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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 ...

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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

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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

all 2 news articles »

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 »

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 ...
'WTF is with the racial slur?': Viewers take aim at popular US sitcom Two ...Daily Mail

all 4 news articles »

The Guardian
Colin Barnett turned down invitation to meet Aboriginal land councils
The Guardian
The Western Australian premier, Colin Barnett, turned down an invitation to meet Aboriginal land councils about a government proposal to close up to 150 of the state's remote communities, one day before telling parliament he would consult Aboriginal ...

The West Australian
Abolish key Aboriginal body: Wyatt
The West Australian
The Department of Aboriginal Affairs should be abolished because it cannot properly advocate for Aboriginal West Australians, shadow Aboriginal affairs minister Ben Wyatt says. Mr Wyatt said the department should be replaced by a special advocate for ...

Aboriginal groups launch firm
The Australian
KRED legal director Wayne Bergmann said there was an urgent need for an Australia-wide Aboriginal-owned legal entity. “Across Australia, we're seeing pressure on traditional owners from proponents and companies wishing to access, explore and develop ...

Caitlyn Gribbin ABC AM 18 February 2015 MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: There are fears in some of the most remote parts of the country that a government plan to shut Aboriginal communities is already driving people out of them. The West Australian Government last year announced as many as 150 of the state's 274 communities will be closed in the next three years because of a funding shortfall. No decisions have been made on which communities will shut, but Aboriginal leaders say the announcement is already causing fear. Caitlyn Gribbin reports. CAITLYN GRIBBIN: The remote Aboriginal community of Mulan is home to about 100 people and sits at the top of the Tanami Desert. Mobiles don't work and phones at the local post office are used to communicate with the rest of the world. But it hasn't taken long for word to spread to locals like Steven Kopp that some Aboriginal communities may be closed. STEVEN KOPP: The stories I'm getting back from the Government is just frightening, you know, really. Don't know what to do. CAITLYN GRIBBIN: The chairman of Mulan says some people are so worried about the community's future that up to 20 have already moved away. STEVEN KOPP: It makes me sad too, that's all my family too, you know, all moving away from their country. You know, they're gone, they've just taken off. People are just looking for another place to move on to because they're just frightened. CAITLYN GRIBBIN: They're frightened that the community may be closed, are they? STEVEN KOPP: Yep. CAITLYN GRIBBIN: Western Australia's Aboriginal Affairs Minister Peter Collier stresses no decision has been made on which communities will close. In a statement, Mr Collier says the absence of the economic and social opportunities that other West Australians take for granted may be cause for people to leave communities. But according to the Aboriginal Legal Service's Dennis Eggington it's the uncertainty that's driving people away. DENNIS EGGINGTON: People are panicking, they're really getting quite upset. And there's a lot of anxiety among our mobs out there. CAITLYN GRIBBIN: Why would some people from these communities think it's a good idea to just leave now before any announcement is made? DENNIS EGGINGTON: I think people are just preparing themselves for what the inevitable is. And that is the history of this country, that's the experience of Aboriginal people; that if government has said they're going to come and move you, then they're going to come and move you. CAITLYN GRIBBIN: The West Australian Government says it will consult with Aboriginal people, particularly those in remote communities. Dennis Eggington says they're still waiting for that to happen. DENNIS EGGINGTON: I find it really distasteful that the inability for government to get down and talk to our communities about this particular issue is causing so much distress. People are not just feeling let down, but feeling like they're not viable, they're not worthy, they're worthless. It's a terrible situation to make people feel like that. CAITLYN GRIBBIN: Back in Mulan, Steven Kopp says he'll continue fighting to keep his community open. He says moving people to bigger towns isn't always a good idea. STEVEN KOPP: When they go to town they just drink and live anywhere, on the street, yeah, they just camp out anywhere. It's really just making me sad really because they grew up here all their life, you know, and now they don't really know what to do. MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Steven Kopp from the community of Mulan ending Caitlyn Gribbin's report.