Dale Hess calendar week beginning 15-10-19

Wednesday 21 October 7:30 pm - 9pm: Tim Colebatch: Tax Changes or Tax Reform?  Tim Colebatch is a writer, freelance journalist, and former economics editor of the Age. In the first half of his long career, before focusing on economics, he covered many roles, including environment writer, investigative reporter, editorial writer, political and economic columnist, and Washington correspondent. 

Venue: The Study Centre Yarra Theological Union, Box Hill, Best entry via 34 Bedford Street. Entry free. Donations welcome. Refreshments afterwards. Info: 03 9890 1077 | 0409 897 971

Thursday 22 October, 7.30 pm – 9.30 pm: Syria – What is Happening? Speaker: Shahram Akbarzadeh,who is a Research Professor of Middle East and Central Asian Politics. Dr Akbarzadeh works at Deakin University. He has an active research interest in the politics of Central Asia, Islam, Muslims in Australia and the Middle East. We will give an update on the various ways Brigidine Asylum Seeker Project is helping asylum seekers and also explore the needs and what further assistance is needed. Venue: St Joseph’s Hall (beside the bluestone church), 274 Rouse Street , Port Melbourne. Contact:   03 9696 2107.

Monday 26 October, 7 pm – 9.30 pm: Peace in Australia: The untold story: From Military Security to Human Security: Beyond the Cold War & War on Terror. Launch of Peace Museum. The Road Taken: from Vietnam to Afghanistan and Iraq Emeritus Professor with Joseph Camilleri OAM, La Trobe University; Followed by questions and comments The Road We Must Travel:  Prof Camilleri in conversation with Prof Jacqui True, Monash University; Prof Robyn Eckersley, University of Melbourne; A/Prof Marianne Hanson, University of Queensland. Venue: Unitarian Peace Memorial Church 110 Grey Street, East Melbourne. Presented by Pax Christi Victoria for the Anzac Centenary Peace Coalition. Further information: camrita44@gmail.com

Wednesday 28 October, 10 am – 11.30 am: The Australian Climate Security Panel. Australia and its neighbours are on the frontline of climate change. Soaring temperatures, rising sea levels and increases in extreme weather events will play a role in raising the risk of conflict, increasing the displacement of people and worsening the extent of destruction caused by extreme weather events in our region Hosted by UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy, the panel will discuss climate change, its security implications and the steps being taken by the US and UK militaries to be prepared. Speakers: Rear Admiral David Titley, USN (Ret.), who initiated and led the US Navy’s Task Force on Climate Change whilst serving in the Pentagon; Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti, RN (Ret.), who acted as the UK Government’s Climate and Energy Security Envoy;Admiral Chris Barrie (Ret.), Australia's former Chief of Defence; Professor Will Steffen, world leading climate change expert and Climate Councillor. Where: UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy. Tickets are limited, click here for more information and to reserve your seat in the auditorium.

Wednesday 4 November, 6 pm to 8:30 pm: Impossible Climate: Safe Climate Restoration Under the Microscope. Advocacy for the restoration of a safe climate calls for solutions that the world does not currently possess.. The central question remains ‘is safe climate restoration possible and, if not, what level of action is now morally defensible and yet practically achievable?’ Join Breakthrough for this special forum to examine and critique the recently published discussion paper Striking Targets, with author Philip Sutton. 
FORUM PANELLISTS: Ben Courtice, Friends of the Earth Climate Campaigner; Andrea Bunting, Climate Activist, Researcher & Writer; David Spratt, Climate Policy Analyst; Mark Wakeham, CEO Environment Victoria;Adrian Whitehead, Save The Planet Campaign Manager. Venue: University of Melbourne, Ground Floor, 700 Swanston Street, Carlton, VIC 3053. Free event, donations welcome. Register:https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/im-possible-climate-tickets-19009790796

Friday 6 November – Saturday 7 November, 9.30 am – 5.30 pm: Turn Conflicts into Opportunities. Our relationships are often the most important thing in our life. But when was the last time you took the time to explore how YOU can build better relationships with yourself and others? The "Turn Conflicts to Opportunities" training is a GREAT opportunity to share in a safe and supportive space, and really dive deep into powerful, transformative tools, so that you can integrate them into your life and use them daily. Facilitator: Efrat Wolfson. At Leisure Centre, Eastwood Street, Ballarat VIC. Costs? $355 / $325 early bird special (till 5/10). For more info: For more details and testimonials - click on this link 

