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ABC RN Phillip Adams 'Late Night Live' Thursday 19 February 2015 - In 1961, young married couple Robert and Helen Singleton, joined the Freedom rides to protest against racial segregation in America's south. The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that segregation on public buses and interstate transport, including at transit stops, was unconstitutional but southern states had ignored this ruling. As soon as they arrived in Jackson, Mississippi, Bob and Helen Singleton were arrested and incarcerated in the notorious Parchman Penitentiary, along with many other Freedom riders. Today, the Singletons say they are concerned about racial profiling and the use of force by police, as well as the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision blunting the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the civil rights movement’s most important victories. - Image: Freedom Riders, Robert and Helen Singleton (Source ABC RN/Alex McClintock)

Uproxx
'2 Broke Girls' Offended Australians With An Aboriginal Australians Joke
Uproxx
People in Australia are pissed after a particular episode of 2 Broke Girls aired over there on Wednesday night. “And the Fun Factory,” which originally aired in the U.S. in early January, featured a joke made at the expense of Aboriginal Australians.

Aboriginal Art Directory News
The Wild Australia Troupe
Aboriginal Art Directory News
A little before 1892, a group of 27 Indigenous people came together from the groups of Wakaya, Kuthant, Kurtjar, Arapa, Walangama, Mayikulan, Kabi Kabi, Kalkadoon and Muralag. There were 22 men, four women and one child. And the man behind it, ...

Pacific Islanders in Australia are angry over a federal government move to ban kava. Stefan Armbruster SBS World News 18 FEB 2015 - (Transcript from World News Radio) - Claims organised gangs of Pacific Islanders are smuggling kava into Northern Territory Aboriginal communities will see the federal government ban the traditional drink in Australia. - Existing import limits will be abolished, a move that has angered Pacific islanders. - The proposed ban comes as Australian aid funds the development of bottled kava drinks as an export industry in Fiji. - Stefan Armbruster reports - The drinking of kava is an ancient Pacific islander custom, now regularly practiced in Australia - (SFX of clapping) - The claps are a signal appreciation. - This kava club gathers regularly in Brisbane but soon these sessions could be illegal. - Federal Indigenous Affairs minister and Northern Territory Senator Nigel Scullion is on a mission. - "We accept people practising their culture in this country. Of course we do. But when it is perverted and redirected, and to harm our First Australians, it isn't a right, it's a privilege. But I'm an advocate unashamedly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. That's my job and I think it should be banned and I will continue pursuing it until it is banned." - A total ban on kava imports because of the actions of a few has shocked the tens of thousands of Pacific Islanders in Australia. - "It makes me angry, it makes me very, very angry." - Zane Yoshida is an Australian citizen from Fiji who regularly has kava sessions at his house and is the founder of Taki Mai, a company that makes bottled kava drinks. - "We definitely deserve to have kava as part of our traditional cultural practices, even in Australia. If anything, it has been a positive influence on the Fijian community. Even the youth in Australia, as an alternative to alcohol." - Kava is already illegal in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities in Arnhem Land because of the health, social and financial impacts. - NT police Detective Superintendant Tony Fuller of the Drug and Organised Crime Division has long worked in the remote communities. - "Basically what kava does is it compounds existing health and substance abuses issues in the communities, so what it does is it adds one more layer of problems to the community." - Two kilos of kava per person can legally be brought into Australia from Pacific Islands like Fiji. - "Generally it's brought into Australia by Pacific Island groups, and we're seeing what we call stockpiling in places like Sydney and Brisbane, and then the couriers will either bring it up by plane or mail it or sometimes they'll just drive it up." - NT police have seized about 10 tonnes since 2009 and made more than 200 arrests. - "The vast majority of offenders who bring it into the Northern Territory are Tongan, of Tongan descent. There are obviously some Tongans out there who don't abuse it. That said we have a significant amount of Aboriginal people we are arresting." - Penalties include prison terms of up to eight years for quantities over 25 kilograms. - Kava costs about $30 a kilo overseas, once in Arnhem Land it sells for about $1000. - Senator Nigel Scullion says kava smuggling is big business. - "There's been I think over seventeen busts over 100 kilo and one of the things this signifies is that this is a organised criminal activity. The size of the busts, the sophistication of communication, this is significant organised criminal activity and with significant organised crime comes other activities. People say, 'We are drinking kava today, but we have a suite of drugs for you'. " - Kava has a distinctive taste. - It comes from the root of a pepper tree, and has a relaxing and slightly numbing effect. - Pacific islanders enjoy sharing kava, much like a cup of tea or coffee in other cultures, but it is drunk in much larger quantities for the effect. - It was introduced to the Northern Territory in the 1980s by Pacific islander missionaries as an alternative to alcohol. - After initial successes it was soon abused, then restricted and finally banned with the imposition of the 2006 NT intervention. - "We understand that in a very naive community like Arnhem Land, this is why it is doing the damage, because it is drunk in vast quantities and not in a cultural sense at all." - Kava is not widely used in Aboriginal communities outside north-west Arnhem Land. - While the federal government wants to ban it at home, Australian overseas aid has funded kava production in Fiji as a health supplement for export. - Zane Yoshida's company Taki Mai has received tens of thousands of dollars of Australian international aid funds develop its product in Fiji. - "I've developed a kava supplement that I currently sell in the United States and Fiji through the natural food channels and this produce here is a kava supplement for taking the edge of, for relaxing, and as we progress with clinical trials here in Australia, we'd like to make structure function claims for relieving stress and anxiety." - Their product was launched by the Fiji's Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama in July last year. - "The head of the Australian High Commission, members of the community, distinguished guests, my fellow Fijian. Bula vinaka, I'm delighted to be with you this morning to officially to launch Taki Mai. A supplement drink that feature Fijian grown kava. I take this opportunity to thank the Australian government for the support of this project." - Kava is legal in the United States and the European Union last year drop its ban, saying it could not substantial health concerns. - Zane Yoshida says the federal government has got it wrong. - "The key word for this is education, if we can put together programs to educate people about alcohol abuse and drug abuse, why can't were do the same for kava." - No date has been set for when kava imports will be banned and the Senator Scullion promises to speak to Pacific islander communities first.

