Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, aborigines, Indigenous Australians: it can be difficult for media organisations to know what terms are appropriate when writing stories about Australia’s first inhabitants.
Indigenous affairs
Caring for country is also good for Aboriginal people
Aboriginal people have jurisdiction over roughly 20 percent of the country. It was hoped that such expansive land ownership would lead to successful agriculture and advance the economic wellbeing of Aboriginal Australians, writes Bradley Smith.
The slow death of Aboriginal Research? AIATSIS suspends research grants
Fields of research including anthropology and linguistics are under threat after research grants have been suspended at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, writes Bob Gosford.
Indigenous rights: constitutional amendments
likely
Crikey media wrap: A referendum to remove discrimination of indigenous Australians from the constitution is likely before the next election, after an expert panel presented its final report to the Prime Minister yesterday.
Crabb: Liberals like a nanny state as long as they’re the nanny
Conservatives in Australia have their long johns in a knot over planned pokie regulations, arguing that Australia is turning into a nanny state. So why were they pro the Howard-led Intervention in the NT against indigenous Australians? asks Annabel Crabb.
Economic rationalism hits the homelands
Outstations/homelands (the terms can be used interchangeably) represent a service delivery headache for the state, but this is mainly due to unimaginative policy approaches, writes Professor Jon Altman.
Mapping ethics of Aboriginal genome research
New research mapping the Aboriginal genome garnered international attention last week and is re-writing the history books on human migration, but scientists fear the news raises an ethical quagmire here in Australia.
Census 2011: finding and counting 2.3% of the population
Thanks to $20 million from the government to address the undercount of indigenous people this time around, a significant amount of census resources have been allocated to ensure indigenous communities are counted accurately, reports Amber Jamieson and Crikey intern Sophie Malcolm.
‘I will have the Police shoot your Dog’ — animal management in the NT
Judging from a sign put up in Nyirripi, a small township in the Tanami desert, there are people in positions of power in remote townships who think that the bullet from the gun of the local cop is an effective means of animal control, writes Bob Gosford.
Intervention sign wars in the Tanami Desert
Bob Gosford writes on the amusing political war going on in Yuendumu, where locals deface (perhaps improve?) the signs spruiking the government’s NT Intervention and erect their own signs.
‘Sorry’ doesn’t mean everything is OK
As National Sorry Day approaches, the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) says more work still needs to be done to achieve meaningful justice for the Stolen Generations, writes Bob Gosford.
Pat Anderson: intervention neither well-intentioned nor well-evidenced
Pat Anderson co-authored the Little Children are Sacred report for the NT government. The subsequent NT intervention ignored everything the report recommended, says Anderson.
How to improve Indigenous patients’ access to medicines
For years it’s been a struggle for indigenous patients in remote communities to access PBS medicines, but efforts are finally being made to improve this significant underuse of the scheme. Dr Noel Hayman outlines the initiative.
An open letter to Andrew Bolt from a “half-caste” Kungarakan-Gurindji woman
Proud Aboriginal academic Sue Stanton writes about the recent Andrew Bolt case and how frustrating it is for someone who has spent their life fighting for Aboriginal rights.
The video of Twiggy Forrest that everyone’s talking about
A video has been uploaded by the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation expressing their concern over a March meeting with Fortesque Metals Group over a native title dispute in the Pilbara.
healthcare Avoiding the “road to hell” in Indigenous policy
This week Andrew Podger, Professor of Public Policy at ANU, delivered a Reconciliation Lecture titled Avoiding roads to hell, which addressed public policy and Indigenous affairs. Visit Crikey’s health blog Croakey for a transcript.
Drunks or spiritual gurus: media (mis)representations of Indigenous Australians
The way the indigenous people of this country get portrayed in media reports continue to be along the “the savage and the noble” lines. We need to move beyond these simplistic stereotypes, particularly in the post-2007 NT Intervention media landscape.
Cry from Numbulwar: ‘They have broken Aboriginal law, but can’t be subject to it’
In a decision that has more than a few eyebrows raised and tongues wagging up north, all charges for desecrating a sacred indigenous site were dropped against the directors of S & R Building and the company fined just $500.
Pearson: PM Abbott the Right choice for aborigines
History shows that the best person to make progressive policies is a conservative. And Australia’s indigenous people need right-wing leadership — like Tony Abbott and Bob Katter — to bring bipartisan support to resolve the big issues , declares Noel Pearson.
Dancing at the Bush Bands Bash
Bob Gosford heads off to the Alice Springs Desert Festival for a rollicking good time of contemporary Indigenous music, aligning of the stars and a plethora of different mother tongues.
How the Spinifex People claimed their land by painting it
Over the next couple of weeks Bob Gosford is focusing on a poorly recognised phenomenon: the collective claiming of rights to and possession of country by Aboriginal people through art.
The bitter sweet ironies of the Torres Strait native title win
Two decades after the High Court of Australia recognised the existence of native title rights, the Federal Court handed down a decision in the Torres Strait Regional Seas case. This has immense importance to Torres Strait islanders.
Alice Springs: still dumb and racist?
A month ago Bob Gosford wrote about how the Alice Springs town council banned street artists, all of whom are indigenous. Do we need a bill of rights to protect individuals against laws like these? asks Gosford.
How to really ‘close the gap’
With all the talk about “closing the gap” between mainstream and Aboriginal health and life-expectancy outcomes in this country, the Shalom Gamarada scholarship program is a good start, writes Bob Gosford.
