History

Kaya! Ngaji mingan! Wayiba! Yandanji! What now? Which way? Hello!

When the theme for this year’s NAIDOC Week was announced, I was over the moon. Having a keen interest in language and linguistics, I feel that the “Our Languages Matter” NAIDOC theme is a perfect avenue to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of our mob.

The Wombat to Kaptn Koori – Aboriginal representation in comic books and capes

Growing up, I was a huge comic book fan, but I often wondered why there weren’t many Aboriginal comic book heroes (or villains). I knew of Gateway from Marvel’s X-Men comics, and Condoman from health promotion posters and … Well, that’s about it actually.

Fifty years on from the 1967 referendum, it’s time to tell the truth about race

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum, in a sunset ceremony in central Australia, approximately 300 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates from across Australia delivered the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Convened by the Referendum Council, the statement put forth an Indigenous Australian position on proposed constitutional reform, rejecting constitutional recognition in favour of a treaty.

1967 was a moment when it seemed easier to tell the truth. We need another such moment

I was three at the time, so I don’t remember any of it, but the impacts on my life are profound. 27 May 1967 is widely understood as the day Australia stood as a nation almost unanimously in support of Aboriginal people and their right to be citizens of this country.

Poverty must stop being used as a weapon to justify separating Indigenous families

Australia ‘has systematically implemented policies that are born of a rhetoric suggesting that the state is somehow protecting Aboriginal children better than their families’.

This Sorry Day we’ll raise the voice of Indigenous children past and present

Grandmothers Against Removals say too many Indigenous children are being removed from their culture when Aboriginal family or community members would be able to care for them.

Harold Holt’s death and why the 1967 referendum failed Indigenous people

In the aftermath of the referendum, there was a belief among the younger black activists in Redfern that the Commonwealth Government was disinterested in the result.

White Australia stole Indigenous children. And then stole their victimhood too

As we commemorate Sorry Day on 26 May, it is vital to also recognise that 20 years has passed since the release of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s Bringing Them Home report.

Fire Bucket Dreaming– we are blessed to be surrounded by Indigenous voices

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.

Indigenous performing arts is a testament to collective drive and vision

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.

Victories for Indigenous people are always short-lived. That’s why we need a treaty – now

The Converge on Canberra demonstration against the Northern Territory intervention was held a day before the 2008 National Apology. 

Can Australia handle the idea that it wasn’t always the ‘good guy’?

Australian likes to see itself as the Lucky Country, the land of the fair go, home of the ‘Aussie battler’, but does it live up to the hype?

Australia’s love affair with Cook mythology denies the truth.

Last week a number of major national and international media outlets were outraged at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) for “re-writing history.” Although this claim was completely unfounded, it did spark a much-needed dialogue about the true identity of Australia.

Stolen Generations — 21st anniversary of launch of Inquiry, 17 years since report

It has been 21 years since the launch of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, and 17 years since the release of the inquiry’s final report –now commonly known as the Bringing Them Home report– which concluded with the troubling finding that a generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders “endured gross violations of their human rights. These violations continue to affect Indigenous people’s daily lives. They were an act of genocide, aimed at wiping out Indigenous families, communities, and cultures”.

What Was 200 Years Ago?

The invasion of Australia started 200 years ago, but it never ended.

White Australia Still Has A Black History

That slogan is decades old, and its meaning hints at white Australia's long standing reluctance to reconcile with the truth.

There isn’t a New Stolen Generations, the old one never ended.

How can you say the Stolen Generations ended when Australia never stopped taking kids?

Reflecting on the Apology to the Stolen Generations – An Interview with Kevin Rudd

This week marks the 8th anniversary of Kevin Rudd's Apology to the Stolen Generations. I am hosting @IndigenousX this week and as part of that was fortunate to be able to speak to Mr Rudd in person about his speech and about his National Apology Foundation for Indigenous Australians.
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