Radio Australia - 20 February 2015 - Claims that organised gangs of Pacific islanders are smuggling kava into Aboriginal communities in Australia's Northern Territory could see the traditional Pacific island drink banned. - Australia's indigenous affairs minister set on outright kava ban (Credit: ABC) Federal Indigenous Affairs minister and Northern Territory Senator Nigel Scullion says Australia accepts people practising their culture, but when it is perverted, redirected, and harms First Australians, it isn't a right, it's a privilege. - He says in order to protect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia, kava should be banned and he will continue pursuing it until it is banned. - Anthropologist Kirk Huffman says the government is going about this in entirely the wrong way. - Presenter: Bruce Hill - Speaker: Kirk Huffman, anthropologist and honorary curator of the Vanuatu Museum

The Australian
change propels inertia
The Australian
The leaders, managers and workforce of the entire indigenous sector across Australia have been given no information about their funding submissions. No one can plan service delivery and operability without clarity on what the minister's decision is on ...

The Australian
Philip Clarke's discovery of Aboriginal plant kingdom
The Australian
WHEN the young Philip Clarke arrived at the South Australian Museum as a volunteer worker in 1982, it was a musty, eccentric place, with a diverse range of near-forgotten treasures packed away. The Aboriginal artefact stores were housed in the east ...

Google News

Aboriginal woman, Beverley Moore Whyman from Mildura is pleading to the Australian government for her son to be returned home from a US Prison. Beverley's son Russell Moore was taken from her at birth, and she has been fighting for her son to be returned home ever since. - Russell was adopted by a missionary couple and renamed James Hudson Savage. He was then taken to America by his adoptive parents when he was 6 years old. In 1989, James Hudson Savage was convicted of murder and sentenced to die in the Electric Chair. It was during the appeal that it was revealed that Russell Moore was part of Australia's Stolen Generation of Aboriginal people. - Beverley says her son has been forgotten and left to fend for himself in a state prison in Florida, USA. The federal government has never contacted her to talk about his release. Suffering from chronic health programs, Beverley wants her son to come back home to Australian, and she is afraid she will die before he is released. Source: SBS Living Black

teleSUR English
Indigenous Australians Face Eviction from Protest Camp
teleSUR English
When the AHC first began to be handed parts of what would later become the Block in the 1970s, it was widely viewed as a major victory in the battle for Indigenous land rights. The entire area was earmarked for affordable housing for Indigenous ...

