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Happy New Year 2020

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Black Freescribers

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Black  Freescribers -- Pledge -- I am an artist. I have set myself free. I stand by my work. I write what scares me. I value my work. I am fiercely protective of my creative time. I challenge others:  I examine ideas that challenge my values. I exist – I am whole.  I can not exist in this world if I do not write. I am relentless. I set my own pace and I have no end. I have no guiding hand:  I write what I know. I need no introductions:  I speak for myself. I am most free when I write from my imagination. I am a storyteller of emotional truth. I respect those vital to me, by writing my true self. I write for the future. I am experimental: I innovate and I explore. I write for myself. I do not seek permission to write. No one needs mine. I am a writer. Twitter  @SivParker  Blog  OnDusk Siv Parker 
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Smooth

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Smooth by Siv Parker Update Tuesday 23 February 2015, 12.30pm:  This blog post was prompted by a recent incident in Australia.   Rob Thomas best known as singer/songwriter of Matchbox20 is currently touring.  H e said some things at a concert. It triggered a social media firestorm.  He apologized quickly, twice on Facebook (links included below). That was good enough for me.   I decided to make some comments of my own. Rob Thomas’s response is also linked below.   If I had known the page hits to my blog post would be over 30,000 in 24 hours I may have taken longer than an hour to write it, but it is what it is.   Thanks for reading.   The last time I heard Smooth , it was a Sunday afternoon in January. A cover band was playing at the country pub down on the corner from my house. It sounded pretty good.   It wasn’t Santana featuring Rob Thomas, but it was kind of awesome to listen while ...
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#TweetYarn~Close the Gap Day, 20 March 2014

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Are you interested in Closing the Gap on Indigenous life expectancy? Do you want to be involved in an online Close the Gap storytelling event? Perhaps you thinking of joining Twitter but just haven’t got around to it yet? How about joining in a collaborative #TweetYan on Close the Gap Day 2014? I created #Tweetyarns in 2013 - explanation  here , and an example here : Maisie May Statistically I can expect to die nearly 20 years earlier than most of the people I am favouriting and retweeting. Indigenous Australians are 2.7% of the population, however this small minority grooup cannot expect the life span of the majority of the population. And if some people have their way , I should not expect to live any or all of a life free of hostility and abuse. Some prefer an Australia where some of us live on guard for abuse and must be prepared to fight back.  But it wont be everyone who will be expected to be in robust debates on street corners, online ...
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Writer's Note August 2026

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  Image: A spray of blooms in a white vase in a dim lit room. How do you meet people? Reluctantly.  I’ve met thousands upon thousands; at times it felt like more than my fair share.  Observe and fix was a role.  Now I observe and wonder aloud.  This week, patches within the mist revealed I’d completed a full cycle mapping the night sky; Rigil Kentaurus and Toliman appeared front and centre to my writing desk.  Medium density at night, dogs off their leash to fuck in the street. Snarling and snapping at each other, no-one's picking up their shit.  So I looked up, and nothing compares. Image: chart of blog hits over the past 30 days, seven thousand, seven hundred and ten approximately. Thank you for your interest gentle reader.  Siv Parker House of Abundant Peace 2026
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Abundance

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  Eight currawongs sitting in a tree.  2am 8 June 2026 Monday,  Canberra  On my return from Sorry Business, the autumn leaves are down to the stragglers. ... There is no English equivalent to Sorry Business. Once the leap was made – the written word caught up to the much older oral accounts – some words in common emerged. How’s your Quantum Physics? Start there gentle reader, discover quantum mechanics, be enthralled by Theory. The trigger for a period of retreat and self care – Sorry Business - is death. In perpetuity, melancholy. In the evertime, abundance. ... I used a quarter tank of premium unleaded to reduce my footprint in preparation for emergence of a new world order. Unlike the Covid-frenzy 2019, this time around I collapsed what I want and what I need into the same list. During Sorry Business, the necessary work continues.  I serviced my car so I’m able to go home, ten hours away, in an instant. I fixed my car stereo so I enjoy being in my car. I boug...
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Stolen Wages

