“Sacrifice”, the ABC Four Corners episode of 10 March, was a train-wreck for the Australian War Memorial. Its spokespersons came across as dismissive, timid, or too clever by half. The critics of the Memorial, however, were passionate, regretful, and, in the case of Geoffrey Watson SC from the Centre for Public Integrity, downright angry. (more…)
Category: Indigenous affairs
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The Pacific is fighting for climate justice: Will Australia listen?
The Pacific Islands Climate Action Network (PICAN) participated in the final day of the Sydney Climate Action Week, on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation and had the privilege of listening to Indigenous and First Nations stories, learning from their wisdom. (more…)
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Gove and the native title revolution
The High Court’s judgment in March 2025 in favour of the Gumatj people has reaffirmed the centrality of the Indigenous peoples of Gove in the Northern Territory in the native title revolution that was conceived in a case against mining company, Nabalco Ltd, in the 1960s and continued with the High Court’s Mabo and Wik judgements in the 1990s. (more…)
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Uncle Robbie Thorpe to raise Australian genocide claim to the International Criminal Court
Having a legal action one has lodged with a court being refused is not usually the ideal outcome. Yet, the recent attempt by Uncle Robbie Thorpe to launch a private prosecution against so-called King Charles III for the crime of genocide being denied by the Victorian Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Krauatungalung elder to take the matter to a higher court beyond local borders. (more…)
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The Henty legacy and its ongoing impact
In the 1860s, as the new colony of Victoria boomed following the discovery of gold, First Peoples were being moved onto missions and reserves, where their lives were tightly controlled. (more…)
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John Howard and British colonisation of Australia
Humphrey McQueen (Pearls and Irritations, ‘The lucky Aborigines’ 26 January 2025), has reminded us of John Howard’s opinion that “the luckiest thing that happened to this country was being colonised by the British. Not that they were perfect by any means, but they were infinitely more successful and beneficent than other European colonisers.” (more…)
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The lucky Aborigines
“I do hold the view that the luckiest thing that happened to this country was being colonised by the British,” he said. “Not that they were perfect by any means, but they were infinitely more successful and beneficent colonisers than other European countries.” – John Howard, October 26, 2023. (more…)
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Instead of noise and bluster, can January 26 be a day of loving awareness of those who are hurting?
I have been reading Stan Grant’s beautiful new book, Murriyang song of time (Bundyi: Sydney 2024). There is in it a sentence pertaining to the Uluru Statement of the Heart and the subsequent failed Referendum. Stan Grant says, poignantly, that ‘the Uluru Statement spoke from the afflicted to a nation that has never loved us.’ (more…)
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After the theft of a continent, welfare benefits beat work
Land rights now! By a strange quirk of fate, I was working in the Minister’s Office in 1976 when Parliament passed the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act. Great was our pride, and our expectations. In terms of securing title to land and sea the Act has been highly effective. But in terms of creating assets for wealth generation, and lifting household incomes, and providing the means for people to participate in the economic activity of the Country, not so much. (more…)
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Rare earths: a conundrum for our responsibility to care for country and kin
The increasing global demand for rare earth elements (REE) is driven by clean energy technologies. The electric vehicle in particular, is a strong driving force. The un-ceded sovereign lands of hundreds of First Nations – now colonised and called Australia – hold at least four per cent of the world’s rare earth element reserves. (more…)
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Genocidal attitudes masked in the trappings of patriotism
The decision by Australia’s federal Opposition leader to avoid standing by the Aboriginal flag is a dangerously divisive and cynical move. (more…)
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Farewell fair go, hello despair
It’s true.
The night fears have come to pass.
The evidence is too great to ignore any longer. My country, our nation, is racist. (more…)
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Thorpe’s genocide case against Netanyahu’s Australian advisor as back in court
Mark Regev is “an Australian citizen and he’s advocating for genocide,” Uncle Robbie Thorpe explained last week. (more…)
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When media and the state collude
It was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, a day meant to mark the start of a 16-day global campaign to end the scourge of gender-based violence against women. Yet, on this day of reflection and action, The Australian chose to publish a follow-up story to its sensationalised splash just two days earlier about criminalised woman, Jody Thomson. (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
Up to 50,000 Māori mobilised and walked to the New Zealand Parliament in Wellington to to protest the treaty principles bill, which Amnesty International states should never have been introduced. Bob Carr states what he told us last week about AUKUS is now confirmed. A member of Knesset is forcibly removed for speaking out against the horror in Gaza. At the UN the Palestine member speaks to Gaza, the crossroad that will determine where humanity will go. We witness patients removed from a hospital by the IDF as hostages. Jeffrey Sachs speaking to the history of the war in Ukraine heralded as a history lesson. A five-minute scroll. (more…)
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The Australian colony: When will the ALP Government initiate system reform?
