| latest |
| Berlin's Charite to Repatriate Aboriginal Australian Skulls 14 November 2008 - Deutshe Welle - A museum at Germany's Charite hospital and medical school has said it would return the skulls of 18 Aboriginal Australians taken to Germany more than 100 years ago. |
| NT intervention "crude, racist" policy: Dodson 13 November 2008 - The winner of this year's Sydney Peace Prize, Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson, has labelled the commonwealth intervention in the Northern Territory a "crude, racist and poorly considered policy". |
| Govt urged to revive Indigenous representative body 12 November 2008 - 'Stop start': Mr Calma says Australia must act with haste to lift the voice of Indigenous Australians. |
| A century to close the health gap 12 November 2008 - KEVIN RUDD'S pledge to "close the gap" between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians on a range of socio-economic indicators could take more than 100 years to achieve, say Australian National University researchers. |
| Hostages to men's business 8 November 2008 - Marcia Langton - 'BIG bunga (men) politics" describes the endemic pattern of lateral violence that plagues Aboriginal family and community life, especially - though not exclusively - in remote Australia. |
| Race relations take a hit after Wotton verdict: Yanner |
Australia's persistent racism - One Aboriginal leader compares it to Biko's murder in South Africa |
Uncovering history in black and whitewash |
Australia destroys its own Stonehenge |
| Compulsory income management to continue as key NTER measure 23 October 2008 - Media Release - The Australian Government will continue comprehensive, compulsory income management as a key measure of the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) because of its demonstrated benefits for women and children. |
| Indigenous People Seek Recognition At WIPO Meeting On Their Rights 23 October 2008 - Indigenous groups are looking for better representation at the United Nations body negotiating on issues related to the protection of their traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions. |
Federal Government response to the NTER Review |
Yunupingu takes Black Arm Band message to the world |
Aboriginal outstations facing closures |
The Myth of Aboriginal Voting Rights |
| Optional intervention gives choice 16 October 2008 - Marcia Langton - THE rancorous debate about the Northern Territory emergency response emanates from two broad camps: those who claim that several measures, particularly compulsory welfare quarantining and five-year leases to the commonwealth over Aboriginal township areas are ineffective and racially discriminatory, and those who are not persuaded by this critique and are concerned that drastic measures are necessary to close the gap in the differential life expectancy of indigenous Australians as against the national average. |
| A successful intervention needs less emotion, more evidence 16 October 2008 - Larissa Behrendt - The interventionists are already decrying the bias of the report by the Northern Territory Emergency Response Review Panel. Many of the intervention's harshest critics believe the report does not go far enough. Either way, it is the first opportunity to engage the Government in a sensible discussion about what aspects are worth saving and what should be abandoned. |
| Urgent action and funds needed to stem suicide tragedies 15 October 2008 - AHRC - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma says the West Australian community of Narrogin is in urgent need of culturally appropriate health services to help stem a disturbing pattern of suicide in the community. |
| All sides of politics urged to support NTER Review recommendations 13 October 2008 - ANTaR - Government, the Opposition and minor parties should unanimously support the recommendations of the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) review report, according to Indigenous rights organisation, ANTaR. |
| Policeman admits lying during Hurley investigation 13 October 2008 - A policeman at the trial of alleged Palm Island rioter Lex Wotton has admitted he lied during an investigation involving Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley. |
| Preventative health essential to closing the gap 10 October 2008 - ANTaR - The National Preventative Health Strategy foreshadowed today by Health Minister, Nicola Roxon could play a major part in closing the 17 year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, according to Indigenous rights organisation, ANTaR. |
| Deadly lot of awards for Yunupingu 10 October 2008 - GEOFFREY GURRUMUL YUNUPINGU, the blind musician from Arnhem Land who plays with the guitar upside down, has scooped the pool at the Deadly Awards, continuing his stellar rise as a darling of the Australian music scene. |
| Bill of rights is essential to best serve human rights 9 October 2008 - John Von Doussa - Five years ago I began my term as the president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, confident in the ability of the common law and a robust democracy to protect human rights. I leave convinced we need a major legal and cultural overhaul to deal with the human rights challenges of the 21st century. |
| The story of black Australia 9 October 2008 - The landmark documentary series First Australians tells a very different story of our nation. ''BEFORE the Dreaming, the Australian continent was a flat, featureless place, devoid of life," |
| Australian history rewritten in rock art 5 October 2008 - The Independent UK - Cave paintings made over thousands of years – up until the 20th century – challenge the stereotypical view of Aboriginal people. |
| Australia's hidden Empire 3 October 2008 - John Pilger - When the outside world thinks about Australia, it generally turns to venerable clichés of innocence - cricket, leaping marsupials, endless sunshine, no worries. |
| Calls for national indigenous languages policy 1 October 2008 - The Alice Springs-based group who created Ngapartji Ngapartji (a play which has sold out to national audiences and is a 2008 nominee for a prestigious Deadly Award), are calling on the Federal Government to urgently introduce a National Indigenous Languages policy. |
| Aboriginal bowler honoured at last 30 September 2008 - The Independent UK - Eddie Gilbert was the fastest bowler of his era - so fast that he knocked the bat out of Don Bradman's hands before dismissing him for a duck. But while Bradman is a household name around the world, few people have heard of Gilbert, even in his native Australia. |
| PM told to soften welfare regime as NT plan faces overhaul 30 September 2008 - Responsible Aborigines will no longer be subject to strict controls on how they spend their welfare money under Rudd government proposals to soften the radical intervention into Northern Territory communities. |
Stephen Page on the Rites and wrongs of an historical divide |
| Aboriginal Australia's Comedy Queen 25 September 2008 - Guardian UK - Mark Bin Bakar, child of Muslim father and Aboriginal mother, is both a campaigner for Australian Aboriginal rights, and also Mary G, star of 'her' own radio show. Broadcast to more than 100 stations across Australia, Bin Bakar's matriarchal alter-ego is adored by far more than an Aboriginal audience. He shares the story of his rise to cross-dressing fame. |
| Rocks of ages: millenniums in pictures 20 September 2008 - Rarely seen by white people, the Northern Territory's Djulirri rock art tells a stunning story of life among Aborigines and of their contacts with an outside world. James Woodford and photographer Rick Stevens joined a scientific expedition. |
| Arnhem Land communities to connect to the world of high speed broadband 19 September 2008 - Telstra Media Release - Telstra, the Northern Territory Government and Rio Tinto Alcan today announced they had teamed up on a $34 million project to connect northern Arnhem Land to the nation's fibre optic backbone. |
A completely permitted view of Aboriginal Australia |
| Indigenous landowners to bid for Uluru resort 16 September 2008 - ABORIGINAL landowners around Uluru are planning to bid for the nearby $440 million Ayers Rock Resort to secure a slice of the tourism dollar at the country's biggest icon. |
It's time for a state intervention |
Statement on the occasion of the first anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples |
Garrett urged to protect cave art from extraction |
Aboriginal remains will be sent home |
| Noel Pearson seeks ideas from London's East End 10 September 2008 - WHAT do the gritty streets of London's East End and remote indigenous Australia have in common, despite being almost literally poles apart? |
| Now locals can paddle their own canoe 8 September 2008 - FOR five years, the Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer has been drawn back to the stories of a remote Arnhem Land community. |
Why Coogee smells in history |
The resurrection of a language long lost |
| Anyone can be governor general in Australia - unless you're an Aborigine 6 September 2008 - The Guardian UK - The country may now have its first female head of state, but attitudes to its indigenous peoples are as ignorant as ever. |
| ABC in legal bid for evidence into death of Doomadgee 5 September 2008 - THE ABC has launched its legal campaign to overturn non-publication orders on evidence given in a coronial inquest into the 2004 death in custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee on Palm Island. |
WA jailing too many Aborigines, says sociologist |
| Lawyer blames intervention for rash of Territory murders 5 September 2008 - THE principal lawyer for the Northern Territory's peak Aboriginal legal aid service says his organisation is dealing with an unprecedented number of murder cases, which he links to failures of the federal intervention. |
| HREOC will now be known as the Australian Human Rights Commission 4 September 2008 - AHRC Media Release - From today, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) will be known as the Australian Human Rights Commission. |
