Link: Feminist On Testosterone: The View From An Intersexual FTM

Wow.

A few people have linked to that recently, but I've only just read it. What an amazing and powerful piece of writing, hiding under the guise of a casual tone.

Seriously, go read that.

Northern Territory teenagers victimised repeatedly by stupid, stupid laws.

I read about this incredibly stupid law affecting NT teens recently. Now, hot on its heels, comes incredibly stupid law affecting NT teens mark two!

Sometimes I think that certain pollies see the Northern Territory as the real-world equivalent of that Sims household you set up just to do bizarre experiments on and make as miserable as possible, ultimate killing them all. It's far less harmless and much more disturbing when you use real life humans, dudes.

Andrew Bolt, Wajin-looking Koori, Aboriginality, and comments full of lies

Or: TL;DR

Quite a few people have already posted on this hideous post by Andrew Bolt a few weeks back. It's been sitting in my "blog about this" pile since then, and I've sat down a few times to try and address it. Unfortunately, each time I've done so I've ended up so completely livid that I've completely failed to put together a coherent post. Today I figured I might as well just let the rage out onto this blog.

For those who are unaware of Bolt, I envy you. He's a leading voice in Stolen Generation denial in this country which, like being a leading voice in the active denial of atrocities committed against any oppressed racial group, is not something any decent human would be proud of. This particular piece covers his complaint about Indigenous Australians who pass as white having the audacity to identify as Aboriginal, rather than accepting their "true" race as determined by Andrew Bolt. He claims there is great political clout to be gained through such an identification, which is of course news to actual Indigenous Australians.

From the article:

MEET the white face of a new black race - the political Aborigine.

Meet, say, acclaimed St Kilda artist Bindi Cole, who was raised by her English-Jewish mother yet calls herself “Aboriginal but white”.

She rarely saw her part-Aboriginal father, and could in truth join any one of several ethnic groups, but chose Aboriginal, insisting on a racial identity you could not guess from her features.

Apparently Indigenous people "choose" their racial identity, rather than grow into it like people of any other ethnicity. In a fashion that reminds me of the classic "You chose to be gay, but I just turned out straight" manoeuvre, Bolt doesn't seem to think that he "chose" to be white.

We end up with our racial identities the same way everyone else done, Bolt. We inherit them, and make them our own by living them. Those people who are exceptions to this pattern tend to be exceptions for very good reasons.

She also chose, incidentally, the one identity open to her that has political and career clout.

Ah, of course, the clout. That political weight that explains the totally epic representation of Indigenous Australians in parliament. The career clout that... um... profit??

And how popular a choice that now is. Ask Annette Sax [...] Her father was Swiss, and her mother only part-Aboriginal. Racially, if these things mattered, she is more Caucasian than anything else. Culturally, she’s more European. In looks, she’s Swiss.

Note how the whiteness is automatically ranked as the most significant part of her absent mother's racial identity?

And what does "in looks, she's Swiss" even mean?

But she, too, has chosen to call herself Aboriginal, which happily means she could be shortlisted for this year’s Victorian Indigenous Art Award.

"Aboriginal" is an adjective. And "Indigenous Art" is a category. How DARE those uppity blackfellas have an award for their own category of art!

Then meet now Tara June Winch, who is just 26 and has written only one book, Swallow the Air, yet is already an ambassador for the Australia Council’s Indigenous Literacy Project.

*sigh*

What amazes me so frequently about Andrew Bolt is how many times he presents information with the assumption that any person reading will immediately jump to his conservative, racist conclusions about that information... and how many times those conclusions are so incredibly far from the conclusions I immediately jump to.

Bolt clearly expects the reader to respond to this paragraph with "Shock! Only one book and she's an ambassador for the ILP? This is a clear example of someone adopting an Aboriginal identity for personal gain!"

I read that paragraph and think how frickin' hard it is for Indigenous authors to achieve mainstream publication, how Indigenous illiteracy is such an issue that we just don't have that many Indigenous authors, and those Indigenous Australians who are recognised in the mainstream are those who can benefit from white privilege, and who live in areas that are generally non-remote and non-traditional. I think how vital it is to have those ambassadors, and lament that the pool of Indigenous authors is so small. And I feel pride that a mixed race Wiradjuri woman has written such a recognised and rewarded book that deals largely with themes of mixed racial Indigenous identity.

