These four short videos, two featuring Gary Foley and two featuring Robbie Thorpe, are essential viewing for non-Indigenous people seeking to act in solidarity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Gary Foley
Dr Gary Foley is an Australian Aboriginal Gumbainggir activist, academic, writer and actor. He has been at the centre of many major political activities including the Springbok tour demonstrations (1971), Tent Embassy in Canberra (1972), Commonwealth Games protest (1982) and protests during the bicentennial celebrations (1988). Foley was involved in the establishment of the first Aboriginal self-help and survival organisations including Redfern’s Aboriginal Legal Service, Aboriginal Health Service in Melbourne and National Black Theatre. Foley set up the Koori History website, has a PhD in history, was a Senior Curator at Museum Victoria and currently works at Victoria University.
Robbie Thorpe
Robbie Thorpe is from the Krauatungalung people of the Gunai Nation, the traditional owners of Lake Tyers, as well as the Gunditjmara Nation, whose homelands include Framlingham, Victoria. Robbie has been a strong advocate for Pay the Rent, an Aboriginal initiative which would provide independent economic resource for Aboriginal peoples. Robbie has initiated a number of legal actions, where he has argued that crimes of genocide have been committed against Aboriginal peoples throughout the colonisation of Australia. He was a founding office bearer of the Aboriginal Provisional Government in 1992. During 2005-06 Robbie was a member of the Black GST collective, and spokesperson for Camp Sovereignty. He has served as a director of Melbourne Aboriginal Youth Sport and Recreation (MAYSAR). He broadcasts two programmes on 3CR community radio.
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