| NT Intervention a lemon: 28 medical specialists give their diagnosis 4 September 2008 - Dr Hilary Tyler, a medical specialist in Central Australia, writes: I am writing as one of 28 medical specialists working in Central Australia, who have made a joint submission to the Review of the NT Emergency Response. |
| Books improve life outcomes for Indigenous Australians 3 September 2008 - AHRC - Every effort should be made to improve poor literacy standards and overcome the educational disadvantage faced by Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma said today on Indigenous Literacy Day. |
| Intervention 'broke my heart', says Martin 3 September 2008 - FORMER Northern Territory chief minister Clare Martin has revealed the Howard government's "blatantly political" move to override her administration with a $1 billion intervention into remote Aboriginal communities "broke her heart". |
Intervention that condemns rather than involves Aborigines |
NT intervention is 'a mess' |
Big business honours indigenous success |
World hails indigenous health efforts |
| ABC challenges Palm Island death secrets 27 August 2008 - Secret evidence in the case of the death of an Aboriginal man in custody in North Queensland may be released to the public if legal action taken by the ABC is successful. |
| Plea to send bones back 27 August 2008 - Traditional owners from a remote Arnhem Land community in the Northern Territory want one of the largest and most respected museums in the world to return their ancestors' remains. |
| PM's wife hosts Indigenous literacy function at The Lodge 26 August 2008 - Therese Rein will host a special Indigenous literacy function at The Lodge today. |
| Rethinking indigenous policy 25 August 2008 - When Kevin Rudd delivered an apology to the "stolen generations" in February, he was making history. His commitment to acknowledge formally the experiences and suffering of Aboriginal people was a stark departure from the approach taken by his predecessor. |
Nulungu Lecture 2008 |
| Bligh Government Fails Indigenous Workers 21 August 2008 - Queensland Council of Unions - The Bligh Government’s failure to honour its promise to pay $55.4 million in reparations to the stolen wages claimants was incomprehensible according to QCU General Secretary, Ron Monaghan. |
| Queensland Government ‘rubs salt in the wounds’ of Indigenous workers 20 August 2008 - The revised Queensland Government offer to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stolen wages claimants announced last week falls far short of what is needed to resolve the issue, according to Indigenous rights organisation, ANTaR. |
| Victorian Premier commits to Closing the Gap in Aboriginal health 19 August 2008 - Oxfam Australia - The Close the Gap coalition today welcomed Victorian Premier John Brumby’s public commitment to end Aboriginal health inequality in Victoria. |
| Anna Bligh reopens indigenous stolen wages scheme 18 August 2008 - The Bligh Government has bowed to indigenous pressure and agreed to reopen the state's controversial, multimillion-dollar stolen wages scheme. |
Indigenous leaders welcome about face on stolen wages |
| Queensland’s stolen wages fund reopened 12 August 2008 - The Bligh Government will reopen the Indigenous Wages and Savings Reparations Scheme to give more Indigenous Queenslanders the opportunity for a reparation payment for their treatment under ‘control’ regimes administered by former governments. |
| Police to sit on Hurley findings from Palm Island 12 August 2008 - QUEENSLAND police are considering withholding the findings of two internal investigations into the handling of the death in custody four years ago of Mulrunji Doomadgee on the grounds they could affect the deliberations of two court cases. |
| International Day of the World’s Indigenous People 8 August 2008 - HREOC - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma, has urged governments to fund and resource the protection and promotion of Indigenous languages, as part of this year’s International Day of the World's Indigenous People (9 August). |
| Bay of Plenty 7 August 2008 - Last week, the High Court of Australia ruled that the Northern Territory government could not grant commercial fishing operators licenses to work in areas that fall within the boundaries of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act. |
| Kakadu tourism to go the indigenous way 31 July 2008 - NATASHA Nadji sat for hours at the feet of her grandfather, the legendary "Kakadu Man", as he told stories passed on through his Aboriginal ancestors over 50,000 years. |
| NT coast belongs to Aborigines: court 30 July 2008 - The High Court has ruled Aborigines control more than 80 per cent of the Northern Territory coast, ending a 30-year battle for indigenous rights to the sea. |
| Unfinished Business -
Mulrunji’s death and the need for reform 29 July 2008 - On one steamy northern morning in November 2004, a man known in death as Mulrunji was walking, drunk, along a suburban street on Queensland’s Palm Island. He saw the island’s highest-ranking policeman, Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, arrest another indigenous man. |
| Plan sets goals for Aboriginal health 29 July 2008 - A BLUEPRINT to reverse Third World standards of Aboriginal health calls for fluoridation of drinking water in most Aboriginal communities by 2020. |
| Indigenous health blueprint presented to Government and Opposition 28 July 2008 - HREOC - The Close the Gap coalition today presented the federal government and Opposition with a set of National Indigenous Health Equality Targets to address the 17-year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. |
| First Aboriginal remains to be returned from U.S. 26 July 2008 - EcoDiario Spain - A group of Aboriginal elders on Saturday left Australia for the United States to bring home the remains of 33 ancestors from the Smithsonian Institute, the first Aboriginal remains to be returned from the United States. |
| US indigenous business model to be tried here 26 July 2008 - A 35-YEAR-OLD US model for developing African-American and Native American businesses is being considered by the Federal Government as an answer to the economic disadvantage of indigenous Australians. |
| The History made among the stringybarks 24 July 2008 - Federal cabinet met in an indigenous community for the first time yesterday,deep in the heart of Arnhem Land. As a dog wandered past barefoot children in an open shelter surrounded by stringybark forest, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and 15 of his ministers listened to the concerns of the Northern Territory's Yolngu people. |
| Didgeridoo debut on classical stage 24 July 2008 - Didgeridoo player and composer William Barton grew up with both traditional Aboriginal music and classical music. |
| Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York Peninsula rivers get more protection 21 July 2008 - BYM Spain - Two more indigenous rangers will start work across the Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York Peninsula regions to protect and promote Queensland's wild river systems. |
| Palm riot lawyer seeks law change 19 July 2008 - LAWYERS for the alleged ringleader of the 2004 riots on Palm Island, which were sparked by an Aboriginal death in custody, have launched an extraordinary campaign to change the laws and reduce the maximum sentences for those involved. |
| The Tall Man 18 July 2008 - An award-winning magazine article on an Aboriginal death in custody has been turned into a compelling book. |
| Aboriginal art brings spirituality to WYD 17 July 2008 - Aboriginal dancers perform before the opening mass for World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia. |
| Pope praises 'courageous' apology 17 July 2008 - POPE Benedict XVI has praised the Rudd Government's apology to Aborigines during his first public address in Sydney to celebrate World Youth Day. |
| Aboriginal singer beats poverty and prejudice to top Australian charts 17 July 2008 - The Guardian - A gifted Aboriginal singer who was born blind and brought up in poverty has taken Australia by storm, topping the mainstream music charts and earning plaudits for his "sublime" voice. |
| A National Indigenous Representative Body 12 July 2008 - HREOC - The Australian Government has indicated that it intends to establish a new National Indigenous Representative Body. This page provides a range of materials addressing the key issues to be faced in establishing such a body. |
| UN celebrates indigenous art 12 July 2008 - INDIGENOUS artists from the Torres Strait Islands brought their distinctive artworks to the UN this week to celebrate the survival of their culture. |
| 'Caring for culture, caring for country' 10 July 2008 - The recent focus on climate change in Australia is welcome, writes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma*. But a national plan of action is greatly diminished unless Indigenous Australians are meaningfully engaged in the process. |
| Territory elders to lead WYD youth 9 July 2008 - Aboriginal elders will chaperone young Territorians welcoming the Pope to Australia. |
| National Indigenous Health Equality Council will help close the gap 9 July 2008 - HREOC - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, TomCalma, today welcomed the establishment of the National Indigenous Health Equality Council and the appointment of its members by the Minister for Health and Ageing, |
| Picking the bones out of our imperial past 8 July 2008 - The Scotsman - IT IS but a tiny example of the skeletons of colonialism, but to the Aboriginal Ngarrindjeri tribe, its safe return is priceless. |
| Australia lacking indigenous voices 8 July 2008 - Human Rights Tribune, Switzerland - While the Australian government insists that important progress was made in the first year of its controversial "emergency response" in the Northern Territory — ostensibly to protect indigenous children from abuse — activists are calling for affected communities to be consulted. |
| Aboriginal Communities Need Time 8 July 2008 - National Native Title Council - The WA government should take a 100-year view when considering the future of remote Aboriginal communities. |
