| history and heritage: news index (return to history page) |
| Now locals can paddle their own canoe 8 September 2008 - FOR five years, the Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer has been drawn back to the stories of a remote Arnhem Land community. |
Why Coogee smells in history |
The resurrection of a language long lost |
| Anyone can be governor general in Australia - unless you're an Aborigine 6 September 2008 - The country may now have its first female head of state, but attitudes to its indigenous peoples are as ignorant as ever. |
WA jailing too many Aborigines, says sociologist |
| HREOC will now be known as the Australian Human Rights Commission 4 September 2008 - AHRC Media Release - From today, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) will be known as the Australian Human Rights Commission. |
Nulungu Lecture 2008 |
| Bay of Plenty 7 August 2008 - Last week, the High Court of Australia ruled that the Northern Territory government could not grant commercial fishing operators licenses to work in areas that fall within the boundaries of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act. |
| The History made among the stringybarks 24 July 2008 - Federal cabinet met in an indigenous community for the first time yesterday,deep in the heart of Arnhem Land. As a dog wandered past barefoot children in an open shelter surrounded by stringybark forest, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and 15 of his ministers listened to the concerns of the Northern Territory's Yolngu people. |
| 'Aboriginal wars' memorial plan under fire 8 June 2008 - IN the wake of the Stolen Generation apology, the Rudd Government is considering erecting an official memorial in Canberra commemorating indigenous Australians killed by white settlers in the so-called "Aboriginal Wars". |
| Myall milestone to reconciliation 7 June 2008 - ATOP a hill in the New England ranges, Nathan Blacklock stands beside a huge basalt rock monument to the killing of his people. About a kilometre away a mob of sheep is being mustered by somebody in a Toyota ute. |
| Indigenous heroes honoured in Melbourne 31 May 2008 - A commemorative service honouring Indigenous Australians who have served since World War I was held at Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance on Saturday. |
| Founding document used in land rights push 9 May 2008 - A 172-year-old document that is claimed to guarantee Aboriginal rights will be used in a new land rights campaign in the far west of South Australia. |
| Charcoal reveals Aboriginal history 7 May 2008 - Waikato University's radiocarbon dating lab is at the heart of a discovery that Aboriginal people lived as many as 35,000 years ago in Western Australia. |
| Carpentaria, by Alexis Wright 25 April 2008 - From its opening lines, Carpentaria is never going to be your average novel. Starting before time began, it explains how the land was made: "The ancestral serpent, a creature larger than storm clouds, came down from the stars, laden with its own creativity..." |
| Fight your own battles 24 April 2008 - New Zealand Herald - Ah, those unruly Irish! Fancy causing such a fuss at an Anzac Day march. And so soon after the Great War had ended, and so many Aussies and Kiwis had lost their lives on the beaches and in the trenches of Gallipoli. |
| Ruling big setback for Noongar claimants 23 April 2008 - Perth's indigenous Noongar people have had a major setback in their native title claim over the city after a court upheld a West Australian and federal government appeal against their claim. |
| Aborigines to welcome Pope Benedict 17 April 2008 - Aboriginal elders will be the first Australians to officially welcome the Pope when he arrives in Sydney for the Catholic Church's World Youth Day (WYD) in July. |
| Aboriginal site among Australia's oldest 8 April 2008 - Aboriginal tools found in Western Australia and dating back 35,000 years are surprisingly sophisticated and varied, archaeologists say. |
| Trapped in a genocidal history 24 January 2008 - Our country is trapped in its genocidal history. Henry Reynolds estimates that, between 1788 and 1920, 20,000 Aboriginal people fell defending their land in an ongoing war against the invaders. The Indigenous population dropped from 300,000 at the time of the invasion to 70,000 130 years later. |
| Acknowledge Aboriginal history on Australia Day: Tas Govt 14 January 2008 - The State Government is encouraging Tasmanians to reflect on the country's Aboriginal history this Australia Day. |
