Constitutional recognition may have very limited impact if the groups benefiting from the change lack the political weight to leverage it into greater social change.
The night sky is part of the shared heritage of all people on Earth. A project to bring Indigenous Australians and astrophysics together reveals our common wonder at the mysteries of the universe.
The parliamentary committee’s report highlights the deep division between those who want to advance Indigenous recognition through minimal constitutional change and those who seek more substantive reform.
The White Paper on Developing Northern Australia represents the most comprehensive attempt yet to think through the development possibilities of the north.
A new generation of Indigenous youth is being separated from their families and culture – this time by the force of criminal law that ignores the proven alternative of community-based justice.
Without the Custody Notification Service in NSW, deaths of Indigenous people in police custody will almost certainly increase, along with the over-representation of Indigenous people in prison.
Tonight Gary Foley will be awarded the Red Ochre Award for his lifetime contribution to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts. He is a more complicated figure than the one we are sometimes presented with.
A defeat for Indigenous constitutional recognition would be disastrous and demoralising. But history tells us that even worthy proposals with bipartisan support are not assured of success.
Decisions being made from on high about the fate of remote Indigenous communities are symptomatic of a continuing imbalance in the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
Since 2004, the number of prisoners in South Australia has risen seven times faster than the state’s net population growth – and nearly doubled its rate of locking up Indigenous Australians.
NSW Nationals’ leader Troy Grant has broken new ground by speaking Wiradjuri in parliament and at his party’s election launch – and it reflects a growing Indigenous language revival in NSW.
The furore over Tony Abbott’s ‘lifestyle choices’ comments both sidelines and highlights the lack of real discussion on Indigenous policy in Australia.
Mrs Faith Bandler has died. We mourn our loss and honour her life. Her death on Friday marks the end of an era. At the age of 96 years, she outlived all the other black political activists of her generation…
It’s a historic day for politics and women in Australia – and even more remarkable for one woman minister, who is also Queensland’s first ever Indigenous woman MP. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s cabinet…
Australia today is very different to the place I grew up in: our culture has changed and is changing, but public discussion is still framed by old tropes. We need a new shorthand to capture the reality…
While you may have heard about the increasing threat that climate change and rising seas pose to Pacific islands — already forcing some communities to move — Australia has its own group of islands that…
The United Nations Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently conducted an assessment of the wellbeing of people around the world. The results indicate that Canberra is a world…
In 1998, the new directors of the Aborigines Inland Mission changed its name to Australian Indigenous Ministries. They cleaned out the cupboards and placed the archive they had inherited, starting with…
The parliamentary committee on constitutional recognition of Australia’s first people has put forward three possible propositions for change. It has also said the vote should be “at or shortly after the…
There are places in Australia that are awe-inspiring, spectacular, mysterious; they touch our spirit and help define our nation. Kakadu is one, Uluru another, the magnificent red sandy deserts, the Kimberley…