Category: racism

An Annotated Australian National Anthem

January 26, 2016

For this Australia Invasion Day, let us all reflect on what makes this country so great, using the words of the Australian National Anthem (annotated version).

Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free;

I don’t know about free, but Australia certainly isn’t young: close to sixty thousand years of continuous occupation by Indigenous peoples sounds pretty damn old to me. But we don’t like to talk about that, do we? We like to think that the first people (that is, people who are actually considered people) who settled here landed on Australia’s shores on the 26th of January 1788. (To avoid future confusion: they came by boat, but they were by no means ‘Boat People.’) Even our former Prime Minister likes to say that Australia was ‘nothing but bush’ before white people arrived. So yeah, I guess you can definitely say we’re a ‘young’ nation … More An Annotated Australian National Anthem

The 82nd Edition of the Down Under Feminists’ Carnival

March 5, 2015

The DUFC is a collection of writing on broadly-defined feminist issues by Australian and New Zealand bloggers. It encompasses everything from political commentary to topics like race, gender, sexual inequality, queer issues, disability, human rights and social justice, sex and relationships, fat politics, feminist theory and more.

Welcome to the 82nd Edition of the Down Under Feminists’ Carnival!

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this edition! I hope you all enjoy. … More The 82nd Edition of the Down Under Feminists’ Carnival

On Race, Gender and the Recent Brisbane Murders

April 4, 2014

Content note for violence against women and people of colour. Last week, a young woman was murdered in Brisbane. Police managed to identify her as an international student from France called Sophie Collumbet. She was brutally beaten by her attacker, probably while on her way home. In recent times, three other international students were also … More On Race, Gender and the Recent Brisbane Murders

Daring to think about Indigeneity (as a white girl)

January 10, 2012

In a moment of naivety, she wishes she was black. To be a part of the collective consciousness that existed in this land long before it became ahistorical. To claim affinity with the land, to feel that she has an excuse, a justification, a legitimisation for her own feeling of belonging here. But she doesn’t … More Daring to think about Indigeneity (as a white girl)