| Statue salutes a champion on field and off 10 December 2007 - WHEN Doug Nicholls left the bush and went to Melbourne to play football, the trainers at Carlton were so offended by the colour of his skin that they refused to rub him down. |
| A chance to right many historic wrongs 27 October 2007 - AFTER many long years, we are now facing the moment when we must decide how this country will recognise the first Australians. |
| Veteran Australian politician who was a pioneer in the fight for Aboriginal land rights 16 October 2007 - The Guardian UK - When Kim Beazley, who has died aged 90, entered Australia's federal parliament in 1945 at the age of 27, he was hailed as a politician to watch. |
| PM's history plan ignores Indigenous massacre, Minister says 12 October 2007 - Northern Territory Education Minister Paul Henderson says events such as the 1928 Coniston massacre would be trivialised under the Prime Minister's new history teaching plan. |
| Pre-1788 Aborigines 'lived in houses' 8 October 2007 - A new book has disputed the claim that Aborigines did not build houses or live in villages before the white settlement of Australia |
| Aboriginal Tent Embassy nominated for Heritage List 1 October 2007 - A bid has been launched for Canberra's Aboriginal Tent Embassy to be added to the National Heritage list. |
| Settlers' history rewritten: go back 30,000 years 15 September 2007 - A CACHE of charcoal, stone tools and artefacts unearthed to make way for a high-rise apartment block has been found to be 30,000 years old, more than doubling the accepted age of Aboriginal settlement in Sydney. |
| Massacres need to be recognised: Aboriginal activist 11 June 2007 - One of northern New South Wales' leading Aboriginal activists has used a memorial service for the victims of the Myall Creek massacre near Bingara, west of Inverell, more than 160 years ago to re-ignite the sorry debate. |
| Seeking equality Down Under 1 June 2007 - gair rhydd UK - As 40 years of Aboriginal recognition as human beings is commemorated, Australia still remains a nation divided Australian borigines have marked 40 years of recognition by their country as official human beings. |
| Australia Officially Recognises Aboriginal War Vets for First Time 31 May 2007 - ShortNews.com, Germany - Australian governments have finally recognised their indigenous war veterans for the first time, with a wreath-laying memorial ceremony today in Sydney. Approximately 5,500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander soldiers fought in the two world wars. |
| A Snapshot of the '67 Referendum 31 May 2007 - It's been 40 years since the 1967 referendum. But what, exactly, are we celebrating? |
| One country, two standards 19 May 2007 - A referendum in 1967 was supposed to be the turning point for indigenous people, but that hope proved false, writes Russell Skelton. Faith, hope … but no charity 19 May 2007 - Faith Bandler wanted action rather than sympathy, writes Malcolm Brown. |
| Terra Nullius 1 May 2007 - The Independent UK -Terra Nullius is the latest instalment in Sven Lindqvist's confrontation with the genocidal consequences of Western advancement. |
| 'Unsung heroes' honoured in Indigenous march 25 April 2007 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander diggers have been honoured at an Anzac Day march through Redfern in inner Sydney. |
| Another ANZAC day - another lost opportunity 19 April 2007 - What sort of a nation would forget the name of its first Prime Minister? The same sort of nation that year in, year out keeps remembering to forget the contribution of Indigenous servicemen and women to Australia's numerous war efforts. |
| Aboriginal war veterans to protest against racism at parade 18 April 2007 - The Gulf Times - Australia’s Aboriginal war veterans, complaining of a racist lack of respect, will next week stage a landmark separate march on the day the nation honours its soldiers. |
| Bell sounds in Australia's history wars 14 August 2006 - ( Monsters and Critics.com, UK) - For some cultural warriors attending a crucial conference in Canberra this week on the teaching of history in schools, it comes down to this: Did Captain James Cook 'discover' Australia in 1770 and claim it for the British crown or did he 'invade' and steal ancient Gondwana from its dark-skinned inhabitants? |
| Ladder
of Obligation vs Clash of Culture 6 August 2005 - Noel Pearson and Lowitja O'Donoghue on indigenous affairs. |
| 20,000-Year-Old Human Footprints Found in
Australia 3 August 2006 - (National Geographic USA) - About 20,000 years ago, five human hunters sprinted across the soft clay on the edge of a wetland in what is now New South Wales, Australia. |
