Among all the school payments and defence cuts, last week’s federal budget also quietly committed an additional $5.2 billion to the government’s Closing the Gap program. It’s a vote of faith from the government…
Melbourne footballer Liam Jurrah returns to Melbourne after being charged with attacking a man in Alice Springs.
AAP/David Crosling
Imagine if the indigenous people of this country didn’t play Australian football, the only truly unique sport this continent country has ever created.
As a percentage of the population, indigenous people…
Liam Jurrah’s involvement in a violent incident in an Alice Springs court last week has captivated the Australian media for days.
The 23-year-old forward at the Melbourne Football Club recommenced training…
It's essential that we get it right when it comes to changing our constitution to recognise Aboriginal Australians.
Flickr/Rusty Stewart
Earlier this year, the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians gave its final recommendations to the government.
Recognition would acknowledge the unique place of Aboriginal…
Queen Elizabeth II has many supporters. But are they getting value for money?
EPA/Chris Radburn
To some, the Queen and her royal family are dear to the heart.
To others, there is nothing sillier than following the lives of individuals that parade themselves as royalty. And for many – if not most…
The Treaty of Waitangi reminds us that indigenous people must be treated honourably before the law.
Sids1
Much is made of the Treaty of Waitangi as the vehicle for the recognition of Maori in New Zealand’s legal system. Australia lacks a treaty, the argument goes, and therefore is constitutionally disabled…
We know Aboriginal fires affected Australian vegetation, but now we have evidence they altered the monsoon too.
ciamabue/Flickr
For thousands of years, Aboriginal Australians burned forests to promote grasslands for hunting and other purposes. Recent research suggests that these burning practices also affected the timing and intensity…
Many Aboriginal people, like boxer Anthony Mundine, look to Islam as a way of re-connecting with their roots.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
Muslim conversion is growing in Indigenous communities.
In the 2001 national census, 641 Indigenous people identified as Muslim. By the 2006 census the number had climbed by more than 60% to 1014 people…
It's time to recognise the first Australians in our constitution.
Flickr/Rusty Stewart
Last week, the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples concluded its deliberations on reform proposals.
While we wait on the release of their final…
Indigenous Australians systematically burnt grasslands to reduce fuel and stop fires raging out of control.
Flickr/pietroizzo
Aboriginal people worked hard to make plants and animals abundant, convenient and predictable.
By distributing plants and associating them in mosaics, then using these to lure and locate animals, Aborigines…
Government data shows Aboriginal people are twice as likely to have a core activity limitation as non-Aboriginal people.
AAP Image/Karen Michelmore
Alongside high rates of incarceration, unemployment, homelessness and some of the poorest health outcomes in Australia, Indigenous people’s access and use of disability services is under-representative…
Aborginal students deserve better.
AAP Image/Peter Holmes a Court
There is no excuse for Indigenous education in Australia to be in such a terrible and shameful state.
Given the billions of dollars that are allocated to primary and secondary schooling Australia-wide…
Indigenous Australians under 18 will not be included in the sample collection components of the Australia Health Survey.
k-girl/Flickr
The Australian Health Survey’s (AHS) exclusion of data from the Indigenous population raises questions about how serious we are about closing the health gap.
It’s generally accepted that clinical care…
WA's proposed LNG processing plant has set Indigenous and environmental groups against one another.
AAP
Conflict between Indigenous (“Black”) and environmental (“Green”) groups is a growing feature of Australia’s political landscape. This has been highlighted by very public disputes over Wild Rivers legislation…
Acknowledging and honouring the humanity of others is the first step to a high-expectations relationship.
AAP/Tony Bartlett
By Chris Sarra, Queensland University of Technology
Why do we keep spending billions of dollars in Indigenous communities with so few results? It’s because we don’t have a high expectations relationship between both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians…
Indigenous people traditionally eat kangaroo, but they're worried about the scale of the hunting.
AAP
Last month, an alliance of Aboriginal elders announced their intention to bring a constitutional law challenge against Australia’s kangaroo industry.
The announcement follows efforts by the Federal Government…
While we do things to people, not with them, Indigenous policy won't move forward.
sidkid/Flickr
By Chris Sarra, Queensland University of Technology
AFTER THE INTERVENTION: Chris Sarra from the Queensland University of Technology says white Australia must address its relationship with Indigenous people to truly close the gap.
There has never seriously…
The Intervention was meant to help Indigenous children, but how much difference has it made?
Rusty Stewart/Flickr
AFTER THE INTERVENTION: Peter Billings from the University of Queensland interrogates the legal basis for the Intervention and suggests some new approaches.
The belated release of a 2010 review of Government…
They're digging it up, but they're not sharing it around.
ginger_ninja/Flickr
AFTER THE INTERVENTION: Ciaran O'Faircheallaigh of Griffith University explains why mineral wealth rarely ends up in Indigenous hands.
Native title creates the potential for indigenous communities to…
The message that Aboriginal people need to take responsibility for their future has been a popular one.
AAP
AFTER THE INTERVENTION: ANU’s Jon Altman investigates Noel Pearson’s efforts to improve Indigenous welfare on Cape York.
In discussions about the NT intervention, Noel Pearson’s work in Cape York is often…
Julia Gillard and Jenny Macklin announce the consultation paper, which is only in English.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The federal government’s consultation process on the next phase of the “Intervention” in the Northern Territory is excluding those to whom it matters most: Indigenous communities.
The “Intervention” was…
Indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin must ensure policy reflect cultural differences.
The Gillard Government’s new discussion paper on indigenous welfare policy in the Northern Territory continues Labor’s rhetorical reliance on a loosely defined concept of the “dignity of work”.
Federal…
Mining companies are finally sharing the benefits with the native owners of the land.
AFP/Christian Sprogoe/Rio Tinto
Aboriginal Australians living in remote areas have, for the past five decades, experienced at close quarters the ill-effects of large scale mining, while receiving few of the benefits.
From Cape York…
The government says it's on track to release all children asylum seekers in detention soon, but other policies need to be changed urgently.
Flickr/Takver
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights says Australia is racist. And she’s right. Racial discrimination in Australia is not idiosyncratic; it is enshrined in laws, policies and practices…
