LEADERSHIP. The Berliner Kurier, proclaims ‘Earth to Trump, Forever You”. The Earth loves Donald Trump and so do all Germans.

Leadership is a rare quality in todays politics. As the western democracies vacillate between allowing the corporates to just take over and let the free market run rampant, other countries just allow the corporates to just take over and let the free market run rampant. It’s the defining principle of the early twenty-first century. To return to the comforting embrace of a system they call Feudalism.

That’s why it’s so encouraging for a leader to stand up and do something really positive for COAL. Donald Trump should be applauded for his heroic stance. He has lifted the game on global science deniers and fake news by recognising COAL as the single most important symbol of freedom liberty and looking to the glories of the past. A past enshrined in the principles of a free market which gave the U.S, slavery, witch burning, GOD, and the power and might of the gun.

He digs “Love” also!!

The rest of the world, even the not terribly democratic superpowers of China and Russia are flummoxed by Trumps stand. A sure sign of LEADERSHIP.

Not since the League of Nations, has a coordinated treaty system such as the Paris Climate Agreement ever had such a good chance of failure. And yet, in spite of the barrage of criticism and the isolationist stand that should make the USA great again, there is evidence from diverse corners of the globe that a sustained applause greets the leader of the free world in his determination to resolutely go backwards.

More Leadership on FAKE SCIENCE!

You’d think it were North Korea, Iran, and other baddies committed to keeping the world mental? Or even the Saudi’s who are terribly interested in sticking to fossil fuels, stoning women, and fostering a really weird fucked up psycho-sexual neurotic brand of fundamentalism. They all love fossil fuels and they’ll do anything they can to stop the rot. Because, they can.

No none of the above, the most positive applause is camping from their ally in the South Pacific. Ever loyal, obedient, and subservient stands Australia. As renewables go off the scale, and COAL looks prehistoric, Australia, alone stands proud in fulsome support of Donald. And that makes us at pcbycp extremely proud.

Larry Marshall. CEO CSIRO. “A fucking Genius” Issac Newton. (Brother of Bert and Pattie, much loved Australians )

True visionary leadership at work in Australian politics. Doing what the lobbyists require to keep principles of Australian values ‘PURE”

The coalition party room has the champagne on ice. And now the corks can pop FREELY. We can breathe easy. For too long the politicians of Australia have been bullied by the climate scientists.
For too long Larry Marshall CEO of CSIRO has been doing the hard lifting of closing climate science as a research at CSIRO. And for too long have the steadfast work of Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey in closing down investment in renewables gone unsung. Now there’s a chance that Australia will be recognised the world over as the leader in putting COAL where it belongs. We have proud Queenslanders leading the way. With Adani’s mine Australia will stand as exporter of the worlds biggest filthiest, energy system. And the taxpayer will find it 100%, and any profits after sophisticated accounting, will be shipped of overseas.

Congratulations! Politicians of Australia. The COAL lobby has spoken. And loyally, You obey! You’ve ‘hurrahed’ Donald. Your epithet stands proud.

‘By looking forward, you’ve gone backwards’.

Well Done!

More from Lionel G Fogarty

Love or Human Nature

Love originator is her Koori love’s
Glad nearly complete with you
when not sad
possess we personally for the peoples
spirit and goal
bring me to Koori cause cos cos
Equally we like to be near bodes
Mother is woman
Nature are from Koori scoreness
respectfully comforts me here
Mankind . . . womankind . . .
even when man hypocrites
and black baits at the coloured bar
So love originator thousand
Stir in seen godfully gentle
to her black man now.
Or violent massing greedy boy or girl
will sway
late coming to home
a voice strong aware you
‘take relevance and articulate
give strength, pride of a Koori language
Share your woman brother . . .
Nah . . . nah . . . don’t live thata now drowning.
The five paces behind . . . now . . .
up front expression desire
desire your own love
original womens.
I’m Murri Koori aboriginal
loving fresh and bold
see ya, told ya
us humanity
not discovered.
Gladly came
emerging just to our people
making love love love.