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Anatomy of an example of activism via social media  Not a month goes by when I don't pause and reflect on what a game changer social media has been. At the end of the day, out would come the tins of tobacco. The blocks of tobacco would be carved, and the shards turn to splinters when rubbed together between two work ready palms.    The air would fill with the hollow pop of lips smacking on a pipe, and clouds of white smoke coating the deep, lush sounds of a radio playing softly in the night. Yes, using social media takes confidence and skill. It is not as easy as some make it look, and you need to invest some time. Take hunting for example. You need to understand what you are trying to catch, how it moves, what it’s habits are, and is it a risk to you. How to catch it – do you use a weapon or a lure? Do you chase it, or make it come to you? Or do you build (an interest in a potentially sensitive and awkward conversation) a trap ...
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Start low, finish high

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I spent the first half of the day reading submissions on the Exposure Draft for the Racial Discrimination Act.  I blogged my thoughts 'Keep 18c of the RDA' on the last day  [30 April 2014]   for submissions here   Some sobering data, as per the Close the Gap Steering Committee submission... Localities Embracing and Accepting Diversity (LEAD) Experiences of Racism project which surveyed 755 Aboriginal people from Victoria. The survey found that in the past 12 months:  97 per cent had experienced at least one racist incident. ' Close the Gap Campaign rejects proposed changes to the RDA '   - submission is  here  I’ve not been well – managed to achieve resistence to nearly every antiobotic known to modern medicine, but that’s now been sorted and I can make long term plans, all the way clear through to next month. 'Emerging writer' means 'struggling writer', and no goal is achieved without a fair bit of e...
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Making a difference

You wouldn’t think it was the same country, reading the latest round of released papers, the 1992-93 Australian cabinet documents. Cabinet papers from 1992 and 1993, released by the National Archives of Australia on January 1, (also) detail how Australia wrestled with Indigenous issues and the historic Native Title legislationfollowing the High Court's landmark Mabo ruling. The way we were.....I remember this incident like it was yesterday: Prime Minister Paul Keating's response to talkback caller  over Mabo a reminder of leadership past What will we look like in another thirty years? And how will we get there, in a post-truth world? Please retweet this to make absolutely no difference to anything whatsoever. — Mr Roger Quimbly (@RogerQuimbly) December 28, 2016
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Stop the Stigma

We need to talk about mental illness.  " Of all the players who listened ashen-faced to ex-NRL halfback Joe Williams' harrowing tale of depression, Johnathan Thurston appeared to be hit the hardest. Sure, Williams struck a nerve with new father Thurston when he noted that he had gone to the trouble of writing farewell letters to his young children before attempting suicide four years ago. But it was the Cowboys' recent tragic history that created the lump in Thurston's throat during Williams' powerful mental health address at the Indigenous All Stars leadership camp on the Gold Coast.  " Mental health talk hits home for Thurston http://t.co/soRcplDiqv Speaker @jwboxing01 The Enemy Within http://t.co/ArjaT5vT62 #BreakTheStigma — Siv Parker (@SivParker) February 10, 2015 @SivParker all the boys were very open and responsive!! #BreakTheStigma — Joey Williams (@jwboxing01) February 10, 2015 @jwboxing01 Agree 100% #BreakTheStigma Talking ...
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Writer's Note July 2026

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 Thank you for the visit, gentle readers. Image: graph of blog views 'Last 3 months' beginning in April upto 1 July 2026. Total views 21k Blog audience Image: List of countries in descending order starting with United States, Singapore, Brazil, Vietnam, Russia, Germany, Australia, United Kingdom, India, Bangladesh. Image: List continues of gentle readers in descending order Iraq, France, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Pakistan, Chile, Saudia Arabia and Spain. Always in my thoughts. Siv Parker House of Abundant Peace 2026
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