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Who are the Aborigines? A 70-minute audio primer

Diet Simon, Cologne | 19.01.2001 16:44

An interview with an Aboriginal leader is audible and downloadable at www.vidastream.com/diet-simon. Caution: it’s 70 minutes long and encompasses 64 MB, so is best handled at off-peak times.

The interviewee is Michael Anderson, Native Title claimant for the Lightning Ridge country of northwestern NSW and one of the handful of founders of the original Tent Embassy in Canberra. He's the one who threw a sacred spear with the Union Jack impaled on it into the grounds of Buckingham Palace in 1999. The interview covers the sort of issues people who've barely heard about Aborigines might be wondering about: martial resistance to the invasion, the impact of missionisation, stolen generations, walkabout, religious beliefs, the spiritual importance of land, artistic expression of the culture, exploitation of their art by non-Aborigines, deprivation of rights now, etc., etc. It was conducted and is soon to be aired in a German-dubbed version by a Senior Citizens broadcasting group in Bonn. If anyone is interested in rebroadcasting, contact them: SeniorenMedienForum, Muensterstrasse 21, 5311 Bonn, fax #49-228-637609, phone 637610, Karin Goermer or Celia Schmidt (both speak English); they're not online yet. Like community radio the world over, they live off the smell of an oily rag, so inquirers might like to negotiate some sort of recompense for their costs.

Diet Simon, Cologne
- e-mail: d.simon@ndh.net
- Homepage: www.vidastream.com/diet-simon