Culture

There has been regular trading along the northern coast of Australia with other countries for many centuries before the British arrived. Here is an interesting find that puts some further light on the trading lines.

The coin was found on a beach on Elcho Island, part of the Wessel Islands off the coast of Arnhem Land, NT, during an exploratory expedition of scientists in consultation with the local traditional owners. [node:read-more:link]

The Martu people in remote Western Australia hunt kangaroos and set small grass fires to catch lizards, as they have many thousands of years. A University of Utah researcher found such man-made disruption boosts kangaroo populations – showing how co-evolution helped marsupials and made First Nations people into conservationists.

The findings suggest that Australia might want to encourage small-scale burning to bolster wildlife populations in certain areas. [node:read-more:link]

Further damage by vandals has been discovered at the site of some of the world's oldest and largest Aboriginal carvings, which have laid undisturbed for centuries on the Burrup Peninsula. Not only is the site vulnerable to the destruction of country meted out some of Australia's biggest mining projects, but there is also a total failure of governments to protect the site from grand theft and casual vandals.

The true owners say they do not want to have to close off areas to the public. [node:read-more:link]

This audio comprises accounts of relationships that arose between British castaways and their rescuers along the Great Barrier Reef in remote northern Queensland

These castaways were living with the First Nations people before the trauma of colonisation - and sometimes during it. Their accounts provide a fascinating record of that time. They come to us via Iain McCalman's book charting human interaction along the Great Barrier Reef, 'The Reef: a Passionate History'. [node:read-more:link]

The book argues the idea that the first Australians were hunter gatherers has been invented to undermine Aboriginal people.

"My message to my own people," he says, "is the rest of the country's not going to change if we don't stick up for our culture; and our culture was one where we had an agricultural economy. If we stick up for our culture, it'll be useful not just for us but for the whole of Australia, because some of those crops that our people were growing are going to be useful in the future." [node:read-more:link]

A great overview of the proposed changes in the WA heritage Act - The new and the old - the good and the bad by Nicholas Herriman of Latrobe University.

The fast pace of development in WA has destroyed much First Nations heritage. In recognition of this, WA’s parliament passed, in 1972, the Aboriginal Heritage Act. Now they propose an updated model but the revisions will make it easier for developers to disturb heritage sites. [node:read-more:link]

Matt Thistlethwaite MP responds on behalf of his local First Nations community to Tony Abbott's claim that Australia was unsettled prior to British investment. Published on Jul 17, 2014

Matt Thistlethwaite Labor MP - 'Kingsford Smith electorate' covers the South-Eastern corner of the Sydney Inner Metropolitan area. The electorate area covers approximately 127 sq km from La Perouse in the south to Randwick and Coogee in the north. [node:read-more:link]

The British have waged undeclared wars on First Nations peoples ever since 1788.

The murder and misery inflicted today reminds us of when settlers rode into communities on horse back and cut down extended families. In current times, the government does not only allow multi-national mining giants to rape the country and destroy ancient cultures, but they are trying to force First Nations people to live with the poisonous waste. [node:read-more:link]