Tag: Parliament House

Well Happy New Year and maybe you have made some new year resolutions or have had, as Norman would say, some new year revelation. Maybe you’ve decided to journal. If so, these journals are designed to help you. This is what one reader, Gina Wileman, said re the Sermon Notes Journal:

Usually, I collect biblical “Pearls of Wisdom” on little pieces of paper, which eventually get misplaced. Or sometimes I text messages to myself during church services, whenever the pastor’s messages resonate with personal experiences—and they’re often forgotten. But using this journal makes it much easier to keep my thoughts tucked into one place. I love how simple and easy it is to use. Plus the cover makes me smile. Love it!

Here is the link to this book – https://www.amazon.com/dp/0648472272. For those in Australia, you can order off my book website if you can’t order off amazon.

Re the Bible Study Journal, one reader, CreativeIIBY wrote
Discover God’s promises by meditating on his word and pondering on questions that will guide you to become more aware of applying it into your life. This book is a great gift as well to friends or anyone you want to have deeper walk with God. I love the cover, it’s a beautiful journal and I highly recommend checking the other books as well created by the author through the link on the first few pages, this journal became a tool for me to get to know more amazing works of the author.

Here is the link to this book – https://www.amazon.com/dp/0648472299. For those in Australia, you can order off my book website if you can’t order off amazon www.barbara-miller-books.com

There is also a prayer journal. One reader, Susan Jagannath, says:
Do you keep thinking that you will start your prayer journey today?
Or tomorrow? I found that keeping a prayer journal is the best way to remember to pray, as well as to look back and find that your prayers have been answered in miraculous ways.
The link is https://www.amazon.com/dp/0648472280. All 3 are only $6.99 US each.

BDS Boycott of Sydney Festival

As the founders of Indigenous Friends of Israel in 2015, Munganbana Norman and Barbara Miller were concerned about the BDS boycott of the Sydney Festival by Palestinian activists backed by Hamas, a terrorist organization. The reason cited is a $20,000 grant from the Israeli Embassy in Australia though it is not unusual for foreign governments to support art. Also, the Sydney Dance Company were due to perform the dance Decadancecreated by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin and Tel Aviv’s Batsheva Dance Company.

While over 20 performers and/or organizations pulled out, including Arab and Muslim performers, the Sydney Festival organizers did not bow to the pressure and continued. The Decadence performers received a standing ovation to a sold-out audience on the opening night on 6 Jan. The Palestinian Justice Movement Sydney claimed that Israel is a racist apartheid state. 

Initially Munganbana Norman, as an Indigenous artist, wrote personally to the Indigenous artists a warm, non-challenging letter outlining the numerous ways the Jewish community in Australia have supported the Indigenous community. Unfortunately, Aboriginal senator Pat Dodson, a former Catholic priest, was patron and cultural advisor to one of these groups so we wrote him a letter too, receiving no reply though he is a friend. A minder of one performer rang Norman and told him that the artist was greatly distressed as she had been badgered by a number of phone calls from Lebanon so he would not be passing on the letter.

We were approached by an organisation in the USA who are allied with many in the entertainment and arts industry who assist performers who are boycotted for performing in Israel and had a zoom meeting with them as they wanted to put out an op ed in an Australian newspaper about the issue. They had seen an earlier press release we had done which was published in The Times of Israel.

As they were to mention our stand in the op ed, we delayed putting out a press release till 10 Jan. It is on our website and has widespread coverage but mainly in Jewish and Christian news circles not mainstream. Interestingly, the Glasgow Friends of Israel saw it on a website and reposted it. The Indigenous Coalition for Israel in NZ have also come out against the boycott.
 More than 120 leaders from the entertainment industry have signed an open letter released by the non-profit entertainment industry organisation Creative Community For Peace in support of the Sydney Festival and participating artists. https://www.creativecommunityforpeace.com/blog/2022/01/06/entertainment-industry-leaders-stand-united-against-cultural-boycott-of-israel-and-in-support-of-sydney-festival/
The press release is on our Indigenous Friends of Israel website. Read more https://indigenousfriendsofisrael.org/

Please check and like our Indigenous Friends of Israel Facebook page as we update it almost daily. https://www.facebook.com/likeIFI/

The ABC reported on 13 Jan that Sydney Festival chair David Kirk has apologised for the event’s handling of a funding controversy saying re the artists “They feel compromised, many of them, and many of them are being pressurised to withdraw their performances from the festival,”

The ABC reported in the same article that Israel’s Deputy Ambassador to Australia, Ron Gerstenfeld, said “agents of chaos” had been bullying artists into supporting the boycott.

“We heard a lot about people being targeted, being threatened, through social media of course but also through other means,” he said.

He said Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), the organisation behind the boycott, had run an aggressive campaign.

“They want to do everything in their power to destroy, to disrupt, they don’t want the embassy to continue.” https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-13/sydney-festival-chair-responds-to-festival-boycott/100753598

Fire at Old Parliament House – Press Release

By Munganbana Norman Miller 4.1.2022

Munganbana Norman Miller is concerned that a giant boomerang with “No Discrimination in the Constitution” on it that he donated to the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House Canberra may have been damaged when the door was set on fire last Thursday. He has not been to see where it was located because he lives in Cairns. The museum is closed for repairs. He made and painted the boomerang himself.

Munganbana said, “It is disappointing that numerous heritage that was contained in the Museum has been treated with such disdain by protestors who did not have the approval of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy or the local Ngunnawal elders for the protest or the smoking ceremony which was a guise for them to undertake a criminal action of setting it on fire.”

“As we come to the 50^th anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, we respect peaceful protest and acknowledge the important contribution it has made,” said Miller. Now is the time for the Uluru Statement of Voice Treaty Truth to be established.”

“I am an Aboriginal artist and the giant boomerang I donated to the museum had on it ‘No Discrimination in the Constitution.’ It was part of a grass roots campaign I waged at my own expense by travelling around Australia collecting signatures for the removal of discrimination from the constitution and the acknowledgement of First Nations people in it,” said Munganbana.

“It was called the Miller Boomerang Petition and, on 27 November 2013, I handed the boomerang with over 360 signatures on the back, as well as a normal petition, to then Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and MPs Ken Wyatt and Warren Entsch. On 8 February 2016, I handed Warren Entsch MP and the then speaker and clerk of the house the final signatures. This is recorded in Hansard,” he said.

 “I decided to donate the boomerang to the museum so it would be in a prominent place where it will be available to future generations who have an interest in our robust democracy. I hope it will stimulate discussions re changing the constitution and promoting Voice Treaty Truth. These need to come from a grassroots level up not top-down.

I have another giant boomerang with ‘Voice Treaty Truth’ on it that I made and painted. I took part in the co-design for the voice consultations in Cairns and I am also concerned we make progress re Closing the Gap to reduce the gap in socio-economic outcomes for First Nations people compared to the rest of the community,” said Munganbana.