Monday 9 November – Tuesday 10 November, 9 am – 5 pm: Community Development: Introductory Course. Become more confident in designing & facilitating community development programs & activities. Learn practical ways of empowering communities; understand the basic concepts of Community Development; examine power and change processes; discuss community development practices; hold conversations with experienced Community Development workers; access to further learning resources; come to understand the field; use the modes of head (intellect), heart (feelings), hands (practical work with people) and feet (groundedness). Venue: 2 Minona Street, Hawthorn.

Tuesday 10 November, 6.30 pm – 8 pm: When Brunswick and Coburg voted “NO” to war. Brunswick and Coburg’s dramatic history and role in the WW1 referendums on conscription will be discussed at  a public meeting on 10 November. The people of Brunswick and Coburg voted “No” to conscription. Local leaders included John Curtin, Frank Anstey and Bella Guerin.  Anti-conscription campaigners were imprisoned in Coburg’s Pentridge Gaol both in WW1 and during the Vietnam War - including speaker Michael Hamel-Green. The inaugural meeting of the Brunswick-Coburg 1916-17 Anti-Conscription Commemoration Committee (BCCCC) -  with suggested future activities presented for discussion. All welcome.  WHERE: St Ambrose Community Centre, 287 Sydney Rd Brunswick (the centre for anti-conscription campaigners in 1916-17!). INFO: Nancy, 0490 182 041

Wednesday 11 November – Thursday 12 November, 9 am – 5 pm: Community Development: Intermediate Course. Become more confident in designing & facilitating community development programs & activities. Learn practical ways of empowering communities; understand the basic concepts of Community Development; examine power and change processes; discuss community development practices; hold conversations with experienced Community Development workers; access to further learning resources; come to understand the field; use the modes of head (intellect), heart (feelings), hands (practical work with people) and feet (groundedness). Venue: 2 Minona Street, Hawthorn.

Wednesday 11 November, 6 pm: Book launch: World War One: A History in 100 Stories by Prof Bruce Scates, Rebecca Wheatley, Laura James. The event will also feature a lecture ‘Remembering and Forgetting War’ by Jay Winter. Venue: Museum Theatre, Melbourne Museum, 11 Nicholson Street, Carlton, Victoria, 3053. Free event, but bookings essential:  ncas.enquiries@monash.edu. Refreshments provided.

Saturday 14 November – Sunday 15 November, 9.30 am – 5.30 pm: Turn Conflicts into Opportunities.Our relationships are often the most important thing in our life. But when was the last time you took the time to explore how YOU can build better relationships with yourself and others? The "Turn Conflicts to Opportunities" training is a GREAT opportunity to share in a safe and supportive space, and really dive deep into powerful, transformative tools, so that you can integrate them into your life and use them daily. Facilitator: Efrat Wolfson.At St Joseph’s Flexible Learning Centre, 385 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne. Costs? $355 / $325 early bird special (till 5/10). For more info:  For more details and testimonials - click on this link 

Saturday 14 November – Thursday 19 November: The Nonviolent Interfaith Leadership Program.Participants of the program will come together for a 5-day retreat in Melbourne at the beautiful Edmund Rice Retreat and Spirituality Centre ‘Amberley’ situated on a bend of the Yarra River in Lower Plenty. In an inspiring interfaith environment, participants will form a community of practice and together study the art of nonviolent leadership in ways that will deepen their leadership potential and expand their capacity to make vital contributions to their community and the world. A team of highly skilled, richly experienced and deeply spiritual facilitators will guide participants through a 5-day retreat. For details see:http://www.nonviolentinterfaithleadership.org/announcement-2015-program/

Friday 27 November, 5.30 pm: Climate Rally. This November, the climate talks will be held in Paris, home of the baguette, the beret and – in a foreboding symbol for heads of state – the guillotine. Of course, throughout history Paris has also been home to mass demonstrations that toppled unpopular regimes, a fact that shouldn’t be lost on leaders anxious about the outcome. As delegates arrive in Paris, Melbourne will kick off a weekend of global climate action with a People’s Climate March. Meet at the State Library, Swanston Street. Click here for more information.