| Remains of the day 8 July 2008 - BBC - I've been to a couple of repatriation ceremonies in the past few years. I saw the return of Toi Moko - human skulls gathered by collectors in the 19th century - to Maori people and also to Mer Islanders. |
| The lives sent down the drain 5 July 2008 - Remote Aboriginal communities are still suffering from the almost incomprehensible neglect and incompetence of government. |
| Men say sorry for abuse, violence 3 July 2008 - HUNDREDS of Aboriginal men from across Australia have issued an historic apology to their women for the "pain, hurt and suffering" indigenous men have caused them. |
| The Good Will to 'Close the Gap' 3 July 2008 - An Indigenous baby boy born in Australia today should not expect to see his 60th birthday. If he is lucky, he might make it to 64. On the other hand, a non-Indigenous baby boy born somewhere in Australia today can expect to live until he is 81, getting to know not only his grand-children but possibly his great grandchildren. |
| Tough love 3 July 2008 - The Economist UK - This time “white paternalism” might actually be doing some good. |
| Sights set on London 3 July 2008 - Last year, up-and-coming discus athlete Benn Harradine taught local sportspeople about the importance of diet and discipline to achieve top-level success. |
| ABS statisics hide true disadvantage in remote communities 3 July 2008 - Aboriginal disadvantage is massively understated and the federal government is basing policy on statistics that hide true conditions in the bush, a conference has heard. |
| Australian story strikes chord in UK 1 July 2008 - The Black Arm Band's musical journey through indigenous Australian history proves a broad traveller. |
| Out of the ashes 26 June 2008 - Politics rarely works in favour of Indigenous Australians. Indeed, it's probably the largest killer of Aboriginal people, claiming more lives than cancer, car accidents and carcinogens combined. |
| NT "racist" intervention turns one amid protests 26 June 2008 - Racist, draconian and insulting were just some of the words protesters used to describe the federal government's Northern Territory intervention on the first anniversary of the controversial reforms. |
| Aboriginal languages to be revived using all resources 26 June 2008 - An Aboriginal Language Conference held in Adelaide recently, talked about reviving endangered Aboriginal languages through schools in South Australia. |
| Life’s a black and white divide 25 June 2008 - IT IS one of our most troubling national issues: the gap between the health of indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. Now, after decades of debate on how to fix it, researchers have discovered a confronting reality — the gap is getting wider. |
| Aboriginal health 'litany of shame' 25 June 2008 - Indigenous Australians' health was a ''litany of shame'', former health minister Neal Blewett said yesterday. |
| Aboriginal threat to close Rock over abuse crackdown 22 June 2008 - The Scotsman - ABORIGINALS have threatened to close Ayers Rock, known as Uluru, to tourists in protest against a government campaign aimed at countering alcoholism and sexual abuse in remote communities. |
| Aborigines threaten to shut Uluru 21 June 2008 - BBC UK - Aboriginal leaders have threatened to ban tourists from one of Australia's top landmarks in protest at what they describe as racist government policies. |
| Australia's soul singer 20 June 2008 - The Guardian - The racist murder of a Perth teenager took Pete Postlethwaite on an unforgettable journey of musical and personal discovery. For me, it began at His Majesty's Theatre in Perth in 2003. It was the first time I'd been to Australia. |
| NT intervention Indigenous health checks 'nothing new' 20 June 2008 - It is a year this weekend since former prime minister John Howard and his Indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough declared the sexual abuse of Indigenous children in the Northern Territory a national emergency. |
| Time Rudd admitted mistake on NT intervention 19 June 2008 - Media Release Australian Greens - The Australian Greens today called on the Rudd Government to admit they'd made a mistake in backing the ill-conceived approach of the Northern Territory Intervention. |
| Australian Tourism Exchange 18 June 2008 - THE southern hemisphere's biggest travel trade show will see more than 2300 delegates help sell Australia to the world. |
| Australian history in the songlines 17 June 2008 - The Times UK - Three decades of Aboriginal artists will be singing the stories of their people's struggles in London this month |
| Senate recommendations fall short of what is needed to deliver justice to the Stolen Generations 16 June 2008 - Media Release ANTaR - The recommendations of the Senate Inquiry report into compensation for the Stolen Generations tabled today, fall short of what is needed to deliver justice to Australia's most disadvantaged people, according to ANTaR. |
AMA opts out of intervention |
| Prime Minister Stephen Harper's statement of apology 11 June 2008 - CBC News - Here are excerpts from the text of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's statement of apology on Wednesday, as released by the Prime Minister's Office. |
| Aboriginal communities expressing themselves through rap 9 June 2008 - There’s a very interesting video on ABC Online at the moment about Aboriginal communities using rap to pass down their language and stories. Aboriginal culture is traditionally an oral one and, in the absence of the printing press, stories were passed down family lines and within cultural groups using creative media such as song, music and dance. |
| 'Aboriginal wars' memorial plan under fire 8 June 2008 - IN the wake of the Stolen Generation apology, the Rudd Government is considering erecting an official memorial in Canberra commemorating indigenous Australians killed by white settlers in the so-called "Aboriginal Wars". |
| The Australian story as never before 8 June 2008 - The Telegrph UK - Australian literature has come of age, giving a distinctive voice to that vast, isolated, southern continent, involuntarily settled by Europeans in the 19th century. There is a parallel Australia, though, and Carpentaria is the Australian story that we 'know already' but haven't yet heard. |
| Indigenous leaders call for constitutional recognition 8 June 2008 - Aboriginal leaders at the Barunga Festival in the Northern Territory have urged the Federal Government to have Indigenous people recognised in the constitution. |
| Myall milestone to reconciliation 7 June 2008 - ATOP a hill in the New England ranges, Nathan Blacklock stands beside a huge basalt rock monument to the killing of his people. About a kilometre away a mob of sheep is being mustered by somebody in a Toyota ute. |
| The roots of Aboriginal activism 6 June 2008 - There are times in a nation's history when events combine to place particular moments in its collective memory. The Prime Minister's apology to the Stolen Generations on 13 February this year is likely to be one. Its timing, planning and execution moved the hearts of many Australians. For similar reasons, the Federal Government's intervention into Northern Territory Aboriginal communities in 2007 is likely to be another. |
| Canada: through the dark past 7 June 2008 - Canada's government attempts to draw a line under the most blemished chapter in the country's history this week. |
| Response to NT Emergency Response Review Board 6 June 2008 - Media Release - ANTaR has welcomed this afternoon’s announcement of the Northern Territory Emergency Response Review Board by Indigenous Affairs Minister, Jenny Macklin. |
| This Is Our Country Too 5 June 2008 - Australian Times UK - From the makers of With or Without Fidel, Blood Diamonds and Bang Bang In Da Manor comes a brave new documentary that delves beyond Australia’s reputation of sun, surf and sand to reveal a racial divide and contested history. |
| Saying Sorry: Australia’s journey of healing 5 June 2008 - Australian Times UK - As Australia marked its tenth National Sorry Day, Esme McAvoy spoke to John Bond, former Secretary of the National Sorry Day Committee. British-born Bond was one of the leading campaigners for a formal apology and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his work with the National Sorry Day Committee. |
| Trooping the tribal colours 5 June 2008 - The Economist UK - WHEN the five nations that assert sovereignty (and economic rights) in the melting Arctic conferred in Greenland last month, it sounded to the untrained ear like good news for the polar region and its people: they vowed to obey international rules (ie, not fight) and to counter the risk of oil spills in newly navigable waters. |
| Data shows intervention is a disaster: national rallies planned 5 June 2008 - Media Release Aboriginal Rights Coalition - Extensive surveys conducted by activist groups in Darwin and Alice Springs demonstrate that the federal government’s intervention in the Northern Territory is compounding hardship in Aboriginal communities. |
| Sustainable options for Australia’s new national Indigenous representative body 4 June 2008 - Speech by Tom Calma, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, HREOC - I begin by paying my respects to the Noongar peoples, the traditional owners of the land where we gather today. I pay my respects to your elders, to the ancestors and to those who have come before us. |
| Central desert native title decision hailed 4 June 2008 - The Ngaanyatjarra people of Western Australia’s central desert have become the largest native title holders in Australia following the Federal Court’s recognition of the remainder of their traditional lands. |
| No compo for wrongfully convicted woman 3 June 2008 - A PILBARA Aboriginal woman who spent more than two years in prison for murder before being acquitted of the crime will not receive any compensation for her wrongful conviction and incarceration. |
| Indigenous tourism must improve, says industry 3 June 2008 - Australia's tourism industry must improve its indigenous tourism offerings after a report found tourists had major problems finding out about them, an industry group says. |
