Indigenous affairs
-
The Frontier Thesis and the middle kingdom
It goes without saying, and even better with saying, that America’s destiny is now tied up with China, which means so too is Australia’s. Continue reading »
-
Shocking Inequity in NSW school outcomes and funding
The latest NAPLAN results show shocking inequalities in school outcomes between highly advantaged and disadvantaged students in NSW. Continue reading »
-
Voice vote may demand blood in the water
It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that the referendum on the Voice will be won not as a virtually unanimous offering to First Nations Australians but narrowly in an ugly, bitter and divisive brawl between older and younger Australians. Even a win will have the capacity to leave divisions in the nation, and Continue reading »
-
Australia’s racist Constitution and the Voice
Australia has a racist constitution. It gives the Federal Parliament power to make laws for ‘The people of any race, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws’. Deemed necessary, that is, by the Parliament itself. Continue reading »
-
Why the Dutton Voice approach won’t work
Opinion polls suggest Peter Dutton and his media accomplices – both Murdoch and the Nine Newspapers – are having some initial success in confusing The Voice issue. Continue reading »
-
Australia Day: a long perspective from 65,000 BCE
‘Australian history does not read like history but like the most beautiful lies.’ – Mark Twain, 1897 Continue reading »
-
Truth telling and lamentation before celebration
When one group of people takes the land of another by military force, ‘invasion’ is the most accurate term. We would hardly speak of Germany ‘settling’ France in 1940. Continue reading »
-
Netball Australia should and can do better with First Nations players
Although netball is highly popular among Australian girls, it also has a history of failing to retain and protect First Nations players. Continue reading »
-
The Voice is an invitation to the Australian people
The nation is approaching a watershed decision. Are we brave enough to try and correct the wrongs of the past? Continue reading »
-
Not a voice but a shout
Many have argued that our civilisation may collapse before the end of this century. In contrast Aboriginal people have survived in this country for at least 50,000 years. Continue reading »
-
Will First Nations warriors be commemorated by the new AWM?
It is time to embrace the courage of our nation’s warriors from both pre and post Federation who died defending their country and commemorate them at the Australian War Memorial. Continue reading »
-
Nationals and the Voice: How to derail policy you oppose but the public doesn’t?
One of the most difficult tasks facing politicians – particularly conservative ones – is how to derail a policy which is popular and principled but which you oppose. Continue reading »
-
From marriage equality to the Voice
Discussion about the Voice often stresses the difficulty of passing Constitutional referenda, which require a majority of voters in a majority of states. The last successful change came in 1977 to ensure that a retiring Senator would be replaced by someone from the same party. Continue reading »
-
We are overdue for a hybrid Aboriginal-Western map of juvenile justice
Highly troubled Aboriginal youth offenders are rolling down the road of Western justice at everyone’s peril and which Four Corners has exposed as perpetrating great harm. It’s about time we followed a different hybrid Aboriginal-Western map – one that is relevant, properly funded, and respected. Continue reading »
-
The Voice of an obstructionist, willfully ignorant National Party
The National Party’s decision to campaign against a voice to parliament is destructive and wilfully ignorant. Contributors to this decision ignore a history of Indigenous punishment and powerlessness. They criticise a referendum process which has not been published but which they pretend to know. They attribute to the Uluru Statement goals which it does not have. Continue reading »
-
Why a First Nations Voice should come first
Since the advent of European colonisation, the absence of an effective process for conducting dialogues between the broader community and First Nations people has been a festering sore at the heart of Australian society. Continue reading »
-
There is no hope in a Voice to Parliament
The Voice to the Australian Parliament provides no hope and no future for First Nations imprisoned by ongoing colonialism. It will not work towards de-colonisation in Australia. In practice it will support colonial decision making which affects Aboriginal lives in the distant metropolis of Canberra. Continue reading »
-
Western anti-China rhetoric reeks of hypocrisy
The direction from whence comes most of the anti-China rhetoric in the world today is hardly surprising. It reeks of hypocrisy. Continue reading »
-
In The Australian Wars, Rachel Perkins dispenses with the myth Aboriginal people didn’t fight back
First Nations people please be advised this article mentions colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Continue reading »
-
Time to get fair dinkum, or the Voice proposal will lose momentum and support
Many of the proponents of the Voice referendum already agree that the referendum should go forward only if a Yes vote is a virtual certainty. Some expect that the effect of a rejection of the proposal would be catastrophic for First Nations people. Continue reading »
-
The Australian War Memorial goes AWOL
The little world of Australian military historians is talking about Daniel Lane’s The Digger of Kokoda and the resurgence of the debate over whether the Australian War Memorial should recognise Frontier Conflict. The two are connected by the Memorial’s reprehensible silence. Continue reading »
-
‘Uluru Statement shows the way on Australian Frontier Wars’
In an earlier article for Pearls and Irritations I wrote, ‘Proper recognition and commemoration of the Australian Frontier Wars at the Australian War Memorial would be a practical expression of the Spirit of Uluru’. The Uluru Statement from the Heart is more than resonant prose. Its words about First Nations people taking their rightful place in Continue reading »
-
The voice implies a change of heart
The Government’s proposal for a referendum on a Voice is a bold idea whose time has come. But it is being asked to carry a lot of weight – weight that might easily sink it. Continue reading »
-
Australians will miss a once in a century opportunity if we shirk a referendum on an Indigenous voice
David Solomon has raised an important issue in Pearls and Irritations this week. He has suggested some opinion leaders may argue there is little point in a referendum to enshrine a Voice for First Nations in Australia’s Constitution because the Commonwealth parliament already has the power to legislate for creation of such a “Voice” and Continue reading »
-
A “whole of process” approach could reduce Aboriginal incarceration
There are many points of entry into incarceration at which a decision NOT to detain can be made, from the first encounter with police through to sentence and even after sentence. Continue reading »
-
Uluru Statement and Makaratta message redefine sovereignty
There is a huge contrast between the notion sovereignty depicted in the Uluru Statement from the Heart and political leaders’ perception of this concept as a weapon. Uluru’s message forecasts hope through reciprocity and healing. Continue reading »
-
Gary Highland: Changing the parliament and changing the country
Kerrynne Liddle had to wait a nail biting 25 days to be confirmed as the final Aboriginal person elected to the Federal Parliament at the May 21 election. Continue reading »
-
An update on Indigenous numbers in Australia
Some years ago, I wrote a piece asking, ‘How many Aboriginal Australians are there? My beef at that time was that the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) wasn’t collecting census data about ‘Indigenous’ people in ways that met the High Court’s criteria to be regarded as an Aboriginal (and presumably Torres Strait Islander) person. This Continue reading »
-
Uluru-Legacies, political capital and ending the procrastination
You know the feeling you get when something is bleedingly obvious, staring you in the face and because no one else seems to recognise it, you begin to doubt what you see? Continue reading »
-
Let them eat cake
In closing the gap between First Nations peoples and their fellow non-Indigenous Australians, this budget has nothing worthwhile. Continue reading »
Top 5 most read
- Goodbye to Ukraine? US prepares public for defeat
The New York Times report of 8th March that ‘Intelligence… - It’s good to be mean to war propagandists
Sydney Morning Herald editor Bevan Shields has published an article… - Strategists admit West is goading China into war
US military experts say a war over Taiwan is desirable,… - On AUKUS, gallery journalists defend the line
In the Canberra press gallery, policy analysis takes second place… - Keating exposes ministerial incompetence in Albanese…
Speaking out strongly against AUKUS at the Press Club yesterday,…
