The State Library of New South Wales has launched a handy new resource on their website.

They website says:

“For the first time Indigenous Australians will be able to freely access and reclaim their linguistic heritage. Rare Indigenous language lists are now available via our unique Indigenous Australians online collection.”

After massacres, stolen land, stolen culture and stolen identity, it is no surprise that the wealth of Aboriginal languages that once existed on this large land have been derided and cast aside. Continue reading this post…

ISSUE 161, September 4, 2008: AMY McQUIRE* gets red all over just thinking about what makes it into black and white these days.

Newspapers may commonly be printed in black and white, but they overwhelmingly report things from a white, rather than a black perspective.

This may be why so many Indigenous Australians protest against the mainstream media’s coverage of their issues.
Just take a look at the sexual assault story tally since 2006. Continue reading this post…

Needless to say, today is a BIG news day.

Currently I am watching Republican Presidential nominee John McCain accept his nomination in a speech to the Republican National Convention. This morning I watched Australian history in the making as Quentin Bryce was sworn in as our new Governor-General, the first female GG in our history as a nation. NSW Premier Morris Iemma has resigned and Nathan Rees has been confirmed as his successor.

This weekend is also a big one. Pakistan is expected to gain a new President in the coming day when Benazir Bhutto’s widower Asif Ali Zardari is expected to win the majority of votes from the electoral college.

Not only that, there is an election in West Australia tomorrow, the home of chair sniffers and Brian Burke.

So let’s have a look at what the major newspapers have on their web front pages at the moment. Continue reading this post…

When is white Australia ever going to learn?

It’s a simple lesson. You don’t even need to have graduated from primary school to learn it. Continue reading this post…

AMY MCQUIRE argues that although Australia is an island, we must remember that we aren’t the only one.

They stood in stark contrast to the scene around them, and yet somehow they fit in.

Amongst the fluttering Aboriginal flags and “Stop the racist intervention” signs stood men in West Papuan headdresses, wearing the Morning Star flag and immersing themselves amongst the crowd of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.

It was February 12th this year, the day before Prime Minister Kevin Rudd would make his long-awaited apology to members of the Stolen Generations. Continue reading this post…

Avoiding Mr Right
By Anita Heiss
Format: Paperback
Imprint: Bantam Australia
RRP: $23.95

I’ve never understood what was so glamorous about a group of thirty-something women sleeping their way around New York. It reeked of desperation to me.

So to have the new “black chicklit” book by Anita Heiss compared to Sex and the City is enough of a turn off.

Although the hype over her first book in the genre Not Meeting Mr Right was louder than her sequel Avoiding Mr Right, there have already been two articles along the vein of Heiss being “The Koori Carrie Bradshaw”. Continue reading this post…

It was election time up in the Northern Territory on Saturday. But you wouldn’t have guessed it judging from the front page of the NT News.

Yes. Believe it or not, this was Monday’s frontpage scoop. Never mind the fact that the rest of the country were talking about the shock 9 percent swing to the Country Liberal Party and the possibility of a hung parliament.

Continue reading this post…

Last year, the annual Garma Festival was not just a celebration of Indigenous culture and art, but also had a distinct political aura.

Forums over the NT intervention made news on broadsheets around the nation as Aboriginal leaders made their views clear on the Howard government’s latest offence.

As Garma heats up again up in north-eastern Arnhem Land, politics has again been mentioned. Continue reading this post…

ISSUE 158, July 24, 2008: Warren Mundine is attacking Aboriginal rights again, and The Australian newspaper is as one-eyed as it’s always been. You just can’t put a price on consistency, writes BRIAN JOHNSTONE*.

Continue reading this post…

Prof LARISSA BEHRENDT looks at former Prime Minister John Howard’s past record.

Continue reading this post…