| French learn to join dots 2 June 2008 - There's a chilling moment in Julie Nimmo's documentary Songlines To The Seine when the late artist Paddy Bedford talks about Paddy Quilty, the man he's named after. Quilty was an infamous Kimberley station owner who reputedly ordered a massacre of Aborigines in 1920, two years before Bedford was born. |
| Canada hears pain of Indian abuse 1 June 2008 - BBC UK - A truth and reconciliation commission examining what Indian leaders call one of the most tragic and racist chapters in Canada's history has begun. |
| Indigenous heroes honoured in Melbourne 31 May 2008 - A commemorative service honouring Indigenous Australians who have served since World War I was held at Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance on Saturday. |
| Maori-style treaty 'could benefit all Australians' 30 May 2008 - The federal race discrimination commissioner Tom Calma has backed calls for an Indigenous treaty to be signed by the Federal Government. |
| Palm death cop Chris Hurley got $100,000 payout 28 May 2008 - CHRIS Hurley - the policeman acquitted of manslaughter over a Palm Island death in custody, only to face a civil claim from the victim's family - received a confidential $100,000 payment from the Queensland Government after the incident. |
| Indigenous leader calls for greater effort 28 May 2008 - INDIGENOUS leader Lowitja O'Donoghue last night called on churches to play a bigger role in reconciliation with the Stolen Generations. |
| Amnesty International Report 2008: State of the world’s human rights 28 May 2008 - Media Release Amnesty International - Governments must turn around 60 years of human rights failure |
| Dodson says ties to land can be proven out of court 28 May 2008 - A BROADER range of Aboriginal people could establish rights over land in Victoria under an alternative native title settlement framework being negotiated with the State Government. |
| Public Lecture and Prayers for Reconciliation 27 May 2008 - Thank you very much. It is a great honour to be here tonight to kickstart Reconciliation Week for 2008. I would like to thank, especially, the Very Reverend Dr Steven Ogden, Dean of St Peter's Anglican Cathedral, for inviting me to present this lecture. |
| Intervention 'a smokescreen for land grab' 25 May 2008 - A delegate at an anti-intervention conference being held in Sydney this weekend says the general feeling is that the intervention is all about taking land away from Indigenous people. |
| Sorry Day provides a chance to turn sentiment into action 23 May 2008 - Media release HREOC - National Sorry Day is the perfect catalyst to turn sentiment into action for members of the Stolen Generations, Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma said today. |
| Dr Nelson breaks “unconditional” commitment to parliament 23 May 2008 - Media release ANTaR - Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson's decision to pull out of the bipartisan commission to improve housing in Aboriginal communities flies in the face of undertakings he gave in parliament during his apology to the Stolen Generations. |
| Pete Postlethwaite inspired to fight for Aboriginal people 23 May 2008 - PETE Postlethwaite is a distinct face from stage and cinema but every fan remembers him for a different role. |
| Jenny Macklin's message to indigenous: use hard-won rights 22 May 2008 - WHAT Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin was really saying in her 2008 Eddie Mabo Lecture, in her very nice way, was this: you, Aboriginal Australia, have won, through land rights and native title, interests in 20 per cent of Australia. Start using it. |
| Peace prize for Dodson, a critic of the intervention 21 May 2008 - PATRICK DODSON, the "father of reconciliation", has urged the Federal Government to reconsider its use of constitutional powers to support the intervention in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. |
| Home truths hit hard for Bentleigh ABC broadcaster 21 May 08 - WHEN ABC journalist Jeff Waters was told to cover the riots on Palm Island in 2004 he had not expected to be confronted with the same attitudes he had seen as a young man growing up in Queensland. |
| CBD- COP9 IIFB Indigenous Voices Bulletin 1 20 May 2008 - UN Indigenous Portal, Bonn - More than 500 Indigenous Peoples (IPs) and representatives of local rural communities from around the world are here in Bonn, Germany to participate at the COP 9 – CBD Conference. |
| Sorry Day 2008 20 May 2008 - Australian Times UK - ENIAR will mark Sorry Day 2008 in London with a celebratory event, including a screening of Australian Prime Minister Rudd’s Apology to the Stolen Generations and a documentary made especially to commemorate this momentous event (The Apology). |
| CBD- COP9 IIFB Opening Statement 19 May 2008 - UN Portal, Bonn - Thank you, Mr. Chairperson. This statement is made on behalf of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB). |
| Human rights groups urge federal government to endorse UN Declaration as "matter of priority" 19 May 2008 - The Indigenous Law Centre, Human Rights Law Resource Centre and 103 other organizations have signed a letter calling on the Australian government to endorse the landmark United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a "matter of priority". |
| Australian novelists are finally gaining the recognition they deserve 18 May 2008 - The Sunday Times UK - British readers have come to know only a handful of writers from down under: Peter Carey, David Malouf, Shirley Hazzard, Thomas Keneally and Geraldine Brooks, who win important international awards. Yet there is a vast continent of other voices crowding the landscape. |
| Aboriginal kids' health worse in NT: research 17 May 2008 - New research shows that health services for Aboriginal children in remote areas of the Northern Territory are relatively good, but that they have worse health than in other regional areas. |
| $10 Billion Health Fund must be used to close Indigenous health gap 14 May 2008 - Media Release ANTaR - A significant portion of the $10 billion Nation Building Health Fund announced by the Treasurer last night should be earmarked for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care, according to Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR). |
| Gone for a Song -
Death in Custody on Palm Island 12 May 2008 - Media Release - A new book, written by a journalist who closely followed the story of the death in custody of Mulrunji on Palm Island in 2004, is calling for the full release of compelling evidence which is still being kept secret. |
| Sorry Day 2008 – ENIAR celebrates with Indigenous Australia 12 May 2008 - Media Release - ENIAR will mark Sorry Day 2008 in London with a celebratory event, including a screening of Australian Prime Minister Rudd’s Apology to the Stolen Generations and a documentary made especially to commemorate this momentous event (The Apology – see below). After decades of hard work, Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous supporters have achieved a monumental milestone in the fight for recognition of the truth of the Stolen Generations, and this is worth celebrating, says ENIAR. |
| Statement about the passing of Dr Marika 12 May 2008- HREOC - Statement from Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma and Sex DiscriminationCommissioner Elizabeth Broderick about the passing of Dr Marika Every now and then you come across a person who epitomises the true spiritof compassion and human dignity. Dr Marika was such a person. |
| Founding document used in land rights push 9 May 2008 - A 172-year-old document that is claimed to guarantee Aboriginal rights will be used in a new land rights campaign in the far west of South Australia. |
| Charcoal reveals Aboriginal history 7 May 2008 - Waikato University's radiocarbon dating lab is at the heart of a discovery that Aboriginal people lived as many as 35,000 years ago in Western Australia. |
| Indigenous voices and stories echo down the centuries 7 May 2008 - ABORIGINAL literature begins with the simple words, "Sir, I am very well. I hope you are very well," in a 1796 letter from the English-trained Bennelong. It continues with the contemporary, award-winning fiction of Tara June Winch, 25, one of the Herald's 2007 Best Young Australian Novelists. |
| Indigenous health budget 'a bit short': AMSANT 7 May 2008 - The Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance has described the Northern Territory budget for the next financial year as being 'light' on funding for health services in remote areas. |
| Brumby's budget for social justice 5 May 2008 - A $1 BILLION social justice package targeting disabled people and "at risk" groups such as Aborigines and new migrants will be a centrepiece of tomorrow's state budget. |
| Canada taking 'bold steps' on aboriginal issues, Strahl tells UN 1 May 2008 - CBC - The Conservative government has taken unprecedented steps in protecting aboriginal human rights and improving the quality of life of indigenous peoples in Canada, Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl said Thursday at the United Nations. |
| Government timetable for Indigenous employment reforms announced 30 April 2008 - Media Release - The Government will shortly begin consultations on Indigenous employment services reforms which will form part of a broader Indigenous Economic Development Strategy to be announced by the end of the year. |
| Senate inquiry hears NT intervention putting Indigenous children at greater risk 30 April 2008 - Former Indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough has announced his intention to run for the presidency of the Queensland Liberal Party. His decision to re-enter the political fray came as a Senate inquiry in the Northern Territory heard that the intervention he pioneered is placing children in remote communities in even greater danger. |
| In Australia, From Apology, a Hit Song Grows 29 April 2008 - The New York Times - A song about racial reconciliation with the Aboriginal minority has become the fourth-biggest-selling recording in Australia, even though it is available only as a download from the Web. |
