May 1st, 1946: The Pilbara strike, a strike by indigenous Australian pastoral workers for human rights, fair wages, and better working conditions, begins. It involved more than 800 workers walking off from their jobs and lasted for over three years.
Strikers were met with violence and unlawful arrest but ultimately won their demands. The 1946 Pilbara strike is remembered as the first and one of the longest industrial strikes by Aboriginal people since colonization.
Holiday reading list: 5 great books by indigenous authors
The Next Chapter’s Shelagh Rogers picks her favourites
By Shelagh Rogers, for CBC News Posted: Dec 19, 2014 1:58 PM ET Last Updated: Dec 22, 2014 2:39 PM ET
“Even though I now live in a rain forest, when I hear “holidays,” I think of snow, frost and darkness. There’s a reason it’s called the ‘bleak’ mid-winter.
But what I treasure about the holidays is that there is time to hunker down with some good books and let the stories draw me into other worlds. I don’t need to feel guilty about not being outside moving around aerobically in the lovely weather. There isn’t any. Or at least, not too much.
There are so many good indigenous books right now. My friends at CBC Aboriginal asked for five “great books” for the holidays, so this is an act of discipline. Putting on my literary spanx, here we go.” LINK.
“… 2013 has been a truly outstanding year for Native cinema. In addition to an always-strong slate of documentary films, among themIndian Relay,Urban Rez, andYoung Lakota, Native directors and actors turned in exceptional work in a number of movies, and that’s what we’ll focus on here. (By our own ad-hoc reasoning, and despite solid work by Natives in supporting roles, we’re disqualifying the endlessly-analyzed farce that wasThe Lone Ranger and the less-ridiculous Jimmy P.for casting non-Natives in leading roles. Our list, our rules.) If you’d like to see some good contemporary narrative flicks by Natives or featuring Natives, here’s a handful of the best:
This American Indian Rapper Just Became MTV’s Artist of the Week
“Native Americans grasp that culture of hip-hop because of the struggle," says SupaMan. "Hip-hop was talking about the ghetto life, poverty, crime, drugs, alcohol, teen pregnancy; all that crazy stuff that happens in the ghetto is similar to the reservation life. We can relate to that.” Source / full story
