TUESDAY 30TH SEPT - 8pm
at Rampart Social Centre, 15 Rampart Street, Whitechapel, London, E1 2LA
 http://www.rampart.co.nr

International Call for Action:
September 30 - Stop the N.T. Intervention
Call for Actions in Solidarity with Aboriginal Communities in the Northern Territory of Australia

‘There was an old man who walked off the station up at Wave Hill because he didn’t wanna get paid in vouchers or rations. We don’t wanna be paid in vouchers or rations anymore!‘
- Barbara Shaw

In June 2007 the Australian government began the intervention into Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 was suspended to allow this legislation to be passed. Under the guise of “child protection”, the government compulsorily acquired five year leases on Aboriginal land permits. It put in place a welfare quarantine system whereby people living in “prescribed areas” - Aboriginal town camps and remote communities, whether elderly, students, single, or members of families - have half their welfare payments paid in the form of “store cards”. These are gift cards (aka ration cards) that can be spent at approved stores - namely corporate chain stores in Alice Springs, Katherine and Darwin, regardless of the distance of communities from these major centres, or the lack of transportation available to people from remote areas.

For more information:
 http://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com
 http://federalintervention.info
 http://studentsforsovereignty.blogspot.com


“THIS IS OUR COUNTRY TOO” A riceNpeas film
A powerful exposé of Australia’s hidden apartheid.

From the makers of With or Without Fidel, Blood Diamonds and Bang Bang In Da Manor comes a brave new documentary that delves beyond Australia’s reputation of sun, surf and sand to reveal a nation ruptured by a deep racial divide and contested history. Taking the controversial 2007 Northern Territory Intervention as its starting point, This is Our Country Too is a hard-hitting investigation into Australia’s woeful treatment of its indigenous peoples, and a rare depiction of their unrelenting struggle for justice, equality and self-determination.

In June 2007, the Australian government took the unprecedented step of suspending its Race Relations Act to introduce the Intervention - a series of draconian, federal-backed laws designed to control the flow of alcohol and pornography into ‘prescribed communities’ in the Northern Territory. It was a reactionary response to endemic alcoholism and supposedly endemic child abuse in these communities, though there is little data to support the latter accusation.

Featuring interviews with prominent Aboriginal leaders, Pat Turner, niece of ‘Australia’a Mandela,’ Charlie Perkins, Pat Dodson, spearhead of the reconciliation movement, actor/artist David Gulpilil and Jenny Macklin, Minister of Indigenous Affairs, This is Our Country Too puts the world’s focus on Australia’s indigenous people’s forgotten plight and advances the question: How will Australia reconcile with it’s indigenous people?
 http://www.ricenpeas.com/docs/this_is_our_country_too.html