An estimated 200 Townsville residents joined thousands of protestors across Australia and internationally, making their voices heard in the ongoing fight against the forced closure of remote Aboriginal communities in Western Australia.  

By Sophie Dillon

The Call to Action Protest is a response to the announcement of WA Premier Colin Barnett that more than a hundred Aboriginal communities in the state faced imminent closure.

Townsville protest took place on May 1 at 08:15am outside Stockland Shopping Centre with protestors blocking the Nathan St and Ross River Road intersection for 15 minutes.

James Cook University lecturer Maxwell Lenoy, one of the organisers of the Townsville Call to Action Protest says he is against the Government’s decision.

“Governments should not have the freedom to force communities to close without consent and without a valid reason,” Lenoy says.

The Federal Government is backing Premier Barnett’s announcement and sees the closure as a cost-saving measure for the state’s struggling economy.

Lenoy says the Western Australia government has been doing the closure in secret.

“They [government] are forcing communities to be evacuated by hiring security firms to come in and move people out without any consent and without any forward plan in place to help those members when they then are moved to another regional city.

“The national and international call to action will make it clear to the Government that the community, Indigenous and all Australians, are aware that this is happening and that they will not stand for it,” Lenoy says.

The proposed closure plans attracted widespread condemnation particularly as they followed Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s comments that taxpayer’s shouldn’t be expected to fund the “lifestyle choices” of Aboriginal people who live on their homelands.

JCU Indigenous Support Officer Florence Onus says she fears that if the proposed policy succeeds in Western Australia and South Australia, then the same can happen elsewhere, including Queensland.

“We’re marching because the Western Australia government announced that they’re going to close 150 Aboriginal remote communities, “ Florence says.

A similar policy is being considered in South Australia, she says.

“The Federal Government supports this so we’re very concerned here in Townsville that that’s going to set a precedent for every state and territory.”

The main organizer of the Call to Action protest Meyalah Blackman agrees with Onus and is concerned that the forced removal will reach Queensland remote communities.

“It’s a ripple effect; the buck doesn’t just stop at the removal of Western Australian communities. It’ll affect everybody in the long run,” Blackman says.

One of the many Non-Indigenous Australians who joined in the Townville Call to Action, Josh Denman, felt that it was important to show support for the cause.

“It’s all well and good for me to sit at home and say that the forced closure of these communities is a bad thing, but it’s another thing to come out and make a stand and actually do something about it,” he says.

An Indigenous Australian from Palm Island, Whanjullah joined the protest to stand together with the local, national and international community.

“The reason why we’ve all come out here is to stand in solidarity with the people right across the world about the forced closures of our communities, ” Whanjullah says.

The protests have been covered by social media, running in conjunction with a digital campaign that emboldens people to join in the fight by declaring their support under the hashtag #SOSBlakAustralia.

Many well known names have thrown their support behind the Call to Action campaign including Hugh Jackman, The Veronicas, and Hilltop Hoods. Academics such as Victoria Grieves, Craig Moritz and Sandy Toussaint have also added their voice to the conversation.

#sosblakaustralia #NOconsent #lifestylechoice #ingetjetadoras

A photo posted by Hugh Jackman (@thehughjackman) on Mar 19, 2015 at 6:35am PDT

For further information about the Townsville Call to Action, visit their page.

JCNN’s Sophie Dillon caught up with local residents on Castle Hill to find out what they want updated and changed on the hill.

Exchange student Julia Dunn held a poetry slam last Thursday night in a James Cook University first. 

By Jemma Boisen

The Uni Club created history last Thursday night by holding a poetry slam, organised by American exchange student Julia Dunn.

THIS SICK BEAT: Event Organiser Julie Dunn slam-dunks her poetry reading CREDIT: Luke Brooks

Julia, an environmental education major, said that poetry is something that she and her friends really enjoy at home in the United States.

“It’s been great sharing something that shows my identity and giving back to the university.”

“I hope to organize more slams before I go back home, hopefully once a month,” Miss Dunn said.

