NAIDOC Week mid-week

So it's mid-week of NAIDOC week, and the social media buzz for NAIDOC is about what is happening locally around the country. 

Taken & shared via Instagram by @M4trisse at Tjapukai's 2012 NAIDOC Day in Cairns, North Queensland

Today from our Deadly Bloggers, 

• Mark Mullins commemorates NAIDOC week by exploring the art and culture of Arnhem Land on his blog Blak and Black. 
• Anita Heiss gives us a round-up of the first days of NAIDOC celebrations in Sydney and it looked awesome! Anita also had an opportunity to talk about NAIDOC to a different audience with a guest post on The Hoopla. 
• Ebswearspink gets reflective about NAIDOC on her Rambling Girlie Tumblr, with a post featuring the Triple J version of Sam Cooke's song, Change is Gonna Come. 
• And finally, Solua Middleton's ABC Open's blog gives us some highlights from the Gold Coast Indigenous community. 

But it's not just blogs, we're seeing images and reports of events from people around the continent, on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.  Rhianna Patrick from the ABC's Speaking Out, used Storify to collate images and stories from all over  social media about the first day of NAIDOC Celebrations. Storify is a great tool to curate a picture of a topic all in one place.


One last thing, Luke Pearson is leading the Get NAIDOC trending movement on Twitter. Trending basically means that a term or topic is is being talking about by many people at the same time. By trending, topics can gain broader attention and audience. In itself it's not a goal of a movement, it's an opportunity to grow people's understanding, knowledge and awareness of a topic, event, or issue.

Think I'm finally getting the hang of this radio thing. I hope I sound ok. I did manage to fit in a "Go Qld". Lol.

Deadly Bloggers Challenge

Yesterday I talked about NAIDOC posts by Anita Heiss and BlondeInk. Inspired by my daily interviews on ABC's Radio NAIDOC this week, I put out a challenge to all the deadly bloggers for a NAIDOC post. I'm happy to report that I have a few new posts to report.


Today, Lluwannee George, whose Tumblr blog normally features beautiful images of black bodies, and black fashion,  Martin Hodgson and Luke Pearson reflect on the 2012 NAIDOC theme -"The Spirit of the Tent Embassy: 40 years on" . Martin's blog - 1 Deadly Nation and Lulu George's blog Oohmisslulu, provides links to the official NAIDOC website, while Luke Pearson at his Aboriginal Oz blog provides a more in-depth reflection about NAIDOC, the theme and whether we're celebrating, commemorating and protesting simultaneously. 


Why have your own blog?
One of the great things about having one's own blog, is that it's an opportunity to create your own space. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, a blog allows you to create an dynamic archive of your life, your ideas and your interests. Facebook allows you to express your opinion in a status update, but it makes those updates hard to find later on. You have to keep scrolling down to look for old posts. You have little control over what your Facebook Profile or Page looks like. And what happens to posts you made years ago? On your own blog however you can label and tag your posts, group them together to make them searchable. You can theme your blog with the colours and images you choose. And your content, YOUR archive, doesn't have to be lost or hidden.


This tweet yesterday from Luke Pearson reminded me of how content on a blog can be useful and meaningful months and years later after it's original posting.

"Letter to a Teacher from an Aboriginal Parent 1977" just had it's 1000th view on my blog :) aboriginaloz.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/letter…
— Luke Pearson(@LukeLPearson) July 2, 2012

Still on the hunt for more Deadly Bloggers interested in taking the Deadly Blogging Challenge this week. Can't wait to share more!

Find out what is happening in your local area for NAIDOC Week.

Find out what people are yarning about on Twitter, use the #NAIDOC or #NAIDOCBlogs

On the hunt for #NAIDOCBlogs

Even though they're technically "posts", this week I'm on the hunt for #NAIDOCBlogs. I'll be on ABC Digital - NAIDOC Radio at 9am each day, talking about what's trending on social media around NAIDOC.

