Indigenous Land Managers - Profiting from Climate Change

By Minelle Creed

Indigenous land owners will soon be able to contribute to Climate Change by creating their own carbon footprint using renewable energy from natural waste on their traditional lands, in the global effort to reduce greenhouse gases.

The Australian Federal Government recently scrapped the Emissions Trading Scheme, delivered by the Minister for Climate Change, Energy Efficiency and Water, Senator Penny Wong. But Australia still has a commitment to the Kyoto Protocol to reduce emissions. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Traditional Owners can contribute by reducing emissions through the development of strategies and projects that create renewable energy.

CarbonHouse are committed to reducing Australia’s carbon footprint by working with Traditional Owners in developing smarter carbon management and in renewable energy and carbon sequestration projects. They will work with Indigenous communities to develop Carbon Strategies for reducing, offsetting and managing carbon and other green house emission.

The project will negotiate with Traditional Owners and take into account Cultural, Environmental and Economically viable initiatives on traditional lands by using biogas created from natural waste, instead of fossil fuels.

Indigenous land owners can develop these strategies with CarbonHouse, using renewable energy created from Wind, Hydro, Landfill, Solar and Bagasse. CarbonHouse Manager, Rod Glass says the benefits for Indigenous land owners could become profitable though renewable energy certificates. Rod Glass speaking at a conference in Cairns over the weekend:

If you’d like to be a part of this culturally appropriate, environmentally friendly, economically viable project you can call Mr Glass from CarbonHouse, and he will work with Traditional Owners to develop sustainable projects specific to your land and area. Click here to a list of future workshops for Aboriginal people in Queensland.

Below are video examples of Renewal Energy Projects:

1. Biogass
2. Micro-hydro power
3. Tidal Power
4. Bio Mass Plant
5. Diagrams -> bioreactor land fill diagram
6. Wind Turbines
7. Stirling Solar Energy Tech – California
8. Hydrogen Fuel Cell
9. Algae – Renewable Energy Fuel

Human Rights Crimes against Children in the Goldfields

By Alice Haines

Goldfields is now under scrutiny with the influx of children becoming Incarcerated over recent months. Coolgardie Town, 38 Kilometers from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia have been reaching out to the wider communities in a cry for help.

On 31st March 2010 we had an urgent cry from community by the Father of a 12 year old boy whose son was incarcerated and apprehended from his Pastors house for breaching a curfew placed by courts. Curfews are now the topic for this town because even if there was not a court ordered curfew a town curfew has been placed for all youth under the age of 18. Even though the curfew is for all youths the implementation of this curfew is only practiced on all the Indigenous Youth.


There is some question of the legality of this curfew which is not a Western Australian Legislation nor seems to be a Local Government By Law. The town curfew in question is what led to a 15 year old Aboriginal female youth being harassed by police on her way home from the shops one evening. Witnesses say that when the youth tried to walk off when police came from behind and threw her to the ground by her neck. After she struggled whilst panicking the police pepper sprayed her and tasered her even though she was already pinned to the ground.

Click on the video below to see footage of the Queensland Police taser a 16yo girl on Southbank.



The young female youth was then kept in the Paddy Wagon for 4 ½ hours at the back of Coolgardie Police Station and then taken to Kalgoorlie lock up via rough corrugated backtrack roads as apposed to the main highway to Kalgoorlie. She then was stripped search at the Kalgoorlie lockups. The young youth who is diagnosed with acute asthma was refused medical help when she made a complaint of chest pains. This case goes to trial in Kalgoorlie on the 7th May.2010. The mother has charges of trespassing at the police station in Coolgardie when she came in on the night to inquire of her child’s whereabouts and well being. These charges go to court on the 10th of May 2010.

Both Mother and Daughter had no prior criminal record preceding this incident.

The Goldfields has the highest incarceration rate in the world from the Indigenous race. The rate is 6 times higher than the heat of Apartheid in South Africa when incarceration reached its highest statistics of South African history.

This is clearly a Human Rights Violation.

Thank you Alice Haines.

Fake Facebook page dishonours Jimmy Little

By Minelle Creed

A group set up on Facebook called the Mr Jimmy Little Appreciation Society has been set up without the permission of 'Uncle' Jimmy and his family. Aboriginal singer Jimmy Little, who has his own page on Facebook called the Jimmy Little Foundation, says it is easy for people to be confused about the two pages, and has asked for the Mr Jimmy Little Appreciation Society to be closed. The request from his daughter, Franny Peters-Little, has been met with hostility and threats of legal action.

Peters-Little says she has contacted the creators of the Mr Jimmy Little Appreciation Society and Facebook with her family's request and has even provided a written statement signed by her father asking that the site respect his wishes and remove the page from Facebook, but the page still remains.

The Mr Jimmy Little Appreciation Society which was set up by husband and wife team Elvianna & Simon Dorante Day, who have created several pages on Facebook (click here to see a full list) which include Appreciation Societies, Fan Pages, etc. Click on the image belopw to see the written statement signed by Jimmy Little regarding his position on the Mr Jimmy Little Appreciation Society.

"The Jimmy Little Foundation was established to help improve kidney health in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across regional and remote Australia. Dr James O Little AO is a legend of the Australian music scene and has been performing for over fifty years.

After two years on dialysis and a successful kidney transplant, he realised the importance of all Australians being able to access quality health care no matter where they live and wanted to make a concrete contribution to those communities most affected by kidney disease. Jimmy is living proof that there can be productive life after diagnosis of kidney disease which is decimating indigenous Australians at an alarming rate."

Jimmy Little Foundation Information source: Jimmy Little Foundation

Yabun 2010

The Yabun Festival in Sydney was a fantastic day. The entertainment line up was fantastic, and seeing all the red, black and yellow colours on the majority of people was a delight to see.

