Indigenous affairs
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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 »
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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 »
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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 »
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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 »
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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 »
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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 »
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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 »
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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 »
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History repeating: expecting injustice
“When are we going to get justice?” Ned Jampinjinpa Hargreaves, Warlpiri elder Continue reading »
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Bridget Brennan and Kirstie Wellauer – More evidence of ‘genocidal killings’ of Aboriginal people in frontier times
A pattern of brutal reprisals began to emerge in the late 19th and the 20th centuries as thousands of Aboriginal people were murdered in colonial times, new research suggests. Continue reading »
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‘Let it rip’ mentality underlies Australia’s cruelest policy failures
Australia’s Covid ‘let it rip’ mentality is deeply ingrained in the nation’s past and, through climate and environmental inaction, is driving a larger peril. Continue reading »
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Replace celebration of January 26 with a lifetime of deep listening
The day is an abomination masquerading as inclusivity. Whatever we call it, there should be no link to the violence of the colonisers. Continue reading »
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Conservatives venerate January 26. Do they even understand how it happened?
The British government knew almost nothing about Australia, assuming it was uninhabited and available to be exploited. Continue reading »
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Australians live high on the proceeds of stolen land, but we have ways to atone
We’ve been offered a real path towards healing. The Makarrata holds out to us all a chance for truth-telling, understanding and reconciliation. Continue reading »
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On Australia Day we must proclaim an Indigenous Voice to Parliament
The Uluru Statement from the Heart invites us all to walk with Indigenous Australians towards a better future. Let’s say yes. Continue reading »
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Juukan Gorge: an avoidable disaster that must never happen again
The destruction of sacred Aboriginal sites by Rio Tinto was an egregious example of how heritage protection laws have shortchanged Indigenous peoples. Continue reading »
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A deaf ear to disadvantage: time to fix an Aboriginal health crisis
An ear condition that overwhelming affects Indigenous children can lead to social disadvantage. Yet it can be fixed with simple measures. So why doesn’t the government act? Continue reading »
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The biggest issue for the 2022 federal election is the Uluru Statement from the Heart
There are many issues in contention between the major parties at the next federal election. The biggest question to be determined by that election is the nature of our response to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Continue reading »
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If ever a writer and historian were deserving of a Nobel Prize, it’s Henry Reynolds
It is hard to overestimate Henry Reynolds’ influence in the great movement that culminated in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Continue reading »
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Reaching 80% vaccination isn’t the same for all communities. The vulnerable will continue to suffer.
The NSW government has made much of the promise that something good will happen when localities achieve 80 per cent of second jabs of eligible people. But not all numbers are equal. Continue reading »
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A perverse consequence of the Census in the counting of indigenous people.
Public policies can have unintended consequences. So does the Census, the data from which many of these policies are designed. Continue reading »
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Catholic Plenary Council – an opportunity for Indigenous reconciliation
It is encouraging that the Instrumentum Laboris (Working Document) of the Catholic Plenary Council due to meet in October 2021 affirms, “We honour and acknowledge the continuing deep spiritual relationship of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to this country and commit ourselves to the ongoing journey of reconciliation”. Continue reading »
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Unsettled – seeing First Nations histories represented in the Australian Museum
Museums, libraries and archives are traditionally not culturally safe spaces for First Nations peoples. As state institutions, they have supported the colonial process and they have privileged certain histories over others. The collections that they hold often position Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as objects or specimens of scientific and anthropological study. The historically Continue reading »
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The class of 1942: The brilliance behind the Pastoral Strike
The three great figures in 20th Century Australian public life all met their appointments with destiny in 1942 – Australia’s darkest hour. John Curtin was in Canberra. Weary Dunlop was in Singapore’s Changi Prison. Don McLeod was in Australia’s north-west, recruited to rescue what he called, with his wicked sense of humour, the black sheep Continue reading »
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Evelyn Araluen’s Drop Bear demands our engagement
No objective observer could fail to notice how inadequately we are closing the gaps we have created between Indigenous and other Australians. Part of the difficulty could be that 250 years of European occupation have damaged the language on which oral cultural transmission depends. Continue reading »
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What have our governments done to tackle rates of Indigenous custody?
From one perspective one could see the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd as a triumph of the American justice system – a proof, somehow, that American police are accountable to the law, that bad police practice, having its roots in racism will be found out, and that the jury system Continue reading »
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Nationhood and the deadly incarceration pandemic of our First Nations people
“For the vast bulk of our people the legal system is not a trusted instrument of justice. It is a feared and despised processing plant that propels the most vulnerable and disabled of our people towards a broken and bleak future.” Continue reading »
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Holidays and symbols matter and demand independent review
John Howard’s refusal to say ‘Sorry’ on the grounds that he believed in practical rather than symbolic reconciliation actually highlighted the fact that the symbolism of the ‘S-Word’ was so important to him that he just couldn’t utter it. The Anglo in him had similar difficulty with the ‘M-word’; Multiculturalism. Continue reading »
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It took an accounting book to teach me the importance of Indigenous peoples’ connection to ‘Country’
It is said that Einstein’s Theory of Relativity came to him as he was leisurely riding a bike. Christopher Stone’s inspiration to write a potentially world-changing paper came to him as a result of a flippant question he posed to a law class he was teaching in 1972: Should trees have rights? Both changed the Continue reading »
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Truth and Treaties: the ongoing legacy of the Uluru statement
The 27th of October 2017 was the most shameful day in Malcolm Turnbull’s tenure as Australia’s Prime Minister. It was the moment when he peremptorily rejected the Uluru Statement which had been addressed to the people of Australia five months earlier. He declared that the projected voice to parliament would not be ‘either desirable or Continue reading »
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