| Visit keeps
history alive 25 July 2006 -Part of Australian history entered Brisbane yesterday as the replica of the Duyfken, the first European ship to explore Australia's coast, docked at the Customs House wharf for her official state welcome. |
| RSL to remember
Aboriginal Soldiers 24 July 2006 -LEADING Aboriginal activist Noel Pearson said yesterday it made him nauseous to see young Australians celebrate Anzac Day but ignore what had happened to indigenous people. |
| Desert encounter
relived almost 50 years on 14 July 2006 -IN 1957 Mitjili Napanangka, then a young Pintupi woman from the Western Desert, saw white people for the first time. Among them was Jeremy Long, a Northern Territory welfare officer, who took part in nine patrols of the Western Desert. |
| A clash
of cultures that shows no sign of a solution 17 May 2006 - The Times (UK) - TRIUMPH in the Tropics, an Australian school textbook in the 1960s, lauded the white man’s dominance over Aboriginal people. |
| In denial
over dispossession 10 May 2006 - Michael Connor's claims lack credibility, writes Henry Reynolds Historians decry rival viewpoints 10 May 2006 - A NEW school of right-wing nationalist historians has emerged to undo a decade's work of Aboriginal reconciliation, historian Henry Reynolds has warned. |
| Indigenous
Service men remembered on ANZAC day 4 May 2006 - Visitors to Heritage Park this week may have been surprised to see the Aboriginal and Australian flag flying side by side outside of NADOC Week celebrations. |
| Commonwealth
Games: Batman big in land of his forefather 19 March 2006 - The Independent (UK) - Daniel (Batman) the Aussie 200m champion and his famous wife pick up baton of Aborigine rights |
| Smokescreen
nullius 25 February 2006 - A former chief justice rejects the importance of terra nullius in the Mabo decision, writes Deborah Hope |
| Turning
back the tide of history 8 January 2006 - The law is facing the competing versions of history as it handles native title claims. Ann Arnold examines what it means to deal with Australia's undocumented past. |
| Book
review: 'The N Word by Stephen Hagan' 8 June 2005 - The first thing that struck me on reading this book is that Stephen Hagan comes from a long line of troublemakers. And I mean that in the most complimentary way! |
| Island's
name is now truwana 29 May 2005 - CAPE Barren Island will be known by its Aboriginal name, says the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre. |
| Australia's
Shame - Eddie Gilbert 4 May 2005 - He was the cricketer who could have brought the English tourists to their knees during the Bodyline tests over the summer of 1932-33. |
| Blacks
join bay fight 24 April 2005 - TASMANIA'S Aboriginal community has joined the fight to protect the Recherche Bay historic site from logging. A French expedition, led by Bruny d'Entrecastreaux, had friendly meetings with Tasmanian Aborigines at Recherche Bay in 1792 and 1793. |
| Australia:
The Sickening of Democracy 4 February 2005 - National myths are usually partly true. In Australia, the myth of an egalitarian society, or "fair go", has an extraordinary history. Long before most of the world, Australia had a minimum wage, a 35-hour working week, child benefits and the vote for women. |
| Aboriginal
massacre memorial defaced 31 January 2005 - Vandals who defaced a memorial commemorating the mass slaughter of Aboriginal people had committed an appalling and insulting crime, the New South Wales Government said today. |
| A tale of two
histories 17 January 2005 - There will be no official celebration for tomorrow's 217th anniversary of the First Fleet's arrival at Botany Bay. But the story will be remembered by at least one Aboriginal family. |
| Pupils
to salute Aboriginal custodians 1 January 2005 - NSW public school students are to acknowledge Aborigines as the original custodians of the land, under new Department of Education guidelines. |
| Local communities
in Australia relive history and organise online 3 September 2004 - Internet & ICTs for Social Justice and Development News - Rowville-Lysterfield History Project (RLHP) is an archive of photos and stories told by the eldest members of the Rowville-Lysterfield community (Victoria, Australia) of their memories of the oldest people they remember when they were children. It is a rich telling of anecdotal histories that would otherwise be lost; of Aboriginal mounted police, the Bunerong and the Wawoorung clans of the Kulin nation, the little known prisoner of war camp, the stories of both women and men, many who would live their lives over again. |
