It’s Official: One Year On, Aboriginal Women Performing Ceremony Is Still Offensive

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We just got banned (again) by Facebook, this time for sharing a story that Facebook invited us to share. No kidding. Chris Graham explains.

Okay, so this is getting a little complicated.

My Facebook account – and my access to the New Matilda Facebook account – has just been suspended (9am, Wednesdsay morning).

Why? Because this morning, I shared a story that Facebook invited to me to share.

By way of background, a year ago today, we published a story about the shaming of women – particularly Aboriginal women – on social media, written by prominent Arrernte writer, feminist, and unionist Celeste Liddle. The feature image on that story was of two Aboriginal women performing ceremony in Central Australia. And here it is again.

Aboriginal women from the remote Central Australian community of Ampilatwatja performing at a public ceremony in 2010 to protest against the Northern Territory intervention. (IMAGE: Chris Graham, At Large Media).
Aboriginal women from the remote Central Australian community of Ampilatwatja performing at a public ceremony in 2010 to protest against the Northern Territory intervention. (IMAGE: Chris Graham, At Large Media).

It was deemed by Facebook to have breached community standards. Meanwhile, these two images – published on other media sites at the same time – were not deemed to breach those same standards.

Bike-nipples Kardashian-Aboriginal

As a result, Facebook banned me, New Matilda, numerous New Matilda readers, and the author of the story, Celeste Liddle… who was banned a total of seven times, spanning one month.

This morning, Facebook invited me to ‘share a memory’ from a year ago… namely, the story for which we all got banned in 2016.

So, of course, I did. And I wrote a story about how ridiculous it all is.

I lasted less than an hour. Facebook has banned me once again, this time for sharing the story that they invited me to share.

We’ll keep you posted on who else gets banned… because our latest story had already been shared dozens of times, including by, you guessed it, Celeste Liddle, Facebook’s Public Enemy Number 1.

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Chris Graham is the publisher and editor of New Matilda. He is the former founding managing editor of the National Indigenous Times and Tracker magazine. In more than three decades of journalism he's had his home and office raided by the Australian Federal Police; he's been arrested and briefly jailed in Israel; he's reported from a swag in Outback Australia on and off for years. Chris has worked across multiple mediums including print, radio and film. His proudest achievement is serving as an Associate producer on John Pilger's 2013 film Utopia. He's also won a few journalism awards along the way in both the US and Australia, including a Walkley Award, a Walkley High Commendation and two Human Rights Awards. Since late 2021, Chris has been battling various serious heart and lung conditions. He's begun the process of quietly planning a "gentle exit" after "tying up a few loose ends" in 2024 and 2025. So watch this space.

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