Oh, sorry, Bolt. Did you miss the bit where this championed Indigenous author's "one book" was actually written about being a contemporary mixed race Indigenous Australian? That that might have played a part in her recognition as a relevant author to other Indigenous people, as her book and her story might appeal directly to them? Or did you just forget to mention it?

Yes, indeed, because despite her auburn hair and charmingly freckled face, she, too, is an Aborigine, who claims her “country is Wiradjuri”.

So wait... we can't have freckles now? Phenotypes do not work the way you think they do, fucko. And the scare quotes and the emphasis on "claims" is just disgusting.

Wiradjuri pride, btw!

Yet her mother, who raised her in industrial Wollongong, is in fact boringly English, and her father has both Afghan and Aboriginal heritage.

She could call herself English, Afghan, Aboriginal, Australian or just a take-me-as-I-am human being called Tara June Winch. Race irrelevant.

Actually, all the media I've encountered indicates she specifically IDs as being of Wiradjuri, Afghan and English heritage. Seems to me that she "calls herself" mixed race... but that concept seems to be a bit beyond Bolt.

Instead, she’s an official Aborigine, and hired as such in a nation that now institutionalises even racial differences you cannot detect with a naked eye.

How dare we not all wear our heritage on our foreheads for Andrew Bolt to see!

I'm curious to know if Bolt thinks he can identify every different ethnicity "with the naked eye". Or is he happy to lump all the ones that look similar together, just as insists all mixed race people be lumped into "white"?

Larissa Behrendt has also worked as a professional Aborigine ever since leaving Harvard Law School [...] She chose to be Aboriginal, as well, a member of the “Eualayai and Kammillaroi nations”, and is now a senior professor at the University of Technology in Sydney’s Indigenous House of Learning.

She’s won many positions and honours as an Aborigine, including the David Unaipon Award for Indigenous Writers, and is often interviewed demanding special rights for “my people”.

"Special rights", huh? Now there's a conservative dogwhistle if ever I heard one.

But which people are “yours”, exactly, Larissa? And isn’t it bizarre to demands laws to give you more rights as a white Aborigine than your own white mum?

Any examples of those "rights" that would be denied white people, Bolt?

Feel free to read this interview, where she counters some of the misconceptions non-Indigenous people tend to have when it comes to her work on Indigenous land rights. Behrendt, incidentally, has worked internationally with First Nations people on the fronts of land rights and gender equality.

Meet now Associate Professor Anita Heiss [...] Heiss’s father was Austrian, and her mother only part-Aboriginal. What’s more, she was raised in Sydney and educated at Saint Claire’s Catholic College.

Shock! Indigenous people can be Catholic now? Or is the emphasis supposed to be on the quality of her education, with the implication that that is what makes her un-Aboriginal?

She, too, could identify as a member of more than one race, if joining up to any at all was important.

"Joining up to". Again, the implication being that white, as the default, is not a race one "joins". Only the Others are.

As it happens, her decision to identify as Aboriginal, joining four other “Austrian Aborigines” she knows, was lucky, given how it’s helped her career.

Heiss not only took out the Scanlon Prize for Indigenous Poetry, but won plum jobs reserved for Aborigines at Koori Radio, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board and Macquarie University’s Warawara Department of Indigenous Studies.

Whereas if she had not identified as Aboriginal, she obviously would not have a "plum job" with anyone.

Once again, Bolt neglects to mention that the person he's talking about is well known not only as an Indigenous author, but as an author of materials relevant to Indigenous Australians. The fact that this woman has made a career out of writing some quite celebrated pieces about Aboriginality and Aboriginal Australia is apparently irrelevant to her collection of an Indigenous poetry prize, according to Bolt. No, she entered and won only because of her racial identity. She's probably rubbish, anyway.

I’m not saying any of those I’ve named chose to be Aboriginal for anything but the most heartfelt and honest of reasons. I certainly don’t accuse them of opportunism, even if full-blood Aborigines may wonder how such fair people can claim to be one of them and in some cases take black jobs.

Oh, that's just magic. If Andrew Bolt can point to one single "full-blood Aborigine" with whom he has discussed this matter and who expressed that sentiment, I'll eat my hat. No, even more extreme... I'll fuck Andrew Bolt.