| 'Sorry Books'
registered as historic documents 19 August 2004 - UNESCO - A collection of 461 Sorry Books recording the thoughts of thousands of Australians on the unfolding history of the Stolen Generations has been formally recognized as having powerful historical and social significance. The books are among nine significant documentary heritage items recently inscribed on the Australian Memory of the World Register – part of UNESCO’s Programme to protect and promote documentary material- that records or reflects significant milestones and events in Australia’s history. |
| Elders celebrate as their memories
go online 4 August 2004 - Children would light bits of rubber in empty jam tins found in rubbish tips to use in the darkness during a curfew adults imposed on the Aboriginal mission station where Uncle Sandy Atkinson was raised. He can laugh now recalling his pain and outrage when an elder among the many sharing responsibility for both discipline and care of children at Cummeragunja, on the Murray River (or Dunghala), took his "pin light" lamp with wire handle and beat him. |
| Minding the language: students give voice
to endangered words 30 July 2004 - It's little lunch at Darlington Public School, and between mouthfuls of bread and peanut butter Mikaela Welsh is trying out her newly acquired skills in the Wiradjuri language. "Nyan," she says, pointing to her shy, sticky grin. "Nyan - that's mouth." • Aboriginal languages for curriculum |
| Past shrouded in polemics 5 July 2004 - During the row that followed last year's publication of my book The History Wars and Robert Manne's Whitewash: On Keith Windschuttle's Fabrication of Aboriginal History, many people suggested that I must be pleased that history was so much in the news. The media controversy certainly helped sales, but I am not sure that it assisted informed discussion of the issues. |
| Two worlds, one vision 17 June 2004 - David Unaipon (1872-1967) was a Ngarrindjeri man who spoke Latin and Greek and endorsed assimilation, yet insisted Aboriginal culture was as rich and complex as any other ancient culture. Unaipon was a scientist, a dandy, an historian, an inventor and a Christian. He was, according to choreographer Frances Rings, an “in-between”, a man “brave enough to walk in a land that had no track”. • Breathless and bold in vibrant creativity |
| Elders paving the way to reconciliation
at Myall Creek 11 June 2004 - Reconciliation will be the main objective of the annual memorial service for those who died in the Myall Creek massacre. |
| March a show of unity 28 April 2004 - The Australian and Aboriginal flags marched side by side for the first time in the Anzac march held last Sunday in Lightning Ridge. • Anzac Day march begins in Darwin - Coming in from many remote communities are the Indigenous soldiers who serve with the Northern Territory's reconnaissance and surveillance unit NORFORCE. • The Forgotten - To celebrate ANZAC day and pay tribute to the Indigenous men & women that have proudly served this nation ABC's Message Stick presented a twenty six minute documentary: The FORGOTTEN. |
| Howard silences Aboriginal advocates 16 April 2004- The Federal Government has ended the policy of self-determination which for three decades has taken the voices of elected Aboriginal representatives to Canberra, with the Prime Minister, John Howard, announcing he will abolish the nation's peak indigenous body. |
| Aboriginals' significant role in WWI revealed 13 April 2004 - The names of more than 400 Aboriginal soldiers who served in World War I have been uncovered -- and many were from Tasmania's Bass Strait islands. Canberra-based historian David Huggonson, who has spent 20 years researching the Aboriginal contribution to Australia's military campaigns, announced his findings yesterday. |
| Indigenous tour push 28 March 2004 - Darwin's rich archeological heritage is being documented as part of a nation-wide conservation and tourism project to develop Indigenous tourism in Australian cities. Hundreds of shell midden sites - including one 7m high - and examples of Aboriginal rock art and stone artefacts have been registered with NT Heritage Conservation as part of the project. |
| Moves to save dying languages 15 March, 2004 - HAMISH ROBERTSON: According to UNESCO, more than half of the world's 6,000 languages are in danger of dying out, ranging from native American languages in the United States to Scottish Gaelic, which is now spoken by only 60,000 or so mostly elderly people. Well, with growing concern about the rapid disappearance of so many languages around the world, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission is beginning a study of Aboriginal languages in Australia. |
