This picture of the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader running away from Aboriginal activists last Australia Day still makes me mad. The Labor government formally apologised to the stolen generations and brought about long overdue land rights, yet Julia Gillard was fair game that day, losing a shoe in a bizarre dash for safety.
Every Australia Day, dedicated Aboriginal activists work themselves up into a frenzy of hate. They want it renamed "Invasion Day" and the Prime Minister to sign a treaty of sovereignty, which would grant ownership of Australian land to indigenous people.
Last January 26, when the Aboriginal Tent Embassy heard that Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard were attending an Australia Day function at a restaurant just down the road, they got all fired up, rushed the building, starting banging on the windows and scared the daylights out of everyone. Abbott and Gillard were trapped for about 20 minutes until bodyguards gave the okay to make a dash for safety.
Tent Embassy in 1972
The fury was sparked by a comment made earlier that day by Tony Abbott about the embassy, an ugly eyesore of makeshift humpies and tents, yet allowed to remain on the lawn of old Parliament House for 40 years. Abbott said "Look, I can understand why the tent embassy was established all those years ago, but I think a lot has changed for the better since then."
Bess and husband Dave Price
Bess Price should be a hero to her people but she's not. She made a lot of enemies last year when she went on national television and said that the government's "Intervention" was working and because of it, children were now being fed and young people were learning how to manage their lives.
Professor Behrendt
In April 2011, Professor Larissa Behrendt, who identifies as Aboriginal, even though she looks white, saw Bess on the television and made a disgusting tweet, "I watched a show where a guy had sex with a horse and I'm sure it was less offensive than Bess Price."
In a debate about Aboriginal identity recently, Bess addressed a fair skinned university graduate in the audience who insisted she was Aboriginal, despite having a Scottish mother.
"Why don't you acknowledge the other heritage you have, and be proud of it, and not just go one way?" Bess asked.
The girl replied "I can stand up and say I'm a blackfella and I've got one blood and that's it."
"But my daughter, whose white father is sitting next to me, acknowledges her father and the other heritage she has, she doesn't say she's just a blackfella... I didn't know you were a blackfella as well, because I'm sitting here and you look like a whitefella to me" Bess said.
Bess Nungarrayi Price was born and raised in a humpy and is now a newly elected Northern Territory Member of Parliament. Last Monday two US State Department officials came to Alice Springs to see her. They wanted to nominate her to become the first Australian woman to receive the US International Women's Courage Award. It's given to women around the world who show leadership, courage, resourcefulness, and willingness to sacrifice for others, especially for the promotion of women's rights.
On ya Bess.
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