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Aboriginal activist Robbie Thorpe talks about the Invasion Day rally and his thoughts on Invasion Day and his pride in the younger generation stepping up to the challenge of fighting for the rights of first nations people. (Source: SBS Living Black)

Lindy Kerin reports for ABC/AM 20 February 2015 - Image: Zona Moore was 14 when the Freedom Riders came to Moree - (Pic:Lindy Kerin) ------TRANSCRIPT------ MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: An ugly chapter in Australia's race relations will be remembered today in the regional New South Wales town of Moree. - Fifty years ago a group of university students led by the late Charles Perkins arrived in Moree and exposed widespread racism and segregation. It was the flashpoint of the 1965 Freedom Ride when a violent race riot hit national headlines. - Many locals say times have changed, but others say there's still a racial divide. - Lindy Kerin reports from Moree. - (Sounds from a swimming pool) - LINDY KERIN: The Moree baths are like any other pools around the country. Young kids are in swimming lessons, older women are doing aqua aerobics and toddlers are running through water fountains. - (Sounds from a swimming pool) - But 50 years ago a council by-law banned some people from swimming here, as local Aboriginal woman Zona Moore remembers. - ZONA MOORE: My sister was fair, she had to live up with my grandmother who was fair, so she could go to the pool and I'd be on the outside, she'd be on the inside crying because I couldn't come in because of the colour of my skin, but she was allowed in there. - LINDY KERIN: Zona Moore was 14 and living at the Moree mission when the Freedom Ride rolled into town. ZONA MOORE: We didn't know what was going to happen once we got on the bus or get to the pool. - All we remember was mayhem. There were screams, there were gunjies, you know, and all these people with placards and I though 'Oh my god, what are we in for now?" and we thought we were going straight into the pool but we had to get past those placards and have Charlie and the students get us in there. We thought we were just going straight in there. The fight hadn't even started (laughs). - LINDY KERIN: Later today, some of the original Freedom Riders will arrive in Moree to mark the 50 year anniversary. - The manager of the Artesian Aquatic Centre, Julie Rushby, says the town has moved on from its troubled past. - JULIE RUSHBY: I think things are progressing not only here at the pool but within our community. There is... I don't know if divide is the right word, as much as the community is becoming inclusive. - There are still pockets of our community that aren't embracing moving forward. - For me, in speaking to some of the older Indigenous people that would have been either kids or even adults at the Freedom Rides, they've said to me 'Oh, I still don't go to the pool'. - So as part of our service on the Sunday, we did a smoking ceremony to cleanse the place and hopefully remove any bad feelings and hopefully everybody acknowledges that the doors are open. - LINDY KERIN: Speaking to locals about race relations here is still a sensitive subject and many locals were reluctant to share their opinions with AM. - This business owner, who didn't want to be identified, says Moree has changed. - MOREE WOMAN: I think we've come a real long way and I have heaps and heaps of Aboriginal friends here, which... and I take one to line dancing a couple of times a week, (laughs). Very good friends. We feel we've done our best, the non-Indigenous have done our best. - LINDY KERIN: Fifty years ago, the Freedom Riders were run out of town by violence. - Today, the local council is leading the town's commemorations. - The Deputy Mayor is Sue Price. - SUE PRICE: No one could say that we still haven't got a way to go but things have come a long way. Just our council, for example, we have a 20 per cent Aboriginal employment rate in our council staff and that's very exciting for us as council - and for I think, for the Moree community. - LINDY KERIN: But for Lyall Munro, a mission kid who got on the Freedom Ride in Moree, things haven't changed enough. - LYALL MUNRO: There's certainly racism still wedging the education system here, and that's evident by the number of Aboriginal kids that are consistently stood down by the schools here. - We have now a more serious problem with the rate of deaths here. We have an average rate of 40 Aboriginal people per year. This has been the case for the past 10 years. And, you know, you walk into shops and that, there's still that situation, that feeling of you're different, that feeling of you're Aboriginal, you know, you're black, you're dirty. That's still the view here because those rednecks that were there in '65, the descendents of those rednecks are still very much alive in this town and at the appropriate times, it raises its ugly head. - MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Moree resident Lyall Munro, ending that report by Lindy Kerin.