I have some extremely dark skinned relatives and friends (as well as some extremely pale ones... some tribes have very different ratios of mixed race and pale skinned members, and I come from the largest Koori nation). Not a single one of them has ever expressed concern over the fact that I identify as Wiradjuri whilst being wajin-looking. Hell, we have a commonly used word for people like me. Note the emphasis on looking. The only people who have ever expressed disbelief of my Aboriginality based on my skin tone have been over-privileged white fuckwits who feel entitled to decide who does and does not get to claim membership of a demographic they themselves have no connection at all to.

I’m saying only that this self-identification as Aboriginal strikes me as self-obsessed, and driven more by politics than by any racial reality.

I find myself wondering if Andrew Bolt was raised in a bubble by his mother and father, with no other relatives in sight. He consistently derides "part-Aboriginal" parents for producing mixed race children who identify as Aboriginal, yet doesn't seem to have cast his mind's eye on where those "part-Aboriginal" parents came from. Does he presume that all of these paler Indigenous people grew up without any grandparents? Without Aunties or Uncles (important in many cultures, vital in ours) around to identify with and discuss their family and their heritage with? Without siblings who may have inherited different features? It's not unusual for a mixed race Indigenous family to have some children who present as darker skinned than others, what with the recessive genes and all. Where there's a mixed-race kid, somewhere in the family there has to be at least two people who aren't mixed race. Does Bolt presume that all those people vanish as soon as they've passed on their unmixed-and-hence-superior genes?

My identification as Aboriginal has a lot more to do with my contact with my Aboriginal relatives than anything else. I am Aboriginal because my family is. That is my racial reality, not what some white guy thinks of my skin tone.

It’s also divisive, feeding a new movement to stress pointless or even invented racial differences we once swore to overcome. What happened to wanting us all to become colour blind?

Uh, we didn't want you to become colour-blind. StrawAborigine much?

Of course, the white Aborigine - or “political Aborigine” - is not new.

In 1972, Pat Eatock, founding secretary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, officially became the first Aborigine to stand for federal parliament in the ACT, even though she looked as white as her Scottish mother, or some of her father’s British relatives.

Mixed race people do that sometimes, ya know.

And again, different conclusions. To me, this is one of many clear examples of Australian society valuing those Indigenous people who can be passed as white over those who cannot. That is something that is certainly not new, and which Indigenous people have been dealing with for centuries.

Indeed, Eatock only started to identify as Aboriginal when she was 19, after attending a political rally, so little did any racial difference matter to her before her awakening to far-Left causes.

Here Bolt presumes again that he's saying something that IS somehow new. He ignores the pressure that Indigenous people who can be passed as white have been under for so long to do exactly that: deny who we are and pretend to be white. Up until very recently, to embrace one's Aboriginality was to embrace being an un-person.

I have relatives who deny their Aboriginality; I respect their choice to do so. My pale skin has certainly not protected me from racism. If any of those relatives decided to embrace their Indigenous heritage in the future, I would be glad for them. Andrew Bolt would label them Fakey Fake Fakers because at some point in their life, they bowed to the pressure to accept white privilege.

When one's family treats Aboriginal heritage as something to be ashamed of, it's usually not until one begins to establish one's identity outside of that (say, around the age of 19) that one questions why that shame should be continued, and what one can do to help get rid of it. For many, holding their head up and saying "Yes, fuck it, I AM Aboriginal!" is one first step on that journey.

The white Aboriginal artist, too, is more than 15 years old. Kim Scott was hailed as the first Aborigine to win the Miles Franklin Award, and calls himself a Noongar, despite conceding that the Aborigines who did not know him called him wadjila - a white.

No doubt he has Aboriginal ancestry, but why does he not also identify with his obvious European background?

Conceded?? Quite the contrary, Bolt. He's written quite extensively on what it was like growing up as a mixed race Indigenous person, and on why he moved from identifying as "of Aboriginal descent" to "Noongar". If you ever feel like reading any of those pieces (which I doubt you will, you seem too fond of criticising Indigenous writers without bothering to even look up summaries of their work) you'll note the emphasis placed on his relationship with tribal elders and their encouragement of his use of the latter term.