Thursday 3 December and Friday 4 December, Registration at 8.45 am, program 9.30 am to 5.30 pm: Ethical Enterprise Conference 2015. The Ethical Enterprise Conference is a positive educational and networking event for ethical and social enterprises, to discuss the rewards, challenges, issues and opportunities facing ethical and social enterprises, large and small. The conference will bring together a community of professionals, business owners, managers, new social entrepreneurs, students and ethical business leaders with like-minded values. Speakers include Stephanie Woollard, Ross Honeywill, and many more. Venue: The Carlton Connect Initiative University of Melbourne, LAB-14, 700 Swanston Street, Carlton, 3053. Click here for more information

Dale Hess Calendar - 15-08-31

Dale Hess
Tuesday 1 September, 6 pm – 8 pm: Life on Planet Earth: Sustaining hope in the midst of fragility and uncertainty. St Michael’s is proud to host this fascinating lecture series presented  by one of Australia’s leading International Relations scholars and commentators, Professor Joseph A. Camilleri OAM. This series aims to shed light on the critical psycho-social, economic,  environmental and security challenges of our times – how they  affect us personally, our life prospects, our networks and communities,  Australia and the world. It will open up new ways of thinking about the past and present and new possibilities for reshaping the future. Venue: St Michael’s Hall, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne. Tickets: $15 per lecture or $50 series pass. Bookings:www.stmichaels.org.au.

Saturday 5 September, 9 am – 11.30 am: Breakfast: Exploring local initiatives for living a good, low carbon life. Join us for a lively breakfast where practitioners Donna Livermore, Sally MacAdams, Ben Habib, Nathan Alison and Catherine O'Shea will share their learnings and experiences transitioning towards a low carbon, localized lifestyle: transition towns, co-housing, permaculture and local energy trading systems (LETS).

Monday 7 September, 6.30 pm: Public forum: Can Christianity and Islam Co-exist?Speakers: Rev. Professor James Haire, AC, and Professor Azyumardi Azra CBE. Join us to hear two eminent Christian and Muslim public scholars discuss key issues for a multi-cultural and multi-faith Australia. This important and timely dialogue will address Christian-Muslim relations in the Australian-Indonesian context and seek to build fresh understanding of how people of different faiths and cultures can grow together in understanding and appreciation of one another.  Venue: Yasuko Hiraoka Myer Room, Level 1, Room 106, Sidney Myer Asia Centre, University of Melbourne, 761 Swanston Street, Parkville. Admission free, but RSVP to secure your seat: neic-office@unimelb.edu.au

Tuesday 8 September, 6 pm – 8 pm: The World Economy: An ‘ocean liner without lifeboats’: Financial crises and the myths of the free market: the case for regulation. St Michael’s is proud to host this fascinating lecture series presented  by one of Australia’s leading International Relations scholars and commentators, Professor Joseph A. Camilleri OAM. This series aims to shed light on the critical psycho-social, economic,  environmental and security challenges of our times – how they  affect us personally, our life prospects, our networks and communities,  Australia and the world. It will open up new ways of thinking about the past and present and new possibilities for reshaping the future. Venue: St Michael’s Hall, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne. Tickets: $15 per lecture or $50 series pass. Bookings: www.stmichaels.org.au.

Wednesday 9 September, 6.03 pm: Asylum Seekers: The Culture We Can’t Afford to Lose.Culture Talk with wine and cheese with Julian Burnside. Cultural Infusion, Collingwood School Theatre, 49 Vere Street, Collingwood. Free entry. Book: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/culture-talk-tickets-18255951041

Friday 11 September, 6.30 pm – 9.30 pm: Film Screening: The Good Lie. The Bayside Refugee Advocacy & Support Association invites you to a special Invites you to a special screening of an inspiring and powerful story of triumph, friendship and compassion. Orphaned by the brutal Civil War in Sudan, Mamere, his sister Abital, and friends Jeremiah and Paul face a gruelling trip across Africa to a refugee camp. Much later, they are selected for re-settlement in the U.S.A. Carrie (Reese Witherspoon) is contracted to find them jobs, and she soon finds herself swept up in their struggle for a better life. Followed by guest speaker: Russell Broadbent M.H.R. [Lib. McMillan].  St John’s Uniting Church 567 Glenhuntly Road, Elsternwick. Melway Map 67J3 Light supper provided. This is a free event. Donations welcome. RSVP email gm_moore@bigpond.net.au.

