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Gary Foley Gary Foley i(A87598 works by)
Born: Established: 1950 Grafton, Grafton area, Grafton - Maclean area, Mid North Coast, New South Wales, ;
Gender: Male
Heritage: Aboriginal ; Aboriginal Gumbayngirr / Gumbainggirr
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Works By

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1 State of the Nation? Gary Foley , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , September vol. 82 no. 3 2023; (p. 20-23)
'Anthropologist W.E.H. Stanner spoke in his famous 1968 Boyer lecture ‘After the Dreaming’ about the ‘cult of forgetfulness’ that pervaded the Australian national psyche.'
1 Harold Holt's Death and Why the 1967 Referendum Failed Indigenous People Gary Foley , 2017 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 27 May 2017;
'When Holt went on his fateful swim on 17 December 1967, all hopes that the referendum would result in positive change drowned with him.'
1 y separately published work icon The Koori History Website Gary Foley , 2014 9255371 2014 website

Dr Gary Foley designed, created and operates this website. It contains history resources for students, a range archives of newspaper articles dating back to pre 1950s, and video and audio files.

1 ASIO, The Aboriginal Movement and Me Gary Foley , 2014 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Dirty Secrets : Our Asio Files 2014; (p. 91-112)
1 1 y separately published work icon The Aboriginal Tent Embassy : Sovereignty, Black Power, Land Rights and the State Gary Foley (editor), Andrew Schaap (editor), Edwina Howell (editor), Abingdon : Routledge , 2013 9258938 2013 single work criticism

'The 1972 Aboriginal Embassy was one of the most significant indigenous political demonstrations of the twentieth century. What began as a simple response to a Prime Ministerial statement on Australia Day 1972, evolved into a six-month political stand-off between radical Aboriginal activists and a conservative Australian government. The dramatic scenes in July 1972 when police forcibly removed the Embassy from the lawns of the Australian Houses of Parliament were transmitted around the world. The demonstration increased international awareness of the struggle for justice by Aboriginal people, brought an end to the national government policy of assimilation and put Aboriginal issues firmly onto the national political agenda. The Embassy remains today and on Australia Day 2012 was again the focal point for national and international attention, demonstrating the intensity that the Embassy can still provoke after forty years of just sitting there. If, as some suggest, the Embassy can only ever be removed by Aboriginal people achieving their goals of Land Rights, Self-Determination and economic independence then it is likely to remain for some time yet.'

‘This book explores the context of this moment that captured the world’s attention by using, predominantly, the voices of the people who were there. More than a simple oral history, some of the key players represented here bring with them the imprimatur of the education they were to gain in the era after the Tent Embassy. This is an act of radicalisation. The Aboriginal participants in subversive political action have now broken through the barriers of access to academia and write as both eye-witnesses and also as trained historians, lawyers, film-makers. It is another act of subversion, a continuing taunt to the entrenched institutions of the dominant culture, part of a continuum of political thought and action.’ (Larissa Behrendt, Professor of Law, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology Sydney) (Source: Publisher's website)

1 Nazi Dreamtime The Contrarian Gary Foley , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: Tracker , 27 October vol. 3 no. 2013; (p. 20-21)

— Review of Nazi Dreamtime : Australia's Enthusiasts for Hitler's Germany David S. Bird , 2012 single work criticism
1 A Time to Dream Gary Foley , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: Tracker , June vol. 3 no. 2013; (p. 34-35)
1 Black Power, Black Theatre and Black Humour Gary Foley , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: Tracker , September vol. 2 no. 17 2012; (p. 22)
1 Black Power and Aboriginal Arts Gary Foley , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: Tracker , August vol. 2 no. 16 2012; (p. 22-23)
1 3 Foley Gary Foley , 2011 single work drama

'Political agitator Gary Foley presents a swag of stories from a life lived in the spirit of resistance. From the frontlines of black activism to the halls of mainstream culture, he presents a colourful personal history and a dissident narrative of an Australian half-century. For more than forty years, Gary Foley has been deeply involved in the continuing struggle against foreign invasion. As activist, academic and actor, he's been one of the key figures in ensuring that the Aboriginal experience is not written out of this land's history.

Having spent decades spinning the yarns of black Australia, both past and present, he now uses his well-honed skills as troublemaker, teacher and teller of tales to bring his experiences to the stage, in an explosive event that weaves his extraordinary life around the major happenings that have shaped modern Australia. Entertaining and challenging, Foley is as much a personal narrative as it is an account of an untold Australian history. From land rights to native title, from treaty to reconciliation, from the referendum to the embassy, from black power to black pride, Foley, with characteristic dark humour, chronicles his life and times in what promises to be an engrossing tale of resistance and tenacity.' Source: http://ilbijerri.com.au/ (Sighted 11/10/2011).