"Aboriginal" and "Indigenous", whilst the preferable labels compared to the others on option, are not the names our peoples gave to themselves. They are English words referring to a monolithic people that does not exist. Amongst ourselves we are Koori, Noongar, Wiradjuri, etc.

That is now a question even for our most famous Aboriginal leaders. Geoff Clarke, the last chairman of ATSIC, the Aboriginal “parliament”, had an English father. Lowtija O’Donohue, another ATSIC chairman, had an Irish father. Blue-eyed Michael Mansell, the Tasmanian firebrand, clearly has more European than Aboriginal ancestry.

For many Indigenous Australians, our mixed racial heritage is not something that was chosen, either by us or by our Indigenous ancestors. Ah, but Bolt has pre-empted this point... he denies that the atrocities that lead to so many examples of mixed race and pale skin ever actually happened. Somehow he think it's the fault of this generation, some of whom are pale skinned because they... um... wait, what?

Even Professor Mick Dodson, the Australian of the Year and a fierce advocate for a treaty between black and white, had a white father and from the age of 10 was a boarder at a Victorian Catholic school. Sign a treaty with yourself, Mick.

Again with the Catholic school! Apparently there's something in the places that makes you white. Oh, sorry, I mean without race.

Or take the most prominent Yorta Yorta leaders - Melbourne University academic Wayne Atkinson and Victorian Traditional Owners Land Justice Group co-chair Graham Atkinson. Both are Aboriginal because their Indian great-grandfather married a part-Aboriginal woman.

Uh... no. That would be "their great-grandmother was Aboriginal", for one thing. She's a person in her own right. For another, the definition of "Aboriginal" used in this country necessitates acceptance by the community and self-identification as Aboriginal. That community bit is kinda non-negotiable.

We get Daniel Browning, host of ABC radio’s Awaye! program for Aborigines, insisting he’s Aboriginal when he looks more like one of his West Indian ancestors, and could just as correctly claim to be South Sea Islander, English, Australian or who-cares.

More of Andrew Bolt's magical gaze of racial distinction. But it's good to know he's not just bitching out mixed race Indigenous people who dare to resemble their white non-Indigenous ancestors.

To me, this blacker-than-thou

Blacker than thou? It's not a game we play, Bolt, although you seem pretty keen to get a round started.

offends the deepest humanist ideals, and our “enlightened” opinion is debased when it takes a Casey Donovan, a mere Australian Idol winner, to hint at the healthier truth, saying she’s proud of being Aboriginal, but “proud of being half-white, too”.

A concept Bolt claims the Indigenous people mentioned do not also embrace, yet not a single piece of evidence for that has been provided. Where are the examples of these people renouncing their non-Indigenous heritage? Or is Bolt just presuming that unless otherwise stated Aboriginal identity is incompatible with appreciating one's non-Indigenous family? I can't help but infer that this means he sees Aboriginality as incompatible with being "Australian", that to him it means something fundamentally other and fundamentally opposed to his good, white values. Perhaps that's oversensitive of me.

In fact, let’s go beyond racial pride. Beyond black and white. Let’s be proud only of being human beings set on this land together, determined to find what unites us and not to invent such racist and trivial excuses to divide. Deal?

Racial and trivial excuses like skin tone? Sure. You first. Then white Australia. Once that's taken care of, the rest of us will get on board.

Since that was ranty and disjointed enough to drop the readability of my blog by several points just by being posted, I'd usually leave it there. But the cesspool that is Andrew Bolt's comment threads is a special kind of revolting, and I can't resist pulling out a few key pieces.

Rossco replied to AussieTraveller
Wed 15 Apr 09 (07:50am)

If you’re an aborigine you go straight to the top of the class for the art prize or the film award, because you have overcome the inherent racism in Australia. You bash someone to death with a cricket bat and you get a slap on the wrist, as long as you have suffered for your race. Aboriginality is the get out of jail or get ahead free card. It means you don’t have to behave or do the work that others need to do to get ahead. How about we DNA anybody that wants aboriginal benefits and set a level of 1/16th or less. Imagine what that would do in welfare savings alone.
By the way, every time I see one of those dot paintings i just want to get out my NeoMajic and join em up.

To begin with, I'm sure the massive numbers of Indigenous Australians in gaol would be surprised to hear about this "get out of gaol free" card. We only make up 2-3% of the Australian population, yet made up 22% of the prison population in 2005. And that's not even getting started on the volatile issue of Aboriginal deaths in custody.

