Indigenous affairs
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Kindergarten mentality: a higher standard required from those who govern us
Some politicians have decided to do what is better for them and their re-election and position rather than what’s good for Australia. They think the smart thing to do is trash the whole idea of the Voice. Ego, power, position and privilege have nothing to do with the Voice. It has to do with Australian Continue reading »
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What gets some whitefellas angry and anxious
There is nothing that agitates some whitefellas more than an intelligent, articulate and charismatic blackfella. Continue reading »
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Indigenous Australia and Southern Culture
In terms of the long-term survival of our species, the ritualisation of war the First Peoples of Australia achieved should be celebrated as a great advancement in human relationship. Rather than just celebrating the longevity and attachment to land of aboriginal people, we need to recognise that all their various cultures achieved one of the Continue reading »
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The Voice: the game-changer everyone yearns for?
Against the background of reconciliatory legal and political gestures from Canberra over the past 30 years, and in view of the Voice being proposed as an organic instrument ‘from the heart’ of Aboriginal Australia (rather than a top-down ‘advice’ – device of bureaucratic convenience), it may well be the game-changer everyone yearns for. Continue reading »
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The Voice and the problem of race
Defeat for the Voice referendum will reverberate internationally. Surviving suspicions about our racist past will be refreshed. It will come at the same time as our renewed embrace of our ‘forever friends’ in Britain and the United States and our growing enthusiasm for closer ties with NATO. Continue reading »
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Making Voice a referendum on the Labor government
By the time of the referendum on the Voice, No campaigners look likely to have turned it into a referendum on the Albanese government, and, probably into “wokeness.” It may be a tragedy if they do, whether for First Australians or the nation generally, because it will inevitably exacerbate divisions in the community. Continue reading »
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War service did not stop the racism
Noel Turnbull’s article about the treatment of black warriors who wore the Australian uniform make for some uncomfortable reading for those Australians who think Indigenous peoples have no need to control their own destinies. Historically, we have applied the claim that veterans are heroes very selectively. Continue reading »
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Voice needs a serious rattle of spears
The biggest risk to the success of the referendum on Aboriginal recognition is the Albanese government’s lack of resolution. It has strongly promoted the voice, successfully in parliament, but far less effectively within the broader community. There is a serious prospect that the various proponents of the No case will win by default, mostly because Continue reading »
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How were Indigenous warriors who did wear ‘the uniform’ treated?
While there are some – such as Major General Melick – concerned about not depicting warriors in the Frontier Wars, because they didn’t wear a uniform, in the Australian War Memorial, it is worth remembering how appalling the treatment of Indigenous veterans who did wear ‘the uniform’ over the last century or so were treated. Continue reading »
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The Voice and Reconciliation
The Voice is beyond politics. It’s about reconciliation between two profoundly different cultures and approaches to life. Continue reading »
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The States can establish the Voice now: Why wait?
There is a widespread misconception that the powers given the Federal Parliament by the Australian Constitution may be altered only by referendum. Continue reading »
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We used to call it ‘Culture Conflict’
It is a sad fact that the White staff who take jobs in remote Aboriginal communities tend to socialise together after work, thus maintaining a clear social distance from the people they are working for, or working with, or working among. Close and trusting relationships between the locals and the strangers — teachers, health workers, Continue reading »
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Australia’s real test
A few days after coming to power in 1972 Gough Whitlam declared that ‘Australia’s real test as far as the rest of the world is concerned is the role we create for our own Aborigines’. More than foreign aid programmes, more than any role the country plays in agreements or alliances, treatment of the Aborigines Continue reading »
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In the 1800s, colonisers attempted to listen to First Nations people. It didn’t stop the massacres
Note of warning: This article refers to deceased Aboriginal people, their words, names and images. Words attributed to them and images in the article are already in the public domain. Also, historical language is used in this article that may cause offence. Continue reading »
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Without action, government apologies at historic Yoorrook Commission are hollow
Australia’s first Aboriginal-led Royal Commission recently completed a month of public hearings during which Commissioners questioned Victorian government ministers and senior bureaucrats about injustices against First Peoples in the criminal justice and child protection systems. Continue reading »
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House of Representatives passes Voice referendum legislation
After a marathon debate, the House of Representatives on Wednesday morning passed the bill for the referendum for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament to be inserted into the Constitution. Continue reading »
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Aboriginal housing: Australia’s biggest policy failure?
