| european news and media releases : index |
| Carpentaria, by Alexis Wright 25 April 2008 - 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..." |
| 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. |
| 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 |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Australia - Aborigines finally get apology for injustices 18 February 2008 - Voice UK - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last week made a historic public apology for the ‘indignity and degradation’ suffered by Aborigines. |
| 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. |
| UN Rights Experts Welcome Australia's Apology to Indigenous Peoples 16 February 2008 - NewsBlaze - 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. |
| 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. |
| 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). |
| 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. |
| '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”. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Australia apologizes to Aborigines 13 February 2008 - International 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. |
| Australie : l'excuse aux aborigènes 12 February 2008 - Cafebabel France - Le nouveau gouvernement travailliste a formulé, le 13 février, un 'pardon' officiel aux milliers d'enfants indigènes enlevés à leurs parents pendant la colonisation. |
| 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. |
| Australia: Przepraszamy! 12 February 2008 - Cafebabel France - 13. lutego. Telebimy, wycieczki do Canberry oraz historyczne przeprosiny złożone przez nowy rząd 13 000 dzieci, które zabrano ich aborygeńskim rodzicom kiedy Brytyjczycy skolonizowali Australię. |
| Australia pide perdón a sus indígenas 12 February 2008 - Cafebabel France - El nuevo gobierno laborista formuló el 13 de febrero un “perdón” oficial a los miles de niños indígenas secuestrados a sus padres durante la colonización. |
| Aborigeni, mea culpa dell'Australia 12 February 2008 - Cafebabel France - Maxi-schermi a Camberra per le scuse che il Governo laburista porgerà alle migliaia di bambini aborigeni strappati, in passato, alle loro famiglie. Per essere integrati nella società "bianca". |
| Australien sagt Eingeborenen ‘Sorry’ 12 February 2008 - Cafebabel France -13 Februar. Groβleinwände, Tagesreisen nach Canberra und eine historische 'Entschuldigung' der Labour-Regierung an die unzähligen Eingeborenenkinder, die mit der britischen Kolonisierung ihren Eltern entrissen wurden. |
| 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). |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| New PM Kevin Rudd to apologise to Aborigines 27 November 2007 - The Telegragh UK - Newly-elected Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has promised to apologise to Aborigines for historic injustices, as the conservative party he defeated faced a bruising leadership battle. |
| Australia's PM-elect to say sorry to Aborigines 26 November 2007 - Reuters UK - Australia's Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd is set to repair race relations with Aborigines by saying "sorry" for past injustices, ending more than a decade of bitter division over racial reconciliation. |
| Australian PM makes work of Kyoto Treaty 26 November 2007 - Radio Netherlands - On his first day in office, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd started work on plans to sign the Kyoto Protocol. |
| A decade of John Howard has left a country of timidity, fear and shame 26 November 2007 - The Guardian UK - John Howard famously said the times were his, and for more than a decade it seemed they were. Australia experienced the greatest and most sustained boom in its history. |
| Indigenous Health Needs Significant National Solutions, Australia 15 Nov 2007 - Medical News Today UK - AMA President, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, said that the health of Indigenous Australians has been forgotten in this election campaign. |
| Alcoholism in Australia: The wives who said time, gentlemen... 31 October 2007 - The Independent UK - On the banks of the Fitzroy river, in the remote Kimberley region of north-west Australia, stands the century-old Crossing Inn, a squat brick building with a facade adorned with paintings by local schoolchildren. |
| Sweden returns remains of 10 Aborigines to Australia 22 October 2007 - International Herald Tribune France - Swedish museum officials on Monday handed over the remains of 10 Aborigines to an Australian delegation, nearly 100 years after they were brought to Sweden for racial studies. |
| The battle for Cape York 16 October 2007 - The independent UK - They call Cape York one of the last great wild places on Earth – a huge swathe of land at the north-east tip of Australia, featuring wetlands, tropical rainforests, savannah grasslands and bone-white sand dunes, all in a rare state of health and abundance. It is the kind of place that environmentalists swoon over, and dream of locking up for posterity. |
| Aboriginal remains are to be sent home 16 October 2007 - Liverpool Echo UK - THE remains of three Aboriginees are to be returned to Australia by Liverpool museum chiefs. |
| John Howard U-turn on Aborigine policy 12 October 2007 The Times UK - John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, promised yesterday to hold a referendum to recognise Aborigines in the Constitution in a dramatic policy shift weeks before going to the polls. |
| How 'bush tucker' became flavour of the month for foodies 29 September 2007 - The Independent UK - As Aboriginal people have done for perhaps 60,000 years, Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr Bauman catches long-necked turtles by hand in the billabongs of the Daly river. |
| Outrage as 30,000-year-old Aboriginal rock carvings are defaced 26 September 2007 - Daily Mail UK - Prehistoric Australian rock carvings up to 30,000 years old have been vandalised, with some people pointing the finger of blame at supporters of a £5 billion liquefied natural gas plant. |
| New appetite for Aboriginal art in France 16 September 2007 - PARIS (AFP) — After fetching record prices in Australia, Aboriginal art is carving out a place on the art market in France, spurred by the opening last year of Paris' Quai Branly museum of tribal arts. |
| Outback tourists spared Aboriginal alcohol ban 12 September 2007 - The Telegraph, UK - A draconian ban on drinking alcohol on Aboriginal-owned land in the Australian outback is to be ditched in order to placate the country's lucrative tourist industry. |
| Is There Hope for the Aborigines? 26 August 2007 - The Washington Post - ALICE SPRINGS, Australia In the air-conditioned plywood room that is the Alice Springs youth court, five Aboriginal teenagers -- four boys and a pregnant 16-year-old girl whose mouth seems permanently fixed in an eerily detached smile -- face a preliminary hearing for the rape and killing of a 14-year-old indigenous girl. |
| Past imperfect 18 August 2007 - The Guardian (UK) - Over tea on the 15th floor of a London hotel, Kate Grenville tells a story about driving into the bush with a group of Aboriginal women. When they arrived the women sank to their knees and began digging for witchetty grubs with small, sharpened crowbars. Grenville did her best to copy but couldn't find any grubs, and when she asked what she was doing wrong they didn't help her. |
| Stolen Aboriginal man wins payout 2 August 2007 - BBC (UK) - An Aboriginal man taken from his family as a baby has been awarded compensation in a landmark case in Australia. |
| Alcohol ban for Australian town 1 August 2007 - BBC UK - Residents feared the town would draw Aborigines seeking alcohol The town of Alice Springs in Australia's Northern Territory has become a dry zone, with drinking banned in all public places. |
| Worlds Apart 3 July 2007 - The Guardian (UK) - Australia's prime minister is sending in the army to tackle child abuse and alcoholism in the Aboriginal homelands. But his aggressive campaign will only make the situation worse, says Germaine Greer |
| Howard criticised as police and troops are sent into drink-raddled townships 1 July 2007 - Sunday Herald (UK) - IT IS a shocking indictment of the dysfunction and despair to be found lurking around the rust-red deserts and sun-baked savannah woodlands of the outback. Australian soldiers - accustomed to fighting vicious ethnic militia in East Timor and battling the Taliban in Afghanistan - were last week deployed to their own backyard. |
| Cop in Rare Trial for Custodial Death of Aborigine 20 June - IPS Italy - For the first time in decades an Australian policeman is facing trial on charges of manslaughter and assault in relation to the death of an aboriginal man while in custody. |
| Aboriginal artists are conned into selling works worth thousands for wine and Viagra 18 June 2007 - The independent UK - Greeny Purvis Petyarre is an acclaimed Aboriginal artist whose paintings hang in state galleries and private collections. His work has been exhibited around Australia and in several European countries, including Britain, where it went on show in London last year. Greeny's larger pieces - intricate evocations of desert plants and wildflowers – sell for tens of thousands of dollars. |
