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Ooodgeroo Noonuccal was a First Nations poet, activist, and educator. She was a significant voice for First Nations peoples' rights as citizens through her writing and her work as an advocate. To celebrate Ooodgeroo's birthday, award-winning Mununjali Yugambeh author, playwright and poet Ellen van Neerven has written a poem to reflect on Oodgeroo, and how she has inspired them.

This list of scary books by Indigenous authors spans the globe, some evoking aspects of cultural storytelling and lore that existed long before us. Where Halloween has become a mainstream celebration separated from its Pagan roots, Indigenous storytelling remembers where it comes from and abides by certain rules of engagement.

Cheryl Axleby, Co-Chair of Change the Record writes of the crisis of the overrepresentation of First Nations children in incarceration. We need to raise the age of criminal responsibility.

We Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have always fought for our rights and have often had to do that against government authorities. So why are people surprised we want to know more about the Voice to Parliament before we commit to it? Nat Cromb writes of recent dialogues highlighting the answers we're still not getting.

A reflection after this year's NAIDOC Theme 'Get Up, Stand Up, Show Up'. BJ Cruse writes it's time we show up for our Country, for Mother Earth.

Warumungu and Warlmanpa man, Ethan Taylor has been awarded a Charlie Perkins Scholarship. This thoughtful and generous account from Ethan shows this is a vital step in his journey towards becoming a philosopher. This is the letter he wrote for his application.

The danger of Aly’s assertions is that it oversimplifies a very complex notion in political and legal philosophy and, by reducing the act of ceding sovereignty to a singular oath, it reveals a lack of critical insight to what sovereignty can mean and how it can operate for First Nations peoples.

Australia needs to decolonise its mental health system and empower more Indigenous psychologists.

For COOKED a group of young Indigenous people (aged from six years to 27 years old) posed questions to the settlers/colonisers and newcomers of so-called Australia via a website where mob could submit anonymous answers and also ask questions of us. We then turned that into a show. And what a journey it has been.

As a proud Wailwan arts administrator & producer, it gives me such joy to see mob front and centre representing and excelling in performing arts! But I’m also often thinking about the responsibility we have to model best practice behind the scenes, about the additional cultural load mob are expected to take on when working with white arts institutions, and worrying whether those of working in non-blak spaces are being taken properly care of. 

Many people are feeling disillusioned, fed up and downright defeated at the state of politics in this country. There are about 800,000 First Nations people in this country and yet our voices are not a priority.

As we continue to fight for justice, land rights, self-determination and structural reform, it is critical we remember homogeneity is a colonial concept. We are diverse and dissent does not mandate disrespect.

The election campaign for 2022 is riddled with point-scoring and game playing. We are not here for that, we are here to check the record on the issues that matter.

The coverage on the Rolfe trial could make a reader question who is the one really being judged – the deceased or the police officer standing trial?

The Garrwa, Yanyuwa and Marra peoples of Borroloola know all too well the devastation created by mining and they understand that, for most governments, if they have to choose between mining and First Nations then mining wins. Every time.

The real shock for many was witnessing a Black man stand up in defence of the Black woman he loves. It really was shocking for some, that a Black woman would be deemed deserving of being defended, and we saw that in responses that questioned the legitimacy and significance of her disability as well as her moral character in relationship to that entanglement saga.

Boomalli has helped me find a voice as queer blak woman and it’s inspiring to see our  LGBTQIA+ community can come together yearly with such incredible work and stories . It’s important that people know we are here and we’re not going anywhere!

Now, if we are to recognise that shame is an exterior thing, it is both natural and instructive to then ask: who planted them seeds? I ask this question not at all as part of the process of discarding shame, as some have suggested is the best course of action. The shedding of shame, from my standpoint, is in fact at best lazy thinking and at worst wasteful.