Acknowledgement of Country//
Headlines//
Fighting for Banaba Part 3//
Last week, Priya caught up with Professor Katerina Teaiwa and Itinterunga Rae Banteiti to discuss the colonial history of phosphate mining on Banaba and the fight by Banabans for reparations and an end to extraction. This conversation occurs in the context of a recent push by Australian mining company Centrex, which has sought to conduct phosphate prospecting activities on the island under the greenwashing premise of “rehabilitation.” This week, you will hear third segment a three-part interview with Katerina and Rae - listen back to parts 1 and 2 here.//
Katerina is an interdisciplinary scholar, artist and award winning teacher of Banaban, I-Kiribati and African American heritage born and raised in Fiji. She is Professor of Pacific Studies in the School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Rae is of Banaban and Kiribati origins and was raised and educated in Fiji. Rae’s environment and social justice work are linked to Kiribati people’s histories and the extent of environmental degradation caused by extensive mining.//
You can find the petition started by the Banaban community on Rabi Island, Fiji, which demands a defence of Banaban rights and the prevention of any further mining of the island, below. There are also links to further information about the impacts of mining on Banaban people and their tireless campaigning to protect and restore Banaba.//
Art Exhibit Brings Banaban Human Rights Struggles to Global Stage [article]
Forced Displacement, Banaba, and the Right to Life with Dignity [article]
Why you must see Project Banaba – an Exhibition by Katerina Teaiwa [article]
Driving the Nazis out of Melbourne//
Ellie from Campaign Against Racism and Fascism joined us to talk about an upcoming protest event that CARF is holding to drive the nazis out of so-called Melbourne! A few weeks ago, we had fellow CARF member Jasmine on to discuss this upcoming rally, but since then we've seen some successful anti-fascist resistance to attempted neo-nazi intimidation of a fundraiser event last Friday at Cafe Gummo in Thornbury. Today, Ellie will continue the discussion about the importance of broad-based anti-fascist resistance, let us know about the speak-out held this past Tuesday at Gummo, and remind listeners about details of the protest coming up this Saturday the 23rd of September, meeting at 2PM at the IGA in Sunshine West.//
Dementia Action Week 2023//
Maree McCabe AM, CEO and Board Member of Dementia Australia, joined us today for Dementia Action Week 2023, which runs from 18-24 September and includes World Alzheimer’s Day on Thursday 21 September, to talk about stigma, discrimination, and lack of awareness of dementia. A recognised leader in the health and aged care, Maree brings more than twenty years’ experience across the health, mental health and aged care sectors. If you live with dementia or are the family member, friend or carer of someone who does and would like further information or advice about dementia, you can call the National Dementia Helpline on 1800 100 500 for free support 24/7. //
National Union of Students on the Housing Australia Future Fund//
The National Union of Students supported putting pressure on the federal government to introduce a rent cap to address housing stress experienced by students. Recently, however, the Greens backflipped on withholding support for the Housing Australia Future Fund after getting a commitment for extra spending on social housing from the Labor government, reducing the pressure to introduce a rent cap. To discuss how this contributes to the housing stress faced by students, impacts federal housing policy and influences their campaigning in the future we were joined by National Union of Students’ Education Officer Xavier Dupe. During the interview, Xavier mentioned the NUS Education Office’s ‘Get A Room’ campaign to fix the rental crisis - find out more here.//
Building Community with Resident Frequency Recording Studio//
Earlier this week, Spike caught up with Izzy Brown to congratulate her on the launch of the latest grassroots community project she has been involved in called the Resident Frequency Recording studio. Located at the old men’s shed at 253 Hoddle St Collingwood, the Resident Frequency Recording Studio is an important local community controlled resource that should be celebrated, and Izzy spoke to us about its launch on Sunday September 17th, the importance of building free, safe and inclusive community spaces, and shared the local community's hopes to develop autonomous skillshare and mentoring programs from the Collingwood public housing estate site.//
Emily Cowlrick, Inez Winters, Leila Baptist, Priya Kunjan
