Dear friends,
Over here at Rumpus/ Makeshift, we are following the media, watching the news, reading the articles, listening to the podcasts, feeling the feelings.
We are learners, our work is about learning.
Learning will never stop.
National Reconciliation week has driven home just how much further we have to go in truly working towards healing. We recognise that there can be no healing without addressing the continuing forms of oppression that are taking place, here and now.
We wake up each morning to scenes of intense racial hate in the US as it plays out on our screens. We mourn for the lives lost to violence.
While it’s hard to “stay with the trouble” and lean into the heaviness, we must try. There’s a chance here to reflect and pause on what we as humans are creating as a whole, and use this time for deep listening and learning.
Now and every day, we would like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners, Custodians and Elders past and present of the Indigenous Nations of New South Wales on whose land we live and work. There is so much to learn from them.
We will continue to learn.
Here’s a list of things to read, watch, listen to and learn from.
Talking to My Country - Stan Grant
The Yield - Tara June Winch
Tell Me Why - Archie Roach
Growing up Aboriginal in Australia - Anita Heiss
(Readings bookshop has a great list of books by Indigenous Authors.)
How to be an Anti-Racist - Ibram X. Kendi
Me and White Supremacy - Layla F Saad
Race Matters - this episode with poet Kirli Saunders is a good place to start.
Tiddas 4 Tiddas podcast
ABC Conversations with Richard Fidler - Uncle Jack Charles: Not True Blue, True Blak
Deaths Inside - an interactive and thorough investigation of Aboriginal Deaths in Custody via Guardian Australia
Common Ground - a collection of original and curated learning articles on culture, history and reconciliation.
How to Be a Good Indigenous Ally - NITV
Practical Ways You Can Support Aboriginal Lives Matter
Sisters Inside - a fund to support Indigenous women in WA, who have been imprisoned due to unpaid fines.
First Nations Artists and Community COVID-19 Appeal
