My role as program manager with the Hunter New England local public health unit involves leading the development and delivery of effective strategies for combating communicable diseases like the flu.

Just about everywhere I turn in Canberra I am reminded of how this city is a place of representations. From the mountains to the lake, from the numerous government buildings to the resistance camp at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, these are all representations of power and agency.

My grandfather, Colin Walker, is a Yorta Yorta man born on the banks of Dhunagla (the Murray River) at Cummeragunja in a small tin hut with a dirt floor, no windows – a corrugated iron structure that is long gone. A stone’s throw from the site of Pop’s birth is the Cummeragunja School House where my mother May went to school.

Unless you have been living under a rock, by now you would of heard that Sam Thaiday attempted to be funny while on the Footy Show on Thursday night.

Reconciliation Australia has found that six out of 10 Australians have had little or no contact with Aboriginal people. It is often held up as a sign of how far we still have to go on our national ‘Reconciliation journey’, and in some ways I can see the relevance but I also think it’s wrong to place too much stock on this statistic.

Working in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs for more than 27 years through various government functions and more recently economic development at Indigenous Business Australia, I have had the privilege of working with many of our mob around programs and initiatives that attempt to address the disadvantage, over-representation and inequality our people face.

In Australia, most of us have heard of the phrase ‘casual racism’. According to the Human Rights Commission it refers to ‘conduct involving negative stereotypes or prejudices about people on the basis of race, colour or ethnicity’ – which sounds a lot like racism, and doesn’t seem particularly casual either, at least not from the perspective of those on the receiving end.

Indigenous people use social media at a rate higher than non-Indigenous people, and this is the case right across the country.

Influenza, or the “flu” is a big problem around the world. In Australia, most disease occurs during late winter, but in the tropics, it can occur at any time.

If the recent skirmish over federal arts funding teaches us anything, it’s that even the best-laid plans are not set in stone. With a change of government or the swearing in of a new minister, an entire ecology can be swiftly placed in a precarious position. If the foundations are unstable, it can all come tumbling down.

Meet Dr Catherine Chamberlain, a recognised contributor to Aboriginal women’s health research and a recipient of an Australian Government Endeavour Research Fellowship for Indigenous Australians.

I always doubted myself before completing any given task at school because I was Aboriginal. I was growing up in a society where hearing the words “abo”, “boong”, and “unemployed” at school was completely normal.

As I sit and ponder the “what could have been” in my life, I am so very thankful for every single knock, put down, set back, break-up I’ve ever had.

In the mid 1980s when I was about six or seven years-old, my father Ray Kelly Senior wrote and directed his first piece of theatre titled Get Up and Dance.

I use the word “lucky” to describe my ability to obtain my confirmation of Aboriginality letter, but I think I just haven’t found the right word to describe my feelings about having to prove my identity to the university where I work.

The furore over Bill Leak’s death, and the effect it had on the RDA shows again that the dominant class do not value Aboriginal life, writes Amy McQuire.

It was very telling that among all of the discussions on changing 18C there was only one ‘risk’ mentioned: that was the risk of losing votes in marginal seats.

The Barkly region is a hot spot for family violence and child abuse. The community is crying out for a strong response but the resources they have are inadequate, writes @IndigenousX host Fiona Hamilton, a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman of the Trawlwulwuy Nation, a writer, artist, family violence educator and activist. She is a survivor of family violence.