From Ngutji 1984, reprinted in New and Selected Poems Mundaldjali, Mutuerjaraera, Lionel G Fogarty 1995 Hyland House South Melbourne Victoria.

Today’s dispatch is  ‘Lawa’.  Originally dispatched on 29 April  2016

Habari za asubuhi marafiki zangu

Lawa is a Warlpiri word that means both ‘no’ and ‘nothing’.

Such as lawa-jarrija: ‘It was made into nothing’ in other words it was used up or emptied or finished up.

The word ‘no’ often evokes a memory I have of an anti-sexual harassment poster from a few decades ago: “which part of N O don’t you understand?”

Some decades ago the Northern Territory Government had a campaign going to get local councils to register as Community Government Councils under NT legislation. Back then many councils were registered under Federal (Commonwealth) legislation. The then NT Government, run by what were known as the “CLP cowboys” (the CLP is the Country Liberal Party), inter alia spent a vast amount of money opposing Aboriginal Land Claims lodged under the federal Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976.

Warlpiri people knew on which side their bread was buttered.

I attended several community meetings at which some unfortunate wearer of long white socks had to try and sell the concept that Community Government Councils would be so much better, to unconvinced antagonistic crowds. I can still picture two Jungarrayi brothers (who sadly are no longer with us) who took it in turns to point at the poor fellow and in a loud voice proclaim: “We are saying LAWA, we are saying LAWA, LAWA means NO”

So did the Government take NO for an answer? NO they didn’t.

Sometime later another unfortunate long white sock wearer would organize a community meeting and the whole scene would repeat itself. “We are saying LAWA, we are saying LAWA, LAWA means NO”. Several meetings later a less unfortunate wearer of long white socks turned up at a time many Yuendumu residents were away at some event. The small group that attended the meeting, caved in and we got our Yuendumu Community Government Council. A long convoluted history ensued. The YCGC thrived for a while at the height of Self Determination. Not even a pretence of an opportunity to say LAWA came with the 2007 Intervention which heralded a new heightened level of disregard. They had all the power.

On the coat tails of the Intervention, so called council amalgamations took over local councils (and I might add their assets) at the stroke of a pen. Yuendumu became part of the Central Desert Shire, since renamed the Central Desert Regional Council, possibly for the same reason that the RJCP (Remote Jobs and Communities Programme) has been renamed the CDP (Community Development Programme). CDP sounds just like CDEP (if you say it quickly enough). CDEP were the increasingly successful Community Development Employment Projects, which had the rug pulled from under them in 2007.

CDEP for example employed a number of young people who worked as teaching assistants, at no cost to Yuendumu School, in the bilingual programme. This was at no additional cost to the long suffering ‘Australian taxpayer’ in that these teaching assistants would otherwise have been entitled to unemployment benefits. It was a win-win situation.

In the last Dispatch I waxed lyrical about song lyrics. Who could fail but be seduced by such as ….you don’t need a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows…?

As I said, a song can say things that it would otherwise take volumes to say.

Such a song is Bo Diddley’s He’s got all the whiskey…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu1QF9mFw0Q

It epitomises the Aboriginal Australia / Mainstream Australia relationship in a few simple and repeated words.

…he got all the money, he got all the money, but he won’t give me none….
…he got all the whiskey, he got all the whiskey, but he won’t give me none…
…he got all the women, he got all the women too, but he won’t give me none…

And last but not least:
…he got all the power, he got all the power, but he won’t give me none…

Do yourself a favour, listen to this song, the words may be simple but this is a brilliant piece of music.

Quoting from an ABC News article (on Adolf Hitler’s birthday 20^th April – I know, completely irrelevant):

“…He said, with the approval of the local people, the climb could be a ‘great opportunity for the local Anangu to participate in a lucrative business and create much-needed local jobs’. Mr Giles said he would ‘like to hear from the traditional owners, the Anangu people, and start a conversation’ …”

The traditional owners have been saying WIYA (LAWA in their language) for decades. They simply don’t like people climbing Uluru (Ayers Rock). Possibly for similar reasons to those that the many who would object to people clambering up St. Peter’s Basilica or the Alhambra might give. Yet our Chief Minister, Adam Giles, wants tostart a conversation!