| Statistics show little improvement in Indigenous life expectancy 29 April 2008 - New figures on Indigenous health and welfare indicate little improvement in mortality rates. |
| PM gets tough to protect children 26 April 2008 - THE Rudd Government is about to launch a major takeover of child protection, leveraging its control of family assistance and childcare to intervene earlier in the child abuse cycle. |
| No progress without wide support 26 April 2008 - WRITING in The Sydney Morning Herald this week, academics Megan Davis and Sarah Maddison criticised my alleged opposition to what they said was the main outcome of the indigenous stream in the 2020 Summit: the "unfinished business" of constitutional reform recognising indigenous people and laying out a clear relationship with the state. |
| A country for all of us 26 April 2008 - In the offices of Parliament House and among the leaders of indigenous Australia, a conversation that has troubled the nation has resumed. |
| Carpentaria, by Alexis Wright 25 April 2008 - Independent UK - From its opening lines, Carpentaria is never going to be your average novel. Starting before time began, it explains how the land was made: "The ancestral serpent, a creature larger than storm clouds, came down from the stars, laden with its own creativity..." |
| Forget a treaty, say Pearson, Yunupingu 25 April 2008 - TWO of the nation's most powerful Aborigines have dismissed the treaty movement as a political "dead horse" and have urged their fellow indigenous leaders to embrace the mainstream push towards constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people. |
| The gains must not be squandered 24 April 2008 - Aboriginal children "can't eat the constitution," Professor Marcia Langton said at the 2020 Summit. She is one of various high-profile indigenous commentators who have criticised the indigenous stream's emphasis on constitutional reform since the weekend. She is right, of course. Constitutional reform alone will not fix the problems facing indigenous children and their families in Australia. |
| Fight your own battles 24 April 2008 - New Zealand Herald - Ah, those unruly Irish! Fancy causing such a fuss at an Anzac Day march. And so soon after the Great War had ended, and so many Aussies and Kiwis had lost their lives on the beaches and in the trenches of Gallipoli. |
| Ruling big setback for Noongar claimants 23 April 2008 - Perth's indigenous Noongar people have had a major setback in their native title claim over the city after a court upheld a West Australian and federal government appeal against their claim. |
| Aboriginal musician astonishes Australian audiences 22 April 2008 - IHT - Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu doesn't speak much, but when he takes up his guitar, he sings, literally and figuratively. |
| Call to offer Aboriginal scholarships 18 April 2008 - PRIVATE and public schools should be given annual results-based incentive payments to cover scholarships for indigenous students and staff in an "education revolution" reflecting the urgent need to address low Aboriginal education standards. |
| Yunupingu scores Sir Elton support 18 April 2008 - GEOFFREY Gurrumul Yunupingu's path to stardom will take a giant leap when he supports Elton John at his Darwin concert. |
| Aboriginal stolen children 'were used in leprosy tests' 17 April 2008 - Independent UK - The Australian government has launched an investigation into claims that aboriginal children seized from their parents during the 1920s and 1930s were secretly used as guinea pigs for leprosy treatments. |
| Aborigines to welcome Pope Benedict 17 April 2008 - Aboriginal elders will be the first Australians to officially welcome the Pope when he arrives in Sydney for the Catholic Church's World Youth Day (WYD) in July. |
| Stolen generation compo 'not expensive' 16 April 2008 - Compensating the stolen generations would not cost the federal government "billions of US dollars" and was preferable to forcing Aboriginal people through the courts, a Senate committee has been told. |
| The battle for Aboriginal rights 15 April 2008 - New Statesman UK - An apology from Kevin Rudd to Australia's aboriginals and a pledge about closing the life expectancy gap are steps in the right direction |
| Landmark housing project for NT Indigenous communities 12 April 2008 - A landmark joint housing program between the Australian and Northern Territory Governments will deliver vital construction, refurbishment and infrastructure developments, as well as jobs in 73 Northern Territory Indigenous communities and some urban areas. |
| Aboriginal skulls to return home from UK 9 April 2008 - The skulls of six Aborigines that have been gathering dust in Scotland since the 19th century will be returned to Australia within weeks. |
| Australia special: Aboriginal Sydney 9 April 2008 - The Telegraph UK - The greeting could have come from just about anyone in Australia. And the name had a comfortingly familiar ring, too. “G’day,” said Shane, “and welcome aboard. This afternoon we’re going to show you Sydney as you’ve never seen it before. Help yourselves to a drink from the cool box, then sit back and enjoy the ride.” |
| Aboriginal site among Australia's oldest 8 April 2008 - Aboriginal tools found in Western Australia and dating back 35,000 years are surprisingly sophisticated and varied, archaeologists say. |
| Rudd pledges annual update on indigenous crusade 6 April 2008 - A Progress report by the Government on how it is closing the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians will be made on the first working day of every parliamentary year, Kevin Rudd has pledged. |
| Pressure for Rudd on legal aid 4 April 2008 - More funding for the struggling Aboriginal Legal Aid services could be a key to economic development in remote indigenous communities, says a criminologist, Chris Cunneen.The comments by Professor Cunneen, the New South Global Professor in Criminology at the University of NSW, add to pressure on the Federal Government to increase the budget for indigenous legal services. |
| NT's Zorba troupe dreaming of Greece 3 April 2008 - THE group of Aboriginal dancers whose version of the Zorba dance became a hit video on the internet has been invited to Greece. |
| Indigenous mining share deal 1 April 2008 - More than 2500 of the country's most disadvantaged Aborigines will become shareholders in an Australian Securities Exchange-listed mining company under an innovative native title agreement. |
| Aborigines 'locked out of real economy' 1 April 2008 - Aboriginal people are condemned to poverty and treated as "museum pieces" by governments whose education policies have locked a generation out of the real economy. |
| 10 point plan to improve NT intervention 31 March 2008 - Media Release - Modifying the Northern Territory intervention legislation to maximise protection of children from abuse without racially discriminating against Indigenous people is one of the major elements of a 10 point plan outlined in the Social Justice Report 2007 officially launched in Sydney today. |
QLD Government’s insults Aboriginal workers again |
| Stolen Wages - ALERT - Queensland Government Round Two Payments 25 March 2008 - Announcement - In 2002, a reparations offer was made by the Queensland Government in the spirit of reconciliation. It recognised the historical injustices suffered by many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders through the controls imposed by the successive governments over their wages and savings during the period from the 1890s to the early 1970s. |
| Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts board appointments 25 March 2008 - Media Release - The Australia Council for the Arts welcomes Arts Minister Peter Garrett's appointment of Lynette Narkle to its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts board for a three-year term from February 2008. |
| Annual Social Justice and Native Title Reports tabled in Parliament today 20 March 2008 - Media Release - Amending the Northern Territory intervention legislation to maximise protection of children from abuse while ensuring the basic human rights of Indigenous people are protected is one of the major elements of a 10 point plan outlined in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Report 2007 tabled in federal Parliament today. |
| Historic signing of Statement of Intent between Australian Government and Indigenous peoples on health equality 20 March 2008 - Media Release - Historic signing of Statement of Intent between Australian Government and Indigenous peoples on health equality (the first from HREOC and the second from the Close the Gap coalition). |
Reconciliation Australia applauds a new alliance to turn good intentions into measurable actions |
| National Sorry Day Committee says “There is hope for compensation” 14 March 2008 - Media Release - The National Sorry Day Committee (NSDC) welcomes the Senate’s commendation that the 2008 Stolen Generation Compensation Bill be referred immediately to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee. |
Fast track for long-term detainees |
| Treatment a reflection of sad reality 12 March 2008 - The racism experienced by the 16 Aboriginal women and children from Yuendumu who had travelled to Alice Springs to attend Royal Life Saving Society of Australia swimming classes is an experience that has been shared by many indigenous Australians. |
| Hostel 'turned away' Aborigines 12 March 2008 - BBC - A backpacker hostel in Australia could face legal action after it allegedly turned away some Aborigines because of their skin colour. |
| Indigenous community determined to protect ancient rock art 11 March 2008 - An Aboriginal community in the Pilbara, in north-west Western Australia, has warned companies operating on the Burrup Peninsula that it will fight to protect ancient rock art in the area. |
| Australia's hidden empire 6 March 2008 - The New Statesman (UK) - That Canberra runs an imperial network is unmentionable, yet the chain of control stretches from the Aboriginal slums of Sydney to the South Pacific. |
Utopia study outcome bucks trends |
Attacking the great digital divide |
The Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery celebrates its twentieth anniversary with the opening of a new central London gallery space |
| Mourners farewell Aboriginal elder 29 February 2008 - More than 1500 people attended the funeral today of a Warburton community elder who died after a routine prisoner transport journey from Laverton to Kalgoorlie last month. |
Sorry, What About the Stolen Generations? |
| Elder's funeral comes as a relief 28 February 2008 - The relatives of Aboriginal elder Ian Ward who collapsed in the back of a security van while being transported from Laverton to Kalgoorlie are relieved he will finally be laid to rest, but are awaiting a forensic pathology report which will determine how the tragedy occurred. |
| Guides to help do the right thing with Indigenous culture 28 February 2008 - Media Release - The Australia Council for the Arts has released a fully revised second edition of its protocol guides to help Australians better understand the use of Indigenous cultural material. |
Legal group raises more questions over prison van death |
| Financial services sector unites around reconciliation agenda 26 February 2008 - media release - In an industry where competition rules, Australia’s four big banks along with credit unions and building societies are working side by side to make their own unique contribution to reconciliation. |
WA unveils prisoner transport changes |
| Wronged Aborigines deserve a payout, too 23 February 2008 - I'm sure I'm not the only Australian who struggled to recognise my country many times during the Howard government's reign. And one of the many soul-searching moments came after the revelation of the wrongful detention of Cornelia Rau. |
| British MPs’ motion to support Australia’s ‘sorry’ to Indigenous people welcome 23 February 2008 - Media Release - The European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights (ENIAR) has welcomed the British MPs’ motion acknowledging responsibility for ill-treatment of Indigenous Australians. The motion supports the Australian government’s recent apology to the stolen generations of Indigenous children and their families and communities, and comes at a significant and moving time in Australian history, says ENIAR. |
| Govt preparing to endorse Declaration 21 February 2008 - The federal government is preparing to endorse the landmark United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was opposed by the former Howard government. |
| The Big Question: After three months in power, how has Kevin Rudd changed Australia? 20 February 2008 - The Independent UK - Elected nearly three months ago, Mr Rudd is Australia's most popular prime minister for 20 years, according to a Newspoll survey published yesterday. |
| Swedish uni returns Aboriginal remains 20 February 2008 - Lund University in southern Sweden handed over the remains of two Aboriginals to Australia at a special ceremony. |
| First Nations set to implement UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 19 February 2008 - Assembly of First Nations - Today First Nations leaders are gathering for a two-day symposium in Vancouver where they will consult representatives from the United Nations about how the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples can be implemented in Canada. AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine says First Nations are set to implement the UN Declaration. |
| UN rights experts welcome Australia's apology to indigenous peoples 18 February 2008 – UN - A group of independent United Nations human rights experts have welcomed Australia's recent apology to its indigenous peoples for the pain and indignity they endured under the Government's past laws and policies. |
| Government commitment to UN Indigenous Declaration is common sense 17 February 2008 - Media Release - Confirmation by the Foreign Affairs Minister,Stephen Smith, that Australia would acknowledge the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, is commonsense and a return to international political reality, said Les Malezer today. |
| Mother England as much to blame 16 February 2008 - The Guardian UK - THE HISTORIC apology offered by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to the stolen generations was a crucial step for Australia, as novelist Richard Flanagan wrote this week. But it does not make amends for the role played by the British in the destruction and degradation of the Aboriginal race. Initially soldiers,convicts and settlers killed Aborigines as if they were animals threatening the crops. |
| We should say sorry, too 14 February 2008 - The Guardian UK - The historic apology offered by prime minister Kevin Rudd to the "stolen generations" was a crucial step for Australia, as Richard Flanagan wrote on these pages this week. But it does not make amends for the role played by the British in the destruction and degradation of the Aboriginal race. |
| Torture claims over Aboriginal custody death 14 February 2008 - In Western Australia, the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee has accused police of putting the leader of an Indigenous community in conditions akin to torture. The former Warburton elder, Ian Ward, collapsed and died in the back of a prisoner transport van last month, while the temperature outside was 43 degrees. The Government had been warned that its prisoner transport vans were below standard, with frequent breakdowns in the air conditioning systems. At a meeting in Perth last night, the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee vowed to campaign for an immediate end to the use of the vehicles. |
| Response to government to the national apology to the Stolen Generations 13 February 2008 - HREOC Tom Calma - I have been asked by the National Sorry Day Committee and the Stolen Generations Alliance; the two national bodies that represent the Stolen Generations and their families, to respond to the Parliament’s Apology and to talk briefly about the importance of today’s events. |
| Australian Government apology sincere; important step in reconciliation process 13 February 2008 - Media release ENIAR - The apology by the recently elected Australian Government to the ‘Stolen Generations’ of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,* delivered at 8.55am (AEST), 13 February 2008 marks an exciting turning point in Australian history and should be used as momentum to carry forward the enormous task of remedying the severe inequalities in health, education, employment and the general exclusion from Australian society, facing Indigenous people today, say the European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights (ENIAR). |
| 'Britain should apologise to Aborigines' 13 February 2008 - The Telegraph UK - Britain is facing demands to join Australia in apologising to Aborigines who were snatched from their families as children, after Kevin Rudd, the prime minister, spoke of removing a "great stain from the nation’s soul”. |
| Australian PM Rudd says sorry to Aborigines' stolen generations 13 February 2008 - The Guardian UK - The Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, yesterday issued the text of the long-awaited apology to the country's Aboriginal population citing the "profound suffering, grief and loss" inflicted on them by decades of abuse and mistreatment. |
| The courage to right a historic wrong 13 February 2008 - The Independent UK - Politicians who match their words to their deeds are hardly ten a penny these days. And, even when they do appear on our horizon, their words and deeds are all too often designed to court cheap popularity. |
| Australia apologizes to Aborigines 13 February 2008 - Internatinal Herald Tribune - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd opened a new chapter in Australia's tortured relations with its indigenous peoples Wednesday with a comprehensive and moving apology for past wrongs and a call for bipartisan action to improve the lives of Australia's Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. |
| Anguish of the Stolen Generations 13 February 2008 - BBC - With torment still in his voice, Frank Byrne recalls the day six decades ago when he was taken from his mother and their community in Christmas Creek, Western Australia. |
| Removing the ‘Stain’ on Australia’s Soul 13 February 2008 - The New York Times - Bravo to Australia’s new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for boldly leading the effort to ease ancient tensions by organizing an official apology to his country’s indigenous people, the Aborigines. |
| Australia: ‘Sorry’ for the Indigenous 12 February 2008 - Cafebabel France - On 13 February. Big screens, daytrips to Canberra, and a historical ‘apology’ by the new Labor government, to the 13, 000 Indigenous children taken from their Aboriginal parents after British colonisation in Australia. |
| Flags fly to mark apology 12 February 2008 - THE Australian High Commission in London will mark federal parliament's formal apology to the stolen generations by flying the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands flags on Wednesday. |
| Imminent Australian Government apology to Stolen Generations ‘historic’ and ‘exciting’ 12 February 2008 - Media Release eniar - The apology on 13 February 2008 (EST) from the recently elected Australian Government to the ‘Stolen Generations’ of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is an exciting turning point in Australian history and most importantly in the healing process for stolen children and their families and communities. Heralded as a huge step towards reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, the apology is strongly supported by the European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights (ENIAR). |
| Too many in jail for drive crime: Bowler 11 February 2008 - The death of Aboriginal elder Ian Ward in the back of a prison transport van highlights the unacceptable number of Aboriginal people imprisoned for driving offences, says Murchison-Eyre MLA John Bowler. |
| Australia's Rudd to apologise to Aborigines 10 February 2008 - Reuters South Africa - The Australian government will on Wednesday apologise to Aborigines who were taken from their families as children, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd saying on Sunday the apology was unfinished business for the nation. |