For me the highlight was seeing so many kids and families coming together, seeing friends and family who hadn't seen each other for a long time embrace each other with so much warmth, it makes me realise how much love and support we have within our familys and our small communities.

MC's Sean Choolburra, Australia's leading Entertainer, and Aunty Lillian Crombie, actress both worked well together to keep the crowds entertained between acts.

We may have injustice and inequality in many different areas of life, but there is no denying that love we have for our own. Seeing all the face, most of them I didn't know, but a few familiar faces, was great for me.

The entertainment line up for the day included artists such as, BrothaBlack, Zennith, Last Kinnection, Bunna Lawrie (Coloured Stone), Sharnie Fenwick, and more.



Thanks to Gadigal Information for a wonderful day. Click here for other pics of the day

No running water major health issue for Indigenous Australians

Written by Minelle Creed

A lack of running water is a major health issue for Aboriginal people in remote communities in Australia. According to Ray Martin, around 350 Aboriginal communities in Australia still don't have access to running water

Martin, a former television journalist and now chairman of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation, says a lack of basic running water has contributed to and is still a leading cause of chronic health conditions for Aboriginal people living in remote communities.

A descendant of the Gamilaroi people from northern New South Wales, Martin says that most of the Aboriginal people living in these remote communities are living in third world conditions.

He traveled with the late Professor Fred Hollows, Ophthalmologist who treated Indigenous people around the world and in Australia with chronic eye conditions such as trachoma and blindness.

Professor Hollows began working with Aboriginal communities in the 1970's, and helped to establish the Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern, as well as other Medical services around Australia. He also founded the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program, which was set up to eliminate trachoma, and other eye conditions in rural and remote communities in Australia.

Martin who traveled with Professor Hollows many years ago to some remote Indigenous communities, said these conditions still affect Aboriginal communities and ' is still about 5 times the rate of white Australians, but its unforgivable, unacceptable. Most problems in Aboriginal Australia is a matter of hygiene'. Having access to running water is not only a problem in third world countries, but it also exists in Australia's desert and remote areas.



Martin is currently touring Australia after the release of his Autobiography, Ray: Stories of my Life.

Interview with Mark Graham, November 2009

RAY MARTIN - Education for Aboriginal Kids is the Key

Written by Minelle Creed

His name is synonymous with the friendly, smiling face we saw on TV. The face of Australian current affairs was sometimes serious, other times funny, but mostly likable due to his wonderful personable attributes.

Ray Martin, a graduate of Sydney University with a BA and History distinction, began his career as a cadet journalist with the ABC in 1965. He is also a high-profile personality in Australian media and television, a former television journalist, foreign correspondent, midday variety show host, and humble Aboriginal gentleman who is a descendant of the Gamilaroi people from New South Wales.

Martin is best know for his time on 60 Minutes, along with George Negus and Ian Leslie, and the variety show Midday with Ray, which were among the highest-rating programs on Australian television.

In October 2009 he released his autobiography titled Ray: Stories Of My Life - The Autobiography which talks about his life from his humble beginnings. Mark Graham, Aboriginal man from Larrakia Nation in the Northern Territory spoke with Martin about his Autobiography.

During Graham's interview, Martin revealed his passion for Indigenous Advancement, and spoke mainly about the disadvantages still in Indigenous education, and how he feels it's important for Indigenous parents to ensure their children are well educated.



Martin named Professor Fred Hollows, Mick Dodson, his brother Patrick Dodson, Galarrwuy Yunipingu, Lowitja O'Donoghue and Noel Pearson, as some of the most influential people he has met over the years.

Is Australia Racist?

I posted a discussion 'Is Australia Racist' the other day on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Grapevine Discussion Board in Facebook. Around about 20 people commented, and I must say I was quite surprised with what people had to say.

The discussion was in response to a poll on the internet and the recent backlash in America and other countries after the performance of the Jackson Jive (click here to watch the video) on Channel 9's Hey Hey Its Saturday's Red Faces segment.

The skit was performed by the same group 20 years ago, but this time round the response was not great. I myself thought it was done in poor taste, and was thoughtless, and did not see any humour in the skit at all. During the performance, a card was also shown that had 'Where's Kamahl', who had previously been a regular guest on the show before it ended in 1999. Click on the image below to see Kamahl's response

After reading the responses on the ATSI Grapevine, I was totally blown away by some of the responses.

Gary Wood said 'I honestly believe that people are just miseducated and ignorant. Yes, there are racists but alot of it is misguided cultural assumptions.'

Jub Clerc; 'i think the problem is is that Australians don't even know that they are racist. they live in this beautiful abundant country and are soooo spoilt by the wealth, prosperity and easiness of it that they have well and truly lost their heads up their bottoms.'

Helen Laub said 'I hear racist comments on a daily basis. Because I'm white, people don't think I will be offended. But I am. I know they wouldn't say these things if someone who wasn't white could hear them.'

Sabrina Seaman responded by saying this 'I think that people need to remember that what ever race you may be we are ALL human and deserve Respect. Australia would be a better country if we helped each other step up in the world not step on others.'

David Widders believed, 'education and awareness is the key to changeing attitudes and views. I run a days Cultural Awareness training where I want to change the attitudes and views of Aboriginal people.'

Jim Duffield spoke about the meaning of race and gave a very definitive explanation of the word. Duffield, also wrote that he was born in a Nazi concentration camp and was on one of 13 people in the world to survive, quoted confucius, writing 'The longest march begins with the first step.'

Others went on to say they believed Australia was racist but more ignorant of the cultural aspects of black people in this country, and hoped that educating people about culture could be a way to make people understand Indigenous people better.

The most comments were very enlightening and very positive about racism, saying they had experienced it but that if we all can work together we can find a solution.