The visit of the British royals was for many Australians a non-event, an almost unreal formality that has to be experienced and processed. During the visit, Lydia Thorpe felt compelled to very publicly state: “You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. … We want a treaty in this country. This is not your land.” A stark reminder of unfinished business in the Australian colony. (more…)
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I’m still dreaming of a Blak Xmas stamp
In 1962, a columnist with the Melbourne Herald noted that a 16th century sculpture of Madonna and Child would be on that year’s Christmas stamp. He went on to praise ‘Our Lady of the Aborigines’ as ’a real Australian Madonna and Child,’ before asking, ‘How about it for next year?’ (more…)
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No Australian should swear loyalty to a foreign king
So Bridget McKenzie thinks Lidia Thorpe’s protest against King Charles raises some “quite tricky constitutional questions”. Yes it does, but not the ones she thinks. (more…)
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A dangerous move toward a modern-day Stolen Generation
By focusing on punitive programs instead of community-driven support over a ‘youth crime crisis’ that did not exist, the incoming Queensland LNP government appears to be blind to the systemic issues that drive children toward vulnerability. Their policies will reinforce a cycle of criminalisation that will haunt our communities for generations. (more…)
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On not being in control, and learning to ‘Go Round’
“It was we who did the dispossessing. We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases and the alcohol.” – Paul Keating, Redfern speech. (more…)
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The foundation stones of reconciliation, truth telling postponed again
The failure of last year’s referendum still troubles the country. The focus on the Voice to Parliament took attention away from the far more consequential question of truth telling, while paradoxically displaying how much it is still needed. (more…)
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Lidia, I’m angry, too
A lot has been written in the past few days about Senator Lidia Thorpe and her courageous act of speaking truth to power when she confronted coloniser, King Charles, in the colonial halls of Parliament. Yet amidst the commentary, one voice remains absent: the voice of the criminalised community. As a formerly incarcerated woman, I want to tell you what Lidia means to me, because as a leader, she embodies loyalty, bravery, and an unshakable commitment to pursuing justice for our community. In Lidia, I see a leader who has never wavered in her support for our struggles—a fearless advocate who stands with us when few others will. (more…)
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Thorpe unmasks the coloniser who visited genocide on Australia’s First Nations
Both Charles and Camilla are having their gilt edged fault lines exposed on their Australian tour. We should be thankful for Lidia Thorpe’s courage and outspokenness. (more…)
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Myths of the Referendum
One year on from the defeat of the ‘Indigenous Voice’ referendum of 14 October 2023, some myths have arisen about the process and the outcome. These deserve further discussion. (more…)
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What will follow the referendum?
It is not surprising that so many of us believed that after the Voice Referendum 2023 Indigenous people would be recognised in the Australian Constitution and their voices valued. (more…)
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History’s wound, still open wide
Australia, land of Altjira, of oceans wild and skies untamed,
Where stories of the Jukurrpa are told in songlines proclaimed. (more…) -
Indigenous cultures show other worlds are possible
‘I think the natives held privately that in taking such pains to make things grow where already things grew of their own accord I was maybe a little mad…. As for myself, there were times when…. it came to me with considerable force that perhaps in this private opinion there was a deal of truth…’ – Jack McLaren, ‘My Crowded Solitude’, 1926.
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Northern militarisation overlooking Indigenous rights: Prof Henry Reynolds, History, University of Tasmania
Indigenous Australians have extensive land rights across Northern Australia where large scale militarisation is being undertaken, raising questions about processes of consultation and underlying Indigenous rights endorsed by Australia under international treaty arrangements. (more…)
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The military Americanisation of Northern Australia
The headline in the Weekend Australian said it all: NT Bases Key to American War Plans. Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, the Chair of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Australian, after a ten day visit to Australia that our geography offered key advantages to the US “as it sought to deter Chinese aggression”. Indeed, the north would become “the central base of operations in the Indo-Pacific to counter the threat.’ Defence Minister Marles added his voice to the crusade explaining that after AUSMIN talks in the US last week that America’s military was now “operating in Australia across land, sea, air, cyber and space”. This all followed the commitment earlier in the year to spend $18 billion in the coming decade on upgrading defence bases across the north. (more…)
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The campaign to persuade: the “Voice” among Chinese Australians
We live in an era of communicative abundance and post-truth politics, where networked digital platforms shape nearly every aspect of our daily lives, from information and communication to economic and social transactions. Digital platforms have transformed truth-claiming and fact-checking into an emotionally driven process, blurring the boundaries between information and misinformation, as well as opinion and news. (more…)