Well may we ask:

What part of NO don’t you understand Mr. Giles?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z535jczyobQ

hadi wakati mwingine

 Frank

We at pcbycp are delighted that Josh Frydenberg has applauded the Coalitions’ decision to open up the Clean Energy Finance Corp to invest in carbon storage and capture. Opening the brand new ‘Australian Alchemy Institute’ in Canberra today the Energy and Environment Minister beamed; ‘It’s a demonstration of the government’s commitment to a technology neutral, non-ideological approach to national energy policy”.

These people are mis-informed by fake news and fake science.

And he’s dead right, it’s about time COAL had a fair go. We want the Australian Government to go one step further, and make it FREE to foreign buyers. Only then can we achieve sovereign resource security. It attracts overseas investment. Without it we’re stuffed. It’s worked with GAS and now it should apply equally to COAL. And the world will know that Aussies are good sports when it comes to giving it all away to a bunch of corporations who never ever pay tax.

“Removing the prohibition will allow the CEFC to support a wider range of low-emissions technologies and thereby reduce emissions at lowest cost,” Frydenberg said on Tuesday.

A wrong headed-man. The insidious influence of “Fake Science”

‘With the Alchemy Institute we’ll be able to divert taxpayer money away from silly investments into health, research, education and long termism into a couple of very wealthy individuals. And they’ll be able to come and go as they please, and see real scientists, in real white lab-coats, brushing, polishing, and admiring lumps of coal. They’ll be analysing it and thinking really hard about how to turn it into something clean and green. Though the technology hasn’t worked anywhere in the world, we’re keen to make it work. Not by research, not by trial and error, not by any other empirical scientific method, but because we say so.

We at pcbycp heartily agree! Because we CAN!

By saying so, we’ll prove the technology and the rivers of gold diverted from bad investment, (as cited above) is used to make this wonderful building, and these very nice uniforms. And though the world will go 100 percent carbon neutral in the long term we’ll prove that by being Aussies we stick by our mates, and will do whatever they can to get them (a few good blokes and Gina) extremely rich. Remember what the Treasurer said; Bad investment; brainy stuff for wankers who imagine things. Good investment; it’s keeping things exactly the same. There’s an enshrining principle at work here. If it aint broke, don’t fix it. And your mates will look after you.

Last year I got two tickets to the Grand Final and an invite to Gina’s third daughter’s wedding. The year before I got to swim in Mr Adani’s swimming pool. Once this reform to the Clean Energy Finance Bill is passed I may even get to see the boss, Big Vlad. He likes maintaining the status quo and who can blame him. It’s made Russia Great, (again). And if we win the next election, i’ll get to have a Lamington with the most powerful man in the world, Lord Rupert. And he’ll reward me with a job somewhere. Which’ll be 100 percent taxpayer funded.

And besides there’s an over-arching principle at stake.

Close down manufacturing and you get a house like this in the U.S of A. ‘And if you can’t afford it, just get a better paid job’. ( J Hockey)

Joe* got it, so why can’t I’?

*Dear reader we at pcbycp would like to apologise for this gratuitous and il-timed reference to our former tresurer Joe Hockey. Joe single-handedly closed down the car industry and spoke of ‘lifters and leaners’. For his efforts he was given a cushy sinecure in Washington, and will add, (via taxpayer funded largesse) to his paltry, (only five at this stage) portfolio of investment properties. Which are also incidentally funded by the taxpayer. We wish him well in his industry and hard work.

Good taxpayer funded Infrastructure investment looks like this.

