so what’s YOUR STORY?

The place to tell your stories …

4 thoughts on “so what’s YOUR STORY?

  1. HISTORICAL COMMENT
    Do you sit and watch the TV with your head shaking in disbelief when stories like the ABC Australian Story of 16/3/15 “The Seeds of Wrath” http://www.abc.net.au/austory/, unfold in front of you? I guess it just reflects that they only got here yesterday and the logic, absence of ethics, arrogance- ignorance is gonna be a long time changing. The ABC of growing your humanity – be sensitive, sensible and sensory – would have made a better story but I guess they’re not there yet. Just as well we’ve got NITV.

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  2. A SOVEREIGN STORY FROM UNCEDED LAND

    I answered the mobile phone just as I was leaving the toilet in a city café, and a man says “Hello I am … from the … police station. Is that ….?: “Yes …” I answer, as I move to sit down at a table and wait for my friend. “We have received a complaint from your next door neighbour that there has been a theft of some fuel from her garage and her children told her that they saw a man fitting the description of your ‘other’ neighbour” (the word Aboriginal is not mentioned) “at the time of the theft. Are you at home today? I called there earlier but no one was in.” “Oh,” I say “if she is accusing him of theft it is a lie. And I am not at home today nor is the ‘other’ neighbour.” “No one is accusing anyone of anything” he replies “I just have to make enquiries into the circumstances reported to me about the incident. Is the ‘other’ neighbour at home?” “Look,” I try to explain “that place has been our home for over twenty years” (in colonial time, but in reality over 40,000) “and it has only been since the homes on the land either side of our land were sold then purchased as investment properties, rented and soon occupied by ‘the “neighbours” that nobody wants’, that there have been any problems there.” “Yes I understand … Do you know of anyone else living in the area that fits the same description as your ‘other’ neighbour?” “I don’t know of anyone but you can ask my ‘other’ neighbour about that” I say. “Well, has your son visited the property recently” he enquires? “No my son has not been there for a few weeks. He lives in Brisbane where he is employed, married and has a new born child” I tell him. “Oh, are you sure he hasn’t been at the property?” he asks again. “No. He has not.” I assure him, and ask “Where are you getting this information about us from?” “It is on our records here at the station” he responds. He continues, “When will you and your ‘other’ neighbour be home again?” I return late tonight and my neighbour is on shift work and doesn’t return until next week.” “Ok I will call in on you when you are at home to investigate further” he advises.

    Now this seems regular and relatively benign and is a matter of course when Aboriginal people are under suspicion for petty theft of any property. But there has been huge crimes against humanity and theft committed in that very place where some fuel has gone missing, that nobody has investigated and is more than the trusted sleuths from the following list would care to, could solve, or even begin to comprehend, let alone the local constabulary, because they are part of the cover-up: CSI Crime Scene Investigation, NCIS, Sherlock, Shaft, Vera, Prime Suspect, Blue Murder, Winter, Blue Heelers, Scott and Bailey, Jonathan Creek, Cold Case, Medium, Criminal Minds, Persons of Interest, New Tricks, Death in Paradise, Miami Vice, Frost, Law and Order, Marvel’s Agents, The Mentalist, Bones, Castle, Blue Bloods, Miss Marple, Body Farm, Waking the Dead, Cracker, Prime Suspect, Pie in the Sky, Whitechapel, Luther, Wire in the Blood, Wallander, Vincent, Agatha Christie, Avengers, Broadchurch, Columbo, Dalzeil and Pascoe, Danger Man, Dexter, Father Brown, Grimm, Hawaii Five-0, Inspectors George Gently, Morse, Foyle, Linley, Lewis, Peirrot, Rex, Judge John Deed, Silent Witness … Massacres of millions of people and theft of land and resources worth billions of dollars go un-investigated in America, South America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Palestine, Africa … the list goes on; while we are distracted by blatant propaganda in charades of law, truth and justice.

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  3. The story from Palestine – what happens there is what happened here yesterday and today ….

    HISTORICAL ARTICLE
    My people have formally rejected an Indigenous Land Use Agreement with Adani to build the Carmichael coal mine on our land. I’m asking you and all people to join us in our fight.

    We are gravely concerned about Adani and the Queensland Government’s desperate attempts to open up the Carmichael mine on Wangan and Jagalingou country. Our traditional lands are an interconnected and living whole; a vital cultural landscape. It is central to us as a People, and to the maintenance of our identity, laws and consequent rights.

    If the Carmichael mine proceeds it will tear the heart out of our country. The scale of this mine means it would have devastating impacts on our native title, ancestral lands and waters, our totemic plants and animals, and our environmental and cultural heritage.

    It will pollute and drain billions of litres of groundwater, and obliterate important spring systems. It will potentially wipe out threatened and endangered species. It will literally leave a huge black hole of monumental proportions in our homelands. These effects are irreversible. Our land will be “disappeared”.

    I’m asking you to stand with my people as we fight Adani. Please sign our petition here: https://www.communityrun.org/p/stopadani

    The direct impacts won’t be limited to our lands – they would have cascading effects on the neighbouring lands and waters of other Traditional Owners and other landholders in the region. The mine would unleash a mass of carbon into the atmosphere and propel dangerous global warming.

    At no time have we, the Wangan and Jagalingou people given our free, prior and informed consent to the Queensland Government or Adani for the development of the Carmichael mine. But only days after we rejected Adani’s Indigenous Land Use Agreement, the company took aggressive legal action to override our decision.

    Adani wants to release themselves from the obligation to secure our agreement to mine our land. If they are successful in their legal ploy, they will also be able to seek the compulsory acquisition of our Native Title on our traditional lands.

    Adani is using its huge wealth and legal power against us while pretending to support our interests. We object in the strongest terms to their aggressive action to override us. We will not accept ‘shut up money’ so the mine can go ahead.

    We know our battle is a hard one. It is not just the multi-billion dollar might of Adani that my people are up against. Both the former LNP Queensland Government and Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt approved Adani’s mine through the regulatory process.

    As first peoples, we will defend our rights as traditional custodians, protect our ancestral land and cultural health, and maintain our interests in and on our country. We will protect our land for the benefit of our people, the wider Australian community, and all of us who will be affected by the consequences of global warming.

    When we say No, we mean No. It’s time Adani learned.

    Thank you for listening to my story and hearing our call. Please join us: https://www.communityrun.org/p/stopadani

    Adrian Burragubba, on behalf of the Wangan and Jagalingou people.

    PS – CommunityRun is a site hosted by GetUp where anyone, like me, can start their own campaign.

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    1. Adani Mining Coal Mines Company India, has billions to tend to India’s impoverished population. The Australian/Queensland government supports such exploitation in Australia. Adani states coal mining will allow provision of electricity to the Indian population; but it will not improve lives of those impoverished. The Adani mine will further destroy land and climate maintaining the same social problems; making the land and people sicker from financial economic customs practiced globally! How can anyone feel for people and country when profit is the priority?

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