| Too Little, Too Late for Lost Generation Aborigines 13 June 2007 - IPS Italy - A decade after the release of the landmark 'Bringing Them Home Report' on the forced removal of indigenous children from their families -- known as the Stolen Generations -- the situation for indigenous Australians remains desperate. |
| Tall tales celebrate an ancient and dignified culture 8 June 2007 - Barking and Dagenham Post UK - 'A story like you've never heard before" is promised to us by the unseen narrator at the start of the film and I think he safely delivers on that bold claim, mostly because it's less a story rather a series of playful digressions. |
| Seeking equality Down Under 1 June 2007 - gair rhydd UK - As 40 years of Aboriginal recognition as human beings is commemorated, Australia still remains a nation divided Australian borigines have marked 40 years of recognition by their country as official human beings. |
| 'Stolen' Aborigine apology demand 1 June 2007 - BBC UK - A woman from Cwmbran is demanding an apology after discovering she was separated from her parents as a baby by the Australian government. |
| Australia Officially Recognises Aboriginal War Vets for First Time 31 May 2007 - ShortNews.com, Germany - Australian governments have finally recognised their indigenous war veterans for the first time, with a wreath-laying memorial ceremony today in Sydney. Approximately 5,500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander soldiers fought in the two world wars. |
| Tasmanians seek return of ancient Aboriginal remains 8 May 2007 - Cambridge Evening News UK - Cambridge University is facing calls to hand back ancient skeletal remains. |
| Aboriginal Romeo and Juliet survive 40 years in the bush 8 May 2007 - The Independent UK - They were an Aboriginal Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed lovers who eloped into the desert because tribal law forbade them from marrying. And for 40 years they roamed, living off kangaroo meat and bush fruit, happy with their own company and the red landscape. |
| Bible translated for Aborigines 7 May 2007 - BBC UK - The Bible has been translated into an Australian Aboriginal language for the first time. |
| Aboriginal health 'a hundred years behind whites' 2 May 2007 - The Independent UK - Health standards among Australia's Aborigines are as poor as those among the white population before the advent of penicillin nearly a century ago, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). |
| Aboriginal health '100 years behind' other Australians 2 May 2007 - The Guardian UK - The standard of health of Aborigines lags almost 100 years behind that of other Australians, with some indigenous people still suffering from leprosy, rheumatic heart disease and tuberculosis, according to a report for the World Health Organisation. |
| Terra Nullius 1 May 2007 - The Independent UK -Terra Nullius is the latest instalment in Sven Lindqvist's confrontation with the genocidal consequences of Western advancement. |
| Aborigines say little done to help stolen children 27 April 2007 - The Scotsman - Ten years after a report detailed the "attempted genocide" of Australian Aborigines and demanded a government apology and compensation, black leaders are still waiting to hear the word "sorry" or see any compensation. |
| Survivor Howard in battle for his political career 20 April 2007 - The Independent (UK) - An uncanny ability to tap into the hopes and fears of middle Australia has seen John Howard retain power for 11 years and become his country's second longest-serving prime minister. |
| Aboriginal war veterans to protest against racism at parade 18 April 2007 - The Gulf Times - Australia’s Aboriginal war veterans, complaining of a racist lack of respect, will next week stage a landmark separate march on the day the nation honours its soldiers. |
| Nightmare of Aborigine dreamtime artists 19 March 2007 - The Telegraph (UK) - Ngarlie Ellis applies the finishing touches to an intricate dot painting, its yellow and ochre patterns depicting an ancient Dreamtime story of a kangaroo spirit visiting a desert waterhole. |
| Natural History Museum agrees to Aboriginal remains talks 2 March 2007 - UKTV - Mediation talks will take place between the Natural History Museum and Aboriginal leaders over repatriation of remains. |
| Art ‘factories’ use drink and drugs to lure naive painters 27 February 2007 - Timesonline (UK) - An inquiry into Australia’s lucrative Aboriginal art industry has exposed a network of art factories at which painters are forced to churn out pictures in return for drugs, alcohol and scant financial reward. |
| Australia, Rathbone not spared as Lekota rages against post-1994 'racists' 15 February 2007 - Cape Times (Edition 2) - South Africans who emigrated post-1994, were more motivated by racist fears of black rule than concerns about crime, according to Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota. |
| Aboriginal remains tests halted 13 February 2007 - (BBC, UK) - London's Natural History Museum has pledged not to conduct intrusive tests on Tasmanian aboriginals' remains. |
| Australian meals on wheels goes native 11 February 2007 - Fancy a spiny anteater casserole for lunch, or perhaps a spit-roasted lizard with a couple of juicy grubs on the side? |
| Australian land agreements questioned 30 January 2007 - (The Mining Magazine UK) - Nearly half of the land use agreements signed by indigenous Australians with mining companies and government partners have failed to deliver significant benefits for them, an Australian university study concluded. |
How a movie about egg-gathering and Aborigines manages to tell a much bigger story |
| Cruelty and xenophobia stir and shame the lucky country 19 January 2007 - (The Guardian UK) - The social regression and flag-waving promoted by Australia's neocon prime minister may come unstuck in Guantánamo |
| 1901-2007 They Are Still Dancing on Our Peoples Graves 13 January 2007 - (Indymedia.org.uk) - The 1st January 2007 marks the 106th “Birthday” of Australian Federation 1901. In the same year, Sir Edmund Barton endorsed the commonwealth government’s participation in the legislation of an archaic, barbaric act of genocide. |
| Australian police station stormed 11 January 2007- (BBC UK) - A group of Aborigines has attacked a police station with rocks and iron bars in a remote Australian outback region. |
| Israel to train Australian educators 9 January 2007 - (Jerusalem Post) - A group of Australian educators landed in Israel on Monday to study firsthand the Israeli experience with educating disadvantaged populations, hoping to apply the knowledge in their efforts to improve education for Australia's Aboriginal population. |
Joy for Aborigines as 'people of rainforest' win control of land |
| Aborigines claim ownership of tribal homeland 3 January 2007 - The Githabul, an Aboriginal tribe, call the rainforest a "supermarket", full of their traditional foods, such as turtles and spiny ant-eaters known as echidnas. But when they hunt these native creatures, they risk being prosecuted and fined. |
| Australian Tribe Gets Rights to Parks 2 January 2007 - (Guardian UK) - An Aboriginal tribe has been granted joint management rights over several state and national parks under a deal that recognizes its traditional ownership of the land, officials said Tuesday. |
| 2006 |
| Aboriginals of Australia: Aboriginal Group Takes Action Over Mine 22 December 2006 - (UNPO, Netherlands) - One of Australia's most influential Aboriginal land councils is taking legal action against the Northern Territory Government over the expansion of the territory's largest zinc mine. |
| Aboriginal film dominates awards 11 December 2006 - (BBC UK) - Australia's first Aboriginal language movie has dominated the country's top cinema awards. |
| Returning the stolen generations 25 November 2006 - (Tristram Paul Besterman, UK) - Despite the warmth of the Tasmanian sun high overhead, the wide, windswept valley had a desolate air. Or was this merely fanciful – an involuntary response to a tranquil landscape made bleak by my knowledge of its chilling history? Rows of unmarked graves there are at Wybalenna, but this is no Srebrenica: the Tasmanians interred here suffered no deliberate, arbitrary execution, but died a despairing, disease-ridden death at the hands of a misguided and incompetent British administration. And even in the ground they weren’t left in peace.. And even in the ground they weren’t left in peace. |
| Natural History Museum returns Aboriginal remains to Australia 17 November 2006 - (24HourMuseum UK) - The Natural History Museum in London is to repatriate the remains of 17 Tasmanian Aboriginal people to the Australian Government. |
| Utopia – a place where Aborigines live long and prosper 13 November 2006 - (The Times UK) - Hidden off a long, lonely dirt road in the centre of Australia, the scattered Aboriginal settlements of weathered iron shanties, upturned cars and sullen dogs might be expected to fit the usual description: degradation, disease, filth. |
| UN seminar to discuss treaty rights in Hobbema 9 November 2006 - Gateway (Canada) - The Experts will converge on Hobbema next week to discuss processes for making treaties with indigenous peoples, in the first United Nations seminar of its kind held outside of a UN venue. |
| Stolen Generation' of Aborigines wins apology
and payout in Tasmania 19 October 2006 - The Independent (UK) - Eddie Thomas was just a few months old when the white people came and took him away. They took his brother and sister, too. The children's grandmother had been looking after them, following the death of their mother after Eddie's birth. |
