#gadigal

[pendantheartcounterpart]

i just remembered ATWOTICs first full scale production is coming to sydney !!!!

Aus Musical fans in Gadigal rn. do you like evil trans people? do you like hyperpop? sapphic & t4t love stories? enemies to lovers? star crossed lovers? were you a Fangirls or & Juliet fan who became obsessed with Blake Appelqvist (i've seen you in certain tags...)?

well then I have the show for you....

this amazing unapologetically trans chronically online hyperpop chaos musical is coming to The Old Fitz from March 26th-11th April!!!

i am not affiliated with the team at all this not a paid ad, im just a big fan who thinks YOU should be too!!!!

as someone who's been following the show for a while and recently seen a concert performance i can guarantee ATWOTIC is a super fun, euphoric, hilarious and moving musical that will having you kicking screaming laughing crying throwing up

you can tell im not good at making these sorts of posts but if you take away anything its that you should SUPPORT LOCAL QUEER THEATRE & ARTISTS and GO SEE A TRANSGENDER WOMAN ON THE INTERNET CRYING!!!!

[punkedsolar]

The Dharug language, also known as the Gadigal language, is from around the city currently known as Sydney. It has a word 'walabi', from which the word 'wallaby' has come. The original word has been loaned for a cryptid.

The walabi - Petrogale coleoptrata - is a multilegged adaptation of the Not-Kangaroo cryptid. In this case, while the Not-Kangaroo is in the same category of creature as the Not Deer of Appalachia, it is considerably more benign. It retains it's herbivorous nature, and extended stomachs allow it to digest poor forage for survival in desolate areas.

The walabi is an adaptable, and fast moving creature, fond of being recognised as a normal wallaby from a distance. Once humans realise it has more limbs than it should have, it turns to give them an unsettling, somewhat melancholy stare.

[flesh-supper]

[twitterexile]

[asunfloweraday]

Kaurna Country

“I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains

Of ragged mountain ranges

Of droughts and flooding rains”

I’m reminded of those words as I stand here on Kaurna country; hard earth beneath my feet and hot wind sweeping across my face. 

It’s this feeling that tells me that I’m home. 

Kaurna land is truly beautiful. The city is almost entirely encompassed by vast bushland that expands from the York Peninsula (Guuranda) nearly up to Port Augusta (Goordnada) and all the way back down to Cape Jervis (Parewarangk). To the West of Adelaide, we have the open water that is St Vincent’s Gulf (Wongajerla) and out to the Indian Ocean.

This may not be the place of my ancestors, but it was the place that I came into the world and spent my early years and childhood. 

I sit here and ponder that.

I ponder the deep spiritual connection I feel to this land and for the first time really consider what it means to be on Aboriginal Land. I think to myself, if this is the connection that I feel to country, how much stronger is it for First Nations Peoples. One hundred, one thousand, sixty thousand, four hundred thousand times stronger perhaps? And the weight of that really hit me. 

This moment was brought on by the Bachelorette and Brooke’s friend asking the final two if they know what country they live and work on. I felt smug about it at the time. Yes of course, I know the original custodians of where I live and work (The Gadigal/Cammeraygal People of the Eora Nation). 

But I was considering why I know that. 

I was still in school when Welcome/Acknowledgement of Country first came to be following Kevin Rudd’s official apology to First Nations Peoples. Every school assembly I would be reminded that I was on Kaura land. This continued into my university years. When I moved to Sydney and started tutoring in the middle of COVID, I had to look up whose land I was on as my classes were online so this information couldn’t be provided in the slides as it would be different for everyone. So in sum, I know because I’ve had to know, not because I did this on my own accord and all of sudden I felt ashamed by that. 

No my ancestors weren’t responsible for the atrocities whereby Australia came to be (my family migrated to Australia in the 1950s from an impoverished warn-torn Italy). But even if my ancestry was Ango-Saxon, who was responsible to me, is missing the point. What can we all do now to preserve and celebrate Aboriginal (and Torres Strait Islander) culture and I don’t think I am doing enough. 

I want to be a part of the conversation and I want to involve myself. Restoring the rights of First Nations peoples are and should be every Australians responsibility. 

