How ‘advantaged thinking’ in youth foyers is tackling homelessness
Afiya* still remembers the feelings of emptiness and despair when she experienced homelessness.
Three years ago, the African-Australian moved to Melbourne from Perth, armed with her savings, a few belongings, and a dream of starting a fashion label.
But she had no idea how tough it would be to find work and accommodation in a strange new city.
Sadly at just 18 years of age, with her university degree underway, she found herself in a Victorian homeless shelter.
Read more at jadednewsman.com
Aboriginal flag flying permanently in Dublin after historic ceremony
The Aboriginal Flag is flying permanently in the heart of Dublin after a historic ceremony at the Australian Embassy in Ireland.
The embassy became the first Australian outpost to fly the flag year round – side by side with the Red Ensign.
Australia’s Ambassador to Ireland, Gary Gray, described the flag raising ceremony as “a statement of cultural recognition and respect” and an “accepted and understood symbol of unity.”
Read more at jadednewsman.com
Kidnappings, slavery and massacres: An Aboriginal couple’s story of survival
James Noble became Australia’s first Aboriginal Deacon at the height of the frontier wars.
Whilst Aboriginal people were being routinely murdered, dispossessed and enslaved, Noble found himself an unlikely, yet respected religious figure.
So how did he get there?
It might seem unusual for a traditional Aboriginal man to work for the Anglican Church, but Noble’s Great Granddaughter says he didn’t have much choice.
Badtjala and Bidjara woman, Tabatha Saunders, says “the colonials were hell bent on indoctrinating the ‘savages’” back then.
Read more at jadednewsman.com
Bullet scarred trees, charred remains and makeshift incinerators at Forrest River
In August 1926, on the banks of the Kimberley’s Forrest River, an Aboriginal Deacon found a pile of human remains.
Famed for his tracking skills, James Noble was sent by Reverend E.R. Gribble to investigate whether Aboriginal people had been shot en mass by the WA Police.
He began his search at Wodgil, where he found a series of horse tracks and footprints. He followed them to a quiet, picturesque site called Gotegotemerrie, where he spotted a mound of ashy sand on the riverbank.
As he ran his hands through the sand, he discovered singed teeth and bones scattered everywhere.
Read more at jadednewsman.com
Living on a massacre site: home truths and trauma at Warrigal Creek
Elizabeth Balderstone leads a lifestyle that many city dwellers fantasise about, on a farm in Victoria’s Gippsland, surrounded by friendly sheep, with a humble little creek just 60 metres from her house.
But that creek, Warrigal, has seen unimaginable horrors.
In July 1843 Angus McMillan and a group of his countrymen known as the Highland Brigade shot between 60 and 150 Gunaikurnai people in retribution for the murder of Ronald Macalister, the nephew of a wealthy pastoralist, Lachlan Macalister, who owned a local station called Nuntin.
Read more at theguardian.com
The Scottish explorer who became the butcher of Gippsland
Once revered as a pioneer, the Scottish explorer Angus McMillan is now known as “the butcher of Gippsland”.
This reversal of reputation – from virtuous Presbyterian to cold-blooded killer – is the work not just of the people he wronged but of his own relations and the descendants of his closest friends.
In July 1843 at Warrigal Creek, McMillan and his Highland Brigade surrounded a large group of Gunaikurnai people and mercilessly shot between 60 and 150 men, women and children.
Read more at theguardian.com
‘A very tragic history’: how the trauma of a 1926 massacre echoes through the years
Located on the banks of east Kimberley’s Forrest River, with a scenic cliff face at its entrance, Oombulgurri boasts rare natural beauty. Few would believe this peaceful, isolated spot – only accessible by boat – has experienced so much trauma, and so recently.
Until 1969 Oombulgurri was a punitive Anglican mission called Forrest River. In 1926 tensions between Aboriginal people on the mission and residents of the nearby Nulla Nulla station, on their ancestral lands, came to a bloody head.
Read more at theguardian.com
The killing times: A massacre map of Australia’s frontier wars
This interactive map tells the stories that have long been kept out of history books. It shows evidence of mass killings from 1788 until 1927: a sustained and systematic process of conflict and expansion.
Read more at theguardian.com
Reporting hidden history for The Guardian’s massacres investigation
Citizen reporters Ciaran O’Mahony and Jeremy Nadel reflect on being part of an epic Guardian project on Australia’s hidden, bloody history.
Read more at citizen.org.au
Ciaran O'Mahony 