From 2016, students will be able to study Aboriginal languages in high schools in New South Wales – but a clause in the design of the course means grades will not contribute towards ATARs.
Early intervention and diversion away from the criminal justice system can enable Aboriginal people with mental and cognitive disabilities to live with dignity.
AAP/Richard Ashen
Research suggests serious problems with the way Aboriginal women, particularly those with mental and cognitive disabilities, are "managed" by the criminal justice system.
Aboriginal people with mental and cognitive disability are ‘managed’ by police, courts and prisons due to a lack of appropriate community-based services.
Kate Ausburn/flickr
Australia's high rates of imprisonment and re-imprisonment of Aboriginal people with mental and cognitive disabilities is not only shameful, it is entirely predictable and preventable.
Weavings from Indigenous bush dyeing and weaving workshops.
Elizabeth Tunstall
Being rooted is different from being connected or even grounded. As we know from our mobile phones, connectivity can be fleeting. Grounding is only at surface layers. Being rooted goes as deep in the earth as above in the sky, providing greater stability.
European New Zealanders have embraced and preserved the Māori culture and language far better than European Australians.
Rob Chandler/Flickr
Up to 150 'communities' in 'remote' Australia are threatened with closure. But do such terms put a gloss on what is, in reality, the closure of people's homes?
In the past decade, the number of people ending up in South Australian prison cells has grown at seven times the rate of the state population.
AAP/South Australian Correctional Services Department
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.
We need policies that meaningfully include Aboriginal people in ways forward.
AAP Image/Amnesty International, Chloe Geraghty
Recently, Tony Abbott asserted the government couldn't afford to fund the "lifestyle choices" of remotely-based Aboriginal people. But such communities could be key to meeting the demands of our future.
Among the early footsteps in Australia – The Mungo fossil footprints dating to 20,000 years ago.
Michael Amendolia
An Australian senator says the evidence on who should be recognised as the First Australians is only "conjecture". So what does the evidence really say?
Roseina Boston onstage at the 2005 Melbourne International Arts Festival with the ensemble Pannikin.
(Courtesy Jon Rose, used with permission.)
The gumleaf is a wind instrument that comes with a steep learning curve. Today we celebrate the 80th birthday of one of its key proponents, Roseina Boston.
Inuit women carrying their kids in traditional hooded parkas. Indigenous midwifery programs have expanded across Canada and are linked to excellent health outcomes.
Spencer/Flickr
Tony Abbott spent most of this week in North East Arnhem Land, part of his long-held hope “to be not just the Prime Minister but the Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs”. In the final of our Abbott in…
Bundilla elder Aunty Barbara Raymond with schoolchildren in Darwin last year, supporting the cause of Indigenous constitutional recognition.
AAP Image/Supplied by Richard Oppusunggu
Constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australia has been on the national agenda for a long time, but is back in the headlines with the news that the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader hope to release…
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott with kindergarden kids at Yirrkala in the Northern Territory. Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in the NT have the nation’s lowest retention rate, so it’s time to try more creative ways to fix that.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
Tony Dreise, Australian Council for Educational Research
Tony Abbott is spending this week in North-East Arnhem Land, part of his long-held hope “to be not just the Prime Minister but the Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs”. We asked our experts: what stories…
Palmer United Party Senator Jacqui Lambie is willing to take a DNA test to prove her Indigenous heritage – but would that do any good?
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Palmer United Party Senator Jacqui Lambie recently created controversy by claiming in her first speech to Parliament that going back six generations, she is related to the renowned Tasmanian Aboriginal…
If you’re born underweight, like this little baby on the left, it can make a world of difference to your lifelong health.
Menzies Health
Tony Abbott is spending this week in North-East Arnhem Land, part of his long-held hope “to be not just the Prime Minister but the Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs”. We asked our experts: what stories…
Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs Nigel Scullion with students in the Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory. Research shows acting on overcrowded housing could greatly improve Indigenous kids’ school attendance in remote communities.
AAP/Neda Vanovac
Tony Abbott is spending this week in North East Arnhem Land, part of his long-held hope “to be not just the Prime Minister but the Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs”. We asked our experts: what stories…
Prime Minister Tony Abbott (back left) with elder Wendy Marika (back centre) during a Welcome to Country ceremony on his arrival at Yirrkala on the Gove Peninsula in North East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, yesterday.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
Tony Abbott is spending this week in North East Arnhem Land, part of his long-held hope “to be not just the Prime Minister but the Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs”. We asked our experts: what stories…