Dear Overland family,
I write in honour and respect for the 700+ First Nations language groups of so-called-Australia, for the ancestors who have cared for this land since time immemorial, and for the custodians who continue to protect the sovereignty of their lands and waters. I write in honour and respect for my ancestors, family and countrypeople.
Invasion Day is not a day to celebrate. It is not a day to profit from dispossession and genocide. It is not a day to debate the humanity of vulnerable and marginalised people.
It is also not a day to make demands on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to endlessly repeat arguments for our own humanity. As a publisher I am acutely aware of the cost of this intellectual and political labour on Blak people. It is draining to walk in the shadow of a violent history in which every right wrestled back from the colony has been paid for a hundred times over with our blood. What has historically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people been a day of protest, mourning and reverence for our own survival is being coopted by popular discourse and performative activism. Settler allies can buy overpriced tee shirts our people can’t afford, make social media posts to impress their mates, and replace the beachside BBQ with rallies crowding our people to the back of the march at no real material cost to themselves. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are endlessly called upon to rearticulate our suffering and need for community-specific resources to close ever-widening gaps, and in return we are told to be grateful for symbolic campaigns to incrementally rearrange the oppressions of the colony.
So today we’re not making those demands on our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contributors to repeat and repeat and repeat their resistance. Today we’re providing information on First Nations led campaigns, donation drives and educational resources on the true history of Blak struggle and survivial.
In solidarity and power. Bugalwan to Blakfullas only today.
Path to Equality: extensive links to donation drives, petitions, organisations, artists and education resources
Dhadjowa Foundation: Stop Black Deaths in Custody
Fundraiser to restore footage from NINGLA-ANA Hungry For Our Land film
Survival Guide: a podcast series centring Indigenous voices amongst multicultural Waterloo residents to critique colonisation and gentrification, by Lorna Munro and Joel Sherwood Spring.
Frontier War Stories: a podcast dedicated to truth-telling about a side of Australian that has been left out of the history books.
Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service Invasion Day Webinar
BlackWords: archive of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writing and storytelling
IndigenousX: a 100% Indigenous owned and operated media, consultancy, and training organisation