Saturday 12 September, 9 am – 4.30 pm: Youth Humanitarian Festival. Venue: Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn Campus Room ATC101. Cost: $15.http://www.youthhumanitarianfestival.com/

Tuesday 15 September, 6 pm – 8 pm: Islam, Islamism and Islamophobia    Religion and politics; terrorism and the ‘war on terror’. St Michael’s is proud to host this fascinating lecture series presented  by one of Australia’s leading International Relations scholars and commentators, Professor Joseph A. Camilleri OAM. This series aims to shed light on the critical psycho-social, economic,  environmental and security challenges of our times – how they  affect us personally, our life prospects, our networks and communities,  Australia and the world. It will open up new ways of thinking about the past and present and new possibilities for reshaping the future. Venue: St Michael’s Hall, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne. Tickets: $15 per lecture or $50 series pass. Bookings:www.stmichaels.org.au.

Wednesday 16 September, 9 am – 4 pm:  Youth Engaging the World: Living Pope Francis’ Vision of Faith. Registration: $35. St Michael’s Uniting Church, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne. Registrations –  https://www.acu.edu.au/616950; Email: iace@acu.edu.au  Phone: +61 2 9701 4176

Wednesday, 16 September, 6:30 pm until 8.30 pm: Atmosphere of Hope: Searching For Solutions to the Climate Crisis. Professor Tim Flannery, author, internationally acclaimed scientist and conservationist talks about his new book. Ten years after publishing his international bestseller The Weather Makers, acclaimed scientist and author Tim Flannery argues that Earth’s climate system is approaching a crisis. Catastrophe is not inevitable, but time is fast running out. In the lead-up to the United Nations Climate Change Summit to be held in Paris in December, Atmosphere of Hope provides both a snapshot of the trouble we are in and an up-to-the-minute analysis of some of the new possibilities for mitigating climate change that are emerging now. Venue: Clarke Auditorium, Eltham College, 1660 Main Road, Research ,Victoria. Entry: $35.00  includes a copy of the book or a $25 gift voucher, Tim’s presentation and refreshments. For Eltham College families (1 student and 1 adult) $35.00 or a $25.00 gift voucher. Prepaid early bookings are essential: 9439 8700 elthambookshop@bigpond.com

Thursday 17 September – Friday 18 September: Conference: Pope Francis and other Prophetic Voices: Calling Us to Reshape the Public Sphere.  Speakers for the conference include: Rev. Fr. Jerry Rosario SJ (India) – the Barefoot Priest from India , Dr. Jenny Te Paa Daniel (New Zealand) - Convenor of the International Anglican Peace and Justice Network, Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO – Australian Jesuit priest, human rights lawyer and academic, Professor Patrick Dodson – a Yawuru man from Broome, Western Australia, he is a former Chairman of the "Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, Dr Rachael Kohn - produces and presents The Spirit of Things on ABC Radio National, Emeritus Professor Joseph Camilleri OAM - Managing Director, Alexandria Agenda and founder of the Centre for Dialogue at La Trobe University. Venue St Michael’s Uniting Church, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne. Registration is $125 for the 2 day conference. Registrations –  https://www.acu.edu.au/616950; Email: iace@acu.edu.au  Phone: +61 2 9701 4176.  