Pope Urges Australia to Aid Aborigines |
Gas plant threatens Australia's ancient
art |
| Aboriginal remains to be returned 7 September 2006 - BBC News (UK) - The remains of three Aborigines are to be returned to Australia from a Tyneside museum. It follows a request for repatriation by the Australian government. |
| Aboriginal jackaroos invited
back to the farm 24 August 2006 - The Telegragh (UK) - Four decades after Aboriginal cowboys quit in disgust at low pay and dreadful conditions, a campaign has been launched to lure them back to the land. |
| Bell sounds in Australia's history wars 14 August 2006 - ( Monsters and Critics.com, UK ) - For some cultural warriors attending a crucial conference in Canberra this week on the teaching of history in schools, it comes down to this: Did Captain James Cook 'discover' Australia in 1770 and claim it for the British crown or did he 'invade' and steal ancient Gondwana from its dark-skinned inhabitants? |
| Making indigenous poverty history
in Australia 8 August 2006 - (Ekklesia UK) - The worldwide campaign to 'Make Poverty History' rightly draws vital attention to the poorest of the world's poor, which includes the majority of indigenous peoples. |
20,000-Year-Old Human Footprints Found in
Australia |
| UN Human Rights Council approves
text of indigenous rights declaration 28 July 2006 - In a historic vote which brought a standing ovation from those present, the UN's Human Rights Council in Geneva has this week approved the text of a declaration on indigenous peoples' rights that was first discussed over twenty years ago. |
| Australian PM finally wins black support 25 July 2005 - (UK Reuters) - Prime Minister John Howard has been demonised by Aborigines for a decade, but on Tuesday one of Australia's most influential black leaders said Howard could be the person that ends generations of black squalor. |
| Scientist gives his award to Aboriginal 24 July 2006 - (The Journal of Turkish Weekly) - Anger about government inflexibility and inaction on Aboriginal training programs has prompted a leading ANU scientist to donate a $30,000 national environmental prize to pay for an indigenous trainee fire ecologist at Jervis Bay to continue his education. |
| Island of lost souls 23 July 2006 - (The Observer UK) - It is already the most dangerous place in the world outside a conflict zone, but the death of a man in custody has pushed Australia's Palm Island to breaking point. |
| The gentle activist 14 July 2006 - (Sur Spain) - Faith Bandler (born 1918) showed the many qualities that blossomed in her later life. The abuse and exclusion she experienced as an indigenous schoolgirl in white Australia left a lasting impression on her, but she still exudes a serenity that belies her extraordinary energy for the cause of justice for indigenous peoples, for women, and for the peace movement. |
| Aboriginal mythology debuts on silver
screen 2 July 2006 - (Mail & Guardian online SA) - The subject matter was untested, the actors almost naked and the whole movie was to be made in a language spoken by only a tiny group of people -- but to film executive Brian Rosen, funding Australia's latest international film success, Ten Canoes, was a "no-brainer". |
| Summit discusses Aboriginal abuse 26 June 2006 - (BBC UK) - Politicians from Australia's state and federal governments are meeting in Canberra to discuss ways to combat child abuse in Aboriginal communities. |
| The bounders of Botany Bay 25 June 2006 - (The Sunday Times UK) - IT'S NOT SURPRISING that Australia's master yarn spinner, Tom Keneally, should turn his attention to one of the greatest European imperial adventures of the eighteenth century, the settlement of Botany Bay and the appropriation for the British crown of the great southern continent Terra Australis, today Australia. |
| The land of the dead 24 June 2006 - (Guardian UK) - How did two tiny islands off Australia's north coast come to have the highest suicide rate in the world? |
| Aborigines' health a century behind the
rest of Australia 22 June 2006 (The Scotsman) - The Australian government yesterday called for a return to "paternalism" to help Aborigines overcome appallingly poor health, causing outrage among indigenous leaders who said the move undermined their rights. |
| Canada stalling UN declaration on indigenous
rights: Amnesty International 19 June 2006 - MONTREAL (The Canadian Press) - Canada has teamed with the United States and Australia to stop the United Nations from passing a declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, says Amnesty International. |
| Australian leaders visit Navajo Nation 17 June 2006 - (Indian Country Today NY) - WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - Several of Australia's most notable indigenous leaders were welcomed by Navajo Nation officials in Window Rock on June 7. |
| Aboriginal Groups shimmer together 15 June 2006 - (Georgia Straight Canada) - For the past six years, Toronto’s Red Sky has been pushing the boundaries of aboriginal performance—not just artistically, but geographically. |
| Dig the Didge 15 June 2006 - (Eye Weekly Toronto) - When the Aboriginal dance company Red Sky Performance presents Shimmer, a collaboration by two indigenous choreographers from Canada and Australia, six semi-naked men in ecstatic motion will be one of the attractions. |
| Australian Government blamed for abuse
of women,children 6 June 2006 - (FinalCall.com News) - Revelations of horrific sexual abuse and violence suffered by women and children in Australia’s Aboriginal communities has surfaced during the fifth session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) held in New York. |
| Indigenous cancer patients in Australia
fare worse than their non- Indigenous counterparts 2 Jun 2006 - (Medical News Today UK) - Indigenous cancer patients in Australia have a 30% higher chance of death from cancer than their non-Indigenous counterparts, according to a paper in this week's issue of The Lancet. |
| Australian art demonstrates strength of aboriginal
culture 1 June 2006 - (Salisbury Journal UK) - INDIGENOUS Australian art is currently being exhibited at Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum, as part of Salisbury International Arts Festival's aboriginal showcase. |
| Aboriginal remains to return home 31 May 2006 - (BBC UK) - The remains of six Aborigines held in Glasgow's museums collection will be returned to Australia. |
| Page 8, Tron, Glasgow 30 May 2006 - (The Herald: UK) - NINE years ago, the Page boys – David, Stephen and Russell – were responsible for one of the most mystical, magical, captivating dance pieces ever to appear at the Edinburgh International Festival. Called Fish, it introduced Bangarra (Dance Theatre)– and a profound vision of Australia's Aboriginal culture. |
| Aussie Low Budget Film Wins Cannes Special
Jury Prize 28 May 2006 - A low-budget Australian film has been awarded the Special Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival. |
| Indigenous people 'worst-off world over' 26 May 2006 - BBC UK) - The health of indigenous people worldwide is much worse than that of other communities, even the poorest communities in the countries where they live. This is among the findings of a major investigation launched by the medical journal The Lancet into indigenous communities. |
| Officials discuss Aborigine abuse 25 May 2006 - (BBC UK) - Aborigine communities are beset by many problems. Representatives from Australia's state and federal governments are meeting to discuss ways to tackle violence and abuse in Aboriginal communities. |
| Action plan over Aborigine strife 23 May 2006 (BBC UK) - Aborigine communities are beset by many problems. Officials in the largest Aboriginal community in Australia's Northern Territory are considering plans to send residents to camps to escape violence. |
| US, Australia, New Zealand, reject indigenous
Declaration 24 May 2006 - UNITED NATIONS, As the world's indigenous people get closer to achieving long overdue international recognition of their rights, some of the powers that conquered their territories in the past still say "no way". |
| London to host Sorry
Day event remembering the Stolen Generations 22 May 2006 - ENIAR (UK) - London's Victoria Embankment Gardens will host a commemoration Sorry Day outside Australia on Thursday 25 May from 6pm - 8pm. Sorry Day is the annual day in which Australian remembers the Stolen Generations of Aboriginal Children who were forcibly removed from their families. The UK event will conclude on Thursday evening as dawn breaks in Australia on Friday 26 May, when events are held around the nation to commemorate Sorry Day. |
| Bulldozer threat to ancient Aboriginal
art 19 May 2006 - The Telegraph (UK) - A remote stretch of the Australian coastline that is home to the largest collection of Aboriginal rock art in the world is under threat from a plan to exploit the area's oil and gas reserves. |
| A clash of cultures that shows no sign of
a solution 17 May 2006- The Times (UK) - TRIUMPH in the Tropics, an Australian school textbook in the 1960s, lauded the white man’s dominance over Aboriginal people. |
| A troubled town in Oz called Alice Springs 9 May 2006 - Independent Online (South Africa) - Sydney - Most visitors come away from the archetypal Australian Outback town of Alice Springs with no memories of what happens after dark. |
