John Englart | |
---|---|
Born | 1955 (age 67–68) Australia |
Nationality | Australian |
Occupation | Web content administrator |
Known for | Blogging, citizen journalism |
John Englart (born 1955), pseudonym Takver, is an Australian citizen journalist, photojournalist, Videographer and blogger from Melbourne.
His pseudonym was adopted in 1997 from a minor character in Ursula Le Guin's novel The Dispossessed . [1] On his website he outlined a reason for adopting this pseudonym: "By adopting the name of Takver, I pay tribute to Ursula Le Guin and her humanism as a person and her skill and integrity as a writer. It is also an attempt to articulate that history is made by lots of ordinary people - not just governments, or the rich and famous." [2]
John Englart worked for Telstra Corporation [3] for 31 years before being made redundant in 2005. He has worked in web design and web content administration since 1996. After being made redundant, he attended TAFE to do a dual Diploma in IT Web Development and Multimedia. [4] After finishing his course he was employed in the web team at Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE, now known as Melbourne Polytechnic. [5] [6]
John Englart received the Environmental Sustainability Award from Moreland Council in 2019 at the Moreland Awards ceremony for his continuing advocacy on climate action at the local level. [7] [8]
His work as a citizen journalist initially came to widespread public attention in the 1998 Australian waterfront dispute where he ran a website called Takver's Soapbox - War on the Wharfies that collated and paraphrased the daily news reports with his own reporting of Melbourne events to present an accurate and timely account sympathetic to the Maritime Union of Australia point of view as a pro-union anarchist. [1] [9] [10]
The website was awarded LabourStart website of the week in April 1998. [11]
The importance of his citizen journalism in this dispute has been noted in expanding how unions campaign online. [12] [13]
He documented the growing peace movement protests in Melbourne after the September 11 attacks on New York in 2001 and the subsequent invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, including publishing an 80-page booklet covering the period from 2001 to 2007. [14] [15] [16]
He has used his own website to publish a range of radical political and historical pamphlets and books, including by labour history researchers Dr Bob James on early Anarchism in Australia, trade unionism and benefit societies, and Issy Wyner on the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union. [10]
For the Friends of the Earth Australia book published in 2004 on the history of Friends of the Earth campaigns in Australia he contributed an article on the Rides against Uranium in the 1970s, which he participated in. These events helped launch FoE to prominence as an environmental organisation in Australia. [17]
In 2013 he joined Margo Kingston's team of citizen journalists for the Nofibs website to report the 2013 Australian federal election within individual electorates. Englart covered the candidates and issues for the Federal Division of Wills with Labor sitting MP Kelvin Thomson. [18]
In 2014 some of Englart's early citizen photojournalism work of Gay Pride Week events in Sydney in 1973, donated to the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives, were featured in a Melbourne photographic exhibition curated by Dr Marcus Bunyan. [19]
"Notice the intimacy of the image here, getting in amongst the crowd, the photographer getting intimate with the crowd, getting involved with the action." described Dr Marcus Bunyan about one of Englart's photos. [20]
Since 2004 Englart has gradually increased his focus on climate change and environmental issues in his journalism and blogging, and is involved in local groups Sustainable Fawkner and Climate Action Moreland. [21] In 2015 Englart was an accredited NGO delegate for Climate Action Moreland and Climate Action Network Australia to the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. [22] Subsequently, he also attended the 2016 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Marrakech. [23] [24] [25]
The importance of Englart's writing and online publishing has been recognised with two websites being permanently archived in the Pandora Archive of the National Library of Australia : the Radical Tradition website [10] and the Climate Citizen Blog. [26]
His contributions to activism as a founding member of Jura Books in 1977 and other activist book collectives plus his citizen journalism were recognised by the Eureka Australia Medal award conferred by Dr Joseph Toscano and the Anarchist Media Institute at Bakery Hill, Ballarat on 3 December 2009. [27] [28]
The Eureka Rebellion was a series of events involving gold miners who revolted against the British administration of the colony of Victoria, Australia during the Victorian gold rush. It culminated in the Battle of the Eureka Stockade, which took place on 3 December 1854 at Ballarat between the rebels and the colonial forces of Australia. The fighting resulted in an official total of 27 deaths and many injuries, the majority of casualties being rebels. There was a preceding period beginning in 1851 of peaceful demonstrations and civil disobedience on the Victorian goldfields. The miners had various grievances, chiefly the cost of mining permits and the officious way the system was enforced.
The City of Merri-bek is a local government area in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. It comprises the inner northern suburbs between 4 and 11 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. The Merri-bek local government area covers 51 km2 (20 sq mi), and in June 2018, it had a population of 181,725.