The poetry slam featured nine poets who had four to five poems written, and was hosted by JCU student and comedian from the Comedy Generation, Laurie Page.

One of the first applicants, 17 year old Chloe Dow, said the night was a major success.

“I was really happy that I made it into the second round…I feel more confident in my writing and oral skills now because of the poetry slam,” Chloe said.

The poetry slam progressed through four elimination rounds resulting in a winner, Olivia Lee Mei Lin.

Olivia, a Malaysian exchange student, experienced competitive poetry writing for the first time.

“I saw the poetry slam flyer and my friends suggested I do it.”

“This was the first time I wrote something serious,” Olivia said.

Julia received many applicants for the slam but had to turn some away due to popularity.

WORDSMITH: The Poetry Slam crowd enjoying the rhymes CREDIT: Luke Brooks

Julia hopes the next slam is bigger and better with a more vocal audience.

“Back home in New York the audience yells out and participates more with the poet,” said Julia.

To join the next poetry slam at JCU, contact Julia Dunn or look out for a new flyer posted around campus.

A group of Townsville athletes will be travelling to Adelaide to compete in the National Titles.

By Leilani Waters

Four members of the Townsville Stick Fighting Club will be heading off to Adelaide for the two day Australasian Stickfighting Titles tournament held on the 7^th and 8^th of June.

OFFICIAL POSTER: The Australasian Stickfighting Titles

Stickfighting is a style of martial arts that involves battling with two sticks either wearing full armour or limited armour called Kulata, which means to fight with only a helmet and gloves.

Coach Tom Goldsworthy has 25 years experience in martial arts and holds a second place in Australian Titles Open Kulata full contact division.

Tom will be competing again this year and says he has high hopes for the team.

“We bought back five medals last year,” Tom says.

“We brought back silver and bronze in the novice, gold in the women’s kulata, silver in the men’s Kulata, and a silver and bronze in the 40-45 division.”

“I think I’ve got a few medals coming in for the novice, and I think Joseph will take out his division too, which is a big division.”

Joseph Irvine 20 has only been training in stick fighting for a year.

He participated in the championship last year where he came second in the novice division.

“This year I’m in opens which means I have being training for at least a year and that my opponents will have a minimum of a years training and no maximum,” Joseph says.

“My opponents experience could range from about 1-15 years.”

Joey says he enjoys the challenging contact aspect of the sport.

“My favourite thing about stick fighting is the openness and variety of competitors the sport allows,” he says.

“It’s also good because it can be humbling because you’re using weapons where your size and weight aren’t as much of a factor unlike unarmed combat where it is key.”

The winners of the Australasian titles will head over to the Philippines for the international titles later this year.

Athletes from James Cook University are preparing to compete in men’s basketball, volleyball and mixed touch at the Northern University Games in July.

By Gabrielle Vacher

Students from JCU are spending five days of the mid-semester break contending against like-minded students from across the region in the Northern University Games on the Sunshine Coast.

The 35 JCU representatives will be competing in the men’s basketball, volleyball, and mixed touch with the anticipation of qualifying for the Australian University Games, to be held in Sydney from the 28^th September to the 3^rd October.

JCU Sport and Recreation Officer Renee Frizzell is in charge of the preparations for the Games.

“Northern University Games are quite different to the Australian University Games,” Renee says.

“The Northern, Southern and Eastern Games are regional and determine which universities will qualify for division 2 of the more popular sports at the Australian Games – netball, lawn bowls, tenpin bowling, mixed touch, men’s basketball, indoor volleyball, soccer, and hockey. The rest of division 2 is established by the teams that did well at the Australian Games the previous year.”

After placing third in division 2 at the Australian University Games grand final last year, the JCU mixed touch team automatically qualifies to compete in division 2 again in 2014.

“Despite the fact that we already qualify for the Australian Games, we’re sending a mixed touch team down with the aim of taking out the gold,” says Renee.

