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.
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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.
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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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.
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Disclamer
All opinions expressed here are those of their authors and not of their employers. The information provided here is of a general nature only and is not intended to provide pharmaceutical or medical advice or even advice about living bush.
In other words: If you travel bush make sure you seek advice and are prepared. If you are sick, don't be a nong and rely on information in the blog but see a health professional for assistance
The opinions expressed here are mine or of the guest authors and not of the respective employers. The information provided here is Information. It is not medical, pharmaceutical, travel or any other form of advice.
