The Deadlys

It's time to celebrate The Deadlys. Created in 1997, The Deadlys celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians, artists, sports people and community leaders. In 2012 the Deadly Awards will be held on the 25th of September at the Sydney Opera House.

The Deadlys, like the NAIDOC awards, provide a positive affirmation of identity and achievement. In the face of overwhelming negative depictions in the mainstream imagination for over 200 years, affirmation is important.

Best of luck to all the nominees. The Critical Classroom team will not be in Sydney, but we'll definitely be watching the social media feed as well looking for the broadcast.

Will you be following The Deadlys? 

Aboriginal diggers fighting for recognition of their service

Our nation have fallen short on all accounts when it comes to our treatment of our Indigenous servicemen and women. Pastor Denis Atkinson

In our previous posts about an Indigenous perspective of ANZAC Day, we wrote about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service men and women being discriminated against.

Here is a link to Uncle John Lovett who is seeking to have his father's, grandfather's and uncles service recognised and a recognition by the state that those men were not given the same recognition as other service men and women on their return from military duty.



What must be remembered in talking about compensation claims for previous wrongs, and I think it's something that is rarely thought about when determining the amount of compensation to award, is that when you do not allow people to take advantage of a wage or benefit you not only discriminate against that person at the point in time, but you also impact on the economic and social condition of the next generations.

Benefits (like privilege) advantage the present, AND the future.
Likewise denying benefits to a whole generation disadvantages present and future generations.

ANZAC Day from an Indigenous perspective - online resources

I posted recently three conceptualisations of ANZAC Day from an Indigenous perspective. This post provides a number of useful online resources based on these ideas.

The War of Colonisation
The war of colonisation has not been recognised as a "war" despite the devastation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and cultures.

Some useful resources: 

• National Gallery of Australia: Aboriginal Memorial exhibition which recognises all thoseAboriginal people who have lost their lives since 1788. http://nga.gov.au/AboriginalMemorial/home.cfm
• A chilling read is a list of massacres of Indigenous Australians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_of_Indigenous_Australians
• The Myall Creek Massacre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myall_Creek_massacre
• Tracker: ANZAC Day march labelled as disrespectful  http://tracker.org.au/2012/04/anzac-day-marched-labeled-disrespectful/
• Tracker: Invasion debate: Was Australia settled peacefully?  http://tracker.org.au/2011/08/the-invasion-debate-was-australia-invaded-or-peacefully-settled/

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were diggers too
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and women have given their lives in every official military operation since Federation.

Some useful resources:

• Story of quest for a local Aboriginal War Memorial (Adelaide) http://city-messenger.whereilive.com.au/news/story/no-sign-of-aboriginal-memorial/
• The Australian War Memorial: Too Dark for the lighthorse: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in the defence forces http://www.awm.gov.au/education/resources/box/3/
• Australian War Memorial: Reginald Saunders, the first Aboriginal person to be given a commissioned rank. http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/aborigines/indigenous.asp
• The Australian War Memorial: "One ilan man": the Torres Strait Light Infantry http://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/12/ilan-man
• Tracker: Aboriginal War Veteran on memorial on Bondi memorial  http://tracker.org.au/2011/11/aboriginal-war-veteran-featured-on-bondi-memorial/
• Tracker: Renewed calls for an Aboriginal veterans memorial in Sydney  http://tracker.org.au/2011/05/renewed-calls-for-an-aboriginal-veterans-memorial-in-sydney/
• ABC: A light is shone on Aboriginal soldiers'service. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-10-29/a-light-is-shone-on-aboriginal-soldiers-service/2316108

Social Media resources

• Facebook: Mark of respect for Indigenous Australians. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mark-of-respect-for-indigenous-Australian-soldiers/159267687432284

Leesa Watego

Participation of Indigenous People in the 2012 Queensland Election

Last year I created a post about how to explore Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander perspectives of democracy, politics and civics in your classroom. Like other Australians, one of the ways that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can contribute to Australian democracy is by being active voters. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can also participate by standing for election.

Queensland does not have a great history of electing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples with only Mr Eric Deeral representing the seat of Cook in 1974 - 1977 for the National Party.

The business of politics is not easy, but the participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in all levels of government - local, state and federal, and across all the divides - left, centre and right - is something we should be aiming for in order to improve the representation of Indigenous voices and ideas.