“Last year we lost in the Northern Games grand final against Griffith Gold Coast who along with the Queensland University of Technology will be our toughest competitors.

“Our team is stronger than last year – we have Betty Mareko who is an Australian touch representative and will be an outstanding addition.”

Although unsuccessful in 2013, Renee has high expectations for the JCU men’s basketball and volleyball team.

“We have so much new and competitive young sporting talent in the basketball team especially, I hope that the boys do well,” she says.

“Plus it really is fantastic to have a handful of athletes from Cairns competing in our volleyball team, unfortunately last year our representatives were from the Townsville campus only.”

The University Games have built an enormous reputation dubbed as one of the ‘best weeks’ of a student’s life, renowned for providing a friendly but competitive environment combining the perfect mix of athleticism, sportsmanship and opportunity to socialise with thousands of students from across Queensland and New South Wales.

Mixed touch team member Bri Rossato is thrilled to be competing in the Northern Games again.

“I went last year and had an amazing time,” Bri says.

“It’s quite similar to the Australian University Games, but with a more tight-knit group.

“It was such a great week, with decent competition and a decent bunch of people.”

For further information about the Northern University Games, visit: http://www.unisport.com.au/Pages/Home.aspx

JCU Robotics and Electronics Club had a trial run last Thursday before the Robot Race War on Friday 30th May.

By Sandra Haaland and Cornelia Koppang Henriksen

The electrical and electronic engineering students will fight with their self-built robots until the last one standing wins.

Townsville will get a taste of African cultures with an African Festival to be held next weekend.

By Ellanah Ritchie

Africa will be brought to life this weekend in Townsville for the fourth annual African Festival to be held at Riverway Park.

The African Festival is made possible through Spirit of Africa and will this year commemorate the life of African legend Nelson Mandela through special performances and guest speakers.

JCU student and native Zimbabwean Tom Phiri established the organisation when he noticed a growing African community in Townsville.

“We saw that the African community in Townsville was growing every year, and a few [people] were having problems about coming to a new place and not knowing anyone,” Phiri says.

“So we decided to come up with the Spirit of Africa, to help people and introduce them to Townsville.

“We also wanted our children to maintain their culture, so that they don’t forget where they come from even though we are living in Australia.”

Immerse: Cultures from all over Africa will be on display this coming weekend.

The African Festival aims to give the Townsville public a taste of the African way of life including dance, food and the sharing of cultural practices.

“A lot of people don’t know much about Africa other than our animals, but there is more to it than that,” Phiri says.

“The festival will showcase traditional dancing, drumming, and educational stalls about African culture.

“We will be cooking many different types of food which come from all around Africa.

“This year is a special one as we will be honouring one of our African legends, Mr Nelson Mandela.

“Most of the activities will be based around him and his contribution to Africa and the world at large, so that is the main theme for this year.

“We also have groups performing and invited guest speakers who will be speaking about African history and Mr Mandela’s achievements.”

The African Festival coincides with Africa Day, a major celebration across 54 African countries in which the leaders ofl the nations get together to form the African Organisation and discuss issues across the continent.

The event will be held at Riverway Park from 12pm-6pm, Saturday 31 May, with free-entry to the public.

Townsville drivers have reached boiling point when it comes to bad drivers, speaking out about their pet hates on the road.

By Jazmin Malcolm

Townsville residents have had enough of the bad and dangerous driving that they are experiencing everyday on local roads.

A recent poll conducted by The Buzz Car Insurance reveals that 99 per cent of drivers have had an unsafe experience while driving.

RACQ’s Senior Road Safety Advisor Joel Tucker says the most common complaint from road users is tailgating.

“RACQ members frequently report tailgating as their number one driver behaviour of concern,” Joel says.

“Whether it is intentional or unintentional, it can increase a driver’s crash risk and nose-to-tail crashes are common on Queensland’s roads.”

Photo source: aimhelix

Joel says there is a number of reasons people decide to tailgate other vehicles.