Thursday 17 September, 7.30 pm – 9.30 pm: Public Forum: Reclaiming Justice, Truth and Compassion in the Public Sphere. Registration: $10+ donation. Australian Catholic University, Cathedral Hall, 20 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne (Please note: different venue to the Conference and Youth Forum). Registrations –  https://www.acu.edu.au/616950; Email:iace@acu.edu.au  Phone: +61 2 9701 4176

Sunday 20 September, 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm: GreenFaith/ARRCC Planning and Discussion.5:30-6:00 GreenFaith/ARRCC planning and update; 6:00-6:30 Vegetarian dinner to share (please bring a dish – oven available); 6:30-7:30  Talk and discussion. Presentation by Nivy Balachandran about the worldwide United Religious Initiative and their Environmental work

You are welcome to come from 5:30 pm or join us later in the meeting. For more information contact Simon Grosser on info@greenfaithaustralia.org.

Tuesday 22 September, 6 pm – 8 pm: The Democratic Deficit: What it is and what to do about it. St Michael’s is proud to host this fascinating lecture series presented  by one of Australia’s leading International Relations scholars and commentators, Professor Joseph A. Camilleri OAM.This series aims to shed light on the critical psycho-social, economic,  environmental and security challenges of our times – how they  affect us personally, our life prospects, our networks and communities,  Australia and the world. It will open up new ways of thinking about the past and present and new possibilities for reshaping the future. Venue: St Michael’s Hall, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne. Tickets: $15 per lecture or $50 series pass. Bookings: www.stmichaels.org.au.

Monday 28 September,  8.45 am to 5.30 pm: Ecological Aspects of War: Religious Perspectives from Australia. A one-day symposium to consider intersections between war and ecology, through the lenses of religious social teachings and sacred texts, representative of the multi-cultural and inter-faith constitution of contemporary Australian society.  Keynote presentation  “Planet Earth as a Victim of War”  by Dr Jenny Grounds. Venue: Trinity College Theological School Trinity College Royal Parade, Parkville. Cost: Full $40 Concession $30 Skype $15 (you will be supplied with a url and password via email nearer the date). Register here. Early registrations are appreciated. Registrations close: Friday 11 September 2015. For further information contact Anne Elvey: aelvey@tpg.com.au

Tuesday 29 September, 6 pm – 8 pm: State of the Nation   How is Australia faring? A fresh look at its society, economy and politics. St Michael’s is proud to host this fascinating lecture series presented  by one of Australia’s leading International Relations scholars and commentators, Professor Joseph A. Camilleri OAM. This series aims to shed light on the critical psycho-social, economic,  environmental and security challenges of our times – how they  affect us personally, our life prospects, our networks and communities,  Australia and the world. It will open up new ways of thinking about the past and present and new possibilities for reshaping the future.Venue: St Michael’s Hall, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne. Tickets: $15 per lecture or $50 series pass. Bookings: www.stmichaels.org.au.

Saturday 10 October and Sunday 11 October: Voices for Justice Conference. For 10 years, Micah Challenge has been a global movement of aid and development agencies, churches, schools, groups and individual Christians who support the Millennium Development Goals to halve global poverty by 2015. Workshops include Climate Conversations; Campaign for Australian Aid; Prayer and advocacy Australia's aid program; Community organising strategies & skills; Theology of political engagement; Partner stories. Venue: Hughes Baptist Church in Hughes, Canberra. Registrations open at 10:30 am on Saturday morning.

Friday 16 October – Sunday 18 October: Local Lives – Global Matter: A Conference for Future’s Sake. Now is the time to announce a new paradigm and tell the story that has a future. Inspired by and following in the footsteps of a worldwide series of Economics of Happiness Conferences, this three day conference will include presentations, workshops, panel discussions, plenaries, story-telling, arts, music and site visits showcasing local initiatives. OASES is pleased to support this gathering of international and local thinkers and activists who will speak about: local economies and livelihoods; equitable, re-democratised societies; inclusive ethical culture; and the spirituality that connects us to the land and each other. Castlemaine Town Hall. For more information, to offer a presentation or generally get involved click here.

Sunday 18 October: Run 4 Refugees for the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre. Run 4 Refugees is our major fundraising event for the year and we'd love for you to take part. Last year we had over 500 amazing people who ran and walked for refugees, and raised over $250,000. This year we're aiming to raise over $300,000. The main event will be taking place in Melbourne on Sunday October 18th as part of the Melbourne Marathon Festival. You don't need to be a serious runner to take part, there are distances to suit everyone- from 3km to the full marathon. To sign up for the run click here. To create your fundraising page click here.

