ARTICLES
Keeping our community and members updated on local and national news along with a variety of issues affecting the Aboriginal community
LATEST ARTICLES
Our archive of content from the old website will slowly be merge into this section. When this is complete there will be a nice variety of news and events information.
Marshall over-ruled advice about drilling at Aboriginal heritage site Premier and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Steven Marshall was warned by his department not to allow a mineral exploration company to drill at a “pivotal” Aboriginal heritage site as it would damage the area and cause “hurt, sorrow and sickness” to Traditional Owners – but he allowed the work to proceed. Lake Torrens in SA's outback. Photo: Facebook/SANTS Marshall in January signed off on a proposal put forward by mineral exploration company Kelaray to drill up to 1230 holes at Lake Torrens in search of iron-oxide-copper-gold. The lake is Australia’s second largest salt lake and plays a significant role in Adnyamathanha, Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara, Arabana, Barngarla, Kokatha and Kuyani beliefs and songlines. It is not protected under native title law, but the site is listed as an Aboriginal heritage place, with the government warning that ancestral remains are likely to be buried around the lake’s perimeter and islands. Marshall, who is responsible for the protection and preservation of Aboriginal sites, has repeatedly defended his decision to approve drilling at Lake Torrens, saying Kelaray must abide by “strict [...]
‘It was our economy, now we are dirt poor’: First Nations people dispossessed of water First Nations people say they are continuing to be dispossessed of their rights and their economy after a study of Indigenous water rights in the Murray-Darling Basin found they share less than 1 per cent of the market. Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute compiled for the first time the volume and value of water rights owned by First Nations groups in the basin, which spans Queensland, NSW, ACT, Victoria and South Australia. The report, commissioned by the Commonwealth’s Murray Darling Basin Authority, found about 44 First Nations groups share in 0.12 per cent of the market worth $16 billion. Their 64 entitlements give rights to a cumulative annual water take of 13 gigalitres, worth $15 million. Tatti Tatti man Brendan Kennedy, from the Murray River in western Victoria, says First Nations people had been systematically locked out from the allocation of water rights and need more to use for environmental, cultural and economic purposes. “Prior to invasion our people owned and managed 100 per cent of the water in [...]
Stan Grant calls out Australia for double standards on Q+A during discussion on sexual assault and the government Stan Grant called out Australia for only caring about sexual assault once it happened in Australia's middle class. ABC journalist Stan Grant has used an appearance on Q+A to call out Australia for only taking notice of sexual assaults when they happen to "middle class" white women. Allegations of sexual assaults, misogyny and inappropriate behaviour in political circles have dominated the news for weeks. But while Grant said those issues deserved national attention, he said the complaints of Indigenous women about the same issues had been ignored for too long. "As necessary and as urgent and as righteous as these claims are, and this movement is, there have been so many women's voices who have not been listened to for a long time," Grant said. "And ... when it becomes a white middle-class issue, when it is in private schools, when it is in Parliament House, when it is in the press gallery, we take notice. "But when Aboriginal women who have been suffering domestic [...]
Aboriginal women have fought against gendered violence perpetrated by white men since day one
“In the past week, three Aboriginal people have died in police custody. How many of you know that it’s thirty years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and in that time, there have been over 455 deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.” Sue-Anne Hunter shares her powerful speech, spoken from her ancestral lands at the March For Justice in Narrm, on Monday 15 March 2021. Aboriginal women have been resisting white male violence since 26th Jan 1788. Patriarchy and the violence that goes hand in hand with it came to these to shores on a ship. Let me tell the story of Cammeraygal woman Barangaroo. A leader and cultural authority and holder of Cammeraygal lore, she was the fourth wife of Bennelong. When a white woman stole fishing gear from her clan, Barangaroo physically intervened to stop her from being flogged in the white settlement. Barangaroo was the one to stand up against Governor Arthur Phillip. She refused to dress in western clothes; she refused to speak in English. In defiance of Governor Phillip, she broke her spears, and [...]
INCREDIBLE MOMENT
Germany to Apologies for William Cooper snub 'The fact that Cooper and the Australian Aborigines' League stood up for Jews when they themselves were not even recognised as citizens in their own land is truly remarkable'. William Cooper’s grandson Uncle Boydie (left) delivering a copy of his grandfather’s protest letter following Kristallnacht to Dr. Felix Klein of the German government in 2017. THE German government will issue a historic apology on Sunday, 82 years since the day that Yorta Yorta man William Cooper and a delegation from the Australian Aborigines’ League (AAL) marched to the German consulate in Melbourne to lodge a petition that protested against the “cruel persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi government of Germany”. The petition – which the consulate refused to accept – was considered to be among one of the very few private protests against the treatment of Jews to have occurred anywhere in the world following Kristallnacht. Cooper and the AAL’s righteous act was even more remarkable given the status of Australia’s Aboriginal people at that time, who were denied full citizen rights – and would [...]
Historic change to Advance Australia Fair, Australia’s national anthem, in the ‘spirit of unity’
Historic change to Advance Australia Fair, Australia's national anthem, in the 'spirit of unity' Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia's story was ancient, as were the stories of the country's First Nations peoples.(ABC News: Rhiannon Shine) More than 140 years after it was first composed and performed, Advance Australia Fair is again being updated in a move the Prime Minister says reflects a "spirit of unity". From January 1, 2021, the second line of Australia's national anthem will change from, "For we are young and free" to "For we are one and free". Governor-General David Hurley has agreed to the Commonwealth's recommendation to make an amendment to the anthem for the first time since 1984. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement that the change was being made for all Australians. "During the past year we have showed once again the indomitable spirit of Australians and the united effort that has always enabled us to prevail as a nation," he said. "It is time to ensure this great unity is reflected more fully in our national anthem. "Also, while Australia as a modern [...]