Bridge. There was four of us in the family, me elder sister, myself, younger sister and younger brother. My father worked at the Golf Links as Green Keeper at Kempsey."

  • READING 104C : Burnt Bridge, The Welfare Board, Doctors
  • READING 104D: Living on the Reserve in Armidale 1950s/60s
  • READING 104E: Traditional knowledge
  • READING 104F : Discrimination - swimming, movies, education and jobs

105. The Reconciliation Mural

READING 105. The Reconciliation Mural