PICTURE: Mountians/Lake painting (artist Miss T Webb) and our 2016 Naidoc week Snake. Painted by all students of 2016  Photo: Boolaroo  Public School, Boolaroo Bulletin Term 1 Week 5, 23.02.2017

Not new, but still relevant
In 1988 Bruce Elder won acclaim for his book Blood on the Wattle,

Massacres and Maltreatment of Aboriginal Australians since 1788

which collects in one place all reports of massacres of Aborigines.

At that time, this book was praised as ‘arguably the best book ever written about Aborigines by a white writer.’  Three editions have been published, the latest in 2003.

………………………………………………………………

The determinants of planetary health
by Nicole Redvers, ND and colleagues, The Lancet

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES have resiliently weathered continued assaults on their sovereignty and rights throughout colonialism and its continuing effects. Indigenous Peoples’ sovereignty has been strained by the increasing effects of global environmental change within their territories, including climate change and pollution, and by threats and impositions against their land and water rights. Three overarching levels of interconnected determinants were identified as being integral to the health and sustainability of the planet, Mother Earth.

……………………………………………………………..

The Rainbow Serpent
LEGEND HAS IT THAT the top of Munibung Hill was a place where Aboriginal people watched Lake Macquarie fill with water 6000 years ago. The hill was believed to be a place where Aboriginal people communicated between mountains and the site of a dreamtime story where a serpent brought water into the lake. Myth or not, archaeological studies of the hill regard it as an important Aboriginal place. The hill provides 360-degree views to Nobbys Head in the north, Norah Head on the Central Coast in the south, with the ocean to the east and mountain ranges including Mount Sugarloaf to the west.

MMM Issue 42, February-March 2024