Jared Owens; 17/ 3/10
Up to 15 indigenous boarders at Brisbane’s exclusive Clayfield Girls College fought each other in a “riot-like” brawl, forcing a lockdown of sleeping quarters and police to be called. The disturbance on Monday night has further stirred racial tensions between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups of students at the school. The brawl erupted as the school’s boarders sat for dinner, with the two groups hurling abuse at each other including threats to kill and maim.
16/3/10
Christopher Pyne recently complained about too many references to Aboriginal people in the planned national curriculum and now Tony Abbott says it is “inappropriate” to publicly acknowledge their existence. It is a chilling glimpse of how Aboriginal people can expect to fare if the Coalition wins government. Elspeth McInnes, Adelaide, SA
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Nicolas Rothwell; 16/3/10
It was mid-April 2003 when a young researcher named Judy Lovell first met Kathleen Kemarre Wallace, the best-known artist of Santa Teresa community just south of Alice Springs. The connection forged between Lovell and Mrs Wallace, the name by which the artist is known, was immediate and intuitive. They began sharing stories, impressions and ideas. Their tie deepened into a bond of friendship. Lovell became the long-term art co-ordinator for the little community, which specialises in intricately designed and brightly coloured ceramics and works on canvas. Gradually she grew to be the principal recorder of Mrs Wallace’s memories, reflections and epic tales. The two decided to begin working on a bilingual book project, in English and Mrs Wallace’s Arrernte language, and majestically illustrated, binding art with country, individual artist with old tradition. Listen Deeply, Let These Stories In, published late last year by the Alice Springs-based IAD Press, is a striking production: a kind of multimedia art project in print, complete with photographs of rock engravings and sweeping desert landscapes, accounts of bush fruits and weather phenomena, and an accompanying CD that captures the rise and fall of Mrs Wallace’s voice as she recounts the fine details of her story cycles.
Lanai Vasek; 16/3/10
Aboriginal elder Allen Madden thinks Tony Abbott’s views on traditional indigenous ceremonies are rubbish and to abandon them at the start of important gatherings amounted to trespassing. Mr Madden, who performs two or three welcomes a week to Sydney’s Gadigal land at $250 to $300 for each welcome, said the Opposition Leader’s comments were “just political noise to get a headline”. Mr Abbott told The Advertiser the ceremonies were an “empty gesture”, prevalent because of the Rudd government’s “obsession” with acknowledging the traditional owners of land. “It’s like a stranger coming over to your house and barging their way in … isn’t it correct to actually welcome them in properly? That’s what these ceremonies are all about,” Mr Madden said. “It’s not a token … it actually means something and is very important.”
Samantha Maiden; 15/3/10
T0ny Abbott has opened up a new front in the culture wars by declaring that Kevin Rudd and other Labor ministers demonstrate a misplaced sense of political correctness when acknowledging the traditional owners of land at official functions. Mr Abbott’s dismissal of the modern practice of acknowledging traditional owners as “out-of-place tokenism” also won support among some Aboriginal leaders, who have described the trend as “paternalistic”. The Opposition Leader said Labor politicians felt obliged to observe the practice, despite the fact it was inappropriate in many instances. “Kevin Rudd is not an old-style lefty … but the Labor Party is full of people who are, and I guess this is the kind of genuflection to political correctness that these guys feel they have to make,” he told Adelaide’s The Advertiser. “Sometimes it’s appropriate to do those things, but certainly I think in many contexts, it seems like out-of-place tokenism.”
13/3/10; Pat Lowe with Jimmy Pike Magabala Books
This important book about the daily life of Aborigines in the Great Sandy Desert area of Western Australia first appeared in 1990. It is the result of an extraordinary partnership between Jimmy Pike, a Walmajarri man who was born in the Great Sandy Desert, and Pat Lowe, a writer who grew up in England and emigrated to Western Australia in 1972. Lowe lived in the desert for three years with Pike. She observed and was respectful of the traditions and the knowledge Pike had acquired.
Tim Elliott; 13/3/10
Deep within the Pitt Rivers Museum, at the University of Oxford, is a box labelled ”Australia Ngaarindjeri 1900.55.292”. Inside is a human skull, one of four such Aboriginal drinking skulls held by the museum since 1900. Sealed with resin and with string loops for carrying, the skulls were traditionally used as cups by the Ngarrindjeri people of South Australia, who, according to the museum’s historical notes, ”generally prefer the skulls of their deceased parents or other near relations, to those of strangers”. Some time in the late 1800s, however, the skulls were collected by an English explorer and horseman called Harry Stockdale, and from there passed onto the museum. Now the Ngarrindjeri want them back.
Justine Ferrari; 13/3/10
Almost half the crisis funding intended to raise literacy and numeracy standards for struggling students has been distributed among NSW, Victoria and the ACT, which have the highest test rates in the nation, with 95 per cent of their students meeting minimum benchmarks. But the Northern Territory, which has the lowest literacy and numeracy rates in the nation, with about one-third of its students scoring below standard on national tests, received a fraction of the money provided under the $540m national partnership between the federal, state and territory governments. The Territory received $4.5m in the first round of funding under the national partnership to improve literacy and numeracy results in 19 schools, and stands to gain a further $10.5m in reward funding if the performance of its students improves in the national tests.
