The Other Side of the Coin

First Nations peoples sacred land shipped out

Different world: understanding Indigenous justice


Liam Jurrah

Melbourne Demons star Liam Jurrah is currently appearing in an Alice Springs court, charged with assaulting his cousin, Basil Jurrah, and in case you've been living under a rock, he is a big deal in the AFL and the first Aboriginal man from a Central Deserts community to play in the big league.

The circumstances of the alleged violence are part of a court proceeding, and getting plenty of play in other media.

What defines him is the fact that he is a young Warlpiri man, a freshwater blackfella from the Central Deserts region. His skin name is Jungarrayi, his mother is Corrina, his father is Leo (also a great footballer) and his grandmother is Cecily. From the Warlpiri perspective, those are most of the things that really matter.

That and the fact that notwithstanding football stardom, Liam Jurrah is not excused from his cultural obligations, payback being one of them. - Chris Graham writes

Family demands independent investigation into death in custody in Alice Springs Hospital

The family of Arabana man, Peter Clarke, issued a call today for the Northern Territory Government to launch an independent enquiry into his death in Alice Springs Hospital. He was 56 year old.

Mr Clarke died on Tuesday 3 April 2012. He'd been due for parole on 26 March 2012 but was hospitalised on 19 March.

When Peter Clarke's younger brother Wayne and sister Gladys visited the hospital, they were shocked to find their brother cuffed by the ankle to the hospital bed.

After the death, a doctor told the family a Coroner might need to do an autopsy as the death could be treated as a death in custody. But the death would not be investigated.

listen to ‘Mr Clarke's death - Tiga Bayes Interview with daughter Kylie Hampton +’ on Audioboo
listen to ‘Death in Custody Peter Clarke - Ray Jackson ISJA on CAAMA News’ on Audioboo

13 arrested at the 'Lizard's Revenge' Uranium mine protest

Police have arrested 13 people during an anti-nuclear protest at South Australia's Olympic Dam mine, where activists and officers were involved in two confrontations.

In the first incident two women and four men were taken into custody as they staged a "breakfast not bombs" event on a road near the mine site on Tuesday. Protesters blocked the road.

Police said those arrested, including a 66-year-old NSW man, were charged with either failing to comply with a reasonable direction or loitering.

In the second incident activists again took to a road to play cricket. Six men and a woman were arrested after a scuffle with police.

When will the income management critics be heard?


Peter Inverway

Peter Inverway took a deep breath, noticeably trying not to let his nerves get the better of him. "I'm from Kalkaringi in the Northern Territory," he began, reading from short prepared sentences without looking up. "I live in a house with 15 other people. The rent is $210 per week. There's not enough room for all of us."

Inverway's acute embarrassment was palpable, despite the fact barely twenty people had turned up to the public meeting in Melbourne's Trades Hall on 11 June 2010. As I waited to hear his story, I felt almost ashamed to be one of the "watchers", humbled such a proud man felt compelled to do something so clearly against his nature after his community's plight had been overlooked by mainstream society. - Emma Purdy writes.

Macklin booed and heckled at NAIDOC event


YouTube - ABC News clip

Federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has been booed at an official function in Hobart because of her support for the racist Northern Territory intervention.

The Chairman of the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania Clyde Mansell said he was not surprised the Tasmanian Aboriginal community had reacted angrily to Ms Macklin.

Nala Mansell-McKenna, who gave the 'Welcome to Country' speech said she is not referring to Minister Macklin and she not welcome while she continues to support racist policies such as the NT intervention.

Original Australians Tent Embassy: fire man's reflections

A sacred fire is at the heart of the Tent Embassy in Canberra and Robert Corowa is one of the men who keeps it burning.

Now living in Lismore, he was just a child when the embassy was created, but he has camped there many times over the years and has been charged with keeping the site's sacred fire burning.

In NAIDOC week 2012 the theme is 'Spirit of the Tent Embassy: 40 years on'. Robert said things haven't changed in this time, the land is what the Original people still care about, not buildings.

An Australian identity starts with a "Treaty" - Original elder Ossie Cruse

During local celebrations to mark NAIDOC Week 2012, the idea of a Treaty between Original people, the British Crown and the Australian Government has been raised by Paster Ossie Cruse.

Talk of a Treaty has been around for decades, but in recent history it has fallen from coverage through the mainstream media. The NSW South Eastern Original elder, Ossie Cruse believes that Australia's future could be built with a Treaty and such a document would create the Australian identity that the republican debate often talks about.

He spoke on Sydney Radio 702 ABC - An Interview with Ossie Cruse from 'Tracker' is also included.

Labor lays the groundwork for another apology

The spin doctors did an impressive job distracting from the hypocrisy of former prime minister Kevin Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generations in February 2008.

Hundreds of thousands watched the live broadcast as Rudd apologised "for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians ... for the breaking up of families and communities ... and for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture..."

... By extending the Intervention with the "Stronger Furures" legislation", Labor is now responsible for what will no doubt be the subject matter of a future prime minister's apology, to the tens of thousands of Indigenous Australians being violently aggrieved as we speak. - Emma Purdy writes

More interest in ancient sites from overseas than by the invaders

David Watts, who is a protector of many Aboriginal heritage sites in Sydney said that although Austalia has a human history of up to 70,000 years, there has only been an interest by local governments to care for the sites that have sprung up in the past 200 years.

Mr Watts who cares for about 1500 of Sydney's 5500-plus sites said "When you actually tell people that the pyramids are basically made yesterday compared to some of these engravings and stuff that are around, people start getting an appreciation for it," he says.

"We have had more interest from overseas about this office than we have in our own country."