Hysterical news.com holds nation back, say Indigenous candidates
Ken Canning, lead Senate candidate for Socialist Alliance in the federal election described the Daily Telegraph’s condemnation of the University of NSW’s Diversity Toolkit — guidelines for appropriate language to describe Indigenous history – as “the usual type of Neanderthal reporting”.
“News.com slams the term ‘Invasion’ when referring to James Cook’s arrival in 1770.
“Does the Daily Telegraph seriously think Aboriginal people laid out the red carpet for him?
“Does it really believe that arriving here uninvited and killing innocent Indigenous peoples in order to access land was actually ‘settlement’?
“This type of reporting is holding this country back from coming to terms with its own history.”
Senate candidate, Sharlene Leroy-Dyer said: “The 1992 Mabo decision overturned the fiction of Terra Nullius which, in turn, acknowledged Australia was invaded. Good on the University for bringing this out into the open.”
Ken Canning said: “You only have to look at the commentators who have supported this piece of hysteria to see the type of lunatic element this reporting attracts — Alan Jones and Kyle (mouth-for-hire) Sandilands. Once you hear the opinions of these two undesirable characters, you know the article needs to be placed in the recycle bin as soon as possible.”
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Ken Canning’s traditional name is Burraga Gutya. His people are the Kunja clan of the Bidjara Nation of south-western Queensland. He was raised on the coast of Queensland and in Brisbane and although he has lived in Sydney since the late 1970s, he regards himself as a proud Murri. Ken is a founding member of the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Sharlene Leroy-Dyer is a descendant of the Guringai, Gadigal, Wiradjuri and Dhurag peoples of NSW and an active member of the Newcastle branch of the Socialist Alliance. She is an academic at the University of Newcastle and is a member of the National Tertiary Education Union.