This comment also bears the first of hundreds of references in that comment thread to these mythical "Aboriginal benefits" that Bolt's commentariat believe are handed to everyone who declares themselves to be Indigenous. Bolt surely must know that all government benefits, Indigenous or otherwise, are means-tested... yet he fails to correct a single one of the commenters who espouse the obvious truth of Giant Aboriginal Handouts. Let's play pretend: you take a bunch of people currently receiving "Aboriginal benefits" and declare them ineligible for those benefits. You know what happens next? They all become eligible for benefits of a very similar amount that are available to non-Indigenous Australians. If they wouldn't be eligible for those based on a means test, then they don't receive "Aboriginal benefits" either.

This myth is a persistent one in Australian society: that all Indigenous Australians receive mysterious chunks of money from the government that are somehow never mentioned in a State or Federal budget. Frankly, I want my fucking cheque.

uptothebackteeth replied to AussieTraveller
Wed 15 Apr 09 (05:18pm)

Andrew..Perusing the comments on this blog, I get the distinct impression that people are not only over this white aboriginal scam, but are postively furious about it too.
On another matter
I note one very intersting comment in this area is section from a part aborigine who has been initiated under traditional Aboriginal law and can participate in traditional Aboriginal ceremonies etc. That is most unusual for other than full blood to be initiated. Maybe CharlesG could advise if this process of initiation of part aboriginals is now more widespread than is generally considered.

This one is easy to deal with: You have no fucking idea what you're talking about.

Dave from Perth replied to sillyfilly
Wed 15 Apr 09 (08:53am)

Quite a silly thing to say. These people have no Aboriginal culture, heritage or geneology to speak of. If you want to find those elements you actually have to go where the real aboriginals live. NT, WA, Western NSW etc etc. There you’ll find real aboriginal people who can legitimately trace their hereditary line with cultural practices, languages, genetic makeup and, in case youmissed it, the colour of their skin.

What these interlopers are doing is damaging real aboriginal causes for their own financial ends. It should be stopped.

Oh, Dave, you funny little concern troll. Your genuine worry for "real [A]boriginal causes" is just dripping off the screen.

I notice a lot of these commenters refer, often proudly, to Australian culture... that is, the culture that has grown in this country in the last 200+ years alone. Prior to that, there was no Australia and thus no Australian culture.

"Aboriginal culture", however, is decided by these commenters to mean only that which existed prior to 1788, intact and handed down directly to modern day Indigenous Australians. Contemporary Indigenous culture is not only ignored, but specifically stated to be bunk, a farce, proof that modern Indigenous Australians are not worthy of the label... unless, of course, they're dark skinned enough that Andrew Bolt can judge them Aboriginal on sight.

Why is "Australian culture" allowed to be something that has gone through a natural evolution over the last 221 years, but "Indigenous culture" must be stagnant to deserve recognition?

Eskimo replied to LEGAL SNIP
Wed 15 Apr 09 (09:34am)

That’s the point. The people in this article are not presenting themselves to be judged on their merits but are seeking an advantage based on their ethinicity.

As this example Bolta gives points out -

And how popular a choice that now is. Ask Annette Sax, another artist and - as the very correct Age newspaper described her - a “white Koori”.

Her father was Swiss, and her mother only part-Aboriginal. Racially, if these things mattered, she is more Caucasian than anything else. Culturally, she’s more European. In looks, she’s Swiss.

But she, too, has chosen to call herself Aboriginal, which happily means she could be shortlisted for this year’s Victorian Indigenous Art Award.

If she only wants to be judged on merit, why enter the Victorian Indigenous Art Award?

I actually sat there blinking at the sheer stupid in this one for a while. Why enter an Indigenous Art Award if you only want to be judged on merit? Uh... to begin with, it IS judged on merit. That's kinda implied by it being a competition.

I'm getting the impression that these people think Indigenous art competitions, exhibitions and such are just collections of art indistinguishable from that appearing in any other gallery in Australia, only with a "NO WHITIES ALLOWED" sign on the front, and some mysteriously taxpayer funded giant pile of money as a prize. On the contrary, they are put together to showcase Indigenous artists, who usually focus on subject matter relevant to an Indigenous audience and to themselves as Indigenous Australian artists.