There’s something fishy about the Northern Australia Infrastructure Development Fund. For a start it makes up the kind of acronym, (NAIDF) that’s very difficult to pronounce. C’mon, you try, “NAI-DF”. We at pcbycp who love acronyms would have preferred the very simple ‘FAIND’ (Fund Another Indian Development Fraud), but bureaucrats don’t like making it personal. They’re above board, and free from the taint of corruption. That’s how they operate in the interests of the public, as objective and unbiased. And that’s a good thing. It makes us feel due process is being served.

Two of the board members of the NIDF have shareholder interests in mining, that could be a conflict of interest. Downer, who funds lots of private public partnerships and other odd bits of infrastructure are pretty good shares to have. We have a sneaking suspicion that Downer EDI could be one of those big companies that get big contracts and don’t pay much tax. They’ll be building the taxpayer funded railway and they allegedly grow the economy by funding projects like this.

Twiggy. Beneficiary of taxpayer concessions generously gives some of it back to his favourite causes as taxpayer funded philanthropy.For which he gets a tax break. (again)

Bad investment is when  public money is diverted to education, technology, research and health. That’s what the Treasurer says. he’s a bit like Mr Adani. He wants ‘big picture’ investment. Mr Adani employs accountants in the Cayman Islands or sone other bit of ol Empire like London to grow his own personal economy. This ensures viable work for those who benefit from his largesse, the letter lickers, the chauffeur, and the house butler. Though he doesn’t ever go there, he has nice houses in these and other exclusive locations. And why? It’s a bit like the Chinese couple who bought the house in Hawthorn for 9 mil, and then demolished and want 17 mil after leaving the site, (which once held a beautiful, outstanding example of late Edwardian architecture), because they could. It’s not greed, it’s the trickle down effect. To anoint us with a 17 million empty block so that Edwardian splendour can be replaced with a very nice Sino-Georgian architectural statement, that takes up the entire block. Point made.

Fallen woman, and angry. They like that in Queensland.

The Queensland treasurer is going to fast track the money to Adani, and see this rail built by hook or by crook. Good on him, there’ll be jobs for the odd railways track layer and some jobs in a Chinese rail-yard for the trucks. Because there’s no point in employing Australians to make the rolling stock and the rail is way to expensive also. Better we get them to do it, another instance of the trickle down effect. It’s what makes the project a boon for Queensland. Queenslanders like to be right and they’ll go to amazing lengths to prove that this is good infrastructure, and not some soft-cock la-de-da piece of nature like the Great Barrier Reef and Eco tourism for lefty poofta tree hugging international wankers.

Chapelle. Another fallen woman. Queenslanders Love it!

But there are more important things about being a Queenslander than digging stuff up, hating poofters and clearing the land of troublemakers. That’s providing a safe haven for Shapelle. She’s back and Queenslanders know once again, that the outside world is a dangerous place, down south is way too far down, and god-fearing and hating foreigners, (excepting that nice bloke Mr Adani) is on the go. And with Shapelle free there’s heaps better things to do than look at rainforests, coral and natural things of wonder and beauty. She’s a cultural icon. We identify with her. Like Pauline, she’s a fallen woman. And that’s reassuring, it makes us feel more normal. In Queensland that’s due process. And there’s no conflict of interest in that either.

Abe screams with pain. Another Trump handshake victim.

We are flummoxed as to what to do with Donald on public occasions. Though the Saudi’s were happy to cement their special relationship with the US military for a hundred billion trillion, they were seen to be hot on the phone to the other alpha male Vladimir for some sage advice. Unfortunately Vlad, was not answering their calls. “He’s tricky that way”, a CIA spokesman was overheard to say. “One moment he’s giving us everything we need on Hillary, the next he’s AWOL The fact that they won in Stalingrad is nothing short of effin amazing’.

Macron sidesteps the handshake.

Recently leaked files from ASIO senate hearings on un-Australian behaviour indicate the Department for Foreign affairs, The AFP and the standing committee on poise and decorum are at sea on the subject. But some clues may give an insight. The leaked report indicates the latest determinations on this vexed subject. The Merkel non-shake, (now referred to a ‘Merkel Gate’) caused a sensation. But as the report confidentially reveals it were nothing compared to the turmoil faced by Malcolm Turnbull. On the issues of the handshake policy options the authors were critical.

