Land Sea & Water

The Northern Territory's Arnhem Land plateau has thousands of paintings amongst its myriad of rock shelters but a full survey of the exact numbers has not never been carried out.
Experts warn that it is now under threat from wild buffalo, fire and feral animals. The last First Nations clans moved down from the plateau in the 1960s, lured away from their traditional lifestyle by Western missionaries with tobacco, sugar and floor. Now there is no-one left to protect this vast library.

Ancient rock paintings, standing stones and scattered artefacts had once been protected by their remote location, but mining activity that ramped up in the early 1960s had triggered "fears for the safety of sites of importance". Today the landscapes of the Pilbara and Kimberley regions are being extensively reconfigured in the era of GPS, aerial exploration and fly-in, fly-out workforces. Evidence of Aboriginal occupation is still scattered across those landscapes, lying in the path of planned roads, railways and mines. One mining tenement can hold thousands of such artefacts. The only plan the gov't has is to water down existing legislation.

The men at the forefront of the Aboriginal tent embassy at Airds are frustrated their site was valdalised on Saturday night. Tents were torn in half and banners were burnt when the site was unattended for just one hour on Saturday when the incident occurred.

The tent embassy was established local indigenous men to highlight their concerns over the protection of land and wildlife in Airds as part of the Airds Bradbury Renewal Project.

Do yourself a favour and watch this unreal video of historians Henry Reynolds and Bruce Pascoe speaking at the Sydney Writers Festival.

They speak on wars, memorials, the lack of commemorations, agriculture and the mainstream denial of the rich history of one of the world's great continents ... and the world's first bakers, with more than 12,000 years experience baking bread before any other country in the world. - ABC News 24 - 'Big Ideas'.

A Territory government drive a train through the Land Rights Act if the Federeal government handed it over to them.

'So what', you may think, Land Rights as we know it is a farce, you might say. Well, thats all very well, but many of our brothers and sisters are locked into these contracts, and while they stay on country, they can't do anything about it. This article has some invaluable insights into how it was much better before John Howard smashed it, and how it can get much worse.

Many people in Australia are in the hunt for millions of dollars as the government searches for a place to dump 14 tonnes of nuclear waste, just for starters

The waste the government is 'talking up' will be returned to Australia by the end of next year following treatment in France and the UK.

It has been reported that some First Nations people in the NT are squabbling over hosting the nuclear waste in their land.

Campbelltown NSW has the start of a Tent Embassy as First Nations people gather to raise their voice over the protection of land and wildlife in Airds.

Three First Nations original men erected two tents this week to show their concerns over the Airds Bradbury Renewal Project.

“This is our own solidarity march. This is sacred land that we are on,” Gungadin, one of the men said

First Nations people in West Australia's Pilbara iron ore region are taking on BHP Billiton over its claim for leases covering 200 square kilometres of their tribal country.

It is little wonder that Hawke's efforts at a treaty with Aboriginal Australia failed when the best plan he can envisage for lifting communities out of poverty is to offer a toxic trade-off for access to basic services that all other citizens enjoy.

This really demonstrates how bereft of responsible policy ideas some politicians are, both in regards to tackling Aboriginal disadvantage and dealing responsibly with the nation's growing radioactive waste problem.

Geoff Clark said he and Michael Mansell are planning to travel to Cape York and Gulf of Carpentaria communities in late September to discuss plans to export beef to Russia.

Mr Clark said he had led successful Aboriginal trade delegations with the former Soviet Union in the late 1980s. “These (Russian trade) sanctions have nothing to do with our people and they have been imposed by people who do not represent us,” he said.