1 A League of Their Own Gary Foley , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: Tracker , August vol. 1 no. 5 2011; (p. 23)
This month The Contrarian looks at the the formation of two influential Aboriginal political organisations. Legal power was given to the NSW Aborigines Protection Board in 1909 with the passing of the Aborigines Protection Act and later in 1937 when the Policy of Assimilation was formalised. It was in this political context that the Australian Aborigines League was formed in Melbourne in 1933 and the Aborigines Progressive Association began in Sydney in 1937.
1 The Spirit of a Hunter, the Heart of a Blackfella Gary Foley , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: Tracker , June vol. 1 no. 3 2011; (p. 33)
In his column The Contrarian, Gary Foley pays hommage to the late actor Bill Hunter and their roles together in Backroads.
1 Vale Chicka Dixon 1928 - 2010 Gary Foley , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: Arts Yarn Up , Autumn 2010; (p. 20-21)
1 A Short History of the Australian Indigenous Resistance 1950-1990 Gary Foley , 2010 2010 single work essay criticism
— Appears in: The Koori History Website 2014;

'This history is as interesting and vibrant as history can be, yet it is largely unknown to the majority of Australian people...'

1 The Dirty Mile : A History of Indigenous Fitzroy Lisa Bellear , Gary Foley , John Harding , Kylie Belling , 2006 single work drama 'Take a walk through Fitzroy's Indigenous history and experience Indigenous people's strong and continuing historical, cultural and emotional connection to this place - from its Woiwurrung beginnings right up to the here and now. WW2 Munitions Workers, Atherton Estate locals before the High-rise, our sporting heroes, the Indigenous Fitzroy residents in the pubs, organisations, churches and back lanes. These snapshots of Fitzroy's Indigenous history the continuing theme of dispossession throughout our Indigenous experience and celebrate our social, political, cultural and sporting achievements - our resolve for self determination. Ilbijerri offers up to audience this unique Indigenous experience as an alternative to the Commonwealth games. ' Source: http://www.ilbijerri.org.au/ (Sighted 19/03/2006)
1 Whose Country? Gary Foley , 2005 single work essay
— Appears in: The Ideas Book 2005; (p. 308-309)
1 Assimilating the Mabo-Jumbo Gary Foley , 1993 single work essay
— Appears in: Ngariaty : Kooris Talkin' 1993; (p. 57)
1 Overseas Perspectives - Gary Foley's Impressions of China Gary Foley , 1974 single work essay
— Appears in: Aboriginal News , June vol. 1 no. 7 1974; (p. 14-15)
'If asked, as I often am, "What impressed you most in China?, the answer for me would be easy. As a person who went to China in order to extend and develop my knowledge and ideas, I was on the lookout for concepts that would be applicable to the Australian Aboriginal situation. As a result, three aspects of Chinese life profoundly impressed me...' (Introduction)
2 2 form y separately published work icon Basically Black John O'Grady , Gary Foley , Ken Horler , Bob Maza , Jim Crawford , 1973 (Manuscript version)x401397 Z1180920 1973 single work film/TV satire

The first Aboriginal television show produced and broadcast by the ABC, Basically Black comprised a series of comic/tragic sketches based on the 1972 Nimrod Street Theatre revue. The television adaptation was heavily censored and politically 'watered-down' by the ABC, to make it less confronting and controversial

One of the characters written into the revue is Lionel Mouse who fights racism as 'Superboong,' a strange visitor from a northern tribe who comes to the city possessing powers far greater than mortal Kooris, faster than a killer boomerang. An incident of racism in a nearby hotel sees Superboong leap into action, but he unfortunately can't do anything, because Aboriginals are barred from entering hotels; he is forced to go off in search of incidents that he can fight (ctd. Casey p. 56). This ironic treatment of the superhero shows that even superheroes will be discriminated against, when he is not allowed in a hotel to change into his costume.

Other sketches include a satiric take on the boxing troupes that plied their trade as part of carnival side shows during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s; the 'Bennelong' sketch, in which Bennelong is presented at a London garden party in beautifully tailored clothes but also in a gilded cage; and a sketch played out between an aggressive white labourer and an Indigenous industrial designer, which ends with the latter being viciously beaten and then arrested for assault.

1 6 Basically Black John O'Grady , Gary Foley , Bob Maza , Jim Crawford , 1972 single work drama

The concept for Basically Black evolved not long after Bob Maza arrived in Sydney to undertake an apprenticeship program for directors and actors with the Nimrod Theatre Company. The revue was a biting satire, continuing the response to the High Court ruling against a traditional claim to land ownership, in addition to highlighting white attitudes towards the Aborigines over the past 200 years.

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