The paper represents these principles in dot point.

Option 1 go the handshake, or reject the handshake’, just keep smiling.

Option 2 go the sideway deceptor (Trudeau).

option 3 go the Saudi King, and in frustration seek redemption from Allah.

Option 4 go the Shinzo Abe, a handshake that hurts.

Option 5 go the Macron, break the buggers hand.

Option 6 Go the Montenegro, push the bastard aside.

Shirtfront. A viable option.

From the AIS, (Australian Sports Institute no less) comes the decision to adopt a sideways, rugby AFL fusion, part tackle part ruck, and confuse the Donald in mid poise. As head of security detailed in his recent talk to a shocked audience at the recent “basket full of implausibles” conference at the recent “Not Another Writers Festival”.

Rugby tackle. AFL, ARL fusion as defense against Trump handshake.

‘We made Donald, When we corporatised and privatised society into winners and losers. Didn’t hear you complaining then. This is what you get. He’s the office psycho at large. And the worst thing is that you folk at the Wheeler Centre just don’t get it. You haven’t evolved strategies to tackle him other than head-on. You never tackle a Donald head-on. You’ve gotta tire him and then move in for the kill. Look at this video of Ali, he taints his opponent and then runs around. Donald will not be able to keep up, and then as he staggers move in for the kill. This is what Vladimir would do, and perhaps what whoever it is who runs China. They get it. You egg heads are too busy being shocked to understand sport tactics. And because you had you head buried in books you mistook his behaviour and humanity for your own distorted bubble of like minded beret wearers.

But we have a solution, to book-end him. This requires principles both learnt in footy and rugby. When the Donald is on stage, go both sides, wedge him, shirtfront him and then, bring him down.

The tragedy, (addressing the stunned crowd) no one would do it. You’re all soft cocks! There’s only one man who can bridge the gap. A man who knows no fear and can provide a bridge between the talkers and the walkers, the bankers and the other wankers. For that man, his hour has come’……

Enter Mark Latham.

Hologram of the  PM, talking Constitutional reform. ( image taken at the Twiggy Forrest Foundation breakfast)

At last some real progress on Aboriginal reconciliation. In a startling turnaround at the Federal level there seems to be some real progress on constitutional reform. The Prime Minister was on hand to announce that constitutional change was inevitable; “For too long Aboriginal Australians have felt the ignominy of being not recognised in the Australian Constitution. This regrettable oversight reflects upon those who drafted the Constitution in the 1890’s. It’s time to right past wrongs and include these people as REAL People. We must work towards a treaty that clearly recognises Aboriginal Australians as the first peoples of this country. We did so much in 1967, but we must do more. Give them the recognition they (the Aboriginal People) truly deserve’.

On hand to add weight to the Prime Minsters’ lofty praise the former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, lauded the groundbreaking work he undertook singly and entirely on his own with the apology. He reminded the near empty corridor at the prestigious Wheeler Centre that it was he alone who took the mace by the hand and demonstrated true leadership on recognising past wrongs.

Former PM Kevin Rudd, exaggerating the size of his testimonials.

“When I made the apology, I put foremost our duty of care for all Australians, and demonstrated by my good word that Aboriginal Australians deserve a fulsome apology that went to the very core of my sense of fairness. When I upped the Intervention, I assured them that as P.M I was STILL very sorry indeed. Bloody sorry, you even accepted my apology in the first place. And the astounding statistics for incarceration, mortality and general disenfranchisement I take full credit for. I’m still sorry, and this is the most important part, I’m terribly sincere’.

Pausing for a reverie of quite deserved self congratulation, Mr Rudd, sipping on a Perrier and preparing to take a selfie on his smart phone was rudely pushed aside by another former Prime Minister. Who, wrenching the rostrum from the bemused former greatest P.M (EVER), railed at the one journalist;

Former PM for Aboriginal Australians recognises chief of other tribe recognised in the Constitution.

