Hi, @Moree_mick education officer, from IndigenousX here. I saw that old tweet of Luke’s doing the rounds again asking people not to use the Creative Spirits website:
The page Luke shared isn’t on the site anymore, but there is still plenty of dubious and dodgy content there, so I thought I’d do a Top 5 of #CreativeSpiritsWTF:
5: Don’t sell fridges to Blackfellas in Toomelah!
Creative Spirits is full of fun trivia like the one above, or this one: “Why are Aboriginal cancer rates 8% lower than those of other Australians (19%)*?
Because Aboriginal people die young from other causes.”
*That’s not true about cancer rates - also, people in Toomelah have washing machines, I even rang my Auntie from Moree, who works in Toomelah to check… which made for a weird phone call. “Hi Auntie, how are you? So …” they have bore water and river water. #CreativeSpiritsWTF
4: Members of the Stolen Generations don't care much about their birthday… #CreativeSpiritsWTF
Creative Spirits has this amazing habit of taking a throw away line or obscure reference, usually from an old opinion piece from the Koori Mail, and then rewriting it is a universal truth, eg #CreativeSpiritsWTF
3: FACT: Of coconuts, eggs, and bananas.
The site is full of helpful little ‘factoids’ like this. #CreativeSpiritsWTF
The whole site reads like a bunch of obscure one off comments taken from Twitter and Facebook were collated by an 18th Century aspiring anthropologist and used as the basis for a PhD thesis titled ‘I, the Aborigine Whisperer”. #CreativeSpiritsWTF
2: Out of date references.
Like saying there's only 125 Indigenous doctors in Aus, which was true in 2008 but less so in 2020.
If you’re gonna present yourself as a go to site for students then it’s important to update your stats at least every decade or so. #CreativeSpiritsWTF
1: Uses quotes from mob without their knowledge and permission, gives mob titles like ‘Aboriginal Elder’.
Here’s a quote from one Aboriginal elder we got permission for in response to this: “Elder? I’m not even 40 yet, fuck ya!” Luke Pearson, Aboriginal impending midlife crisiser. #CreativeSpiritsWTF
Its surprising that people still use this website as a reputable source for information. If you want to find out information about Aboriginal people at least make sure that the source is reputable and written by an Aboriginal person. #CreativeSpiritsWTF
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Let’s talk about those 49% of Australians who want to change the date ‘because it’s offensive to Indigenous Australians’.
Well, more specifically I guess we should talk about why the ABC chose to use that phrasing for the question in their 2018 survey. They didn’t have ‘because I have find it offensive’ or ‘because it’s a shit date to have a national day on’, but they really should have.
Saying you support changing it because it’s offensive to me says that you don’t find it offensive, but because I do and you’re benevolently willing to accomodate my sensitivities. You don’t have a problem with the date, because the date isn’t really the problem, I am the problem.
Hi all, @LukeLPearson from IndigenousX here, how are you all (don’t @ me if you're not mob)?
That’s good to hear :)
So anyway, I saw that awesome thread from @Flashblak about her removing all the shit resources from her son’s school’s library (read it if you haven’t - then come back here and read this one).
I’ve deaccessioned a few school libraries myself over the years (also unpaid), and as there isn't a database of shit resources as @flashblak suggested (great idea btw!)
I thought I'd share some tips for selecting and evaluating resources about Indigenous ppls and cultures.
Q1: Is Clontarf an Indigenous Community Controlled Organisation?
A1: Nope, it is not Indigenous controlled, owned, or run. The Clontarf Foundation was founded in 2000 by Gerard Neesham, a non-Indigenous ex-AFL player and coach.
In publicly info, the ABN history tells us that it was “The Gerard Neesham Aboriginal Sporting Foundation Inc” from June 2000 - May 2004, then “The Western Australian Indigenous Sporting Foundation Incorporated" until it became “The Clontarf Foundation Inc” in June 2004.
Please support these crowdfunding campaigns for mob who have died in custody and their families! If you know of any others, please share them on this thread. gofundme.com/f/in-memory-of…