indigenous affairs
indigenous affairs
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 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 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...
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 “...
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...
indigenous affairs February 10, 2018
Indigenous people are viewed as a problem in this country. We are a problem that is met by the powerful with “solutions” brandished like weapons to beat us down – from historical solutions such as murder, massacre, sexualised violence and slavery,...
indigenous affairs January 29, 2018
Writing this is hard. That is because Australia Day is hard. It’s been hard for me ever since I can remember. I’ve marched every year since I was a child. I’ve worn my Aboriginal flag shirt with pride and been sneered at. I’ve written about it for...
indigenous affairs December 2, 2017
The difference this year is that debate didn’t fizzle out in the weeks after January 26. The Change the Date campaign was vocal and successful for the entirety of 2017, which tends to suggest there has been a shift in community attitudes with...
