Posts tagged as:

wilcannia

News

  • Paper considers linkage between native tobacco (pitjuri) and health outcomes http://bit.ly/aMsv8n
  • Mick Gooda says improving standards of mental health will be crucial in closing the gap in Indigenous life expectancy. http://bit.ly/d7XjE8
  • There are currently 140 Indigenous doctors practising in Australia and 150 Indigenous students studying medicine http://bit.ly/aCf0hX
  • Wilcannia strikes pioneering agreement with governments committing to specific targets to “Close the Gap” http://bit.ly/cfotwZ
  • 12-bed hostel for expectant Indigenous mothers to be built at Royal Darwin Hospital http://bit.ly/bNBvaX
  • The waiting game – kidney disease in Indigenous Australians http://bit.ly/deM1Mz

The Indigenous News Updates are sourced from news and other articles from around the country that I have posted on Twitter.



The categories I use for Indigenous News Updates can be found here.

Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

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Indigenous News Update

by Robbo on September 25, 2009

in Indigenous News

News

  • Deaths in Custody rally told those involved in death of Mr Ward should have criminal charges laid against them http://bit.ly/9hLU6
  • Aboriginal Health Council of WA gives support for monies from Royalties to Regions to go to indigenous communities http://bit.ly/6xL8a
  • Marriott International to Partner with Indigenous Australians to provide services to their hotels. First company signed. http://bit.ly/oYfhy
  • Outback town of NSW, Wilcannia has turned around. Sport has had a major influence http://bit.ly/IA7bT
  • Australia’s Indigenous population to pass 700 000 by 2021 http://bit.ly/sWUni
  • Indigenous population will not increase in WA as much as other states. Overal will drop from 13.7 to 13% of WA pop. http://bit.ly/U2KPO
  • Indigenous unemployment rate at 16%. If no work for dole programs rate would be over 30% http://bit.ly/QPUhN

The Indigenous News Updates are sourced from news and other articles from around the country that I have posted on Twitter.
Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

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.

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The Wilcannia Mob

by Robbo on March 17, 2009

in Remote Living

I have written about some largely aboriginal towns in New South Wales a couple of times now. One of these towns was Wilcannia. One of the quotes in this previous post read:

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.

I tried to show a different side.

One group I alluded to only briefly was the Barkandji Boys. Wilcannia is home to the Barkandji people. The Boys consist of Wally, Buddy, Lendal, Colroy and Keithy. In 2002 they had an accidental Number #1 hit on Triple J with “Down River”. These were boys between the ages of 9 and 14 years old at the time and produced the song in a holiday workshop.

You can also listen to it on blip.fm here.

downriverThey even won a Deadly Award.

And now there is a book. Down River: The Wilcannia Mob Story

As well as the group’s story it looks at the role of their families and community in their life.

It is available from Kargaru Productions for only $23.95 (ISBN: 9780646484228)

If you want to know more the ANTAR blog also has an article and there is a one page website.

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There has been a lot of news about changing the way schools operate in the Northern Territory Communities. These have included removing bilingual teaching and docking parents/guardians parents if the kids do not rock up to school.

NSW has the largest indigenous population in Australia, many of them in towns of the far west where a change is occurring in one small country school.

I worked at Walgett several years ago now and truancy was a real problem. It also seemed anyone with money (ie non-indigenous) paid whatever fees were necessary to place their kids in the local Catholic school until Year 6 rather than the local primary school.

The ABC has recently reported on changes to the schooling at Walgett, putting in place one school taking in students from pre-school to mature aged. The aim is to focus on aboriginal education

Uniquely for the school we’ve incorporated into it programs around Aboriginal language, culture, creative arts, performance and dance, so some quite unique opportunities and a very flexible way there for the school to design programs to really address the needs of those students

A school in a small community where I am has had different teachers virtually every term for a couple of years. In a culture where relationships are important they wonder why no one turns up!

I am interested to see how this works at Walgett. Making education fun and interesting has to be a better option than punishing families when the kids do not attend.

If you want to look at a small NSW town, I wrote a little while ago about the NSW town of Wilcannia.

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