Tony Koch; 13/3/10; (2 Items)
The policeman who was charged with manslaughter over the death in custody of Palm Island man Mulrunji Doomadgee yesterday apologised to the Aborigine’s family. Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, appearing at the reconvened inquest into Doomadgee’s 2004 death in north Queensland, said he was sorry for the “angst” of the islander’s partner and loved ones. As Doomadgee’s de facto wife, Tracey Twaddle, his sister Valmae Aplin and other relatives looked on, Sergeant Hurley expressed sympathy to them for the first time. “There is nothing further I can say in regard to evidence but I have always wanted to say to Tracey and the family that I offer my sincere sympathy for Mulrunji’s death and I am sorry for that angst they have had to suffer over the last number of years,” he told the inquest. Doomadgee, 36, suffered fatal internal injuries, including a ruptured liver, after he scuffled with Sergeant Hurley and they fell to the concrete floor of the Palm Island police station.
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12/3/10
Improvements to physical health will probably be outweighed by the negative impact of the Northern Territory invervention on psychological health, spirituality and cultural integrity, according to a report to be released today. Indigenous doctors will release the damning report on the intervention and its health effects.”It is likely that new sustained investments in material resources, including education, housing and healthcare services and delivery, will make a significant contribution to improved physical health for some people,” the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association report says.
Tony Koch; 12/3/10; (2 Items)
The policeman who arrested Aboriginal cell death victim Mulrunji Doomadgee yesterday told a coronial inquiry he could not explain how the Palm Islander suffered his fatal injuries. Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley told Coroner Brian Hine that he had a “tussle” with Doomadgee at the north Queensland island’s lockup on November 19, 2004.Sergeant Hurley insisted that they tripped near a doorway leading into the watchhouse and that he fell “beside” Doomadgee. But he said he accepted medical evidence that Doomadgee’s massive injuries were consistent with his tall and heavy frame falling on the slightly built Doomadgee. While he still believed they had hit the concrete floor side by side, Sergeant Hurley said: “I have since said that is obviously not the case (and) some part of my person has touched Mr Doomadgee.”Sergeant Hurley said he could not explain exactly how Doomadgee had been so seriously injured.
Natasha Robinson & Lex Hall; 12/3/10
The future of the nation’s biggest remote housing project is hanging in the balance at Groote Eylandt, where the Rudd government is considering sacking the building consortium carrying out housing works. A meeting of the Council of Territory Co-operation was held at Groote Eylandt yesterday following a closed-door meeting of the same committee last week, in which the Northern Territory’s chief housing bureaucrat spelt out the latest crisis confronting the Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program. The Australian understands housing department chief executive Ken Davies last week said during confidential testimony that the federal government had become so concerned about the progress of housing on Groote Eylandt, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, that it was contemplating terminating the contract of Earth Connect, the alliance charged with building 80 houses at Groote and the nearby Bickerton Island.
Andrew Darby; 11/3/10
An ancient artefact site that today’s Aborigines are struggling to protect from road building could push human occupation of Tasmania out to 40,000 years ago. Preliminary dating of stone tools from the site beside the Jordan River, north of Hobart, shows people were living on what is now the island state up to 6000 years earlier than previously known. For the first time, evidence of ice-age human habitation in the region has been found in open ground, rather than confined to a cave, consultant archaeologist Rob Paton said yesterday. Thousands, and perhaps millions, of stone artefacts are buried in a 600-metre long bank that gradually built up beside the Jordan through flooding over aeons.
Tony Koch; 11/3/10
A key police witness to the alleged watchhouse bashing of Palm Islander Mulrunji Doomadgee admitted yesterday his representation by the same lawyer who acted for a colleague later charged over the death could be seen as “bias”. Constable Kristopher Steadman told the reconvened inquest into Doomadgee’s 2004 death that solicitor Glen Cranny, a partner in the Brisbane firm Gilshennan and Luton, was present when he gave his first version of the incident to Crime and Misconduct Commission investigators. The inquest was told Mr Cranny had also been engaged by the Queensland Police Union to act for Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, who arrested and scuffled with Doomadgee at the local lockup. Andrew Boe, for the Doomadgee family, yesterday asked Constable Steadman if it seemed “inappropriate” for lawyers acting for “the subject of inquiry to also be acting for you”. Constable Steadman replied: “Yes, when you look at the intricacies and evidence and what has happened over the five years – yes, there could have been some sort of bias.”
Tony Koch; 10/3/10
Two witnesses familiar with the Palm Island police lock-up, where Mulrunji Doomadgee died, yesterday supported evidence that the scene of his alleged assault had been visible through a mirror. Appearing at a new inquest into the death in custody of Doomadgee, the witnesses backed testimony by local man Roy Bramwell of the existence of the mirror, which he said had allowed him to see police Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley punch and knee the Palm Islander. Mr Bramwell, who was in the watch-house when Doomadgee was brought in on November 19, 2004, gave several interviews immediately after his death but did not mention the mirror until he was questioned by Queensland’s Crime and Misconduct Commission nearly two years later.
Paige Taylor & Debbie Guest, 9/3/10
Outback loan shark Sam Tomarchio has been ordered to stop lending in a Supreme Court writ lodged by Western Australia’s Department of Commerce late yesterday. The writ is the first action resulting from a raid by Consumer Protection officers on Mr Tomarchio’s Laverton home office on January 28, 13 days after The Australian revealed he controlled the Centrelink payments of hundreds of Aborigines across central Australia. Mr Tomarchio said last night both levels of government had yet to provide promised crisis money, which had left many local people without funds. In January, Mr Tomarchio admitted keeping the bank cards and PIN numbers of his clients when they ran out of money and needed a loan. He said he charged them 33 per cent interest and used the eftpos E machine at his chalet business to withdraw money plus interest on the days his clients received their welfare payments.