Monday 9 November – Tuesday 10 November, 9 am – 5 pm: Community Development: Introductory Course. Become more confident in designing & facilitating community development programs & activities. Learn practical ways of empowering communities; understand the basic concepts of Community Development; examine power and change processes; discuss community development practices; hold conversations with experienced Community Development workers; access to further learning resources; come to understand the field; use the modes of head (intellect), heart (feelings), hands (practical work with people) and feet (groundedness). Venue: 2 Minona Street, Hawthorn.

Wednesday 11 November – Thursday 12 November, 9 am – 5 pm: Community Development: Intermediate Course. Become more confident in designing & facilitating community development programs & activities. Learn practical ways of empowering communities; understand the basic concepts of Community Development; examine power and change processes; discuss community development practices; hold conversations with experienced Community Development workers; access to further learning resources; come to understand the field; use the modes of head (intellect), heart (feelings), hands (practical work with people) and feet (groundedness). Venue: 2 Minona Street, Hawthorn.

Transformative change - ten principles outlined by Mosese Waqa

Ten principles for transformative change - Mosese Waqa

14 Jul 2012

In a talk during the Caux Forum for Human Security, Fijian development consultant Mosese Waqa, Initiatives of Change Human Security Coordinator in Australia, shared the following principles for effective work to advance human security. 

Mosese at the 2012 Caux Forum for Human Security

1. Know yourself. Our identity frames our engagement with the world. With the art of knowing oneself comes the art of listening.

2. Convince yourself that your cause/passion is really necessary. Answer key questions first. Is the cause legitimate? Do we really need to pursue it? If you can’t convince yourself, forget about convincing others.

3. Research an issue before diving into a cause. Dig deep. Get to the facts. What’s happening in your community? With that information, you can justify the cause.

4. If you don’t like hard work, don’t get involved. There is no short cut to achieving one’s vision. It’s mostly perspiration aided by inspiration.

5. Maintain a sense of perspective. Overstating the cause can be damaging. Absence of perspective can lead to narrow-mindedness. A sense of priorities is vital.

6. Reflect your broader ideals in all you do – keep your vision alive. Create within you a space for an evolving reality by engaging in reflection on what you’re doing.

7. Be positive… we are not against, but for a cause. Transformational change is about sustained positive energies that come together, with the outcome bigger than the sum of the parts.

8. Keep your firepower for the real enemy – we do not battle against flesh and blood...Everyone is looking for their own angles, making sense of things. Identify key relationships and key people, beginning with those closest to you.

9. Involve those affected by the problem. When advocating on behalf of others, they know best about the problem. They live with it and can give the cause a sense of urgency and legitimacy.

10. Have faith, hope and love… never let anyone tell you that you don’t matter. We each have our own place to find in life – that gives us a sense of who we are and faith in where we are going.

Visit the new Initiatives of Change Australia Human Security website.

- By Mosese Waqa, Fiji, IofC Australia

Australian media blacks out blackfellas unless there's a blame game to play

Picture from here - inserted 2 February 2012

Apologies for the length of this post. 

Put things needed to be said.

Please stay to the end because there's and eyewitness account

and an eyewitness photo ... even if the professionals turned blind eyes.

On the 24 January, I received an email from switchedon@your.abc.net.au.  In this email, the ABC - Australia's national, government funded, public radio - let me know what they were planning to put to air on Thursday 26 January, Australia Day.  Here is what they told me they were doing.

I was rather disgusted at what the ABC was boasting about showing Australia in relation to Australia Day.  Please note: there was not one mention of Aboriginal people or events.  In Canberra, the 40th Anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy was being celebrated and commemorated.  Indigenous people were coming to town to remember the history of the Embassy and were planning to make and re-make public claims to Aboriginal sovereignty on the continent of Australia.   I would have thought this was a newsworthy event and I wrote to Switched On as follows:

Dear Switched On Folk,

Wonderful to hear of all the goings on at the ABC including the Australia Day stuff.  Just thought it funny that nothing Aboriginal rated a mention.  I would have thought the 40th anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra would have provided enough interesting people and goings-on for the ABC to have a field day with some left over.

