Racism exists in Australia. It exists in our institutions and in our public spaces. There are those who oppose it, but there is also a lot of racism among our self-proclaimed ‘white allies’. Racism is insidious. It impacts on people’s health, their education, housing and employment opportunities, and their sense of self and safety living in Australia.

As we are only a week or two away from Harmony Week (yes, it’s a week now), I’d like to tell the story of the greatest Harmony Day poster ever designed. And by ‘greatest’ I of course mean the absolute fucking worst most condensing piece of shit imaginable because of course it is. To understand this story, it’s important to remember that the government department that is responsible for Harmony Day is the same one that Peter ‘won’t somebody PLEASE think of the white South Africans’ Dutton was in charge of for many years.

For those saying we should be magnanimous about the passing of the queen, a reminder that the queen inserted herself into the lives of Indigenous people here multiple times. She wasn't a bystander to the effects of colonisation and colonialism, she was an architect of it. Demanding Indigenous people be respectful about the passing of someone who intentionally made our lives worse is outrageous. It's worth considering what she *could* have done - and didn't - to effect change.

Yesterday when I took over @IndigenousX I was nervous about whether I'd manage today. It would have been my brother David's 63rd birthday, and I was worried I'd be too upset or too many things. The reason RUOK day is so annoying is that there's often no solution if you're not. Talking to one of my older sisters just now, was the checkin you do not in a calendar format, but because god, it's David's birthday and we miss him. We know our other sister will be with him soon, and we're sad about that too, and mapping what we can do now, for her, now.

Ever worked with someone who sees you as facilitating their success? You know what I mean, they like what you do because it makes them look better or helps their cause. This is a conversation that we need to have about the convergence of #BlackCladding and #MyBlackFriend. Decades ago in academic conferences (and also today) it was bringing an Aboriginal person onto a panel speaking about research, where they clearly had no real investment or interest OR they weren't allowed to speak about their experience - acting as props. #IndigenousProps

(SOS) When my brother, who died recently, wrote his book Bold (stories of older queer ppl), he featured his and other Black voices. He knew how rare it is to have older queer Black voices cos the stats aren't great. But we aren't stats, and for those of us still here we need... ...to be made to feel that we belong, that we are cherished, that we have a place and a right to all of the things the rest of our community has.

There's an overdue conversation about terms that queer Indigenous people use to describe ourselves. LGBTIQ+SB is good but the SB (Sistergirl/Brotherboy) is not magically inclusive of all outside of the binary. The # of times I've had to correct when I'm called one or the other. The colonial project of gender is desperate for terms and terminologies that it can comprehend and that define us. It wants special words, so words that some might use (Brotherboy/Sistergirl, that some use because they want to) are reapplied to the rest of us that don't.

This week I won't be writing about employment, unions, voting for our rights (or something), or how thankful we are to settlers. Instead, I will be reminding anyone following this account that the best way you can show support to Indigenous people is to give #LandBack. I do want to point to people who've spoken or written about how we can bust out of colonial mindsets. I know it can seem like a list and I hate lists cos who is missing, who is left off? It's often people getting on and doing this 'work', so I'm going to try to mention some.

WESTERN SYDNEY: 'get to know' thread/ramble✨

I live and work on Darug land in Western Sydney, spanning across from the lower Blue Mountains to Blacktown; places/communities that have shaped me and molded me into the man I am today.

I'd like to share a little more with you. We are not alike Redfern or Campbelltown, other Sydney based communities who have their own localised culture. Whilst we are close in distance, we flourish within our communities differently.

After a big day of teaching on gorgeous Darug nura I head back to my semi-regional home up on Awabakal country ❤️ it takes a lot out of me facilitating back to back classes, an important part of countering burn out as an academic working in this space is intentional downtime 💪🏽 For me this means a walk by the water, time out listening to bird kin singing, and spending time reading & listening to mob creators. Our cultures are alive & living, music is one manifestation of this

There’s a ‘Blak Australia’ playlist on Spotify 🎶

open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9d…

While we engage with deep, complex matters in the courses I teach (as these students are in their 3rd & final years of their degrees) I also find myself highlighting & repeating the same points literally hundreds of times a year. I’ll share some of them below. Always capitalise the A in Aboriginal and the I in Indigenous. This is such a common error I see, and its not a difficult practise to alter.
Pluralise terms such as culture/s, history/ies, language/s etc.