| The fatal error 28 February 2004 - Could white Australia have averted many problems by signing early treaties with the Aborigines? Treaties would not have resolved all issues between the first Australians and the European settlers, any more than the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 settled all differences between Maoris and European settlers in New Zealand. However, Waitangi guaranteed Maori tribal chiefs land and other rights in return for British sovereignty over the country and any Australian treaty would most likely have provided a similarly useful foundation document. The chances are that the relationship between black and white would have been put on a happier basis than it was. |
| New techniques record ancient art of ancestors 16 February 2004 - Deep in the Grampians, Ricci Marks perches on a ledge in an Aboriginal rock shelter ... Once, indigenous history was told by word of mouth - ancient stories passed down the generations. But that is now being complemented by other ways to read the past. |
| Aboriginal cave paintings date back 4,000 years 2 July 2003 - The Guardian (UK) - Associated Press - A chance discovery by a hiker has been hailed as one of the most significant finds of Aboriginal rock art in Australia's history - a cave containing more than 200 paintings, some believed to be 4,000 years old. |
| Fabricating Aboriginal History (Transcript) 25 May 2003 - Whatever happened to the Socratic dialogue, you may well ask, as you ponder the war of words between Australian academics over Aboriginal history. There are seemingly no questions, just assertions, as the two sides argue vociferously over how many Aborigines were massacred by white settlers before Federation. |
| White Settlement in Australia In his recent book, The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Keith Windschuttle charges academic historians with a series of wilful misrepresentations intended to portray Australia as a society marked by atrocities against Aborigines. In this important debate, Keith Windschuttle and Pat Grimshaw outlined competing accounts of white settlement and explained what’s at stage in the debate. AUDIO MPeg3 files: Chair’s Introduction | Keith Windschuttle | Patricia Grimshaw | Discussion Part I | Discussion Part II |
| One country, two histories 17 January 2003 - The Guardian (UK) - Conservative Australian historians rewrite accepted view that colonists massacred Aborigines. When a historian publishes a book accusing his peers of poor scholarship, most people would dismiss the ensuing argument as just another academic row. Not in Australia, where a dispute over history has broadened into a public debate which threatens to change the politics of race. |
| Rendering the past less unpalatable 13 January 2003 - Keith Windschuttle's The Fabrication of Aboriginal History has caused a greater sensation than any work on the Australian past since Robert Hughes's The Fatal Shore in 1986. It is not because he is the first to write on genocide. When Alison Palmer and Henry Reynolds published carefully argued books on the subject recently, they barely caused a ripple. |
| Look back in anger 4 January 2003 - Faced with a government review, the National Museum of Australia may be forced to reinterpret its controversial portrayal of the nation's colonial history, writes Joyce Morgan. The federal Arts Minister, Richard Alston, made a curious qualification when he referred to the National Museum of Australia last month. He told Parliament the establishment of the museum had been a good outcome, "certainly in terms of the structure of the building". |
| In the path of progress 26 December 2002 - As historians squabble over the truth about Aboriginal massacres, Tony Stephens discovered a voice from the past that offers insights into the hardships borne by black and white. |
| Landscapes in blood 14 December 2002 - The Aborigines of the Kimberley have turned to pictures to sway the debate about white massacres of their people. 'He ran and ran. The white men were chasing him on horseback and he hid in the water. A white man shot at him from up on the horse. The old man thought quickly and cut himself so that his blood came out in the water. The white man looked at it and said: 'All right. I hit him."' |