“I was the PM for all Aboriginal Australians, and I can tell you that after living with them for a whole week, I know how to give em recognition. You do it like this…..

The Token will look like this. After lobbying from Barnaby Joyce; ‘agriculture, sheep, cows and other unlisted Australians, should also share the glory of Constitutional recognition’.

Before Mr Rudd had time to gather himself he was held in the vice like grip of a full-Nelson. Mr Rudd turning blue, the Perrier spilling from his quavering lips was unable to retaliate as the ‘PM for Aborigines’, proclaimed, ‘By hugging, and a bit of boxing, you can show em how it’s done! And they’ll learn a bit of self respect. And I have a better plan than all those other P.M’s. A new medal is to be minted upon constitutional recognition, which will be distributed to all Aboriginal Australians, even those who don’t look all that Aboriginal, (winking to the lone reporter who reveals himself as Andrew Bolt). Yes Andrew, we’re gonna give em all this fine commemorative medal. They can even wear it on ANZAC Day marches. It’s a symbol of trust and solidarity, and from advice for the American First Nations looks very nice indeed. It’s called “The Token”. A token of our esteem for them behaving like civilised people.

And you can take it from the highest authority, (points upwards) it’ll demonstrate that with citizenship and constitutional recognition comes the over-riding principle that comes to all unelected, and non corporate members of our society. The knowledge, they’ll once and for all KNOW THEIR PLACE!!

And we can all get along, (How’s Rupert getting on Andrew?) with governing the country’.

FAIR HOUSE to Al and Janet
By Lionel G Fogarty

But Al and Janet house is right looking
But the read + write
They have a house on stolen Koori land.
But it’s their house
The dreamtime won’t hurt this house,
Al’s an Aussie now, a once was Americano,
While Janet the editor.
They own many white materials
Both are nice, even speak English
They know of dark people’s
Have an alcoholic or two.
So this is Al’s man fields house
Yo this is Janet women fields house
We come to give blessing for their house
The power of friend’s + family’s will share over new windows.
Good nesting the new will stay bright,
Rainbow will seek on doors of their house.
Hope no robbery happen on the way of these new surrounding.
May your sunshine ray your morning light of your house?
Al and Janet dance and sing now for joys of safe are in your hands.
Just remember to pay the rent to the Kooris.
But Al and Janet let me say, rain hail cold even heat will hold on,
Your new foot step flood paths.
Don’t forget the land was stolen from Kooris, but the house is not,
For it as the living sense.
With love respect nature gave us all a house yet this house is yours.
Al’s and Janet place don’t have to chance dreams it’s in front now.
All best AL and Janet may the glasses be broken and roofs are growing.

Lionel G Fogarty

Ngurrju mayi?

Not long after we arrived in Australia in the late 1950’s the potato crop failed. Spuds sold at two shillings sixpence a pound. To put that into context you could buy a crayfish for eight shillings until some smartalec decided to change the name to Australian rock lobster and export them to North America.

(this is not a photo of the original shield)

My father dug up the back yard and planted a crop of potatoes. Unbeknownst to us, 500Km west of us, Nangala’s father was planting a crop of potatoes in the two small paddocks that he owned. In the process he unearthed a carved shield similar to what Warlpiri call a mirta but decorated with short angular parallel carved grooves. Nangala had no doubt it was an Aboriginal artefact. Her mother would have none of it. It must have come from New Guinea and someone had carelessly dropped it where it was found, she proclaimed.

https://www.google.com.au/searchq=australian+aboriginal+shields&rlz=1C1GGGE_enAU395AU395&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiOgonK9obUAhWJVrwKHcXbD5MQ_AUICigB&biw=1280&bih=918#imgrc=Csk4sgSj3vvpIM:

So deeply ingrained in the white-Australian psyche was the belief that the prior inhabitants of the Lucky Country were feckless, simple, primitive, uncivilized savages, that it was just impossible to entertain the possibility that the local natives had created such a beautiful object. It must have come from New Guinea and someone had carelessly dropped it where it was found.