| Dipping into dreamtime 6 May 2006 - The Telegraph (UK) - Richard Madden is schooled in aboriginal life - from spearfishing for stingrays to bark painting - at the annual Garma Festival. |
| Aboriginal camps like 'worst South Africa
slums' 16 April 2006 - Sunday Herald (Scotland) - It is renowned as the gateway to Ayers Rock, but the desert town of Alice Springs has been named the violent crime capital of Australia and its squalid Aboriginal camps branded “ghettoes of despair” reminiscent of the worst South African slums. |
| Bringing people, nations and cultures together 10 April 2006 - Dreamweb media release - Dr. Pamela Croft produces Mural in Stolen generations exhibition in Holland. |
| Dreamtime artists hit by nightmare of sex
and fraud 8 April 2006 - The Times (UK) - The Aboriginal art movement, which has spawned one of Australia’s most successful exports, is being battered by allegations of widespread fraud and corruption. |
| British Museum to return Aboriginal remains 25 March 2006 - The Guardian (UK) - The British Museum said yesterday that it would return the cremated ashes of Australian Aborigines, more than 160 years after they were taken. |
| British Museum decides to return two
Tasmanian cremation ash bundles 24 March 2006 - British Museum Media Release - The passing of the Human Tissue Act in 2005 enabled the Trustees of the British Museum and other national museums to transfer human remains out of their collections. |
| Commonwealth Games: Batman big in land
of his forefather 19 March 2006 - The Independent (UK) - Daniel (Batman) the Aussie 200m champion and his famous wife pick up baton of Aborigine rights. |
| Queen urges Australia to do more
for Aborigines 15 March 2005 - (Reuters UK) - The Queen praised Australia for its international leadership on Tuesday, but urged the country to do more at home to alleviate poverty and to help disadvantaged Aborigines. |
| Aborigines threaten Queen Elizabeth
with writ 15 March 2005 - Daily Express (Malaysia) -MELBOURNE: Australian Aborigines have threatened to serve a writ on Queen Elizabeth II accusing her of genocide if the monarch fails to launch treaty negotiations while in Melbourne to open the Commonwealth Games. |
| Flames of anger at 'Stolenwealth
Games' 14 March 2006 - New Zealand Herald (NZ) - Smoke from the sacred fire where the Rainbow Serpent lives drifts across Melbourne's Kings Domain as fire-keeper Robert Corowa welcomes visitors to Camp Sovereignty, the centre for two weeks of protest against the "Stolenwealth Games". |
| Aborigine health 'a scandal' 12 March 2006 - The Observer (UK) - Australia is lagging behind such nations as Canada and New Zealand in caring for the health of its indigenous people, says an Oxfam report. 'It's a national scandal,' the director Andrew Hewett said. Aboriginal people's life expectancy is still almost 20 years less than than other Australians. |
| U.N. negotiations on indigenous rights wrap
up, for now 17 February 2006 - Indian Country (USA) - The current round of negotiations on the U.N. Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples came to a close Feb. 3 with nearly two-thirds of the provisions agreed upon by the member states of the U.N. Human Rights Commission. |
| 2005 |
| The Long Walk in London
2005 24 November 2005 - ENIAR (UK) - This year's event follows on from indigenous AFL legend Michael Long's walk in 2004. This year there are events happening all across Australia, with the main one taking place in Melbourne. |
| Australia's racial conflict exposed
to wider audience 27 October 2005 - The Times (UK) - A VIOLENT “bushranger western” has broken new ground with its depiction of the ethnic conflicts that underpinned the creation of modern Australia. |
| DCMS publishes guidelines
on care of human remains 6 October 2005 - (Museums Association UK) - Guidelines are now available for museums in England and Wales that hold human remains. The publication of the guidelines also heralds a change in law allowing national museums to deaccession human remains… |
| Shameful secret in the shadow of Uluru 13 August 2005 - The Daily Telegraph (UK) - It symbolises the harsh grandeur of the Outback and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, but the great red rock of Uluru hides a shameful secret that Australia's tourism promoters would rather the world did not see. |
| Aboriginal voices break through on film 14 June 2005 - Jerusalem Post (Israel) - 'It's only in the last 20 years that we've started making movies about ourselves," says Erica Glynn, an Australian director of aboriginal descent who's visiting Israel this week to introduce her films at the Australian Film Festival, which is playing at cinematheques around the country. |
| Homeguard in Australia's outback 11 June 2005 - BBC Radio 4 (UK) - Australia's armed forces are scattered far and wide, from Iraq to the South Pacific. But there is one regiment which specialises in protecting the vast wilderness regions found much closer to home, in the Northern Territory. |
| Aboriginal boy locked up for taking
ice-cream 8 June 2005 - The Independent (UK) -A 15-year-old Aboriginal boy was held in custody for 12 days and flown nearly 1,000 miles to face court for trying to steal an ice-cream. |
| A new breed of centres for art for Aborigines 4 June 2005 - International Herald Tribune (France) - MELBOURNE To talk with Rammey Ramsay is to enter a 40,000-year-old world. It is a place of death, of nature's redemptive power and of communion with one of the world's oldest surviving cultures. But it is also a world of four-wheel drives and satellite television. |
| Australian Christians focus on reconciliation
between white and Aboriginal communities 2 June 2005 - Ekklesia (UK) - The Catholic Church in Australia is concluding a series of events for National Reconciliation Week, (May 29-June 3) focussing on healing relations between the white community and the Aborigines, reports the Fides news agency. |
| Howard urges Aborigine patience 30 May 2005 - BBC (UK) - Australia's Prime Minister John Howard has warned the process of combating disadvantage within the country's Aboriginal community could take years. |
| Australia's 'Sorry Day' marked 26 May 2005 - BBC (UK) - Ceremonies across Australia have marked National Sorry Day, which remembers the government's removal of Aboriginal children from their families. |
| A didgeridoo for Lincoln's Inn Fields 20 May 2005 - An annual day when Australians remember the 'stolen generations' of Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their families will be commemorated in London for the first time next week. |
| Poor Aboriginal health traced back to birth 20 May 2005 - Rueters (UK) - Chronic health problems suffered by Australia's Aborigines can be traced to birth, a new report found on Friday, saying indigenous babies were twice as likely as others to be born underweight. |
| Sorry in London May 2005 - TNT (UK) - Australian day of reconciliation spreads north. When the first Sorry Day was held in Australia in 1998, thousands of people took to the streets in an act of protest, in solidarity with the stolen generations and in the spirit of reconciliation. |
| Aboriginal outcry over noose case 18 May 2005 - The Journal of Turkish Weekly (Turkey) - Australian indigenous leaders have reacted angrily after two white men found guilty of assaulting an Aboriginal boy were fined A$800 ($605). |
| No Black Faces on the Block? 12 May 2005 - Signature (UK) - The Carr Government’s plans for the rundown suburb of Redfern are yet to be realised, but anyone taking a white brush to the black heart of Sydney is surely in for a fight. |
| Rugby tackles Aboriginal violence 31 March 2005 - BBC (UK) - Aboriginal leaders in Australia say rugby is helping to battle the domestic violence blighting their community. Statistics show Aboriginal women are 45 times more likely to suffer domestic violence than white Australians. |
| Charles has a grubby encounter downunder 3 March 2005 - Hello Magazine ( UK) - The Prince of Wales had an encounter with some bare-chested ladies on Wednesday, before being presented with a witchetty grub, by way of a tasty snack. |
| Australia's Aboriginal Debate 16 February 2005 - BBC website (UK) - Improving the lives of Australia's Aboriginals is an important challenge, with no easy answers. The BBC News website asked two prominent members of the Aboriginal community to debate the issues by email. This is the conversation they had over the last few weeks. |
| Expert says Aboriginal infant mortality
can be reduced with Government help 31 January 2005 - China Post (Taiwan) - The government must do more to combat infant mortality among Aborigines, whose babies die of unexplained causes at a rate six times higher than other Australian children, an expert on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) said Monday. |
| Self respect and changing attitudes boost
Australia's Aboriginal population 23 January 2005 - The Scotsman (Scotland) - The aboriginal population is booming as more Australians identify themselves as indigenous. The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2005 snapshot of Australia shows the indigenous population has grown at twice the rate of the overall population since 1996. |
| A bone to pick with museums 16 January 2005 - The Times (Scotland) -Returning collections of human remains to their home countries may sound noble, but science will suffer as a result. |