This year's election sees three Indigenous candidates competing for the seat of Inala in Brisbane's south-west, on behalf of The Greens, the LNP and the Australia Party. Michael Quall, the Greens candidate for Inala pointed out yesterday -

Putting aside our individual politics for a moment, it's worth pausing to acknowledge how significant it is to have three Indigenous candidates running in the Inala electorate - win, lose or draw, this is a positive development for the community in this region.

I personally would like to wish all the candidates a great few weeks of campaigning.

Cheers, Leesa

The presentation below is a compilation of candidates standing for the 2012 Queensland election. They're listed in alphabetical order.


So far I only have three candidates, if you know of others please let me know. Is the information correct? Am I missing something? Please email me: lwatego [@] gmail.com



More information:

• History of Indigenous Vote by the Australian Electoral Commission
• Electoral Milestones / Timetable for Indigenous Australians by the Australian Electoral Commission
• List of Indigenous Australians in politics and public service (Wikipedia)
• The right to vote is not enjoyed equally by all Australians (February 2010) HREOC

Leesa Watego

Blacklines Free Resources Great Moments In Blakistory Quiz 1

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Blacklines Free Resources Great Moments In Blakistory Quiz 1

View more presentations from Leesa Watego.

Using Sam Cook's Great Moment's In Blakistory Fact Sheets (see last post), I created a Quiz using PowerPoint.

You need to have the Fact Sheets to answer the questions. I suggest that you create a folder and have the Quiz as a month-long project. The answers are at the back of the presentation.

Maybe I should separate the questions & answers? What's a better format?

(Originally posted on criticalclassroom on TypePad on 01/02/2010)

Time to celebrate what's great?

I heard my first Australia Day ad for 2010 on the radio on Christmas Day (the australiaday.org mob are at it again!).

Just as we start gearing up for the Back to School sales, we're also going to be bombarded with Australia Day advertising - telling us how to be better Aussies & to be proud. Always problematic this one.





Well, Blacklines is going set ourselves a challenge and create some resources that are true to our beliefs, as well as fun for students and useful for teachers. Alot of thinking is going into this one - let's see how we go.

(Originally published on criticalclassroom on TypePad on 12/30/2010)

Let's go back to the classics again!

Everything old is new again! What goes around comes around! You need to understand the past to deal with the future!

These are just some cliches/truisms that perhaps we can keep in our mind when thinking about Aboriginal policy.
I was at a business breakfast this morning, where Dr Dawn Casey was a keynote speaker. She urged us to re-visit the Royal Commission of the 1980s, as there is much that we can learn and understand. Perhaps we don't need new reports, let's just go back to the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody and the Bringing Them Home Report. Both reports' recommendations were not fully implemented.
These two reports really do give us a lot of understanding.  Why not check them out for yourselves -

• Royal Commission Into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody (RCIADIC) 1991
• Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's Report into the Forced Separation of Aboriginal Children from their families (1997)

Originally posted on criticalclassroom on TypePad on 10/30/2010)

Resource Plug - "Little Red, Black and Yellow" site

Discovered this site today -

The Little Red, Black & Yellow site by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Canberra.

The site is designed to accompany the second edition of the Little Red, Black & Yellow booklet originally released in the 1990s. Where I remember the old book being more chronological this booklet is divided into four main sections:

1. Who are we
2. Culture & Sport
3. Participation & Governance
4. Resistance & Reconciliation

On the site is

* 41 page Teacher's Notes (free download)
* Articles for further reading (free download)
* Audio-visual materials including an online gallery and online exhibitions (free download)
* Links to other resources

The new booklet is available for purchase, usually around $15.00 from most good bookshops.

(Originally posted on criticalclassroom on TypePad on 09/21/2010)

Find authentic connections in learning about others

Janson Hews from the Powerhouse Museum contacted me today about a project for Indigenous Literacy Day this year, where students from Glebe Public School visited the Yinalung Yenu: Women's Journey Exhibition.

Students looked at the important role that women play in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life. Further they:

We invited them to write and illustrate a personal narrative about a woman who has been important in their own lives, highlighting her journey and what she has in common with the women in the exhibition.

This last part is so important. It is more important that the children use the stories of others to find the connections within their own lives. This makes it fundamentally more important a learning experience - the realisation of the important role of women in all our lives, than simply studying the OTHER.
Congratulations to the Powerhouse Education Program team. Well done.
Looking for some more "signficant people" then check out the teacher's notes!
Read more on their blog

(Originally posted on criticalclassroom on TypePad on 04/09/201)