Solomon Islands Independence Day at Consulate of Solomon Islands premises Sir Trevor Garland 2014
Author Archives: w3media
Centrelink – A change is a coming.
Centrelink questionnaire now including “Are you an Australian South Sea Islander ” & definition Question 18 & 19 which are optional and will not affect your payment. If you do answer, the information it will help us to continue to improve services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and Australia South Sea Islanders.
Australian South Sea Islanders are the descendants of Pacific Islander labourers brought from the Western Pacific in the 19th Century. Feedback on the above is welcome and appreciated.
Centrelink – A change is a coming.
Letter from Alex Greenwich
Attached is a letter from Alex Greenwich (Member for Sydney) regarding census count for ASSI in 2016 (image)
Wantok Mackay 2014 – consensus was that we stay with the term Australian South Sea Islanders but provide drop down explanations / description yet to be decided.
Wantok moves ahead to reach National Goal in Mackay QLD.
Wantok moves ahead to reach National Goal in Mackay QLD.
The 2013 National Secretariat Model has been dissolved at Wantok 2014 Mackay. In its place an ASSI Governance Working Group has been formed to progress the developments of a constitution for a National body representation.
The new administration arm is to be announced in coming weeks and the working group is Chaired by Greg Sutherland with committed skilled ASSI representatives Dennis Bobongie, Emelda Davis, Mabel Quackawoot, Jennifer Darr and Christine Monday.
Mackay 2014 saw community and organisations unite in solidarity for the first time in a decade. Wantok finale ended today with community participation in sharing of stories from some prominent ASSI names and ni Vanuatu international participants. The CQU Theatrette rang with fits of laughter by elders, friends and family finishing on a high with delicious morning tea. Tanku Tumus Mackay.
Daniel Boyd has become the first indigenous/ASSI man to win the Bulgari Art Award
Daniel Boyd has become the first indigenous/ASSI man to win the Bulgari Art Award, one of Australia’s richest cultural accolades.
The Cairns-born, Sydney-based artist received the $80,000 award from Italian jewellery brand Bulgari for a work based on a 19th-century photograph from Vanuatu. The luxury brand was guided by the Art Gallery of NSW which, under the terms of its partnership with Bulgari, acquires the painting for $50,000.
Boyd receives that money, plus $30,000 for a residency in Italy. “It’s very humbling,” the artist said after Tuesday’s announcement. “I’m very grateful to be seen in the company of the previous winners,” Boyd added, referring to Michael Zavros and Jon Cattapan.
In the award-winning piece, Untitled 2014, Boyd bedecked his large, predominantly black painting with glistening droplets of transparent glue, which he refers to as “the cultural lens”. “My use of dots references the idea of the cultural lens and the fact that we all have different points of view,” he said.
Boyd’s current series of history paintings investigates the hidden and mysterious histories that took place during the colonisation of the Pacific Islands. Pentecost Island in Vanuatu was home to Boyd’s great-great-grandfather before he was brought to Queensland to work in the sugarcane fields – a practice known as “Blackbirding”.
Many South Sea islanders were brought to Australia to support this industry between 1863 and 1904, and worked for little or no pay. The 31-year-old artist, who left Cairns to study at the Canberra School of Art, also belongs to the Kudjla/Gangalu people from far north Queensland.
West Papua Activism conference participants
West Papua Activism conference participants Oceanscapes cooperations across the Pacific – Australian Association for Pacific Studies Conference 22-26 April, 2014 Macleay Museum. Ronny Kareni & West Papua Activism & Mereani Navukitu – AAPS 2014
‘BLACKBIRD’ Archibald prize entry portrait of Emelda Davis
‘BLACKBIRD’ The Archibald prize entry portrait of Emelda Davis by Miranda .
Artwork of a community leader championing the rights of Australian South Sea Islanders. Do you know about the Vanuatu people taken and slaved on the cane-fields in Australia?”
Interview with Prof. Gracelyn Smallwood – Nelson Mandella
Interview with Prof. Gracelyn Smallwood – Nelson Mandella
Interview with Prof. Gracelyn Smallwood – Nelson Mandella a humble freedom fighter / Torres News By MARK BOUSEN.
The late Madiba Nelson Mandela was a humble freedom fighter who promoted truth, justice and reconciliation with violence, a prominent world, human rights figure has said.
Professor Gracelyn Smallwood, who last month received a United Nations Award for her 45 years of work and service for national and international health and human rights, told the Torres News at the Australian South Sea Islanders (ASSI) forum at Tweed Heads on the weekend.
Professor Smallwood, who lives in Townsville, met Mr Mandela in 1997 when she and Dr Chris Sarra were VIP guests of the South African President for the 20th anniversary of the death in custody of the late Steve Biko. “We were among the millions and we were waving the Aboriginal and Torres Islander flags near Mr Mandela. “The flags were spotted by Mr Mandela’s good friend Kwame Ture, the former Black Panther who was previously known as Stokely Carmichael, who was seated next to Mr Mandela. “Mr Mandela sent one of his guards who was carrying a machine gun and with a dog to invite us to sit in a vacant chair next to him. “As there was only one seat, Dr Sarra and I decided to take a rain check and would meet the President at a small function that night.”
Professor Smallwood, who has family in the Torres Strait, recounts that President Manela was accompanied by journalist Donald Woods, who promoted and assisted with the movie Cry Freedom, the movie based on Biko’s live and death. “Mr Mandela made a humble statement about obtaining reconciliation with the truth. But in Australia, we’re trying to have reconciliation without the truth. “President Mandela also played a prominent role in the mediation with (Libyan leader) Colonel Gaddafi over the Pan Am incident (also known as the Lockerbie bombing).
“In a sense, my father, Archie Smallwood, did in Australia what President Mandela did in South Africa about human rights.” The day following the celebrations in South Africa and Professor Smallwood and Dr Sarra travelled to Libya via Malta to attend a human rights conference where Professor Smallwood talked about how the land rights fought for and won by the late Eddie Koiki Mabo were being watered down in Australia. “This created a massive breakdown and disharmony in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.”
Professor Smallwood said there will be harmony only when reconciliation is achieved with truth. “Reparation and reconciliation needs to be made to the First Families, Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islanders/South Sea Islanders as this country has, in the last 230 years, become one of the wealthiest countries in the world on the back of black slavery.”
Professor Smallwood is a registered nurse and midwife, prominent figure in Indigenous Mental health and holds a Master of Science Degree in Public Health, as well as a PhD in First Nations Australian health and human rights. “The United Nations Award is a real honour as I have retired, but it also reflects on my parents, particularly my father who was from the Juru Birrigubba homeland (in the Bundaberg district) and was sent to the infamous Palm Island at a young age under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Protection Act,” she said.