| Aboriginal art shows creator snake 14 January 2005 - Philadelphia Daily News (USA) - "Track of the Rainbow Serpent" at the University of Pennsylvania Museum presents Australian aboriginal art as the handmaiden of anthropology. |
| Aboriginal skulls to return home 13 January - BBC (UK) - Representatives from the Australian High Commission are in Devon to take back a collection of Aboriginal skulls held at a museum since the 1870s. |
| 2004 |
| Australia honours Aboriginal team 27 December 2004 - BBC (UK) - Australia have honoured a group of Aboriginal cricketers who undertook a tour to England in 1868. |
| Aboriginal originals woo French 20 December 2004 - Financial Times (UK) - The prominent French social anthropologist, Claude Levi-Strauss, is quoted approvingly in a 1962 book for his general rule: "One cannot modify societies based on so rigid a social system without destroying them." The French painter Karel Kupka was the man going all the way with Levi-Strauss. In Dawn of Art, Kupka's flawed but remarkably early appreciation of Australian Aboriginal art, he theorised that 1962 was its absolute apogee, "a golden age for the Aboriginal plastic arts, conserved in a miraculous state of purity, even though their disappearance is inexorably growing near". |
| Aboriginal policy raises storm 18 December 2004 - The Japan Times (Japan) - Aborigines in the remote Australian Outback are going blind amid filthy conditions while white Australians luxuriate in some of the world's most sophisticated cities. It's a disaster waiting to happen, and that day looks close. |
| Petrol for face washing? Thanks but no thanks 12 December 2004 - (Khaleej Times) - Almost out of sight, out of mind, in the far-flung corners of Australia, people are living in utter squalor. It’s a familiar story in First World countries the indigenous people are pushed aside and do not benefit as their country experiences economic progress. |
| Uneasy calm at Aborigine funeral 11 December 2004 - BBC (UK) - The funeral has taken place of an aboriginal man in northern Australia whose death last month in police custody sparked violent disturbances. |
| Australia set for Aborigine march 8 December 2004 - BBC (UK) - Aborigines across Australia complain of prejudice and lack of opportunity. Thousands of Australians are expected to take part in a march on Thursday to protest at the treatment of Aborigines. |
| Aborigines' dark island home 4 December 2004 - BBC (UK) - Aboriginal residents of Palm Island in northern Australia are preparing for another depressing chapter in the story of their isolated home. The funeral of Cameron Doomagee is expected to take place in the coming days. |
| Aboriginal death in custody triggers
Palm Island riot 3 December 2004 - World Socialist Web Site - For the second time this year, anger over the death of an Australian Aborigine in highly suspicious circumstances involving police has boiled over into a riot. |
| The anger of the Aborigines 3 December 2004 -The Independent (UK) - A teenager's claim that he was dragged naked through the dirt with a noose around his neck has inflamed racial tensions in Australia. |
| Howard meets Aboriginal Star 3 December 2004 - BBC (UK) - Aboriginal sports star Michael Long has met Australia's Prime Minister John Howard to highlight discrimination against indigenous groups and poverty. |
| La declaration des peuples indigenes
bloquee par l occident 29 November 2004 - AFP - Trois représentants de peuples autochtones ont accusé jeudi le gouvernement britannique de bloquer le projet de "Déclaration des droits des populations indigènes" aux Nations unies, alors que les débats sur le texte doivent prendre fin la semaine prochaine. |
| Protest rocks Aboriginal Island 26 November 2004 - BBC (UK) - Hundreds of protesters on an Aboriginal island off Australia's northern coast have stormed the local police station, after the death of a man in custody. One resident said there was smoke everywhere and that the building had almost been burnt to the ground. |
| Tribal Peoples Journey to UK:
Government under attack 22 November 2004 - Survival International (UK) - Three indigenous representatives arrive in London on 24 November to target the UK government for blocking an historic UN declaration on indigenous rights. |
| A carrot and stick for Aborigines 13 November 2004 -New Zealand Herald (NZ) - In all the clamour of the election campaign that last month swept Prime Minister John Howard to his fourth term in office, there was one thundering silence: the continuing grim future for indigenous Australians. |
| Australian Aborigines denounce welfare changes
plan 12 November 2004 - Taipei Times (Taiwan) - Prominent Aborigines lashed out yesterday at a planned government overhaul of welfare payments to indigenous Australians that reportedly include punishing parents whose children cut classes. |
| Aboriginal welfare plans cause stir 12 November 2004 - BBC (UK) - The Australian government is planning a controversial new welfare system for its indigenous Aboriginal population. The proposals, which were leaked to the media, are reported to include financial sanctions for parents who do not send their children to school. |
| Australian military probes Ku Klux Klan
stunt on black recruits 11 November 2004 - AFP - Australia's military chief said an investigation was under way after a leading newspaper published a photo showing black recruits hounded in a Ku Klux Klan-style stunt. Racism alleged in Australian Army - UPI |
| Australia unveils Aboriginal body 6 November 2004 - BBC (UK) - Aborigines are Australia's most disadvantaged community. The Australian government has unveiled a new Aboriginal advisory body that will help shape its policy towards disadvantaged native communities. |
Australia's Aborigines lose political voice |
| World's indigenous people slam
UK government 1 November 2004 - Survival International (UK) - Indigenous organisations from around the world have criticised the UK government's attempts to block the recognition of their rights. Recent negotiations to finalise a UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples were almost wrecked when the UK government attempted to remove all references to 'collective rights'. At the end of November, when negotiations resume, the UK government stands poised to scupper a century of progress in human rights. |
Haute Outback |
| Ertrunken in Tasmanien 12 October, 2004 - Frankfurter Rundschau -Geschichten aus einem unbekannten Australien: Richard Flanagan betreibt eine ganz eigene Historiographie. |
| Rock Spirits 11 October 2004 - Time Asia - From the natural sandstone galleries of western Arnhem Land, an ancient art tradition makes thrillingly contemporary twists and turns. |
| Australia is now a damaged and divided land 8 October 2004 - The Independent (UK) - Howard has built his electoral success by appealing to a darker side of our character.These days, television footage of young children and pregnant women behind razor wire in detention centres is as familiar an image of Australia as its golden surf beaches. |
| Les Aborigenes October 2004 - Agency Francias Press - Les Aborigenes s'estiment une nouvelle fois les laisses-pour-compte des legislatives australiennes de samedi, ne nourrissant que peu d'espoir de changement dans leurs conditions de vie difficiles, peu importe le resultat du scrutin. |
| Aborigines seek voice at election 7 October 2004 - SYDNEY (Reuters) - Aborigine Maisie Austin sits in the dirt under a tree hearing the grievances of aboriginal elders who have invited her to their "country" as she campaigns in the Northern Territory outback for Saturday's Australian elections. |
| Logging threat to French explorers’
site in Australia 4 October 2004 - AFP - Efforts to preserve a site where French explorers conducted some of Australia's first scientific research more than 200 years ago were branded inadequate by environmentalists Thursday. |
| SmallWorld: The larger crocs are strong
enough to snatch a horse or a water buffalo from the river bank 3 October 2004 - Sunday Herald (Scotland) - Tom Northrope hooks a chunk of meat on to a piece of string attached to a wooden pole and dangles it over the coffee-brown water. Suddenly there’s an explosion of movement as a 9ft-long crocodile leaps from the river and lunges for the bait. With an audible snap and a swirl of water the meat – and the croc – are gone. |
| International protection for indigenous
peoples' human rights long overdue 10 September 2004 - Amnesty International News - The end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People is now less than four months away. The Working Group on the Draft United Nations Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples meets in its 10th session in Geneva next week (13-24 September), but the prospect of achieving one of the decade's principle goals -- the adoption of an international declaration for the protection and promotion of indigenous peoples' human rights -- seems increasingly at risk. |
| Appeal: Help Australian Aborigines keep
their etchings 6 September 2004 - Paul Canning (ENIAR Webmaster) - The Dja Dja Wurrung are urgently requesting that supporters contact the Minister - but they also want British people to ask their Government to put pressure on the British Museum; they describe the Museum as 'out of step' with other international institutions in their attitude towards Aboriginal people. |
