22 February, 2016

Welcome to the first edition of OurMob for 2016.

In this edition, we go inside Survival Day events including Yabun and the Day of Mourning and recap the Prime Minister’s historic visit to La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC).

The annual debate around 26 January was bookended by two powerful speeches by

Stan Grant and Noel Pearson on the significance of Survival Day and what it means today.

Noel Pearson drew attention to the urgent need for more Aboriginal representation in power structures like the Australian Parliament while as many Australians prepared for Australia Day, Stan Grant told us racism was at the heart of the “Australian dream”.

For First Nations people, January 26 is marked down as the day in our history that changed people’s lives forever.

It’s a day of protest against colonisation, a day to celebrate survival and a reminder that the land was never ceded – always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.

For the Land Rights network, it’s about our connection to land and its power to sustain, strengthen and heal.

In this edition of OurMob we hear Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi man, broadcaster and author Stan Grant, expand on what Yabun and the Land Rights network means to him.

“Growing up it was the Land Council that gave us a sense of place and a sense of purpose,” Stan says.

“It was a place where we had a political voice, where we could fly our flag, where we could fight the fight for recognition about who we are and our connection to our land,” he says.

We also have inspiring stories from the Land Rights network, a recap of the Prime Minister’s historic visit to a Local Aboriginal Land Council, a profile of Bathurst LALC and we meet NSWALC’s Executive Director of Policy and Programs Clare McHugh and find out the motivation behind her team’s work.