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Australian

Indigenous News Update – Politics

by Robbo on March 26, 2009

in Indigenous News

Senate Report: Grasping the opportunity of Opal: Assessing the impact of the Petrol Sniffing Strategy http://bit.ly/efJFz

Is a treaty essential to improving the lives of indigenous Australians? http://bit.ly/1U5Och

Can indigenous policy accommodate and value diversity and difference rather than just statistical equality http://bit.ly/vrXTJ

Amnesty presents UN with details of Australia not complying with Covenant on Civil & Political rights http://bit.ly/LrJfA

Restore Racial Discrimination Act former NT chief minister says Indigenous Australians are the victims of discrimination http://bit.ly/dIgLb

Kevin Rudd’s dream of winning Security Council dashed by international concerns about Australia’s record human rights. http://bit.ly/CMZkb

Aust will officially back the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples reversing previous govt http://bit.ly/rhU9O

A UN declaration of rights will not help indigenous children http://bit.ly/WgtNr

I read a large amount of information each week on indigenous health and affairs. There is no way I can blog about it all. Many of the links I place on Twitter where I can be found as @BiteTheDust.

I will regularly compile these links and place on the blog under the category of Indigenous News Update.

If you like this post and what else you see on the blog please subscribe by RSS feed (the orange button) or by email. Visit my subscription page.

Tagged as: aboriginal, Amnesty, Australian, discrimination, human rights, indigenous treaty, Intervention, Opal fuel, Rudd, senate, United Nations

{ 2 comments }

Wilcannia

by Robbo on February 1, 2009

in Indigenous,PSA - Pleasant Sunday Afternoon,Remote Living

Welcome to another Pleasant Sunday Afternoon.

New South Wales has the highest number of indigenous people in Australia. Many are in rural areas. Most of Australia’s rural areas are in decline, some in particularly severe decline due to drought and also as Australians move to the cities, making us one of the most highly urbanised populations in the world.

One area in severe decline is Wilcannia. It was once a thriving town. A recent comment to myself described an old man in tears when he revisited the area at the end of last year. It is not hard to find comments from people on the internet about avoiding the area as they have heard only bad stories. Unfortunately many of these are based around the aboriginal population which make up the majority of the population.

There is another side to the story. In November 2008, The Age newspaper’s Traveller section had a small article on Wilcannia that starts with:

The image of Wilcannia that most travellers along the Barrier Highway have is of a town with a lot of Aborigines standing around in the main street. It is a very racist preconception but one which nearly everyone who has travelled through the town enunciates. It is also fuelled by the bigots of Broken Hill and Cobar who are only too eager to divert travellers to their own centres.

There are a few gems. And many of them are the people. You just need to stop and get out of the car.

Here’s a tour of Wilcannia:

Listen to some of the kids from the Barkindji mob of Wilcannia perform their version of M.I.A.s “Mango Pickle Down River”

Watch some parkour outback (or parkOUrTBACK!) in Wilcannia and other areas of outback NSW.

Some people from the Central Darling area have put why they love the area on YouTube including this by Barkindji man Murry Butcher who states:

I just love the place because it is part of us.

If you like this post and what else you see on the blog please subscribe by RSS feed (the orange button) or by email. The email subscription is just under my profile picture. Or you can visit my subscription page.