Cleverly invoking Captain Cook and his ship , the above striking cover was one of a number of publications produced in Darwin to highlight the plight of homeless people living in the longgrass and other important issues.
The above 16pp well-designed and illustrated December 2001 publication said the Darwin Longgrass Association had been collecting signatures in support of a complaint to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission about Darwin Council by-laws which criminalised those with no housing , sleeping out.
In the first edition , a Darwin activist, consulting anthropologist , Dr Bill Day, then residing in Perth, Western Australia , recalled that in 1971 some homeless Larrakia people and others living in the bush around Darwin started a little newspaper called Bunji . At the time people camping at Railway Dam , Kululuk and Knuckey's Lagoon had no land rights or houses .
Consisting only of a one typed page, Bunji had been passed out around pubs, in streets and at the Bagot Aboriginal settlement calling for a united front in the fight for rights.
The above 16pp well-designed and illustrated December 2001 publication said the Darwin Longgrass Association had been collecting signatures in support of a complaint to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission about Darwin Council by-laws which criminalised those with no housing , sleeping out.
In the first edition , a Darwin activist, consulting anthropologist , Dr Bill Day, then residing in Perth, Western Australia , recalled that in 1971 some homeless Larrakia people and others living in the bush around Darwin started a little newspaper called Bunji . At the time people camping at Railway Dam , Kululuk and Knuckey's Lagoon had no land rights or houses .
Consisting only of a one typed page, Bunji had been passed out around pubs, in streets and at the Bagot Aboriginal settlement calling for a united front in the fight for rights.
The Northern Territory News reported Black Power had come to town . Most Aboriginal people and their friends had supported Bunji for 13 years.
By 2001 Knuckey's Lagoon people still did not own the land on which they lived and those at the Railway Dam were being threatened with relocation .
Day continued by saying nothing much had changed for many Aboriginal people . They were still camping in the bush around town with no shelter, toilets, electricity , or even a tap .
The government would not help, so it was time for this new newspaper, Kujuk , in a city built on Aboriginal land .
The longgrass battle and other campaigns went on for years , the masthead on this publication included an artistic rendition of the battleground. Other documents of interest from the struggle , including a protest outside Government House during a royal visit , and the international warrior and poet who spread the word will be posted in the future .
