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indigenous affairs
indigenous affairs January 31, 2026
January 26 and the limits of history
My Australian story starts with a photo. It is a photo of a man with a face hitherto unseen in the world. The bearded man wears a long winter coat, collared shirt and stylish hat. In his right hand he holds a stone axe. He is standing next to a...
indigenous affairs October 4, 2025
How Victoria’s Treaty could change Australia
If there was jubilation in August when Ngarra Murray and Rueben Berg, co-chairs of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, and Natalie Hutchins, the minister for Treaty and First Peoples, settled an “in-principle agreement” for Australia’s first...
indigenous affairs August 23, 2025
The NT’s wilful ignorance over Black deaths in custody
When Tim Fischer called High Court judges “pissants” in the ’90s, after they recognised native title and overturned terra nullius, he created the rare spectacle of a government minister excoriating a member of the judiciary in the media. In 2017,...
indigenous affairs August 8, 2025
Calls for justice in Gaza and progress on Closing the Gap
Neither Anthony Albanese nor any of his ministers joined last Sunday’s “March for Humanity” across Sydney Harbour Bridge, which garnered international attention. Instead, the prime minister and a group of his senior cabinet colleagues attended...
indigenous affairs June 7, 2025
In his novel Midnight’s Children , Salman Rushdie’s protagonist, Saleem Sinai, is “mysteriously handcuffed to history”. His destiny is indissolubly chained to his country, India. Rushdie has said he wanted to pose the question: do we make history or...
indigenous affairs May 3, 2025
Dutton, Advance and the Welcome to Country
On Anzac Day, at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, a sacred moment was ruptured. Neo-fascist Jacob Hersant led a group in abusing Uncle Mark Brown, a Bunurong and Gunditjmara Traditional Owner who was delivering the Welcome to Country. The...
indigenous affairs April 25, 2025
He sang “Danny Boy”, my pa. He would stand straight, shoulders back with his chest puffed out and his lips all mushy and sticking out, and from his body would come the sweetest tenor. But when ye come and all the flowers are dying, If I am dead, as...
indigenous affairs March 22, 2025
The Yunupingu case and native title
This month’s High Court ruling on Indigenous property rights confirms the full humanity of First Nations people.
indigenous affairs February 15, 2025
Sam Kerr and the skin we live in
Recently it got into the head of one of my sons to do a DNA test. “Why?” I asked. “Just talk to your grandparents.” That’s how I learnt about my genealogy, from my Elders. It was passed down in stories, a dash of myth and a few hidden skeletons. I...
indigenous affairs February 15, 2025
Why the Closing the Gap strategy must be scrapped
Every year in February, it’s like clockwork. The prime minister of the day gets up in parliament to make a solemn speech about how the Closing the Gap targets are not on track. Government members bleat “hear, hear” from the benches as the PM claims...
religion February 1, 2025
Australia Day and the history in nobodies
Reading W. E. H. Stanner’s book on Aboriginal religion, I came upon an intriguing reference to the Murinbata, or Murrinh-Patha, in the Northern Territory, as a people with no history. Stanner, one of the most acclaimed Australian anthropologists,...