| Why I've fallen out of love with Australia 5 September 2004 - The Observer (UK) - Howard's support rose overnight and the atmosphere of Australia changed almost as quickly. An emboldened Howard moved on with his mean-spirited agenda, refusing to officially apologise to Aborigines for the generation of children taken from them by the state. The republican cause was canned. |
| Warrior Gillesppie Deserves Some Luck 3 September 2004 - Sporting Life (UK) - Jason Gillespie probably couldn't give a XXXX for statistics, such is his attitude towards playing for his country. Gillespie is the archetypal team man, a true-blue Aussie who is at his best with his heart on his sleeve and the baggy green cap thrust over his unkempt mullet. Personal reward is secondary to Australia's success, something the 29-year-old fast bowler has been devoted to since making his debut in 1996. |
| Local communities in Australia relive history
and organise online 3 September 2004 - Internet & ICTs for Social Justice and Development News - Rowville-Lysterfield History Project (RLHP) is an archive of photos and stories told by the eldest members of the Rowville-Lysterfield community (Victoria, Australia) of their memories of the oldest people they remember when they were children. It is a rich telling of anecdotal histories that would otherwise be lost; of Aboriginal mounted police, the Bunerong and the Wawoorung clans of the Kulin nation, the little known prisoner of war camp, the stories of both women and men, many who would live their lives over again. |
| Killer Faces Tribal Justice 3 September 2004 - Daily Record (UK) - An Aboriginal woman convicted of stabbing her cheating lover to death has walked free because she faces severe punishment by her tribe. • Woman sentenced to tribal justice, not jail |
| Grappling On Stage With the Issue of Land Rights 29 August 2004 - The Nation (Kenya) - Whether in Kenya or in Australia, the issue of land continues to be a political, social and economic hot potato. This was made perfectly clear during the staged readings, from August 20 to August 24, in Nairobi, of the play, Yanagai! Yanagai! by Australian playwright Andrea James. Coming at a time when the issue of land ownership is at the top of the news agenda, the readings could not have been more topical had they tried. |
| From the Outback to Bagshot in one leap 29 August2004 - The Observer (UK) - The deep, vibrating drone of the didgeridoo ebbs and flows as the Smudging Ceremony, an ancient Aboriginal ritual to mark special occasions, begins. I inhale the smoke from burning herbs and mosses handpicked by Aborigines and concentrate hard on trying not to laugh. |
| Australia's perilous conservative path 27 August 2004 - International Herald Tribune - Amid all the talk about free trade agreements, the cultural imperialism of Hollywood or the wonders of the Internet, the untold story of globalization has been the globalization of conservatism. Since the mid-1970s, conservatives around the globe have become keen students of U.S.-$ style attack politics - and none more so than Australian conservatives. |
| Australia considers croc trophy hunting 27 August 2004 - BBC - The authorities want to introduce these crocodile safaris to boost tourism and to help impoverished Aboriginal communities. The Northern Territory's Environment Minister, Marion Scrymgour, told the BBC that the idea of allowing big-game hunters to shoot crocodiles on traditional tribal lands was a good one. |
| Melbourne - ein gigantischer Ameisenhaufen 26 August 2004 - Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland) - Ameisen geben derzeit zu reden in Australien. Während in und um Melbourne eine zusammenhängende Kolonie entdeckt wurde, die sich über hundert Kilometer erstreckt, bereitet im tropischen Norden Australiens die Gelbe Spinnerameise der lokalen Aborigines-Bevölkerung und den Naturschützern Sorgen. |
| Tudo sobre o país dos coalas no Festival
da Austrália 25 August 2004 - Agência Estado (Brazil) - São Paulo - Quem está pensando em arrumar as malas para conhecer a Austrália ou simplesmente gosta de saber mais sobre outras culturas tem um encontro marcado neste sábado e domingo no Hotel Renaissance, em São Paulo. É lá o palco do Australia Festival, evento que vai divulgar os atrativos do país dos cangurus e coalas em termos de turismo, cursos e viagens de negócios, sem falar do surfe, da música aborígine e dos vinhos, já que a Austrália é o quinto maior produtor da bebida no mundo. |
| Viewfinder: Aboriginal burial poles 23 August 2004 - Daily Telegraph (UK) - The aboriginal Yolngu people believe they are the tongue of the land: inseparable from the tropical swamps of north-eastern Australia that are their home. |
| Aborigines rediscover their past in desert
jail 22 August 2004 - Sunday Times (UK) - When Dale Walsh, a 23-year-old Aborigine, was jailed for theft he expected to be incarcerated in a grim urban prison run by whites. Instead he was sent to Australia’s first “outback jail”, an Aboriginal prison run by Aborigines, where the boundary is the desert and the inmates sleep in dormitories or under the stars. They also move about unrestrained by razor wire, searchlights, locks or electric fences. |
| Rosella Namok UK Debut Show at The October
Gallery 20 August 2004 - The October Gallery - Conscious of her rapidly developing reputation - which has led to a series of sell-out shows- and the consequent difficulty of obtaining work by Rosella that has not already been spoken for, the October Gallery is delighted to present the first-ever solo exhibition of this talented young Australian artist to audiences in the U.K. |
| 'Sorry Books' registered as historic documents 19 August 2004 - UNESCO - A collection of 461 Sorry Books recording the thoughts of thousands of Australians on the unfolding history of the Stolen Generations has been formally recognized as having powerful historical and social significance. The books are among nine significant documentary heritage items recently inscribed on the Australian Memory of the World Register – part of UNESCO’s Programme to protect and promote documentary material- that records or reflects significant milestones and events in Australia’s history. |
| Aussie cops cleared after riot-sparking
death 17 August 2004 - Agence France Presse - A coroner has cleared Australian police of causing the death of an Aboriginal teenager which sparked one of the country's worst race riots. • Australian police cleared over Aboriginal riot - Reuters • Australian Police Cleared - Sky News (UK) • Sydney death 'not police's fault' - BBC |
| Freeman's Moment Runs On 15 August 2004 - ATHENS, The Washington Post - She jokes that she spends her days doing things too mundane to mention, "like popping a couple of pimples and plucking my eyebrows. "My concentration needs to be questioned, I'm so relaxed." |
| Journée internationale des autochtones
: L'ONU défend les droits des populations marginalisées 11 Août 2004 - Al Bayane (Morroco) - La Journée Internationale des populations autochtones a été célébrée, lundi au siège de l'ONU à New York. Lors de cette cérémonie, le secrétaire général de l'ONU soutient bec et ongles la démarginalisation de la population des autochtones qui selon lui, sont dépouillés de leurs terres, et dont la culture est dénigrée ou directement attaquée, alors que leurs langues et leurs coutumes sont reléguées au second plan... |
| Descendance in New York on 9/11 14 August 2004 - ENIAR - The World Culture Open is one of the biggest gatherings of cultures ever in New York City. On Sept 11 Descendance Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Dance Theatre will perform at the memorial to the victims of 9/11 at Battery Park which is not far from ground zero, they also have a performance set for the Australian Embassy in New York ... these tours have been funded by overseas cultural organizations ... Why is it that traditional, indigenous groups can't get money but the contemporary ones can? We are no closer to setting up anything permanent here or on the world stage than we were 10 years ago - if anything things have gone backwards. |
| Hands in history 12 August 2004 - An Phoblacht (Ireland) - One of the oldest pieces of artwork in the world is a handprint in Kaakadoo Cave, left there by an Australian aborigine 60,000 years ago. On a recent trip to Australia, artist Raymond Watson heard about the hand and the story behind it. It prompted, in part, one of two exhibitions, which he put on in this year's Féile an Phobail, called Hands In History. |
| AMA Indigenous Health Report calls for more Indigenous
health workers and funding Australia 12 August 2004 - Medical News Today (UK) - AMA (Australian Medical Association) President, Dr Bill Glasson, today released the AMA’s third report on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, ‘Healing Hands – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Workforce Requirements’. Based on an Access Economics report commissioned by the AMA, the report calls for increased targeted funding, more Indigenous health workers and more non Indigenous health workers committed to working with Indigenous people. • Crisis in Redfern could have been averted: AMA |
| Trois dijonnais Partent En Septembre en
Australie a la rencontre des aborigènes 11 Août 2004 - Le Bien Public (France) - Trois Dijonnais ont tracé des « sentiers du rêve » pour créer un échange culturel, pédagogique et humain avec les aborigènes d'Australie. |