| Decrying the memories of Mistake Creek is yet further injustice 27 November 2002 - Paul Sheehan uncritically accepts and repeats historian Keith Windschuttle's dogmatic denial of any non-indigenous responsibility in relation to the killing of Aborigines, including women and children, at Mistake Creek in the East Kimberley. In so doing, he conveys a falsepicture upon which he bases some criticism of me. I am led to respond only by reason of the hurt that Sheehan's article, if left unanswered, may cause to the Kija people of the region. |
| Admired by Macquarie, but ignored for a sailing cat 11 May 2002 - Funny mob, Australians. They make more fuss over a cat than a king. This weekend marks the 200th anniversary of Matthew Flinders signing up King Bungaree, last tribal chief of the Broken Bay Aborigines, to help in the first circumnavigation of the continent Flinders was to call Australia. |
| Forgotten Aborigine team who changed cricket forever 8 March 2002 - Guardian (UK) - They were cricket's forgotten heroes - a team of Aborigines who came to England in 1868 viewed as little more than a joke, and ended up changing the face of cricket forever. Now a previously unseen archive of photographs, scorebooks and other memorabilia chronicling the first - and last - tour by native Australians has surfaced after languishing in an attic for more than 80 years. |
| Aborigines offer alternative guide to their land 11 July 2001- The Independent (UK) - "There she goes," said Lino Thomas, peering through the drizzle at the mist-veiled mountain rising ahead. "Look at that grey cloak. She's wearing her possum skin again." Ms Thomas, an Aboriginal tour guide, was pointing to one of the earliest landmarks recorded by Captain Cook as he sailed up the coast of southern New South Wales. Cook called it Mount Dromedary, but the mountain already had a name: for thousands of years, Aborigines had known it as Gulaga. |
| Pieces in the 'Puzzle' of Australia 9 June 2001 - International Herald Tribune - The brand new National Museum of Australia here has brought together, for the first time, the story of Aboriginals with the cultural history of the European settlement of Australia. |
| Debate rages over "peaceful" white settlement 16 April 2001 - Tony Jones speaks with Henry Reynolds and Keith Windschuttle. Henry Reynolds is one of Australia's most influential historians, who's responsible for some of the most comprehensive and original research, documenting the violence on Australia's frontier. He's written nine books and is presently a research professor at the University of Tasmania. Historian Keith Windschuttle's recent series in the conservative magazine 'Quadrant' attacked the work of Henry Reynolds and others. He's also the author of 'The Killing of History', how literary critics and social theories are murdering our past and he's the publisher of Macleay Press. |
| Guilt surfaces at Australia's centenary 31 December 2000 - The Independent (UK) - When proud Australians paraded through Sydney 100 years ago tomorrow to hail the birth of their independent nation, there were no black faces among the marchers, or the hat-waving crowds. There were, for that matter, only two women in the procession. |
| A Black Day in London 8 July 2000 - In the British Parliament, a Labour MP, Mr Jeremy Corbyn, tabled a motion calling on "the governments and peoples of Australia to mark the Centenary of Federation by committing themselves to redress discrimination and disadvantage" of Aborigines. |
| James Cook Unplugged or Cook-ing History Cook was a tool of the British colonial military industrial establishment. He knew where he was going and therefore was not the great navigator alleged in the histories re-told to our children, and failure to acknowledge the Portuguese source amounts to de-facto plagiarising of the work of the cartographic and navigational thinkers, adventurers and oceanic trailblazers of europe - the Portuguese. |
| Landscapes in blood The Aborigines of the Kimberley have turned to pictures to sway the debate about white massacres of their people. 'He ran and ran. The white men were chasing him on horseback and he hid in the water. A white man shot at him from up on the horse. The old man thought quickly and cut himself so that his blood came out in the water. The white man looked at it and said: 'All right. I hit him."' |
| Protecting Traditional Knowledge and Folklore: A review of progress in diplomacy and policy formulation UNCTAD/ICTSD Capacity Building Project on Intellectual Property Rights and Sustainable Development |
| Ask First : A guide to respecting Indigenous heritage places and values (379kb PDF) |
| HIGLY RECOMMENDED: Gary Foley's History website - http://www.kooriweb.org |
| history and heritage: news index (return to history page) |