Muslim conversion is growing in Indigenous communities. In the 2001 national census, 641 Indigenous people identified as Muslim. By the 2006 census the number had climbed by more than 60% to 1014 people…
Last week, the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples concluded its deliberations on reform proposals. While we wait on the release of their final report…
Aboriginal people worked hard to make plants and animals abundant, convenient and predictable. By distributing plants and associating them in mosaics, then using these to lure and locate animals, Aborigines…
Alongside high rates of incarceration, unemployment, homelessness and some of the poorest health outcomes in Australia, Indigenous people’s access and use of disability services is under-representative…
There is no excuse for Indigenous education in Australia to be in such a terrible and shameful state. Given the billions of dollars that are allocated to primary and secondary schooling Australia-wide…
The Australian Health Survey’s (AHS) exclusion of data from the Indigenous population raises questions about how serious we are about closing the health gap. It’s generally accepted that clinical care…
Conflict between Indigenous (“Black”) and environmental (“Green”) groups is a growing feature of Australia’s political landscape. This has been highlighted by very public disputes over Wild Rivers legislation…
Why do we keep spending billions of dollars in Indigenous communities with so few results? It’s because we don’t have a high expectations relationship between both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians…
Last month, an alliance of Aboriginal elders announced their intention to bring a constitutional law challenge against Australia’s kangaroo industry. The announcement follows efforts by the Federal Government…
AFTER THE INTERVENTION: Chris Sarra from the Queensland University of Technology says white Australia must address its relationship with Indigenous people to truly close the gap. There has never seriously…
AFTER THE INTERVENTION: Peter Billings from the University of Queensland interrogates the legal basis for the Intervention and suggests some new approaches. The belated release of a 2010 review of Government…
AFTER THE INTERVENTION: Ciaran O'Faircheallaigh of Griffith University explains why mineral wealth rarely ends up in Indigenous hands. Native title creates the potential for indigenous communities to share…
AFTER THE INTERVENTION: ANU’s Jon Altman investigates Noel Pearson’s efforts to improve Indigenous welfare on Cape York. In discussions about the NT intervention, Noel Pearson’s work in Cape York is often…
The federal government’s consultation process on the next phase of the “Intervention” in the Northern Territory is excluding those to whom it matters most: Indigenous communities. The “Intervention” was…
The Gillard Government’s new discussion paper on indigenous welfare policy in the Northern Territory continues Labor’s rhetorical reliance on a loosely defined concept of the “dignity of work”. Federal…
Aboriginal Australians living in remote areas have, for the past five decades, experienced at close quarters the ill-effects of large scale mining, while receiving few of the benefits. From Cape York…
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights says Australia is racist. And she’s right. Racial discrimination in Australia is not idiosyncratic; it is enshrined in laws, policies and practices…
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University
Canada Research Chair in Global Indigenous Rights and Politics and Associate Professor in Political Science, Public Policy and Indigenous Studies, University of British Columbia