#naidoc week

Condoman

In 1987, Indigenous sexual health worker Aunty Gracelyn Smallwood and her team felt that safe sex advertising wasn’t effectively targeting people in Australia’s remote Indigenous communities. In response, they created Condoman - “The Deadly Predator of Sexual Health” - who spoke to Indigenous people in language they could relate to, and removed stigma from conversations about sexual health. 

Condoman became something of a cult figure in Australia, and in 2009 he was relaunched with a suite of comics, animations, and merch, including branded condoms. He was also joined by his “deadly, slippery sister” Lubelicious, who promoted consent, the use of water based lube, and women’s health, for her sisters and sistergirls (an Indigenous term analogous to trans women).

We covered Condoman in our podcast on the AIDS epidemic in Australia.

To kick it off, check out Our Greats by 3%. This track not only slaps, but also celebrates the next generations and our old ones, the giants one whose shoulders we stand!

And watch BAMA - a short film by Jahvis Loveday. Jahvis reflects on his first day at a private school in the big city, his fears of losing his connections to his family, community, and culture, and his resolve to maintains his connections and his identity even when living so far from his country.

hiii richard! thank you 🖤💛💖

i don't know any Blackfella video essayists BUT i follow a few deadly Blak creators who post longer form videos on tiktok so i'll give them a shout here - (if you don't have tiktok i think they're all on insta too)

shawna.madison

littleredwrites

brado87

misbeehive

aliciaj1111

biglublyleanne

assichief

luludavis001

Wishing all my Blak family on this beautiful continent a fantastic time for this 50 Years of Deadly!

Go my Whadjuk Nyoongar Barry the Quokka

if I put this one on post instead of schedule like I did in June this is gonna look real fuckin stupid. (If you were in zineserver and saw me make this in june no you didn't lmao.)

Anyway 4 those not in the know, the 1st week of July in Australia is NAIDOC week! It celebrates the culture, history and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Barry is, of course, the sonic franchise's basically singular Australian, (ok i GUESS Marine counts but she's in another dimension and also we know where she lives) so it felt pretty fitting to me that they were Aboriginal. Specifically Whadjuk Nyoongar, since they're the group that lives mainly around Perth (which Rottnest Island- originally known as Wadjemup- is just offshore of, and which quokkas are native to, hence the association). Honestly idek when i got this hc it just kinda made itself part of my canon and i was like yeah that's rad keep it in.

and if youre from another country and youve ever enjoyed anything made in australia or by an australian you should also support the people whos land was stolen and then used to make that thing. idk if they take foreign currency but im sure theres another Indigenous organisation that will if they dont