| Aboriginal dance group 'educating' the world 10 February 2008 - Hundreds of Canberrans were lucky to see Australia's most widely toured act this morning as part of the National Multicultural Festival. |
| Rudd says apology to Aborigines will remove 'blight on nation's soul' 9 February 2008 - CanadaEast - Many Australians will disagree with a national apology to Aborigines for past mistreatment, but it will remove a "blight on the nation's soul," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Sunday. |
| Now for the hard yakka 9 February 2008 - The Howard government implemented the emergency intervention in Aboriginal communities - Labor has to make it work. |
| Another death in custody: protest called 8 February 2008 - The Western Australian Deaths in Custody Watch Committee (DCWC) has called an urgent public meeting for February 13 to plan a campaign to demand justice for an Aboriginal elder who died on January 27 in the custody of Global Solutions Ltd (GSL), which is contracted by the state government to transport prisoners. |
| Coalition to support indigenous apology 6 February 2008 - Coalition MPs have agreed in principle to support Labor's apology to the stolen generations, paving the way for a bipartisan resolution by parliament. |
| Much more than a simple gesture 5 February 2008 - Some people think that saying sorry is merely a gesture. The evidence shows it is in fact much more than that. I believe that forced removal from family or land is one of the most important factors leading to the modern indigenous circumstance. |
| Prime Minister Rudd's Apology To The Stolen Generations An Important Step, Australia 4 February 2008 - Medical News Today UK - The Federal Government's plan for a formal apology to the stolen generations - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who were removed from their families and communities as part of the assimilation policies of the governments of the day, is a welcome and long overdue move, according to the Australian Psychological Society. |
| Aboriginal languages 'dying out' 4 February 2008 - BBC UK - Campaigners in Australia have warned that indigenous languages are declining at record levels. |
| Aboriginal rock art removed 4 February 2008 - THE controversial relocation of Aboriginal rock carvings from the Pluto onshore facilities site on the Burrup Peninsula has been completed. |
| Wright writes rights 3 February 2008 - The Telegraph Calcutta - Aboriginal author Alexis Wright has spent a lifetime fighting for her people. |
| Raelian leader says Aboriginals are the Palestinians of Australia 3 February 2008 - “Australia’s indigenous people need more than a ‘sorry’. It’s time for the decolonization of Australia to actually be carried out” |
| Rudd rules out compensation 2 February 2008 - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has moved to ensure the Government's historic apology to the stolen generations is not misread as opening the way to compensation. |
| Silence on cause of elder's death in custody van 1 February 2008 - Police yesterday refused to reveal the results of a post-mortem examination on the body of an Aboriginal elder who died after he collapsed in custody while being taken to Kalgoorlie in the back of a van. |
| Australian court boosts compensation for Aborigine taken from family when child 1 February 2008 - International Herald Tribune France - An Australian judge increased the compensation that a state government must pay an Aborigine who was taken from his mother as a child in a decision Friday that contrasted with the prime minister's refusal to compensate members of the so-called "stolen generations." |
| NRL launches reconciliation action plan 1 February 2008 - Rugby league has acknowledged its importance to indigenous people by becoming the first sport in Australia to launch a formal reconciliation action plan. |
| Death of Indigenous man while in custody is a tragedy 31 January 2008 - Media Release - Amnesty International is shocked at the death of an Indigenous man over the weekend whilst allegedly in the custody of contractors for the Department of Corrective Services, which is a tragedy for his family and his community. |
| Death in custody guard told of 'bloody hot' van 31 January 2008 - A GUARD sobbed as she told a hospital doctor it was "bloody hot" in the back of the van in which Aboriginal leader Ian Ward was locked for up to 4½ hours before he collapsed, vomited and died on the weekend. |
| Australia apology to Aborigines 30 January 2008 - BBC UK - The Australian government has announced it will issue its first formal apology to Aboriginal people when parliament resumes next month. |
| Australian Government to Apologise to Members of the Stolen Generations 30 January 2008 - Media release - JENNY MACKLIN MP - The Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, today announced that a formal apology to members of the Stolen Generations would be made on Wednesday, 13 February, 2008. |
Death may have been preventable: Watch Committee |
| Cash is a mere gesture 29 January 2008 - When 25,000 Tasmanians turned out on a bleak Hobart winter day in 2000 to march in support of Aboriginal reconciliation, it was a turning point for our community. I was among those who braved the wind and rain to walk across the Tasman Bridge that day. |
| Aboriginal archive offers new DRM 29 January 2008 - BBC UK - A new method of digital rights management (DRM) which relies on a user's profile has been pioneered by Aboriginal Australians. |
Drink driver dies in custody |
| Indigenous appeal: sorry is not hard to say 27 January 2008 - "IT'S BEEN a tough year." Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service chief executive Julie Tongs knows a little about doing it tough. |
| Sorry message hangs over Australia Day 26 January 2008 - Reconciliation was a dominant theme as millions of people celebrated Australia Day, which included a mystery skywriter scrawling "sorry" above Sydney Harbour. |
| Invasion Day protests 26 January 2008 - Around the country, hundreds of people marked white invasion of Australia on January 26 by attending protests and festivals. |
| Indigenous posting jumps gun 25 January 2008 - SOUTH Australia has recycled a former ATSIC commissioner into the role of its top indigenous advocate, jumping the gun on federal moves to set up a new representative organisation for Aborigines. |
| Tasmania to pay 'stolen generation' of Aborigines £2.2m in reparations 23 January 2008 - The Guardian UK - Tasmania approved yesterday millions of pounds in compensation for more than 100 members of the "stolen generation" of Aborigines, with the state premier describing the move as an attempt to right a shameful wrong in the island's history. |
| Calma pushes all states to set up Stolen Generation funds 23 January 2008 - The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner says all states should set up a compensation fund for members of the stolen generation. |
| Stolen Generation compensation achieved via tripartisan support 22 January 2008 - Tasmanian Greens Media release - The Tasmanian Greens today supported the completion of the process of delivering compensation to members of the stolen generation of Tasmanian Aborigines and their children, reiterating the Greens’ strong commitment to this important gesture of healing and reconciliation, first initiated with a tripartisan apology in Tasmania’s House of Assembly during the balance of power Parliament in 1997, at the suggestion of the Greens to the minority Liberal government, and continued during the Labor era. |
| Reconciliation requires an Aborigine for head of state 22 January 2008 - Until now, if you wished to be appointed to the post of governor-general, two of the essential qualities were that you were white and male. The first appointment, of Lord Hopetoun, had its problems, not least because he was criticised as pallid, sickly and bedecked with too many plumes. When a youthful Prince Charles - possibly impressed by his encounter with local bikini girls - thought he might fit the bill, he was told to back off as Australians had their own blokes for the job. |
| Rudd prepares for national reconciliation 21 January 2008 - NZ Herald - Australia's new Labor Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has returned to work, facing a task that none of his predecessors could master - reconciliation with Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. |
| Museum of Scotland to return Aboriginal and Maori remains 17 January 2008 - The Scotsman - A TASMANIAN skull and a collection of Maori remains that have been in the archives of the Museum of Scotland for more than 100 years are to be returned to Australia and New Zealand. |
| State control for Aboriginal dole 17 January 2008 - BBC UK - Welfare recipients in one of Australia's largest Aboriginal communities have had half of their benefits placed under state control. |
| Indigenous Health Education: Fostering A Fresh Approach, Australia 16 January 2008 - Medical News Today UK - The Australian Medical Students' Association (AMSA) released a report urging stakeholders in medical education to recognize the importance of Indigenous Health in medical school curricula. |
| Acknowledge Aboriginal history on Australia Day: Tas Govt 14 January 2008 - The State Government is encouraging Tasmanians to reflect on the country's Aboriginal history this Australia Day. |
| Australia's 'stolen' children get apology but no cash 13 January 2008 - The Observer - As one of Australia's 'stolen generation', John Moriarty was only four when he was taken away from his mother: loaded on to an army truck and sent thousands of kilometres away from his home in the Gulf of Carpentaria to be raised in a series of bleak institutions. He was given a birth date - April Fool's Day - forbidden to speak his Yanyuwa language and did not see his mother again for 10 years. |
