Tue 1 Jul 2008 In: Worth Checking Out View at Wayback View at NDHA
A didgeridoo performer at Sydney's Yabun Festival The next episode of Maori Television's LGBT programme Takataapui will be broadcast at 9:30pm on Monday 7 July: "How do you portray an activist? Because I'm just a general person who's in the struggle trying to get something back, which is what's rightfully mine, and that's my land." - Kyra Kum-Sing The day that James Cook landed at Botany Bay is celebrated as Australia Day. For the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, 26 January is known by a different name: Invasion Day. Takataapui follows young lesbian activist Kyra Kum-Sing in her role of Assistant to the Producer of Yabun – the Aboriginal festival of music, food, korero and remembrance. Kyra's mob, called the Malera Bandjalan, have leadership succession through matrilineal descent, and Kyra is the only child born to her mother in the sixth generation since white settlement. Kyra's mum Kathy is an activist with political connections to the Harawira family in Aotearoa and she has been fighting for fifteen years to see the return of the mining rights and papakainga into the hands of Malera Bandjalan. Time spent with Kyra as she moves through her duties is interspersed with a visit home to mum's, chores for the festival away from the grounds and interviews from members of the Gadigal staff about Yabun. The crew also meet two Aboriginal Elders who called them over to tell their story about being Stolen Children. They also meet Kyra's Aunt, singer/songwriter Ruby Hunter, and speak to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs about the impact of the new government. Each part of the programme is introduced by excerpts from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's apology to the 'stolen generation' of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. As Kyra says: "We were pretty lucky, we only had one person taken… my great-grandmother broke into the Boys Home and got him out… took off in the bush. They never come and got him again." Takataapui is broadcast on Maori Television each Monday night at 9:30pm, then repeats on Freeview's Stratos channel at 10pm. Takataapui TV - 1st July 2008