(this is not a photo of the original tree)

The next year potatoes were threepence a pound.

A couple of decades later, Nangala visited her childhood home in the Western District and took some photos of a large gum tree (eucalypt) on a side road not far from the New Guinea artefact paddock. The tree had a scar on its trunk. A meter and a half long oval shaped piece had been deeply cut out of the tree. The tree isn’t far from the Glenelg river, undoubtedly a small canoe had been carved out of the tree.

The next year the tree was gone.

https://www.google.com.au/searchq=aboriginal+canoe+tree&rlz=1C1GGGE_enAU395AU395&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGzZ7w-YbUAhUCxbwKHVEbDhgQ_AUIBigB&biw=1280&bih=918#imgrc=3w7trRqO9-beyM:

In Bruce Pascoe’s book ‘Dark Emu’, I read that some Western District farmers had removed all traces of stone houses from their properties. These stone houses pre-dated the white colonial invasion. This vandalism was prompted by a perceived threat from pending Heritage Legislation.

The canoe tree’s fate may have been sealed by the same fear, or perhaps the tree was chopped up for firewood, and the scar not recognised for what it was.

Too blind to see it. Too blind to see what you are doing…..(Kym Sims)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXMwMNUGcz4

“Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence” is a quote attributed to Napoleon. Sans aucun doute he would have said it in French.

He might as well have used “ignorance” in lieu of “incompetence”.

It may well be ignorance which drives the fear and loathing, but all too often are the descendants of the First Australians at the receiving end of malice. Pure unadulterated malice.

Kutcha Edwards – Is This What We Deserve ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LClzKSWEDLM

Writers Kim Mahood— Position Doubtful —and Bruce Pascoe —Dark Emu — recently held a session in Queenscliff at which Bruce spoke on seeds harvesting for flour. A Western District farming couple turned up bearing a large mortar and pestle they’d dug up on their property 30 years ago. Not for a moment did they suggest the mortar and pestle originated in New Guinea.

Neither do the countless grinding stones which can be found lying about in the Tanami (the region Yuendumu lies in) emanate from New Guinea.

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=aboriginal+grinding+stone&rlz=1C1GGGE_enAU395AU395&tbm=isch&imgil=gtRUzHB_JGGDBM%253A%253BVLnj8WXdVs2FWM%253Bhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.pinterest.com%25252Fpin%25252F392868767472836523%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=gtRUzHB_JGGDBM%253A%252CVLnj8WXdVs2FWM%252C_&usg=__iDRFUZ55ZBmjCE1iTuUWshyNAGg%3D&ved=0ahUKEwjj6_aGhYfUAhXEi5QKHSJ4DEQQyjcINw&ei=WLQkWePfJ8SX0gSi8LGgBA&biw=1280&bih=918#imgrc=gtRUzHB_JGGDBM:

I was alerted to a book (published last year) by John Newton- The Oldest Foods on Earth.  I haven’t read it as yet but all information indicates this is yet another recent book which unlike many older books about Aboriginal Australia is well written, nuanced and positive.

At a snail’s pace the deliberately obliterated and distorted pre-contact and recent  (and current!) Australian Aboriginal History is being resurrected.

Attitudes and perceptions are improving as a result. At a snail’s pace.

It is writers (and readers) who are leading the charge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjpDssaf2uI Things can only get better… D-Ream

And now a bit of pissing in the wind aimed at those people most unlikely to read these Dispatches let alone understand them:

Remember the tortoise and the hare you miserable xenophobic assimilationists.

You misanthropic dog whistlers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Kyyvdc-ns Who do you think you are running around leaving scars…. Christina Perri

You ethnocentric self righteous know-alls don’t know what you are missing. Or perhaps your sense of identity is so fragile that to admit the existence of another unquestionably Australian identity is a threat to your self-perception. We Australians speak English yet don’t identify as English. Some of you would perhaps feel better if all Aboriginal languages disappeared, so we would all be in the same fragile identity boat (canoe).

