Photo by @itskyahwalker @baby.samsam as seen on ABC Indigenous
Hello again!
Hope your week was mid-Wintery in a good way. Lots of tea and keeping your feet warm. My week was very structured for the first time in months, getting up and working and then doing exercise. I almost had déjà vu. It was great.
Perhaps the highlight of the week was going out onto the balcony to feed the lorikeets and one insistent fellow perching on my hand for the first time. I felt like Snow White.
One week I will write the thrilling soap opera that is the social hierarchy of the 10+ rainbow lorikeets that come to be fed.
Image: You can just hear me saying to Max in an excited whisper, “Get my phone, quick!”
This week in news I noticed a few stories around imperialist manoeuvres that have taken advantage of the immobilisation of people during the pandemic.
The Chinese government passed new security laws that prohibit dissension targeting the protests in Hong Kong. Under the laws, even “subversive” behaviour is criminalised, which will mean the government has the power to determine whatever activity they want to punish as criminal. Congregating casually can be called a protest by enforcers and citizens can face life sentences in jail. What’s more, outsiders who support Hong Kong sovereignty may face border scrutiny if they try to enter the country. These are tragic paranoid tactics by a government whose raison d'être is to keep fealty from all its territories. Read more here.
In China’s west lies the Xinjiang province which is home to the Muslim Uighur population. You probably already know of the concentration camps there (or “re-education camps”), and the torture and sterilisation of women that goes on. To add to these atrocities, news came out this week of human hair trade that came from the shaved heads of Uighur women. There is thought to be around one million Uighur in these camps, under arrest for supposed “terrorism”. This is likely the spin on dissent as more and more Han Chinese are sent west to develop the area and quash independence movements. What always blows my mind is how a “minority” in China can comprise of 10 million people, like the Uighur. There are 140 countries with fewer people in them.
Further west, Turkey has used the distraction of the pandemic to further push back on Kurdish independence movements. For over 100 years, the Kurds have been struggling for and been denied the chance to form their own country. If you need a European equivalent, look at Poland — the Polish spent a similar amount of time (1795 to 1918) split over borders of other countries. To read more about the Kurdish struggle, click here.
And, of course, the continued annexation of Palestine continues unabated.
Closer to home, Scott Morrison’s government continues to promote a police state, announcing $270 billion to go towards building Australia’s defence capabilities over the next decade. In South Australia, a heavily-armed “counter-terrorism” police squad has been set up for major events. Of course they’ve been vague about who these terrorists may be. I was hoping SA Police would have stated clearly that it was to protect citizens against white supremacist terrorist groups, who, the Asio chief says, are the most likely to act out, but that’s too much conjecture, I suppose.
The government seems to be getting nervous about the rise in anti-racist / anti-colonialist rhetoric in the country. The recent show of police around the Hyde Park statue of Captain Cook and the city in general has been laughable and gross. But I guess resistance can take many forms and from Hong Kong to the US and Australia, protest will have to adapt and get creative. I graffitied the statue on my Instagram story, for example. (Very small sticking it to the man, I know.)
Recently, for pride month, in Ukraine, LGBT activists made a very clever, and legal, show of resistance by flying a drone carrying a rainbow flag to the sword of the Motherland statue. Video below. #MomWillUnderstandAndSupport
Extra things of interest this week:
Aboriginal historical sites found submerged off the coast of Western Australia
Indigenous Australia — Through American Eyes (from 2017)
The Bunyip
Following on from the Sarah Hagazy story, the lead singer of the band involved released a thoughtful, cutting response: “Pride & Mourning in the Middle East”
Javiera Mena’s very sexy and sapphic new single and video:
Until next week! Thanks for reading, and please spread the word if you think anyone else would be interested in the content of these newsletters.