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 issues
What happened to Aboriginal Australia setting the agenda?
The fact we are still calling for sovereignty and self-determination, 40 years on from the first steps of the tent embassy, shows just how central it is to Aboriginal aspirations, writes Amy McQuire, editor of Tracker Magazine.
Crikey Says: Removing race from our constitution
We don’t collectively identify as racist. And yet there is the undeniable reality that our constitution as it stands still contains two sections designed specifically to discriminate.
Aboriginal crime and punishment: spending on jails but not outcomes
The rise of a punitive “law and order” culture in Australia has had a profoundly racial dimension, manifested in soaring rates of indigenous incarceration. Inga Ting continues her special report.
Aboriginal crime and punishment: incarceration rates rise under neoliberalism
The number of indigenous prisoners has increased for the 11th year in a row, despite the prisoner population falling for the first time in a decade. Inga Ting reports a history of failed government policy.
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.
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.
Aboriginal identity: ‘I never had a choice’
How do you define someone’s identity? It was key issue in the Andrew Bolt racial discrimination case and Crikey asked some Aboriginal Australians to explain identity in their own words.
Falling through the gaps: indigenous community left behind after Yasi
Cyclone Yasi hit Australia more than a month ago, but one town that wasn’t even damaged by the storm is still suffering the consequences of a mass evacuation.
Alcohol in the Alice: the drink destroying a city
In Alice Springs, locals drink double the national average of alcohol per year. Therefore it’s no surprise that 70-90% of the assaults in the town are alcohol-related. How do we stop the grog? asks Russell Goldflam.
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.
Indigenous workers are getting screwed under the SIHIP program
Two of my employment consultants have received a number of complaints from CDEP participants about being underpaid for working on Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program (SIHIP) projects using CDEP as a vehicle, writes Carl Russelhuber, Employment Services Manager, CatholicCare NT.
AEC indigenous job scheme: is it taxpayers’ money well spent?
Until more detailed information is publicly released about the AEC’s outcomes and its agreements with government, it will be impossible to assess if taxpayer investments are creating sustainable indigenous jobs, writes Dr Kirrily Jordan from Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, ANU.
UN set to give Oz a serve on our racial discrimination record
The UN Committee that monitors breaches of the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (the CERD Committee) will report on its examination of Australia this weekend.
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.
Crikey Says: Where to from here?
As we hit the publish button, Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin is announcing the passage of the welfare reform bill, thereby restoring the Racial Discrimination Act.
Rudd overpromised on indigenous unemployment
Tthe Australian government might have exacerbated the expansion of the Indigenous unemployment gap, report Professor Jon Altman and Dr Nicholas Biddle.
Talking the Town: Talking the Town: Pilger’s wrong to bag The West
Those expecting a fierce attack on media moguls from Australian ex-pat journalist John Pilger would have been disappointed at his Q&A session in Perth yesterday, writes Lawrence Apps.
Taking a dump on sacred land: the long-drop toilet and the NT Intervention
A construction company working as part of the NT Intervention is facing charges after digging a toilet in the middle of one of the most sacred Indigenous sites in Arnhem Land. How does a mishap of this size happen?
Ian Thorpe: Australia’s dirty little secret
In a speech given in London earlier this month, Australian Olympic legend Ian Thorpe dove head first into Australia’s failure to address the problems in indigenous communities.
Black promises are little white lies
What Labor understands is that on issues like Australia Day, we are not capable of a sensible national debate. Oi, Oi, Oi! writes Chris Graham.
Arnhem Land finally gets wired
Today in the remote Indigenous community of Oenpelli, adjacent to Kakadu National Park in West Arnhem Land, residents can access the internet at speeds comparable to those available in Sydney and Melbourne, reports Graham Ring.
Rudd wants jobs for blackfellas, just not in the public service
While Kevin Rudd is waxing lyrical to corporate Australia about the merits of hiring a blackfella, the ‘corporation’ he’s in charge of – the APS – is driving them away, writes Chris Graham.
