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Australia Day stands as a reminder of massacres so why should Australia's First Nations People celebrate it?

This is not some John Howard "black armband" view of history, rather a white man's whitewash. You can shuttle history, but you cannot shuttle facts. It would be a great Australia Day if it faced honesty, historical facts, abandonment, hypocrisy, shelved superiority and embarked upon an exercise of spiritual empathy rather than religious hubris ...

In the light of the news about Australia's seat at the United Nations, it is sanguine to recollect what John Pilger said in 2012; "No country since apartheid South Africa has been more condemned by the UN for its racism than Australia."

A prominent First Nations sovereignty campaigner and spokesperson for Sovereign Union, Michael Anderson, has condemned Prime Minister Gillard's choice of former athlete, Nova Peris-Kneebone, for the Northern Territory Senate seat.

"Ms Peris-Kneebone is only being used as a public relations exercise for Labor," he said. "After all, what role has Ms Nova Peris-Kneebone played in fighting the hard political fights that we are currently involved in?"

He said that Ms Nova Peris-Kneebone will be put up and used as a show pony for the Labor party at an international level and he appeals to Ms Nova Peris-Kneebone to rethink the offer so as to ensure that she is not a puppet of Julia Gillard's Labor party, otherwise we need her to come out and simply say that just because she is Aboriginal "she is not our voice".

Indigenous ALP members nominate against Peris
Protest grows over Peris nomination

The international objectives of the Sovereign Union are to have our Peoples recognised as ‘Peoples’ under the international legal definition. By campaigning to have this recognised we, as First Nations Peoples, have the international right as independent Peoples to assert the right of self-determination under international law. We know that the Australian Government has very different objectives. We can achieve our objectives by being empowered and coming together as Peoples and Nations. We can take our issues overseas and make them into international issues. We have always argued that we have never ceded our sovereignty at any material time.

Canada's placid winter surface has been broken by unprecedented protests by its aboriginal peoples. In just a few weeks, a small campaign launched against the Conservative government's budget bill by four aboriginal women has expanded and transformed into a season of discontent: a cultural and political resurgence.

It has seen rallies in dozens of cities, a disruption of legislature, blockades of major highways, drumming flash mobs in malls, a flurry of Twitter activity under the hashtag #IdleNoMore and a hunger strike by Chief Theresa Spence, in a tepee minutes from Ottawa's parliament. Into her tenth day, Spence says she is "willing to die for her people" to get the prime minister, chiefs and Queen to discuss respect for historical treaties.

 See also: Mowhawk Nation News The Creation of one world government

Stop cultural genocide and racism by family laws and courts of Canada

A jump in the number of First Nations women in custody has led to a marked increase in the number of women imprisoned in Australia.

A Bureau of Statistics report shows the number of First Nations female prisoners has risen by 20 per cent since June 30 last year, compared with a 3 per cent rise in non-indigenous female prisoners.

"That raises some interesting questions," Prison policy expert Eileen Baldry said. "Are Aboriginal women innately more criminal than non-Aboriginal women? No, they are not."

Jenny Macklin claims a recent evaluation shows the NT Intervention is working. In fact, the research she is citing points to myriad problems with the program, writes Eva Cox

Can Jenny Macklin please explain why she continues to fund, and even expand, compulsory income management? It has again been evaluated as offering little evidence of benefits, but her latest media release on an initial commissioned research project failed to report something crucial: the many doubts the project itself expressed about the value of income management. The research, led by the Social Policy Research Centre, is concerned about the possible damage inflicted by the NT Intervention as well as the limited positive data.

Members of Wollongong's Aboriginal community could be allowed to erect a building and camp permanently at Sandon Point under one option outlined in Wollongong City Council's draft land management plans for the site.

The plans, which set out what uses are allowed on the 14-hectare stretch of land, include four options to retain and formalise an indigenous presence on a section of the site now occupied by the Sandon Point Aboriginal Tent Embassy.

Three options will be considered, with one of the options allowing an education centre, a caretaker's residence and either temporary or all-year camping.

The Byron Bay Tent Embassy has challenged the legitimacy of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, saying local tribes must be consulted on the future of their land.

The challenge came after the land council recently moved to apply for a petroleum prospecting licence spanning 900sq km from Murwillumbah to Mullumbimby.

In response to the application, traditional land owners began camping illegally last week in Heritage Park and plan to do so for the next two months.

Traditional land owners invited the land council, Native Title [??], politicians and mining and gas companies to Heritage Park for discussions.

Aboriginal activist Isabell Coe was a standout among her contemporaries, Aboriginal Tent Embassy co-founder Michael Anderson says.

"We met up with all these young people who had great spirit and spunk and determination and Isabell was one of them," Mr Anderson said. "She was a standout, Isabel, because she was such a force to be reckoned with in terms of her as a lady.

Mr Anderson said Ms Coe was there when the idea was born to take a protest to Canberra, which later spawned the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.