The catalogues from the last four years of the Victorian Indigenous Art Awards can be found here.

kae replied to wally
Wed 15 Apr 09 (08:11am)

I wonder how much of the improvement in aboriginal longevity is due to stats from people who are mostly white, brought up as white, living in urban areas?

Nothing’s changed much out in the boonies.

Living in a city, it seems, is being "brought up as white". I see this one as being much in the same vein as the frequent references in Bolt's article to "Catholic schooling" as a marker of faux-Aboriginality.

We see this again here:

I wonder if all these so-called Aborigines have ever seen a REAL Aborigine, let alone lived with them in their communities?

They do not look like they could handle the REAL Aboriginal lifestyle - whether living rough around the towns and cities of northern Australia or living in an isolated Aboriginal settlement!
Dave Wane of Darwin (Reply)
Wed 15 Apr 09 (08:40am)

Bolt and his commenters set an impossible standard for Indigenous Australians to engage in dialogue with white Australia. The only "real" Indigenous Australians, to these people, are blackest black, living in remote rural areas in traditional environments and living a tribal lifestyle. Yet those who do fit this narrow, racist definition are those who are deprived of opportunity to engage in dialogue with white Australia... and those who label them the "only real Aboriginal people" certainly make no move to change that. It is a silencing tactic only, aimed at limiting the labels "Aboriginal" and "Indigenous" to the those least likely to be able to object to decisions made on their behalf by white Australians.

Of course, some of them even apply their Bizzaro World ideas of what it's like to be Indigenous in Australia today to those who fit their narrow standards of Aboriginality:

On a positive note these Aborigines mentioned all look healthy, and appear educated. How many will they go to Arnhem Land and help their cousins achieve the same prosperity?
Tron of Real World (Reply)
Wed 15 Apr 09 (09:56am)

and

Fabulously wealthy replied to Tron
Wed 15 Apr 09 (05:08pm)

They already achieved prosperity; nice cheques regularly from the government and from mining companies, no need to do anything. Who could ask for more?

Yes. Apparently Indigenous people in Arnhem land make a good living off the Mystery Cheques that roll in for each of them from the government and from various mining companies. It's at this point that this bullshit starts to give hints of the fact that it's genuinely dangerous.

Many years ago all it took was for someone aboriginal to recognise you as a family member (by adoption in action, no legalities), and you were considered aboriginal. I know. A friend offered to nominate me. Such was the standard.

kae (Reply)
Wed 15 Apr 09 (08:00am)

and then

kae replied to kae
Wed 15 Apr 09 (01:10pm)

In the early 80s an ‘aboriginal’ friend offered to say that I was a “sister” and accepted by her “tribe”, if I wanted to get on the gravy train. I just had to be accepted as part of the family.

I passed.

This is one of the comments I mentally filed under "giant, slanderous lie". There's distressingly many of them.

This is another:

My daughter’s best friend (blonde, blue eyed) is doing the same UNI course as my daughter. When she enrolled she declared herself aboriginal (she is 1/32 aboriginal). This was news to me daughter who has grown up with her and never knew of this heritage.

But the end result is she pays no costs for her UNI course, but my daughter doing the same course will be left with a large HEX debt at the end. My daughter has no problems with her friend’s benefit and would have done the same if she was able.

But the question is when this girls marries (most likely to a non aboriginal), and her kids then 1/64 aboriginal, are they still able to call themselves aboriginal, and get free UNI or other defined benefits to assist the disadvantaged group.

Mike of Port Macquarie (Reply)
Wed 15 Apr 09 (08:06am)

Giant. Fucking. Lie. Indigenous people do not get free university education, and the only time we did so was in those halcyon days where a university education was free to all Australians.

This Giant Lie comment, unlike the previous one, is actually called out by a few commenters. Others, of course, simply accept Mike's story on face value, as for some stupid fucking reason it makes perfect sense to them that the Howard government would have left Aboriginal people as the only ones entitled to a free education... the Howard government being so incredibly pro-Aboriginal rights and all.