I've put the call out for new posts about NAIDOC from the Deadly Bloggers list, but of course, some have are already way out in front -

Monday:
BlondeInk who quite often talks about the ups and downs of relationships, fashion and food in the ACT, is a Deadly Blogger who has a post about NAIDOC in the ACT, including links to the official page as well as a reminiscence about highlights. She also provides some suggestions for how people might like to celebrate NAIDOC. Her website is www.blondeink.net 

Anita Heiss, prolific writer and blogger, last year had a guest blogger for each day of NAIDOC week. This year, Anita's NAIDOC posts began with her posting the annual NAIDOC speech by Year 11 students Ms Ruby Lew and Isabella Olsson. Their speech about Sovereignty, the Mabo decision and self-determination has special meaning this week. Anita's blog is www.anitaheissblog.blogspot.com. Her website is www.anitaheiss.com.

I'll add more posts each day!

I'm a blogger ...

I'm a Blogger features Tyler Cowen, Professor of Economics, George Mason University and Blogger at Marginal Revolution.

Tyler talks about keep their focus on presenting ideas and information rather than worrying about the size of their audience.


 

It's a good reminder to keep in your eye on what's important as a blogger.

Deadly bloggers hits 42 blogs after 1 week

Here is my very first video blog. Wish me luck.



Cheers
Leesa

www.leesawatego.blogspot.com

Why I blog: No image available

In 1957 when the community of Palm Island led by a small group of men led a strike against the brutal conditions under which they were living, there was no public outcry of support from fellow Australians. A few years ago, when I was researching this event, I went looking for a book I'd read when I was a teenager. It was called Under the Act by Willie Thaiday. When I googled it and searched under Google images, all I found was "no image available". There was very little about the 1957 Palm Island Strike available online at the time and it made me realise that an event that culminated in so many families being broken up and forcibly removed in the dead of night with nothing but the clothes on their backs; and an event that included a police machine gun being pointed at and used to threaten people, should never have been allowed to remain invisible to history.

At the time of the event there was almost no outrage and little reportage. The Townsville Daily Bulletin simply reported that

"in a dawn raid Palm Islanders had been removed ... the operation passed off quietly before 5 o'clock"

Other media outlets sided with official reports that the "troublemakers" were violent and that they'd been removed for the benefit of other residents of the island. There was only protest from The Tribune, a left-wing newspaper.

The representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals, communities and issues in the mainstream media has long been noted for being negative, one-sided and racialised (see Professor Aileen Moreton-Robinson's critique for more information). There needs to be more work done in this sphere to turn-the-tide of bias, including more Indigenous journalists and the development of independent news outlets (see The Koori Mail,  National Indigenous News and Tracker as a few examples). But in addition to these important strategies - there is also blogging.

Blogging assumes you have three things:

1. piece of hardware such as a computer or mobile phone
2. access to the internet
3. something to say

And blogging means that your message is now out there in the world. By capturing an image, writing some text and clicking publish, the instances of there being "no image available" slowly diminishes. 

The injustice of "No Image Available" is one of my core inspirations for blogging, what's yours? What's your "Why I blog"?

Cheers, Leesa Watego

leesawatego.blogspot.com

Sources: 

Joanne Watson, Palm Island Through a Long Lens, Aboriginal Studies Press 2010

Moreton-Robinson, A (2011) Some Aboriginal People are more Aboriginal than others, video from Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Sydney Opera House. 

Welcome to Deadly Bloggers!

It is quite possible that I'm addicted to creating blogs. I'm not sure it's healthy, but I guess there could be worse habits. This blog is dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander blogs and bloggers, and perhaps in the future Other bloggers out there in Australia.

I'm constantly been sending people to my Deadly Bloggers list on my own personal blog, and I thought, why not just direct people here. The list on my page is currently around 30 blogs - some are not active, but there is a growing presence and I think that's important to capture and value. No doubt there are others who are not on the list. I know of at least one Murri child who has been blogging since she was 9 and understandably she's not on the list.

I'll be looking for guest bloggers soon. Will keep you posted.

Cheers, Leesa
www.leesawatego.blogspot.com

Ps. Is there anyone missing from my list?