Coburg is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 8 km (5.0 mi) north of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Darebin and Merri-bek local government areas. Coburg recorded a population of 26,574 at the 2021 census.
Fawkner is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 12 km (7.5 mi) north of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Hume and Merri-bek local government areas. Fawkner recorded a population of 14,274 at the 2021 census.
Fawkner railway station is located on the Upfield line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the northern Melbourne suburb of Hadfield, and it opened on 8 October 1889 as Fawkner. It closed on 13 July 1903, and reopened on 12 December 1906 as Fawkner Cemetery. It was renamed Fawkner in 1914.
John Batman was an Australian grazier, entrepreneur and explorer. He is best known for his role in the founding of Melbourne.
The Upfield railway line is a commuter rail service operating between Flinders Street in the Melbourne central business district through Melbourne's northern suburbs including West Melbourne, North Melbourne, Parkville, Brunswick, Coburg, Coburg North, Hadfield, Glenroy and Coolaroo. The future of the Upfield line was in serious doubt in the late 1980s and early 1990s with proposals for the line to be converted into a light rail line or even closure. However, the future of the line was secured in 1995 with the upgrading of the signalling, closure or upgrade of the numerous level crossings, and duplication of the track between Fawkner and Gowrie.
The Upfield Shared Path is a shared use path for cyclists and pedestrians, which follows Upfield railway line through the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The city of Melbourne was founded in 1835. The exact circumstances of the foundation of Melbourne, and the question of who should take credit, have long been matters of dispute.
Norman Leslie Gallagher was a controversial Australian trade unionist, and Maoist who led the militant Builders Labourers Federation as federal Secretary and as Victorian State Secretary.
Brunswick Juventus FC is an Australian soccer club based in the Melbourne municipality of Merri-bek. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria 2 and is based at CB Smith Reserve in the suburb of Fawkner. The earliest traces of the club date back to 1948 with the founding of Juventus, and was officially founded in 1997 with mergers and de-mergers occurring between Italian backed clubs within the Italian community of Melbourne.
Dr Joseph Toscano is a medical practitioner, a broadcaster and an anarchist who lives in Melbourne, Australia. He has become widely known as an anarchist spokesperson for the Anarchist Media Institute through his broadcasting on community radio, his frequent letters to newspapers such as The Age and Herald Sun and his initiation of community campaigns. He was married to the artist Ellen José until her death in 2017.
Anarchism in Australia arrived within a few years of anarchism developing as a distinct tendency in the wake of the 1871 Paris Commune. Although a minor school of thought and politics, composed primarily of campaigners and intellectuals, Australian anarchism has formed a significant current throughout the history and literature of the colonies and nation. Anarchism's influence has been industrial and cultural, though its influence has waned from its high point in the early 20th century where anarchist techniques and ideas deeply influenced the official Australian union movement. In the mid 20th century anarchism's influence was primarily restricted to urban bohemian cultural movements. In the late 20th century and early 21st century Australian anarchism has been an element in Australia's social justice and protest movements.
Montague David "Monty" Miller, born 7 July 1839 in Van Diemen's Land, was an Australian trade unionist, secularist, and revolutionary anarchist-socialist chiefly active in the states of Victoria and, in his most productive period, in Western Australia. His activism with unions and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), during the early years of the twentieth century, saw him acting as a speaker and organiser for these sometimes illegal groups, leading to his conviction for conspiracy in 1916.
Ellen José (1951 – 2 June 2017) was an Australian indigenous artist and photographer She was a Torres Strait Islander descendant from Murray, Darnley and Horn Islands who lived in Melbourne with husband Joseph Toscano.
John Fawkner College is a government-funded co-educational secondary day school, located in Fawkner, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. As of 2009 the school had approximately 400 students from Year 7 to Year 12.
Peter James McGregor was an Australian anarchist known for his political activism, university teaching and commitment to direct action. He was actively involved in and led several major Australian and international political campaigns.
The Transition Decade is a non-partisan shared campaign which is coordinated by an alliance of Australian community, social, and environmental groups, non-profits and NGOs. The initiative forms a unified plan to campaign, lobby and work to restore safe climate conditions and a sustainable future.
Mark P. Williams is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Carlton and Footscray in the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/AFL).
Coburg Pine Ridge Cemetery is located in the northern Melbourne suburb of Preston, Victoria, Australia. The main entrance is on Bell Street, Preston. The Cemetery is managed by Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (GMCT), and work closely with local community group, Friends of Coburg.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)