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Bad Interventions - How Governments Stuff it up 1-9-15


Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney              Media Release                     1 September 2015

 

Bad Interventions - How Governments Stuff it up

 The Intervention – An Anthology


A new book sheds light on Indigenous peoples' disillusion with Government policies. Under the Intervention the military was sent into Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, the Racial Discrimination Act was suspended and compulsory income management was introduced for Aboriginal people. In the words of Arrernte-Alyawarra Elder and Northern Territory Australian of the Year, Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, “the Intervention to us was like Australia declaring war on us and in the process they demonized and dehumanized Aboriginal men, women and children”.

Hear Paddy Gibson, Larissa Behrendt, Eva Cox and Thalia Anthony on Wednesday, 2 September 2015, when the Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney will host a discussion in Redfern about the important new book: The Intervention – An Anthology.

Edited by award-winning writers Dr Anita Heiss and Rosie Scott, the Intervention – An Anthology brings together the work of twenty of Australia’s finest Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers. Through essays, fiction, memoir and poetry, the book provides a moving and informative account of the impact of the Intervention at a time when First Nations People are under renewed attack.

Larissa Behrendt writes in her piece for the anthology that in “many ways, the Intervention in the Northern Territory is a textbook example of why government policies continue to fail Aboriginal people”. In her conclusion “bad programs – appallingly delivered” Eva Cox states that “the problems are continuing under the current regime’s proposals under the Indigenous Advancement Strategy”.

Now remote communities are under threat of “closure” and hard-won land rights are being negated by the imposition of 99-year leases. Aboriginal incarceration and child removal rates have sky-rocketed, while government funding for Indigenous programs has been slashed by $534 million.

As Professor Gillian Triggs, President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, has said, The Intervention - an Anthology is essential reading for anyone concerned about the injustices continually inflicted on First Nations People. The book gives “voice to the largely voiceless”, says Professor Triggs, and “presents a raw cry of pain and bewilderment that all Australians should read if they genuinely want to understand the impact of the Intervention in human and personal terms”.

Wed, 2 September 2015, 6.30 for 7pm start, Redfern Community Centre – Downstairs, 29–53 Hugo St, Redfern.

For more information contact: Paddy Gibson on 0415 800 586