A commenter called "Pete" chimes in to clarify things with another Giant Fucking Lie:

pete replied to Mike
Wed 15 Apr 09 (02:49pm)

i do know that TAFE fees (maybe thats where the confusion lies, tafe/uni) are capped at a maximum rate of $55 per year for aborigines/torres strait islanders, same rate as anyone on a health care card. I don’t know anything about concessions for university, if any.
-pete

Nope, TAFE fees aren't capped for Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders either. I can see why you'd be so confused, though, what with all the bullshit flying around.

Now check out THIS pile of crap:

I knew a person years ago who found out that she had aboriginal ancestory. She also found out that there was money in it. She left her family and went to live with the group in northern victoria for the one and only thing she wanted in the world. Money. She actually told me that she got a house loan at 3% (ours at the time was 13%) She didn’t have to work and was paid a pension which was over and above the norm. There were a lot of other benefits as well. So why wouldn’t you do it? We have made it so easy to scam the general public that anyone who can claim will claim and we the suckers pay for it. It is interesting to note the explosion in the numbers of aborigines in this country over the last twenty years. Your article points out exactly where we are at with this nonsense.
neil of country (Reply)
Wed 15 Apr 09 (10:50am)

... wow. I'm actually genuinely astonished that people living in the same country as me can believe this stuff is going on.

I might do another post from this comment thread later.

ANZAC Day and Indigenous Australians....

Or: Drunken LJ post cross posted for the fuck of it

So I've seen a few "remember tomorrow is ANZAC Day and remember those who died" posts pop up on my flist tonight. I probably wouldn't be posting this here if I hadn't had a few drinks, but...

... you should know that these kind of admonitions really grate on those of us who are Indigenous. Who spend ANZAC weekend after ANZAC weekend seeing our dead ignored and overwritten by those of white Australia, whether out of ignorance, racism, or simple preference for the "standard" ANZAC narrative that doesn't include Indigenous men dying for a country that didn't even recognise them as people, let alone citizens.

Please, include reference to Indigenous Australians in your acknowledgement of this day. And no, referring to "Australians (in general)" or "our nation's history" doesn't count. If you don't do so, don't admonish your fellow Australians for not sticking to the preferred narrative as though you speak for us all, or as though your lecture to your country-men includes those of us who have only recently been considered "Australian".

Accessories, Australian sex workers, and Sheila Jeffreys

I'm still stuck in the "can't write" zone that this medication change has thrust me into. I'm just flat and devoid of energy, and writing anything other than rambly train-of-thought LJ entries seems insurmountably difficult. I'm behind on writing for the Whoreganisation mag, I'm behind on updating my work blog, I've got posts I want to write for THIS blog, and I've got two offers for guest blogging spots that I'd love to take up.

Baby steps. Maybe next week.

I was just looking through the Whoreganisation photo drive for a picture to accompany an article, and I found some shots I took at the National Forum in Brisbane last November. (For the newcomers, it's the annual Australian sex worker only forum I organise as part of my work with the Whoreganisation)

We hand out an "info kit" each year, that includes everything from directions and information on the forum, to our Annual Report, to updates and reports from each of our member organisations, and a copy of our magazine. Last year, we handed out the info kits and other material in bags that had been screen printed with various slogans by one of our member organisations as part of a project. Each attendee was allowed to select their preferred slogan, as long as they lasted.



Here are the bags lined up on the table for people to peruse and select. You can see that the ones at the front bare the incredibly clever "Pro S.T.I tute" slogan, referencing the idea that sex workers are the safe sex experts.



This bag, "For a personal safe sex update, visit your local sex worker", presents the same idea in a more blatant format.

We had a few slogans that I didn't get to photograph, including the "Someone I love is a sex worker" slogan that always gets snapped up by allies, friends and family when its printed on patches or T-shirts and sold at events.

One particular slogan was far and away the most popular, though. It was, in fact, so in demand that I had to sneak one away from the table and hide it to ensure I got one myself! Want to see what it was?



"Sheila ain't my sister: anti-sex feminists do not speak on behalf of sex workers."

The Sheila referenced is of course Sheila Jeffreys. And the attendees of the National Forum, every single one of whom was a current or former sex worker from all around Australia (and some international guests), pounced on bags bearing this particular slogan as though they were full of money and chocolate.

Sex workers do not like this woman, her views, or her impact on our lives.

As for my bag? It's sitting next to me on my desk. I use it as a gym bag. :)

New address!

I can has domain!

