indigenous affairs
indigenous affairs
indigenous affairs November 17, 2018
Kids on country, not in custody
When I first saw footage on Facebook of Darwin’s Don Dale detention centre in flames after a rebellion I was heartbroken and very scared for the kids inside. The video showed riot police entering the prison with shotguns and tear gas. This was...
indigenous affairs October 20, 2018
During the 18th century, a European travel writer visiting the colonies in what is now South America was astounded to stumble upon a town where a biracial governor was casually going about his business. More astounding still was how completely...
indigenous affairs September 22, 2018
Why I won’t stand for the national anthem
It took me quite a while before I decided not to stand for the national anthem at school. I started talking with my family about the anthem, and the words in it. We talked about what it might mean to different people, and I started to feel as if...
indigenous affairs October 6, 2018
Getting the people behind the Uluru statement
Recently, I read Laura Tingle’s Quarterly Essay, Follow the Leader . I was seething with anger at the time, having just read that the member for Lingiari, Warren Snowdon, had lectured Indigenous leaders about realpolitik from his comparatively...
indigenous affairs September 15, 2018
Abbott’s envoy appointment derisory
As an Aboriginal person, a leadership spill is an interesting phenomenon to observe. There is a lot of earnest frustration – this isn’t who we voted for! – and there is a feeling that important decisions are being made about your life without you...
indigenous affairs August 25, 2018
No one with a revulsion for the influence of the alt-right or neo-Nazis in our body politic would be surprised to learn that an aspiring Aboriginal candidate for the House of Representatives could graduate from the role of children’s entertainer “...
indigenous affairs April 14, 2018
Royal commission into police needed
Has Victoria Police lost control over the behaviour of its members? Has it tolerated excessive force, non-compliance with ethical standards and failure of duty of care for so long that its members now regularly cross the line of legal behaviour in...
religion March 31, 2018
There was an awful fascination to watching the Australian cricket captain destroy himself on the television news. It was almost as grisly as those shots of the Mad Monk kissing Hanson at her “book” launch on Tuesday, although for different reasons...
indigenous affairs March 10, 2018
Land is intrinsic to Indigenous culture and identity. We are raised to understand that we belong to the land, not that it belongs to us, and with that belonging comes a responsibility to protect the land. This is why Indigenous people seek to assert...
indigenous affairs February 17, 2018
The failures of Closing the Gap
On February 13, 2008, the First Nations people of Australia received something for which we had waited decades. Kevin Rudd, having been prime minister for a little over two months, followed through on an election promise and apologised to the Stolen...
religion February 17, 2018
The city of Santa Fe sits 2200 metres above sea level, my new friend – an older, established writer who has lived here for decades – tells me as we drive along the highway, the Rio Grande a flashing blue knife on one side, ragged sloping bush on the...