SO, could you please advise what, if anything, you are doing that is Aboriginal on 26 January - or mustn't we embarrass the nation by reminding it of its history?

Needless to say, I have not received a reply.  However it is now clear that the Australian media has had a field day:

• ABC News 
• Canberra Times
• The Australian (please note: no Murdoch paywall on this story)
• The Herald Sun (Australia's largest selling newspaper where that well known commenter on race issues, Andrew Bolt, has his two cents worth!)
• The Sydney Morning Herald
• The Daily Telegraph
• The Age
• The Courier-Mail

Let's face a few facts here:

1. People right and left, black and white - over the past 40 years - have wanted, and have tried, to rid Canberra of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.  The Embassy has been regarded as unsightly - and, to be sure, it is certain not to win any prestigious architectural or design awards unless there is a new category of 'Occupy in Protest'.  However, this week one of Australia's most significant writers on architecture has found the Aboriginal Tent Embassy newsorthy.
2. In the last year or so, we have seen - across the world in Egypt, the USA, London, Melbourne, Sydney - tents set up in conspicuous places as an aid to protest.  Seems that the oldest culture in the whole world has come in ahead of more 'civilised' cultures with their Occupy movement maintained not for forty days but forty years.  See Greg Cowan's paper Nomadic Resistance: Tent Embassies and Collapsible Architecture: Illegal architecture and protest.
3. Tony Abbott's words - "I think a lot has changed for the better since then," Mr Abbott told reporters in Sydney on Australia Day. "I think the indigenous people of Australia can be very proud of the respect in which they are held by every Australian. "I think a lot has changed since then, and I think it probably is time to move on from that."  - demonstrate the inability of the majority of Australian people to think themselves into the situation that many - but not all - Aboriginal people find themselves in.  This comes from a leader whose party conspired on the basis of lies and innuendo, racism and ignorance to establish a system of Intervention in the lives of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory.  Abbott and Gillard are members of governments who, to act against Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, removed from Australian law the need to abide by Australia's obligations under the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
4.  Abbott claimed that Aboriginal people are held in respect in Australia.  As a generality and on the basis of Liberal/National Party and Australian Labor Party actions, this is not true.  In fact, it is my own view, that lack of respect has always been at the heart of majority Australian attitudes to Aboriginal people.  Which brings me back to the fact that the ABC had no plans to bring inclusive positive stories of Aboriginal Australia in its Australia Day coverage.  
5. Yesterday, in connection with the 40th Anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, 1500 people marched from the Australian National University (ANU) to new Parliament House.  I am told that no media was visibly recording or reporting this event.  The media was not to be seen. In short, the media don't want to know about the Aboriginal Tent Embassy or Aboriginal views on sovereignty.
6. Australian professionals providing security to our public figures need to reconsider their intelligence and their methods.  Yesterday's public performance looked like they had participated in too many American Presidential motorcades and watched too many American action movies.  The security organisations concerned clearly had no respect for the presence of Aboriginal Australians in the vicinity of The Lobby restaurants.  

It is clear to me that there is widespread disrepect for Aboriginal peoples, culture, and claims in Australia.  Respect is absent from the very top of our civil and political leadership down to yobbos on the beaches at Cronulla and Bondi.  There are people - black and white - staffing the beachhead of reconciliation together.  However, they are few and their message is being ignored.  

EYEWITNESS PHOTO FROM 

DIANA HAYWOOD RANKINE IN CANBERRA

The Tent Embassy 'debacle' from a protester's POV

Further reading:
Aboriginal call for probe into police

Confirmation   Gillard and Abbott were never threatened by indigenous activists
Ben Eltham in New Matilda:  The mob violence that wasn't 
Alexandra Lamb in New Matilda:  The real tent embassy story
Amy McQuire in Crikey:  View from the Tent Embassy: reality v news reports
Mike Stuchbery's opinion piece & his brother's eyewitness account
Labor figure Kim Sattler named as go-between in protest
PM's press secretary gone after melee 'leak'
Tent   embassy protest speaks for itself
Have the dark arts of spin outflanked the fourth estate
Why Abbott's Tent Embassy comments were wrong