Crikey
Australia's indigenous affairs minister set on outright kava ban
Radio Australia
Federal Indigenous Affairs minister and Northern Territory Senator Nigel Scullion says Australia accepts people practising their culture, but when it is perverted, redirected, and harms First Australians, it isn't a right, it's a privilege. He says in ...
Gulag Territory: NT's shameful incarceration of Aboriginal AustraliansCrikey

all 2 news articles »Google News

Australia's indigenous affairs minister set on outright kava ban
Radio Australia
He says in order to protect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia, kava should be banned and he will continue pursuing it until it is banned. Anthropologist Kirk Huffman says the government is going about this in entirely the wrong way.

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NEWS.com.au
2 Broke Girls slammed for Aboriginal joke
NEWS.com.au
In the scene a male character reveals that he has been flirting with an Australian girl online and says: “She's part Aboriginal, but she has a great personality!” Unhappy viewers took to social media with former Channel Nine personality and The Block ...
Popular sitcom '2 Broke Girls' slammed for racist Indigenous Australian jokeSBS
'It's not about being hypersensitive'Herald Sun
2 Broke Girls slammed for indigenous racial slurSheKnows.com

all 27 news articles »

SBS
US sitcom '2 Broke Girls' slammed for racist Indigenous Australian joke
SBS
Tuesday night's episode of American sitcom '2 Broke Girls' has angered Australians fans after a racist joke about Indigenous Australians was aired to more than 320,000 viewers. The joke was made by a male character named Han who explained that he was ...
Rudd slams 2 Broke Girls 'racist' jokeNEWS.com.au
2 Broke Girls under fire for racist joke about Aboriginal AustraliansStuff.co.nz
2 Broke Girls slammed for indigenous racial slurSheKnows.com

all 16 news articles »

SBS
Popular sitcom '2 Broke Girls' slammed for racist Indigenous Australian joke
SBS
Tuesday night's episode of American sitcom '2 Broke Girls' has angered Australians fans after a racist joke about Indigenous Australians was aired to more than 320,000 viewers. The joke was made by a male character named Han who explained that he was ...
Rudd slams 2 Broke Girls 'racist' jokeNEWS.com.au
Susie O'Brien: 2 Broke Girls Aboriginal slur just the latest in string of rape ...Herald Sun
2 Broke Girls slammed for indigenous racial slurSheKnows.com

all 16 news articles »

Crikey
Gulag Territory: NT's shameful incarceration of Aboriginal Australians
Crikey
In mid-November last year, the Australian Productivity Commission released the Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage report, which described Australia's ongoing failings in dealing with the problems that continue to afflict Australia's Aboriginal ...
Australia's indigenous affairs minister set on outright kava banRadio Australia

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Inside Out: Indigenous imprisonment in Australia - documentary video
The Guardian
Filmed on the plains of north-western New South Wales, this documentary looks at one man's fight against the scourge of Indigenous imprisonment in his community. Inside Out tells the story of a pastor and former prison guard, Uncle Isaac Gordon, whose ...

Australian fans are angry at American sitcom 2 Broke Girls for a racist joke ...
Sydney Morning Herald
Australian fans of the American comedy show 2 Broke Girls responded in uproar over the racist joke about Indigenous Australians, which aired on Tuesday evening. During the season four episode, titled And the Fun Factory, a male character is shown ...

Sydney Morning Herald
2 Broke Girls season 4 under fire for racist joke about Aboriginal Australians
Sydney Morning Herald
Australian fans of the American comedy show 2 Broke Girls responded in uproar over the racist joke about Indigenous Australians, which aired on Tuesday evening. During the season four episode, titled And the Fun Factory, a male character is shown ...
2 Broke Girls slammed for indigenous racial slurSheKnows.com

all 13 news articles »