The inadequate if not negligent response of governments around Australia to the critical issue of Aboriginal housing—perhaps the country’s biggest policy failure—puts into sharp focus why a Voice to Parliament may help elevate the case for urgent action. Continue reading »
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What will it take for Peter Dutton to say ‘YES’ to the ‘Voice’?
Obviously if the Hon. Peter Dutton were to change his mind and offer bipartisan support for the “Voice” Referendum, its prospects would be immensely improved. Continue reading »
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A deep sadness: reflections about the racist treatment of Stan Grant
As the people of Thailand say, ‘same, same.’ Here we go again. Another indigenous Australian, and this one an educated, travelled, and articulate First Nation public intellectual is being maligned. Continue reading »
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Vale, Stan Grant
Stan Grant is always intelligent, insightful and provocative. He demonstrated this in his extraordinary farewell piece last Monday night on the ABC’s Q+A. Continue reading »
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The Voice is a “mirror to Australia”
The Uluru Statement from the Heart is a mirror to Australia saying, “Look how much we’ve already done as a nation.” It’s just time to bring it home. – Professor Megan Davis, John Menadue Oration, 2020 Continue reading »
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Defence angling to exempt itself from state laws that ‘constrain’ its activities
Far more transparency is required about which ‘important public policy objectives’ Defence wants to subvert to its needs. Continue reading »
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Incarceration conundrum
The crime rate is dropping due to advanced technology, but our rate of incarceration is rising, especially for First Nations prisoners, who are gaoled at thirty times the rest of us. Even the US only gaols “non whites” at eight times. As Sumner Miller asked, “Why is it so?” It is largely the practice of Continue reading »
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Terror Nullius: the tale of Tasmania
England invaded Australia in 1788, releasing a terror of death and dispossession on first nations’ peoples, particularly in Tasmania. Now 235 years later, Aboriginals, through the Statement from the Heart and the Constitutional Voice, say that it is time that this terror ceased. Continue reading »
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AUKUS nuclear waste dump must be subject to Indigenous veto
Bipartisan secrecy and Defence’s poor record with Indigenous groups at Woomera are red flags for consultations over an AUKUS nuclear waste dump. Human rights experts say government must establish an Indigenous veto right. Continue reading »
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How (hard) They Fought: sophistication of First Nations’ resistance
The push to recognise the Frontier Wars at the Australian War Memorial, the teaching of this history in many high schools, and growing commemoration of Frontier War incidents is seeing parallels being drawn between the heroism of First Nations’ warriors and that of the ANZACs. Continue reading »
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Abundant life: honouring the discovery of Mungo Lady
On Wednesday I met with a wonderful Australian geologist, Jim Bowler, famous for discovering the Lake Mungo remains – ‘the oldest human remains in Australia, dated to 40,000 years ago.’ ‘Mungo woman’; Mungo Man’. Jim and I will dream dreams on Sunday, within the abundance of the divine. Asking, against the backdrop of nuclear bombs Continue reading »
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Fulfilling human potential and saving the planet
Australia, and my Party too, must make a commitment to restoring the primacy of reason, rejecting a paranoid view of history and ‘telling truth to power’. Our blind adoption of irrational policies, supine and unquestioning acquiescence to anything the United States proposes must end. Our species, facing an existential threat to civilisation from climate change, Continue reading »
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Dutton gives voice to Jacinta Price
Peter Dutton has staked his political future on Jacinta Price, his new shadow minister for Aboriginal Affairs, a woman of less than 10 months experience in Parliament, none of which have been spent in government. Continue reading »
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Grotesque Dutton drums up another pedophilia crisis
Dutton is the right politician for the post-QAnon age: in fact the radical right zeitgeist caught up with him. His decision to drum up (another) pedophilia crisis to stain the referendum on the Voice to parliament is both grotesque and on trend. Continue reading »