| From Dreamtime to Nightmare: John Howard's Olympian
Deception 11 August 2004 - AxisOfLogic (USA) - October 1, 2000 the word 'Eternity' was up in lights on the Sydney Harbour Bridge as a multicultural Australia welcomed people from all over the world to the Olympics. The dazzling Opening Ceremony charted the whole of Australia's history starting from the Dreamtime and the Olympic flame was lit by Kathy Freeman, a proud and beautiful aboriginal athlete, who seemed to represent the spirit of the land. For one brief moment it seemed all people in the land of the Southern Cross all the people across this extraordinary vast country were united and compassionate and understanding future seemed assured. |
| Indigenous Poeple's Day: Genocide It Is 9 August 2004 - IPS-Inter Press Service - When the Belgian Defence Ministry earlier this year blamed North America for the world's worst ever genocide over its killing of millions of indigenous peoples, outrage at the claim spotlighted a topic that rarely enters the public realm but has long been accepted by many native Americans and their supporters. |
| Australian parliamentary report rubberstamps
police buildup in Redfern 9 August 2004 - World Socialist - A parliamentary committee report into the issues raised by death of 17-year-old Aboriginal youth Thomas “TJ” Hickey in the inner Sydney suburb of Redfern amounts to a crude political cover up for the New South Wales Labor government. |
| Amnesty International Launches Campaign For
Indigenous Rights 9 August 2004 - Voice of America - Amnesty International is launching a campaign to promote and protect the rights of indigenous peoples. The effort corresponds with the U.N. International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. Amnesty International says the estimated 370 million indigenous peoples around the world continue to endure widespread discrimination, impoverishment and ill-health. It says their unique cultural identities are threatened, their lands are confiscated and they are subject to armed violence. |
| Germaine Greer: Australia must become an Aboriginal
country 9 August 2004 - From the Royal Society of Arts lecture by the author and broadcaster - I don't feel so much anger against my own white ancestors in Australia as I do tremendous pity. Everywhere I go in Australia, I see land that was cleared at a human cost that you can hardly imagine. I don't condemn my ancestors who displaced Aboriginal people. I may deplore them, but I don't condemn them. I'm not here to apportion blame; I'm actually looking for a way forward. • The complete transcript of the lecture is available as a PDF file (98kb) |
| WIPO Director General Welcomes Growing Recognition
Of Indigenous People's Rights 9 August 2004 - World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) - The Director General, Dr. Kamil Idris, welcomed the growing recognition by the international community of the need to promote the enjoyment of rights of indigenous peoples ... in the field of intellectual property (IP), he observed, this translated into greater respect and recognition for the cultural and intellectual framework and knowledge systems in which traditional cultural expressions (TCEs), traditional knowledge (TK) and associated genetic resources are developed, maintained, and transmitted to future generations within the traditional or customary context. |
| Populations autochtones : un 10e anniversaire
qui doit déclencher des mesures concrètes 9 August 2004 - Trop longtemps dépouillés de leurs terres, attaqués dans leurs langues, leurs coutumes et leurs cultures, les peuples autochtones ont fait appel à l'ONU. Il est temps que le processus engagé se traduise par des actes concrets, déclare Kofi Annan à l'occasion du 10e Anniversaire de la Journée internationale des populations autochtones. Action Needed Now To End Abuse Of World's Indigenous Peoples 9 August 2004 - The United Nations today marked the International Day of the World's Indigenous People with calls to governments, intergovernmental organizations and the international community at-large for urgent action to end the gross human rights abuses, discrimination and marginalization that all too often are still their lot in society. • Kofi Annan lauds rich indigenous cultures - Ghana News Agency |
| Tiwi myths inspire 'complicated' image of Oz 5 August 2004 - Budapest Sun - This ancient legend and these characters reappear in the form of Tiwi art, even today, examples of which are on display at Le Meridien hotel in a major exhibition organized by the Australian Embassy. |
| Disgrace dressed up as history 1 August 2004 - Scotland On Sunday - Rarely have I been so angry over the publication of a book as I am over Frank Welsh's Great Southern Land: A New History of Australia. In the past, if I have had to negatively review a book I've felt a pang of regret. This book is the exception. Welsh's so-called history is a disgrace. |
| Les génocides dans l’histoire
: compléments documentaires August 2004 - Le Monde Diplomatique |
| Yes, it's Jesus and they're not having a laugh 31 July 2004 - The Scotsman - He's a black warrior, an ice-skater, a keen juggler and the spitting image of an Edinburgh artist. Jesus, as he's never been seen before, is the subject of a series of pictures on show at a church festival coming to the Capital. |
| Brits back Aborigines 30 July 2004 - The Voice - A BBC documentary highlighting the plight of Aborigines has stirred the hearts of black Britons and jogged memories of frustration for David Akinsanya. |
| Shantytown in the shadow of a gold mine 29 July 2004 - Guardian (UK) - The fresh lick of paint on the toilet blocks can't cover up what's wrong with Ninga Mia. An Aboriginal shantytown in the shadow of one of the world's biggest gold mines, living conditions here are probably as grim as they get in Australia. A third of houses lack bathrooms and toilets, and even those that have these basic facilities are overcrowded and often insanitary. "This is the richest square mile in Australia and our people are living here in substandard conditions," says Maria Meredith, the manager of Ninga Mia's Aboriginal corporation. • Letter from Australian health minister |
| Cosmic Dreaming 29 July 2004 - TIME Pacific - Barbara Sturt, of the Jaru, sits beneath a tree in the yard of Halls Creek's Yarliyil Arts Centre and points to her dazzlingly bright canvas. "Here are the Rainbow Snakes," she says shyly, tying her tale to a myth that features in almost all Aboriginal cosmology. "They go in here, and everywhere they come up they make a creek or billabong." |
| U.N. Set to Designate Second Indigenous Decade 28 July 2004 - allafrica.com - A second U.N. decade spotlighting indigenous peoples is a step closer after the world body's economic and social council (ECOSOC) recommended another 10-year project after the existing decade expires Dec. 30. The decision will go before the 191-member U.N. General Assembly (GA) whose annual meeting begins in September. In their recommendation the members of ECOSOC, one of the U.N.'s five main bodies, said a second decade would have to take its mandate from a review of the first 10 years, and include concrete goals and adequate resources to ensure those aims could be met.. |
| “There’s 67 percent poor
people—we need our own government” 28 July 2004 - World Socialist - Among those present when a coronial inquest into the death of 17-year-old youth TJ Hickey concluded on July 16 was Bowie Hickey, 51, TJ’s second cousin, and “aunt” in traditional Aboriginal custom. The Aboriginal boy’s death in February ignited a violent confrontation between police and Aborigines in the Sydney suburb of Redfern. Bowie has lived in Redfern for 35 years. She spoke to the World Socialist Web Site, describing how TJ had moved in with her only a week before he died |
| Panel may rule on museum remains 28 July 2004 - icberkshire - An advisory panel could be set up to adjudicate in cases where museums refuse to repatriate human remains to their country of origin. Arts minister Estelle Morris has launched a consultation on the proposal to deal with contested claims and whether museums need more regulation or a code of practice on holding human remains. • Care of Historic Human Remains Consultation - Department for Culture, Media and Sport • Bone return consultation launched - BBC • Ancestral remains to 'go home' - Manchester Evening News |
| Crown Jewels Down Under 27 July 2004 - CIRCA Art Magazine (Ireland) - A battle has begun between the British Museum Goliath and an unlikely underdog opponent comprising the Dja Dja Wurrung Native Title Group. Australian Aboriginal artifacts, on loan from the British Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens to the Museum of Victoria in Melbourne have been seized by the representatives of the Aboriginal tribe that originally owned them. |
| La question maorie divise la Nouvelle-Zélande 26 Juli 04 - Le Monde (France) - La sensation s'appelle Keisha Castle-Hughes. Cette gamine née d'une mère maorie et d'un père australien est devenue, à 13 ans, la plus jeune comédienne jamais nominée aux Oscars dans la catégorie de la meilleure actrice. L'héroïne du film Paï n'a pas remporté la fameuse statuette dorée. Mais tout le peuple néo-zélandais a salué d'une même voix l'éclosion de ce nouveau talent. Le long-métrage dans lequel Keisha a joué racontait l'histoire d'une petite fille qui souhaitait succéder à son grand-père à la tête de la tribu maorie dont elle était issue. Un sujet sensible dans une culture où l'héritage des responsabilités ne concerne jamais la gent féminine. |