Take a look in the mirror sometimes and ponder what you see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5i1vVgkdu4  Gunner Scott “What Gives You My Rights?”

The race is far from over. Hurry up tortoise, or the hare might  (heaven forbid) yet win.

 Ngaka nangku nyanyi,

Jungarrayi

PS- we have a few copies of Kim Mahood’s book Position Doubtful for sale in our shop for $AUS 30

For $AUS40 we’ll post them by ordinary mail anywhere. All proceeds to be reinvested in books of relevance to us out here at the front.

All we need is a postal address, all you need are our banking details (provided on request)

PPS- A forum to mourn the 10^th Anniversary of the Intervention will be held on the 29^th June at RMIT Melbourne. Jakamarra Nelson has been invited to speak, and Harry has appointed me as his cultural advisor! We hope to drive home the message that the Intervention is far from over.

Dear reader, It was almost fifty years ago today, that the Beatles released their acclaimed ‘Sergeant Peppers’. Arguably not as good as ‘Revolver’, not as quirky as ‘Rubber Soul’, and not as disconnected as ‘White Album’. it was nonetheless the very first concept album, (if you discount the Rolf Harris Christmas Songbook Album) pre-dating the Small Faces’ “ Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake” by some several months and the Who’s ‘Tommy’ opus by almost a year.

And it was listenable. So listenable, it became a soundtrack for a generation. And though the Beatles have been played to death and everything even remotely associated with “Pepper’, memorabilia, (and all the most annoying obscure facts about what the fab four had for breakfast), it is significant because it represents the zenith of their creative powers, (according to our experts) and was firmly “BY”.

That means Before Yoko.

‘Ogdens Nut Gone Flake’, Small Faces. Even more interactive album cover. And it was round. Origin of the term; “In the round”.

Yoko’s influence had not yet impacted upon the band, and like their namesake “the Rutles”, the Beatles were still actively being creative. Why is this so? It had something to do with Brian Epstein, and something else to do with the pre download era, in which people actually had to buy a record in the first place. And they couldnt see the band live even if they tried, because by this stage the Beatles had given up touring.

Revolver. Set the Pace, and Klaus Voorman did the cover art. Enter the psychedelic age.

The album sold a billion trillion copies, and was still in the top fifty annual sales well into the mid 70’s. And it courted controversy, The brooding “Day in the Life’ was banned because it suggested that Blackburn Lancashire was a hole, and that travelling on busses led to dementia. Sensationally the band made references to LSD, ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’, which was also banned, though its author John Lennon insisted it was really an anagram for ‘Lesser Serious Dag’. Which was a fitting sobriquet to their previous album ‘Revolver’. Typically the only song not banned by the BBC was a Paul Macartney number, which was sacharrine, syrupy and sauteed in sentimentalism.

The album was imitated by a generation of musicians, who were either inspired by the cover art, or like many learnt the art of augmented grooves-manship, to allow the needle to skip the Paul Macartney tracks and make the album really worthwhile.

The influence remains to this day. Malcolm Turnbull cites ‘Within you without you’ as the most enduring tribute to Tony Abbott, and Bill Shorten stands by his conviction that “  Getting better” inspired him to reduce his pubic speaking engagements,

Paul Macartney and Michael Jackson. They deserved each other.

Since ‘Pepper’ few have emulated the success of the Beatles, and this is because records are harder to come by, hideously expensive, and no one can be bothered printing the gate sleeve, the stickers and the quirky cut-outs that accompanied the album concept. Though The Small Faces “Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake” did all that and more with the first ever circular album cover, which also sold well, but not quite as well. All the rights to Beatles songs were bought by Michael Jackson, and ever since the black vinyl records in collections have progressively gone white, (not to the confused with the ‘White Album’) then black again. Something to do with the pigment of the vinyl the experts say.