Category: Activism

Time is Running Out, Oodgeroo Noonuccal

As a child in the early 70s, I found poetry anthology My People by Kath Walker in my school library. First publishing in 1964 she was Australia’s first published Aboriginal poet.

Ending Sand Mining

Mining has been a part of the Minjerriba history since 1949. The sand mining industry on Stradbroke Island began with shovels and trucks on Main Beach. This developed over time to large-scale dredging operations and up until 2019 mineral leases covered approximately 60% of the Island. Lines in the Sand A History of Mineral Sandmining on […]

QYAC and Toondah Harbour Redevelopment

Redlands2030 website reports “The Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation (QYAC) recently explained its position on plans for development at Toondah Harbour. QYAC is a Registered Prescribed Body Corporate created under the Native Title Act 1993to manage the recognised Native Title rights and interests of the Quandamooka People. In 2015 the Redland City Bulletin  reported  “Stradbroke’s Quandamooka people back […]

World Heritage Listing of Moreton Bay

The process to nominate Moreton Bay for World Heritage listing started in 2017. The state government has budgeted $1.3 million to develop the nomination of North Stradbroke and Moreton islands as a World Heritage Area. QYAC chief executive officer Cameron Costello said that it was uncommon for a listing process to be led by traditional […]

Counter-Mapping the Islands

“Long before the sails of the first English ships cast their tall shadows on our shores in 1788 we were a thriving culture with our own customs, laws and beliefs” Uncle Bob Anderson. Counter-mapping creates new and alternative knowledge about the world and denounces dominant representations (Bruno, Didier, & Vitale, 2014, Milan & van der […]

An 80 Year Sit In

Equal pay, was only part of the disrespect afforded Aboriginal peoples. Under the Aboriginal Protection Act indigenous people were not allowed to live within one mile of Dunwich and North Stradbroke Island’s aboriginal families were forcibly shifted to an aboriginal settlement at Myora Springs, where they lived from 1892 until 1940. Closed in 1941, people shifted […]

Equal Pay

Carers And Activists From the conflicts of 1832 and 33, to 1869 when the Benevolent Asylum was established on the island to house the frail, elderly and infirmed people from the settler communities from of the mainland. The care for these people was by both aboriginal and non-aboriginal people. Pay for aboriginal people was however in […]

Resistance in the 1800s, Minjerribah

Direct Action of the 1800s August 2018, Dr Ray Hovekirk presented his research into the Frontier Wars at the North Stradbroke Island on Minjerribah recounting conflict between soldiers and Aboriginal groups, roughly between 1832 and 1833. “A conflict seems to have erupted over killings and counter-killings involving the European staff of the Amity Point pilot […]

65 000 Deaths in the Frontier Wars; Queensland

Dr Ray Kerkhove is an independent historian and cultural researcher specialising in Indigenous history and material culture of southern Queensland. August 24, 2018 he spoke at North Stradbroke Island Museum on Minjerribah about the frontier wars. His reflections on sites of conflict, dates and casualties can be found Stradbroke and Moreton Islands 1832-1833 Research, presented to […]