So I’m here for it, I’m open and I’m willing to learn. I acknowledge that I cannot drive this, that should come from First Nations and only First Nations Peoples. But I will be an ally and I will do everything I can. 

This is my pledge. 

[isomorphismes]

Taking of Colbee and Bennelong on 25 November 1789

William Bradley

[othersociologist]

Barangaroo was a Cammeraygal woman of the Eora nation. Women were the main food providers for their families, fishing from their bark canoes (nowie) with lines and hooks. They fished sustainably, only catching what they needed each day. The British invaded Australia in 1788, decimating the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. Of those who survived, many were raped, enslaved or kidnapped. One of these was Woollarawarre Bennelong, Barangaroo's second husband. Kidnapped as a youth, he would go on to become the first published Aboriginal author. In his early life, he attempted to negotiate with the British colonisers, much to Barangaroo's anger. 

In 1790 British colonists plundered four thousand salmon fish in one day. This fish were presented to Bennelong and other Eora men by the British male officers as a way to establish authority. This was the beginning of environmental damage that continues to this day, and also diminishing women’s status as the main food providers for family and community. Barangaroo refused to meet with the British, to wear colonists' clothes, and to accept the displacement of Eora women. 

This art installation celebrates the mighty Barangaroo's stance by inviting the public to create ice fish which are then placed into a canoe and set alight each evening of the Sydney Festival. Check out my Insta Stories for more on Four Thousand Fish.

Video: The Other Sociologist.

[othersociologist]

Australia Day Protests

Tomorrow is a painful day for Indigenous Australians; the 26 January is a date commemorating the day British ships arrived on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lands and decimated First Australians. Many Australians recognise that a date celebrating all that is great about this nation should not be held on this date that marks genocide, rape and dispossession, a history that impacts Indigenous life chances in the present-day. 

Australia Day was only observed by all states and territories from 1935 and it was relatively recently that it was made a national holiday in 1994. Indigenous Australians have been protesting this date since 1938, on the first ever Day of Mourning! Since then, Indigenous Australians have also held both Invasion Day and Survival Day events to continue resistance against colonialist, patriarchal views of what it means to be Australian.

We can — and must — celebrate being Australian on a day that is less divisive and hurtful. This year, Fremantle council in Western Australia has changed the date to the 28 January in consultation with Indigenous elders and community members; the rest of the nation must follow this example. 

Find an Invasion Day protest in your nearest capital city - there is even a protest in Berlin! March to tell our officials that we must #ChangeTheDate. 

Can’t attend a march? Check out the other Survival Day events around the country.

Protest in Sydney

I am writing to you from Sydney, land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. 

In Sydney, I’ll be marching in solidarity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have looked after these lands for over 75,000 years (and much earlier by other accounts). The Sydney march starts in the mighty community of Redfern and ends at the Yabun Survival Day Festival, where there will be music, kids activities, panels, market stalls, and cultural performances. 

Both the protest and festival are family-friendly events. Bring sunscreen, water and food as it’ll be hot! 

Around 10,000 people marched in Sydney for the Women’s March. I was just one among many people concerned about social justice. I saw signs that read: “Women’s rights are human rights.” Well, Indigenous rights are human rights and Indigenous rights are a feminist issue! Intersectionality means showing up for all women, and recognising how racism impacts on gender equality.

I hope that the same 10,000 people who marched on the 21st will also march on the 26th of January. If you are able, join the march to support the traditional owners of this country. March because Indigenous Australians have always fought for feminist causes, human rights and the environment. It is only through Indigenous leadership that we can make Australia a better and truly inclusive nation.

See you there! I will tweet from @OtherSociology for those who can’t make it.

Learn more

Join the Invasion Day March in Sydney. The march is organised by FIRE (Fighting In Resistance Equally). 

Yabun Festival.

Aboriginal people in Sydney history & demographics, by Dr Anita Heiss, writer and political commentator, and Melodie-Jane Gibson, Indigenous Law Centre.

[Image: Symbol for fire in red against a yellow sun and black background, the colours of the Aboriginal Flag. Text reads: “Calling all sovereign peoples and supporters to stand with us on Invasion Day 27 January 2017. Keep the fire burning.”] Image: FIRE. 

Source: The Other Sociologist.