“It could be due to not knowing what a safe gap looks like, over-confidence in their ability to react to the unexpected and bring their vehicle to a stop and, in some cases, impatience or even using it to try and encourage other vehicles to speed up,” Joel says.

“RACQ recommends that drivers keep at least a two second gap between their vehicle and the vehicle in front of them, and that in wet weather or other hazardous conditions they double this minimum gap to at least four seconds.”

Townsville resident Benjamin O’leary says there is a number of mistakes by other road users that make him feel unsafe.

“When I’m on my motorbike all I see are eyes looking down,” Benjamin says,

“People texting, changing songs, on the phone.

“That stuff makes me crazy.”

Laws student Mathai Joshi says indicating is an issue that worries him.

“I’m annoyed at people who don’t indicate and turn into a lane,” Mathai says.

Townsville local Katelyn Adams says her car is often missed by only centimetres by careless drivers.

“There are people who fly down to the end of a merging lane to overtake everyone else and expect to be let in at the last second with no notice and miss my car by mere centimetres,”

“I live by the golden rule; do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Katelyn says.

If you would like more information on road rules or membership head over to RACQ.

25 John Flynn College residents are fundraising to change the lives of thousands of young people living in extreme poverty.

By Gabrielle Vacher

James Cook University students fundraising for Oaktree’s Live Below the Line campaign have reached the final month of donations.

Along with thousands of Australian participants, 25 John Flynn College residents restricted themselves to eat only $2 worth of food a day between May 5^th and May 9^th to better understand and raise awareness for extreme poverty.

Although college students have little control over the meals prepared in the dining hall, Brenton Mayer and Rosie Mathews coordinated with the chefs to provide the 25 participants with five days of cheap nutrition.

“Brenton, myself and 28 others were keen to tackle the Live below the Line challenge in 2013, but we didn’t see how it would be feasible to prepare all of our meals on college with such a large group participating and such limited cooking facilities to share,” Rosie says.

“Our head chef Rob and the rest of the cooking staff were very supportive and helpful when we approached them about coordinating with us, and it was so successful last year that they were more than happy to take part take this year as well.”

Challenge: JCU students are endeavouring to ‘Live Below the Line.’

Rosie says the cooperation of the kitchen staff encouraged more students to participate.

“Knowing that the meals would be prepared for us definitely had a huge impact on the number of residents who decided to partake in the challenge,” she says.

“We students only had to organise the ingredients by pooling our money and then buying all of the food in bulk, which was split evenly between us.

“The cooks also asked us for meal ideas and the Live below the Line website provided some great recipes that we adapted, and even students from Flynn had some awesome ideas and improvements from last year.

“Most importantly, by collaborating with the kitchen staff we were able to raise so much more awareness on college as we were eating our meals at the same time and in the same place as everybody else – in the dining hall.

“We even had the chance to do some fundraising during lunch and dinner.”

Rosie believes it was the ‘simple things’ that made a difference during the five days of low-budget dieting.

“It was the cheap tea, cordial and jelly that provided something tastier to our otherwise bland menu – these were considered our ‘treats’ and the sugar hit definitely increased the moral of the group!”

“Apart from that we had ‘no brand’ bread, jam, and butter to share for the week, as well as some corn flakes for breakfast and rice, pasta and frozen vegetables for dinner,” Rosie says.

John Flynn College residents Sky Brunker and Emma Green struggled to find the energy for sport and physical activity throughout the five-day challenge.

“Receiving only carb-based foods for every meal affected me, as the change was so rapid and I was no longer receiving the essential vitamins and nutrients I needed,” Sky says.

“My immune system become quite vulnerable and I fell sick towards the end of the trial.

“The biggest problem was then how much the diet affected my ability to do physical activity – I would become instantly light-headed and if I continued I would become quite nauseous.”

“We really did eat so much white bread and rice!” says Emma.

“Overall it wasn’t as bad as I expected, particularly considering our college did it in a large group – it is easier having people to do it with you.

“I really missed fruit and vegetables though, and it was definitely a struggle to play sport.”

