Photo by JENNY FRASER

jenny fraser

Photo Essay

 

some burned. some danced.

some moved on.

 
 

Pictured shortly before the uprising of the autonomous State of Bama Land circa 2015, we can see the differing responses to the split, from separate citizen groups at the time.  Some burned, some danced, some moved on.  They say Bama leaders of the Far North in Queensland were fed up with seeing few of the benefits of the wealth generated in the engine room of the North, which instead were being redirected to the state's population-heavy southeast.  

Historically the northern region has been dominated by the Mining, Cattle and Sugar Industries, all initially built on the slave labour of local Indigenous peoples and Kanaka blackbirded from the South Sea Islands.  Now there are no certainties for these industries, or the non-Black minority populations that run them.  

Separatism is the advocacy of a state of cultural, tribal, racial or governmental separation from the larger group. While it often refers to full political secession, separatist groups may seek nothing more than greater autonomy.  While some critics have equated this takeover as reverse racist segregation, some separatists argue that separation by choice is not the same as government-enforced segregation and may serve useful purposes. 

 

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