| The Cradle of Civilisation 26 July 2004 - Anorak (UK) - Visitors to the British Museum are often amazed that a small collection of islands off the coast of mainland Europe should have spawned so many artefacts of world renown. One thinks of the mummies excavated from the Melton Mowbray pyramids, the Rosetta Stone of Basildon, the Elgin Marbles, saved for posterity from the Parthenon at Peterborough. |
| Waves of change 26 July 2004 - Telegraph (UK) - Phillip Knightley reviews Great Southern Land: a New History of Australia by Frank Welsh |
| Aboriginal tribe seizes museum artifacts 26 July 2004 - United Press International -- Australia's Dja Dja Wurrung tribe has seized 150-year-old aboriginal artifacts on loan to a Melbourne museum from Britain, it was reported Monday. • British museums up in arms after Aborigines grab loaned art - AFP • Una tribu impide la devolución de dos grabados al Museo Británico - La Voz De Galicia • Museum collections: Letter from the Director of the Museum of London - The Times • Aboriginal tribe seeks return of artefacts - Daily Mail |
| Aborigines grab art on loan from Britain 26 July 2004 - The Times (UK) - The earliest surviving Aboriginal bark etchings have been seized in Australia along with a ceremonial headdress while on loan from the British Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. The move has sent a tremor through the international museum community because it will have such an impact on future loans to exhibitions as collectors, both private and public, are likely to refuse to part with prized objects which could be seized under another country’s laws. • Family tree and a question of bark • Australian Tribes Seek Return of Native Artefacts - Press Association • UK exhibits seized in Australia - BBC • Row erupts over Aboriginal artefacts - The Guardian (UK) • Community pushes for return of artefacts • Minister weighs in to artefacts stoush • Museum stoush heats up over artefacts' return • Petition calls for return of Koori etchings |
| Philip, der Feinfühlige 24 July 2004 - Stern (Germany) - Der Gatte von Königin Elisabeth II. ist nicht gerade für seine Ausführungen auf höchstem diplomatischen Niveau bekannt. Neuester Fauxpas: Prinz Philip bezeichnete eine Rollstuhlfahrerin als Sicherheitsrisiko. |
| The whole world in our hands 24 July 2004 - The Guardian (UK) - Controversy over ownership of its treasures obscures the British Museum's purpose. By offering everyone insights into cultural history, argues its director Neil MacGregor, the museum promotes a greater understanding of humanity |
| Populations en quete de droit 23 July 2004 - Libération (France) - La haute commissaire aux droits de l'homme, Louise Arbor, dansant au coeur de la grande ronde de célébration en l'honneur de Leonard Peltier, Indien lakota anishinabe, détenu depuis vingt-neuf ans dans une prison américaine et reconnu prisonnier politique par Amnesty international. Hier à Genève, dans le parc des Nations unies en marge de l'ouverture de la Journée internationale des peuples autochtones, c'était une vision surprenante. Mais représentative d'une volonté de l'ONU de faire progresser la prise de conscience internationale face aux discriminations dont souffrent des peuples spoliés de leur terre, dépossédés de leur culture, profondément niés. |
| Presentation to the Twenty Second session of
the Working Group on Indigenous Populations 23 July 2004 - Joint Statement on behalf of FAIRA, Forest Peoples Programme, Innu Council of Nitassinan, Ogiek Cultural Initiatives Programme, and Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links - Mr Chairman, with reference to the difficulties currently being experienced in finalising the text of the draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, we would like to make specific reference to the position of the United Kingdom on collective human rights. As UK or Commonwealth-based organisations we condemn the position stated by the UK government that collective human rights for indigenous peoples do not exist. |
| Aboriginal challenger for Deputy Prime Minister's
NSW Outback seat 19 July 2004 - ENIAR - An Aboriginal sheep farmer and rights activist, Michael Anderson, is taking on the Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, for the seat of Gwydir in the coming federal election. Michael, 53, of Goodooga, is standing for The Greens and is campaigning on rural and Aboriginal issues. |
| From outback to outrage 16 July 2004 - Independent (UK) - This book is Germaine Greer's brilliant and original - but highly provocative - solution to Australia's problems. She wants every Australian whitefella and whitesheila to sit down in front of a mirror and say, "I live in an Aboriginal country". She says that this simple declaration could change Australia and its relationship with the rest of the world. • Fantasies under the river gums - The Spectator (UK) Other reviews of 'Whitefella Jump Up' - InLondon.com - Gnist (Norway) - Amazon (UK) - New Stateman (UK) |
Australian Aborigines look forward to election
with hope |
| Aboriginal dance in step with modernity 15 July 2004 - International Herald Tribune - Thirty-eight-year-old Stephen Page, the 10th of 12 children who grew up in assisted housing in the subtropical Australian town of Brisbane, burst onto the world stage with his spectacular choreography of "Awakenings," the indigenous segment of the opening ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics. For a bit more than 11 minutes, 3 billion people around the world watched 1,000 indigenous dancers from the red gorges of the Kimberley and the tropical far north of Arnhem Land to the baked earth of the Central Desert, a diverse range of clans each with their own language and cultural traditions, perform their dances and music. |
| Australia looks for Pacific solution to
nuclear waste problem 14 July 2004 - AFP - Prime Minister John Howard proposed Wednesday sending Australia's low-level nuclear waste to an offshore island after being forced to abandon plans for a radioactive waste dump on a remote mainland site. The repository was to have been built on a sheep farm acquired for the purpose near Woomera in South Australia, but after years of wrangling with state authorities, Prime Minister John Howard said his government had dropped the plan. • Resistance stopped Australian nuclear dump - ENIAR • Why Howard dumped the dump |
| Australian children in sea ordeal 13 July 2004 - BBC -Three children have been found on a remote island in northern Australia, six days after their dinghy sank in choppy seas. The children, aged between 10 and 15, swam to safety, and survived on coconut milk and shellfish. • Local knowledge saved children • Children survive six days stuck on island • Oysters, plums and coconut milk: how children survived on a desert island - The Guardian (UK) |
| Aboriginal art debuts in Greece 10 July 2004 - Ekathimerini (Greece) - An exhibition focusing on the art of indigenous Australians opened recently at the New Building of the Benaki Museum, situated on Pireos Street. At the new Benaki wing, the new exhibition joins the “Periplous” photography exhibition and the “Ptychoseis — Folds & Pleats” exhibition — all three shows will remain on display throughout the summer. |
| Kobia expresses dismay at deteriorating Aboriginal
situation in Australia 9 July 2004 - World Council of Churches - "The right to self-determination is an inalienable right of Australian Aboriginals. It is unacceptable that in a democratic civilized country like Australia, the government denies the basic rights of the original inhabitants of the land," said World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia in his first public address in Australia. |
| L'oscuro segreto dell'Australia (Australia's
Dark Secret) 7 July 2004 -New Statesman (UK) -Cosa c'è nel retro delle splendide immagini da cartolina australiane? Segregazione e razzismo. Nel suo ultimo editoriale per il New Statesman, John Pilger commenta uno straordinario documentario della BBC, che indaga le radici dell’eccezionale rivolta di febbraio dei nativi australiani, gli Aborigeni. |
| Australia's Dark Secret 7 July 2004 - New Statesman (UK) - On 8 July, BBC television showed an outstanding documentary called The Boy from the Block ... The reporter is David Akinsanya. I heard about his film when I was in Sydney earlier this year. He is a black Briton with a way of reporting that is devoid of television's cliches and veiled insincerity. In his film, he achieves what his Australian equivalents rarely do - that is, the few who try. He tells the truth about the heartbreaking, shaming treatment and abandonment of Aboriginal Australia. |
The no worries society |
| UK Museums Association backs licensing body
for human remains 6 July 2004 - The Museums Association has published a response to the Church Archaeology Human Remains Working Group Report, which recommends a licensing body to oversee the use of human remains by museums. The response states: 'A licensing authority would ensure that a set of minimum standards for best practice could be established and only those adhering to such standards would be able to retain human remains.' • Ch |