As an education academic I primarily work to support those studying to become school teachers. I’m very passionate about education & the right we each have to safe & appropriate learning environments. I’m first in family to graduate high school, & also to enter university I grew up in a complex environment, my parents struggled with addiction, Dad was in lock up, we were criminalised, poor & neither my parents nor grandparents had access to solid education themselves. My first book shares some of this storying & is out November via @UQPbooks

Yaama Yaama and good morning Twitter fam 👋🏽 my name is Amy Thunig, I’m a Gomeroi/Kamilaroi person living on unceded Awabakal lands & working as an education academic on unceded Darug lands & I am your host today 🎉

Whose land are YOU on today? First Nations peoples of so-called-Australia are not one homogenous group. We are many different & distinct groups, each with our own culture, customs, language and laws. Together we are the world’s oldest surviving cultures.

aiatsis.gov.au/explore/map-in…

Tonight as we all settle back and relax at the end of a long Saturday, I want us to remember that not everyone has a safe place to lay down tonight, has a feed and are separated by distance and circumstance from their mob. Everyone in Australia right now is feeling the pinch in their pocket, but for our mob this is an all too common and ever pressing reality.

TW: COLONIAL VIOLENCE

Our people were massacred on these lands. Women and children were slaughtered. It was a genocide. Our nation's Blak History. Thread /🧵 But the colonial project has not ended. This week we learned that attempted Aboriginal massacres took place as recently as 1981.
bit.ly/3u9czNt

Let’s talk caring for Country.

On the same day that I got sworn into Parliament, a Senate inquiry handed down its report into Rio Tinto’s destruction at Juukan. The report has exposes the way stolen land continues in the battle ground on the forefront of the fight for minerals and resources in this country.

TW: COLONIAL VIOLENCE

Let’s talk Blak deaths in custody. 500+ deaths, and not a single conviction. - Thread/🧵 I’m a Blak woman & former police officer, I’ve been on the inside of the machinery & there is no quick fix, but it doesn’t take nearly 40 years to implement the recommendations that will stop our people from dying in custody & for there to continue to be no one held responsible!

Let’s talk women, and girls.

In my first speech to Parliament I said we needed a national inquiry into the Missing and Murdered First Nations women. We got support for it - it just got started. For too long, the lives of First Nations women and children in this country have not been valued as equal.

Now the process has been stalled as we wait for the Parliament to approve an extension controlled by those who need to control the narrative.

Last night, I talked about going back to my homelands for the first time in 3 years. Now, I want to talk a little bit about living in Naarm 30 years. I admit, I love living in a city of 5M, even if I need my homelands to ground myself. This one is gonna be a thread, so here goes I have some incredible trail blazers and freedom fighters which have come from my own family, and include my own nanna, Uncle Charlie, my Tjamu Randall, my dad and his "go home Bjelke-Petersen. We don't need more peanut politicians in the Territory", and many more 2/?

At the moment, I feel like I am playing catch-up. I am an avid news reader yet whilst I was away, I cut myself off from the daily updates to give myself a break and focus on healing on country. But gee, didn't a lot of shit hit the fan in that time? TBC. I want to begin by giving a shout out to all asylum seekers locked up in the Park Hotel Prison, MITA & other such detention centres. Australia's asylum seeker policies are a disgusting blight on human rights and contravene our UN commitments. Hope you're released soon ✊🏾

I think I want to start this by talking personal. As I mentioned in my intro, I just got back from my homelands. It was the first time in three years I have been up there and that's been tough because prior to COVID, I'd go every 6-12 months. It was a healing trip yet hard. TBC I say "hard" because whilst I was up there, COVID started exploding in the NT and so given so many of my relos are elderly with health conditions, I didn't get to visit them for fear I might spread it. So I just want to shout out to NT mobs: stay safe, get vaxxed & #protectnan