| Grand Slam champ Goolagong uses camp to search for next aboriginal player or coach 13 January 2008 - Canadian Press - MELBOURNE, Australia - A group of aboriginal kids gather around their lifelong hero on a wind-swept tennis court in suburban Melbourne. Listening to her every word, they watch closely as Evonne Goolagong pulls the racket head back and gracefully follows through a mock shot, their mouths agape. |
| Don't just say sorry-
Fulfill the whole apology recommendation 10 January 2008 - Media Release NSDC - “Recommendation 5a of the Bringing them home Report is the proper place to start on the way forward to the formal apology to the Stolen Generations”, said National Sorry Day Committee Indigenous Co-Chair, Helen Moran. |
| Mansell predicts stolen generation compensation fund this year 10 January 2008 - Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre Inc Media Release - Tasmanian Aboriginal leader Michael Mansell predicts that the Rudd Government will establish a $1b national compensation fund for the stolen generations early this year. |
| Rudd Government abandons Labor platform over Stolen Generations 9 January 2008 - ANTaR Media release - The Rudd Government’s decision to rule out compensation for members of the Stolen Generations flies in the face of the policy platform it took to the recent federal election. |
| Bold vision of artistic rebirth 5 January 2008 - In a dusty corner of the outback, among artworks covered in dirt, Judith Ryan set out on a journey that has transformed the NGV's indigenous collection. |
| Going walkabout 2 January 2008 - Aboriginal culture can be seen and heard throughout this city |
| Musical journey to Aboriginal heart 31 December 2007 - Who would have thought conservative historian Geoffrey Blainey would inadvertently provide the name for a music group? Calling yourselves the Black Arm Band is wryly subversive, given its members are mostly indigenous singers, songwriters and performers. |
| Aboriginal dancers shoot to internet fame with 'Zorba' 29 December 2007 - The Independent UK - A quirky dance routine to the music of Zorba the Greek has earned a group of young Aborigines worldwide fame on the internet as well as invitations to perform around Australia, and also to visit Greece. |
| Aboriginals to fight Queensland invasion 21 December 2007- Media Release - We will join with other Aboriginal leaders in Queensland to fight the introduction of forced income control over Aboriginal families in Queenland. |
| An apology is the first step on a long road 20 December 2007 - Economic progress is vital to ensure better lives for Aboriginal people. |
| My NT community faces quarantined Christmas 17 December 2007 - I live in the Aboriginal community of Eva Valley, in the Northern Territory. I've got no television, but when my friend sister Olga told me we had a new Prime Minister, I was crying. When she told me what Kevin Rudd had said, I was crying and she was crying. He said "I'm going to be Prime Minister for all Australians." |
| Indigenous affairs top priority at COAG 17 December 2007 - Indigenous affairs will be a top priority when Kevin Rudd meets state and territory counterparts this week as the new prime minister pledges to turn COAG into a workhorse not a "whipping boy". |
| Unfinished business of wages at Wave Hill 15 December 2007 - The mob went on strike in 1966 and got their land back in 1975, but they're still waiting to be paid. |
| Give us back our money 15 December 2007 - For many Aborigines, making amends for past loss is not just an emotional issue, but a financial one too, writes Joel Gibson. |
| Rudd to face indigenous heads 15 December 2007 - Kevin Rudd will come face to face with indigenous leaders this morning as he prepares to deal personally with the "challenges" confronting the commonwealth intervention in Northern Territory communities amid the growing outrage over the gang-rape of a 10-year-old Aboriginal girl on Cape York. |
| Labor should consider all recommendations from Bringing Them Home Report 12 December 2007 - The Australian Democrats Media Release - Queensland Democrat Senator Andrew Bartlett says the new Labor government must consider all the unimplemented recommendations from the Bringing Them Home report. |
| Essentials for social justice start with saying sorry 11 December 2007- HREOC Media Release - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma will today join federal Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, The Hon. Jenny Macklin MP, when she officially launches Us Taken-Away Kids, a magazine commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the ‘Bringing them home’ report. |
| Working Together Towards Reconciliation 11 December 2007 - Jenny Macklin MP Media Release - Real progress on the path towards reconciliation took a step forward today with the first consultations to develop a national apology to the Stolen Generation. |
| Justice on ancient land 11 December 2007 - A special sitting of the Federal Court in a remote corner of Western Australia has ended a 10-year legal and artistic challenge for native title, |
| Aboriginal people need the fires of reconciliation to be relit 11 December 2007 - TODAY is a historic day, not only in the life of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people but in the life of this nation. |
| Native title gains continue to bring win-win results for all parties 10 December 2007 - HREOC Media Release - Yesterday’s Federal Court decision recognising the Eastern Kuku Yalanji People’s native title rights over nearly 127,000 hectares of far north Queensland’s Daintree area is another example of how negotiation and cooperation bring the best outcomes for all parties, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma said today. |
| A movable cultural centre 10 December 2007 - AFTER listening to artist George Wallaby talk about his traditional country at Lake Gregory, Alan Dodge felt he had understood the Kimberley artist's love of the Great Sandy Desert. "I bought one of his paintings and I can't go to bed without standing and looking at it for a while," he says. |
| Statue salutes a champion on field and off 10 December 2007 - WHEN Doug Nicholls left the bush and went to Melbourne to play football, the trainers at Carlton were so offended by the colour of his skin that they refused to rub him down. |
| Alone on the Soaks – The Life and Times of Alec Kruger wins Arts Non-Fiction Human Rights Award for 2007 10 December 2007 - HREOC Media Release - The 2007 Human Rights Arts Non-Fiction Award has been presented to authors Alec Kruger and Gerard Waterford for their book Alone on the Soaks – The Life and Times of Alec Kruger. |
| Title triumph as heritage land is returned 10 December 2007 - More than a century after being marched off their land and on to missions by successive waves of pastoralists and cane farmers, the Kuku Yalanji people of the Daintree rainforest yesterday had almost 1300sqkm of World Heritage-listed land returned. |
| Northern Territory Intervention - Help Or Hindrance? Australia 9 December 2007 - Medical News Today UK - The Government's Northern Territory Intervention, aimed at improving health and living conditions in Indigenous communities, has been met with mixed reviews in a collection of articles published in the latest Medical Journal of Australia. |
| Addressing extreme disadvantage through investment in capability developement 6 December 2007 - Ken Henry Secretary to the Treasury - Thank you to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), and to Dr Penny Allbon in particular, for organising this conference and inviting me to speak. The AIHW’s report ‘Australia’s welfare 2007’ is the eighth in a long standing biennial series published by the AIHW but is the first under the stewardship of Dr Allbon. |
| Election defeat for Oz's right-wing Prime Minister, John Howard 6 December 2007 - An Phoblacht - AUSTRALIA’S 11 years of conservative rule under the right-wing John Howard officially ended on Monday when the centre-left Australian Labour Party leader Kevin Rudd was sworn in as the country’s new prime minister, nine days after a landslide election victory. |
| Lucky country can say sorry, and mean it 6 December 2007 - Every day since Kevin Rudd gave his acceptance speech, there has been growing conjecture and disquiet amongst journalists and Indigenous leaders on whether he will say 'sorry'. |
| CommBank to support Aboriginal reconciliation 6 December 2007 - The Commonwealth Bank has announced it will support a formal commitment to Australia's reconciliation with Indigenous, saying the bank will now focus on a reconciliation strategy, including employment. |
| WGAR - The Working Group for Aboriginal Rights 5 December 2007 - Media Release - WGAR urges PM and Minister for Indigenous Affairs to place a Moratorium on the NT Intervention and immediately ratify and implement the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. |
| 'Invasion' must end, say indigenous leaders 5 December 2007 - A group of prominent Aboriginal leaders have called on the Rudd Government to immediately halt the federal "invasion" of the Northern Territory. |
| Rescuing the Intervention 5 December 2007 - One of the few theatrical highlights of Kevin Rudd’s lacklustre acceptance speech was the dramatic pause after his promise to be ‘a Prime Minister for Indigenous Australians’ and the opportunity this presented for the true believers to explode in rapturous applause. |
| Aboriginal Languages Slowly Making Way into Australian Schools 4 December 2007 - Voice of America - On the eve of European settlement in Australia, around 250 indigenous languages were spoken. |
| Qantas to further promote reconciliation with new Action Plan 3 December 2007 - Qantas Thursday launched a formal Reconciliation Action Plan with major objectives such as furthering Indigenous employment opportunities and support within its own ranks. |
| Relaxed Mundine sees a vision splendid 1 December 2007 - PERHAPS it has as much to do with last weekend's election result as the new perspective his career-threatening eye injury has given him. But approaching Anthony Mundine's comeback fight at Sydney Entertainment Centre on December 10, the Man is feeling "comfortable and relaxed". |
| see European and Australian news items 2006-2007 |
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