This blog now lives at Hexpletive.com. Please update your linkies.

Of course, http://hexpletive.blogspot.com still redirects here, so it's not the biggest deal in the world if you don't.

I feel all shiny and legitimate with my own domain name for my little blog!

Non-Neurotypical links

I have posts brewing. So many things I want to post about. But my brain just isn't playing along right now. You get a few links instead.

Two interesting posts (make sure you read the comment threads) by Suzie on Echidne of the Snakes.

From Shakesville, Soaking in Normalcy Fetishism, or: The Unmiseducation of a Fatasspie, by a guest blogger who has just received an adulthood Aspergers diagnosis. I had so many "Oh, my, YES!" moments reading this, and do plan on coming back to it when I have the brain-spoons for it... but you should all read it now.

Asian Women Carnival #1

I read a lot of blog carnivals. I find them a really good way to find new bloggers I otherwise wouldn't stumble upon.

I just finished reading the first Asian Women blogging carnival, and thought it one that some of you might find interesting. There's a lot of stuff about racism and cultural appropriation, of course, and also some pieces on gaming, role playing and fandoms further down. Some very, very interesting reads, and they've put together a really broad spectrum of authors. There's a few pieces from Asian Australian bloggers included, and stephiepenguin (who reads and comments here!) has submitted a couple of pieces.

Blog suggestion: Transgender sex worker blogs?

Can anyone recommend any blogs written by current or former sex workers who ID as trans*? I'm open to any suggestions, but as it's not solely for my reading pleasure those that deal with sex work/sex workers rights issues/sex work and transgender issues/sex work legal and media issues would be preferable.

Hope someone can throw a few links at me!








(* or, frankly, who ID as anything, but who have a trans history that has relevance to their sex work. I'm interested in writings by those who worked stealth and those who worked "as" trans sex workers)

Word usage that annoys/amuses me... with SCIENCE!

For those who can't read the image, the text over the picture of the hairdryer says:

VS Sassoon Eco Dry Dryer, $36.95, will help minimise your carbon footprint thanks to its energy-saving science - without compromising on performance.

Energy. Saving. Science.

Advertisers really do think readers see that word the same as "magic", don't they?

Viva la révolution de fourmi!

I couldn't help but feel a little swell of pride for the rebellion of these enslaved ants, even if infanticide of the ruling class is a few steps beyond the limits of what I can condone. You still have to admire the bravery of an oppressed people species to rise up and attack their oppressors from within.

Fascinating stuff!

Conroy Bingo!

Senator Stephen Conroy Bingo! Now you can play at home!

I watched him be interviewed on Insight the other night. He uttered possibly all of these. One of my favourite pieces of bullshit (or "furphies", as he labelled EVERYTHING said by the EFA) was the one used to address those whose websites had been placed on the ACMA blacklist due to an error: "Your SITE wasn't blacklisted, only ONE PAGE on it!"

He conveniently ignored that sites tend to link internally between pages, and that merely linking to a site on the blacklist may soon be punishable, or may land those pages that link on the blacklist themselves.

Close the Gap: Amnesty International Petition

Today (no, NOT April Fools day, April second) is National Close the Gap Day, established to draw attention to the on average seventeen year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and to encourage Australians to speak up and demand the Federal government take greater action to address this issue than they have.

Amnesy International have established a Close the Gap petition I encourage all Australian readers to sign.

The National Indigenous Times emphasises that any measures to close the Gap must address the needs of urban-living Indigenous Australians, not just those in remote or rural areas.

On that point, see my constant ranting about Indigenous Australia not being a monolith.

Derailing for Dummies

Have I mentioned that my friends are brilliant?

One of them has created this little gem, which is just pure snarky brilliance. I found it especially perfect in light of the recent hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing frustration I felt trying to address the ableism on a certain post, and I imagine it will get pulled out a great deal in future "debates" about sex work.

Go! Read! Praise my friend! And do pass it around.

Blog Suggestion: Biting the Dust

I discovered Biting the Dust today, and have enjoyed the read. It's written by a (non-Indigenous?) pharmacist working in a remote Indigenous community. He compiles regular Indigenous news updates, including his recent very thorough collection of the media surrounding the latest death in police custody of an Indigenous man.

I'm adding him to my blogroll, but if nothing else make sure you read that post!