The Live below the Line movement is run by Oaktree, Australia’s largest youth-run organisation with over 150,000 members and funded almost entirely by public donations.

Since 2010 it has grown into a multi-million-dollar fundraising campaign that dedicates 90.1 per cent of all money raised to those living in poverty by providing scholarships, renovating schools and training teachers to offer quality education for thousands of young people in East Timor, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea.

Rosie, Sky and Emma agree that the campaign is one of the best ways to raise awareness for extreme poverty.

“It was a massive eye opener for me to consider how many people live on less than this for a lot longer than five days,” Sky says.

“It is an amazing cause that is changing so many lives for the better and I would definitely encourage more people to participate.”

“Even though living on $2 of food a day is clearly not in any way close to simulating the lives of people living in extreme poverty, it does release a strong message,” Rosie says.

“The World Bank estimates that extreme poverty may be eliminated by 2030, so if Oaktree can spread awareness and trigger some much needed action then this is certainly a worthwhile cause!”

Support the Oaktree Live below the Line campaign by making a donation to your fellow University peers at: https://www.livebelowtheline.com.au/ – donations close Friday 30^th June.

The newly elected board members of JCU’s Council are planning to focus on new student developments during their four-year term.

By Domanii Cameron

James Cook University officially welcomed the new JCU Council board members at the 16^th Annual Council Induction last Wednesday.

The induction of the members was held at the School of Creative Arts courtyard.

Secretary of Council Michael Kern says the Council proposes to set up a Student Focus Subcommittee.

“The council has already decided that it may create some new committees and subcommittees,” Mr Kern says.

“It would include a Student Focus Subcommittee and a Risk Subcommittee.”

Kern says the subcommittees will be welcomed as a refreshing new initiative by students.

“We’ve always wanted a student focus subcommittee and it’s really hard because if you read the JCU Act, it very rarely mentions students,” Mr Kern says.

“It’s a very exciting development.

“Having a Student Focus Subcommittee will be amazing.”

JCU’s Council has proposals for a new student subcommittee. PHOTO CREDIT: JCU Website

With the 2014 Budget announcing that universities may soon be able to charge independent prices on courses, JCU may find itself a part of a more competitive market.

JCU Chancellor John Grey says to combat this, the Council needs to ensure that the University maintains a high international reputation.

“What students are looking for is value for money and what they’re looking for are very clever teachers and researchers,” Mr Grey says.

“We already have an international reputation in a number of areas including marine science and sustainable ecologies and so on.

“Those things are a big plus,” he says.

The Chancellor says having students on Council is very important.

“There are two reasons we have students on Council.

“One is to have student input but also because it’s a wonderful opportunity for students to see the governance of a very large organisation with high dollar values, so they learn a lot out of it.”

The Chancellor says the elected students have been very enthusiastic.

“They’ve been a bit amazed by the complexity of it because it’s beyond anything so far that they’ve run into, but they have been very enthusiastic and eager to learn,” he says.

Student Council member Laura Walker says her primary goal is to represent JCU’s student body.

“I was elected by the students,” she says.

“That’s my role within Council and I will always be open to students coming up to me.

“I’m looking forward to what’s to come.”

Elected student member Edward Harridge who is a Business and Law student says to help address issues that may arise out of the proposed 2014 Budget, JCU can be made more appealing by focusing on quality.

“Focusing on quality in its areas of comparative advantage like marine biology and marine sciences and that sort of thing will help,” Mr Harridge says.

“For areas like law and business however where there is a lot of competition, JCU doesn’t have an advantage and it will have to compete on price.

“There will have to be more efficiency on those particular areas.”

Both Edward and Laura agree that parking is a popular issue when campaigning.

“We could remove some of the overzealous issuing of parking fines,” Mr Harridge says.

“There is plenty of room outside of the library for parking and also near the Creative Arts building.

“There certainly isn’t a shortage of space.”

Fellow elected student member Mark Dodge was unavailable to speak at the induction.

To raise any issues with the student members, you can contact them  here.