Pornography Drop-off Point. “This one is at the airstrip and is one of a pair. The other one is at the entrance to Yuendumu near the patronising “Look for People” sign. We inspect the bins daily. So far nothing has been placed in them. Anything we recover from the bins, we will incinerate.”
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WARLPIRI
Deeply depressing news from the North – the slow death of bilingualism in remote Northern Territory schools
Central Australian government schools have lost their last linguist. The funding allocated for the salary for the remainder of the year will go to the Darwin Languages Centre, which deals with non-Indigenous and Indigenous languages, but is mostly about teaching as a second language.1 No funding has been allocated for a Central Australian linguist in 2012. There’s an Indigenous Language and Culture Officer position who supports schools, but again no funding is guaranteed for 2012.
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Governments, ownership and control of the Yuendumu 100
“Warlpiri people are not slaves, yet many in ‘mainstream’ society persist in claiming some sort of ‘ownership’ of Aborigines. They arrogantly have opinions as to what Aborigines should or shouldn’t do, and believe they have some sort of right in deciding what is best for them. Warlpiri have no power over their destiny. No say in their future. No say in how they should run their lives.” Frank Baarda, Yuendumu 2010
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The media and the “riots” in Yuendumu
I can’t think of a single incident in the past in which the Warlpiri residents of Yuendumu have not respected non-Warlpiri residents’ neutrality in such matters. They respect our right to be kept out of it. This respect is not reciprocated by “mainstream” society, that has the arrogant belief that it is entitled to interfere and dictate to remote Aboriginals how they should live their lives. The Intervention epitomises this arrogance.
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Alice Desert Festival diary day two – the Bush Bands Bash
The best band of the night for mine on the night was the Iwantja Band from the remote South Australia town of Indulkana. They didn’t have the slick moves and showmanship of Papunya’s Tjupi Band but they sure had their musical chops down.
READ MOREThe Ampilatwatja walk-off – Richard Downs on the new ‘dog-licenses’ and more
To my mind this Income Quarantining is a bit like the old days when they used to put Aboriginal people under the “dog license”, where they had to grovel to the government for permission to do all kinds of things. People need to stand up and say “No, this is not right for Australia. What kind of country are we living in?”
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An interview with Warlpiri/Anmatyerre law student Bruno Jupurrula Wilson of Yuendumu
Most of the people working for the intervention are Kardia (non-Aboriginal) – there is not much work for Yapa from the Intervention – most of those jobs go to Kardia people. When they come in with all their flash new cars, flash Toyotas, that makes us feel down. What the Yapa are thinking is that all the Kardia are “moneyfaces” (that they only care about money). And some people think like it was a hundred years ago and is still happening now.
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Warlukurlangu – taking the desert to (New) Delhi
So here we are a few years down the track.. the global economy has crashed, gloom and doom all around and we are spending a bloody fortune going half way around the world to try to flog a few pics…
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Bird of the week – Jarlajirrpi – the Australian Owlet-Nightjar
The Owlet-nightjar, known to the Warlpiri people as Jarlajirrpi, is commonly regarded as a familiar spirit of the Kurdaitcha man – part mercenary contract killer, part quasi-judicial executioner.
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