Archive for the ‘Aboriginal’ Category
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
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.
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Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights
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Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
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.
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Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Death in Custody, Human Rights
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Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
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.
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Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights, Trade
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Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
Tony Koch’ 9/3/10,
The key civilian witness to the 2004 watchhouse death of Palm Island man Mulrunji Doomadgee has changed his story, telling a fresh inquest he had a clear view of the incident rather than one obscured by a filing cabinet. Roy Bramwell, who was in the Palm Island cell block at the time Doomadgee was brought in, said yesterday he clearly saw the arresting policeman put his knee on the prostrate Aborigine’s chest and punch him. He said he had had initially given a different account of what happened – including the claim that Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley repeatedly punched Doomadgee – because he felt intimidated by the other Queensland police called in to investigate the 2004 death in custody. His changed version of events emerged on the opening day of the third inquest into Doomadgee’s death. Mr Bramwell told an earlier inquest his vision of the “scuffle” in the lockup was partially obscured by a tall filing cabinet.
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Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Death in Custody
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Monday, March 8th, 2010
Tony Koch; 8/3/10; (2 Items)
Today on Palm Island coroner Brian Hine begins hearing evidence in an attempt to resolve one of the most controversial black deaths in custody – that of Mulrunji Doomadgee. On November 19, 2004, Doomadgee, a fit, slim 36-year old, was walking on a back street swinging a bucket with a live mud crab in it and singing Who Let the Dogs Out when he encountered Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley and Aboriginal police liaison officer Lloyd Bengaroo arresting a man. Doomadgee commented, using profanities, to Mr Bengaroo that he should be ashamed of being involved in the arrest of a fellow Aborigine. Sergeant Hurley arrested Doomadgee, put him in the back of a paddy wagon and drove him the short distance to the watch-house. Evidence was given that when being taken from the police vehicle, Doomadgee struck the much taller and heavier policeman in the face. A struggle ensued and he and Sergeant Hurley ended up on the concrete floor.
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Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Death in Custody, Human Rights
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Saturday, March 6th, 2010
Joanne Watson; 6/3/10
Palm Island is still coming to terms with what happened to Cameron Doomadgee in police custodyExtract: “On Monday a reopened Queensland inquest — effectively the third — into the death of Cameron Doomadgee (Mulrunji) in police custody on Palm Island in 2004 will begin hearings on the island. One inquest found senior sergeant Chris Hurley responsible for Doomadgee’s fatal injuries but the officer was cleared of manslaughter in 2007. The state Court of Appeal last year ordered a new coroner be appointed to re-examine evidence. Later next week the inquest, under a special coroner, Deputy Chief Magistrate Brian Hine, will move to Townsville.IN the summer of 2004, planes and helicopters, loaded with journalists and camera crews, flocked to the remote settlement of Palm Island, 65km northwest of Townsville, in north Queensland.
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Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Death in Custody, Human Rights
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Saturday, March 6th, 2010
Lindsay Murdoch; 6/3/10
A dispute has erupted over control of the Yothu Yindi Foundation, a non-profit Aboriginal corporation that runs Garma, Australia’s leading cultural exchange festival. Aboriginal leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu narrowly defeated his brother Mandawuy Yunupingu in a bitterly contested vote for chairmanship of the foundation, which also runs projects in Arnhem Land to promote health and wellbeing among Yolngu people. Galarrwuy Yunupingu, who has been unwell, has made no comment yet about his plans for the festival after his takeover of the foundation’s board amid secrecy last month. Mandawuy Yunupingu, the lead singer of the band Yothu Yindi, set up the foundation in 1990 with the leaders of five Arnhem Land clans.
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Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Culture
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Saturday, March 6th, 2010
Tony Koch; 6/3/10
The two schools that have adopted a radical competency-based learning program in Cape York have encountered teething problems, with teachers leaving because they are unhappy. In the six weeks since school resumed, eight of the 20 teachers at Aurukun on western Cape York have left and one of the four in Coen has transferred to another school. The learning program is the brainchild of Aboriginal social reform advocate Noel Pearson, who lobbied government to introduce the US-based academy system in an effort to accelerate the learning levels of Aboriginal children, particularly those on remote communities. He pointed out, for instance, that very few children entering mainstream high school had a genuine competency level of even grade 4 or 5.
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Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights
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Friday, March 5th, 2010
Chris Merritt; 5/3/10 (2 Items)
The chief proponent of a national charter of rights, Frank Brennan, will address the federal Labor caucus next week to bolster the government’s fading support for a national charter of rights. Father Brennan, who chaired a committee that called for a national human rights act, will address the Labor caucus following a cabinet decision last month that a national human rights charter was not a high priority. Cabinet decided it would not reject the option of such a charter, but would give it low priority. On Wednesday, Father Brennan will address a joint meeting of the caucus general and administrative policy committee and the social policy committee.
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Tags: Australia, Human Rights
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Friday, March 5th, 2010
Tony Koch; 5/3/10
Severely assaulted Aboriginal women often did not report domestic violence assaults to police because they feared their children would be taken away, according to an intensive study tabled yesterday in the Queensland parliament. A review team headed by Chris Cunneen, of the University of NSW law faculty, considered the issue so serious that it recommended that Health Department officials, including doctors and health workers, not be compelled to report domestic violence incidents to police for investigation. The 147-page report, which has taken three years to complete, recommends also that police review the impact of their reports to Child Safety on domestic and family violence.
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Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights, Womens Rights
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Thursday, March 4th, 2010
4/3/10; Paige Taylor; (2 Texts)
Opal fuel, which provides no “high” when sniffed, is being rolled out in the West Australian Goldfields area following regular outbreaks of petrol sniffing among indigenous youths in the past year. Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said the Rudd government would spend $2.3 million on Opal subsidies’ for nine outlets in six communities, help establish a bulk storage facility for Opal fuel in the Goldfields city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and pay for bowser upgrades. “Over the years petrol sniffing has wrecked too many young indigenous lives,” Ms Macklin said. “We have seen positive results from the rollout of Opal fuel in regional and remote areas of Australia, and we want to see this extended to the Goldfields.” There are 122 sites receiving or registered to receive Opal fuel.
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Tags: Aborigial, Australia, Death in Custody, Drugs
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Thursday, March 4th, 2010
Ian Coates; 4/3/10
Ian Coates is senior curator of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander program at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.
Paintings by Tom Roberts have come to light more than a century after his visit In late 1922 Tom Roberts and his wife, Lillie, were packing up their London home, after a 20-year sojourn in England, for their final return to Australia. Among the artist’s possessions were mementos of a brief trip he made to Torres Strait 30 years before. The small collection included three gouache portraits of Torres Strait Islander men wearing elaborate ceremonial headdresses, a larger gouache work depicting a night-time ceremony on Mer (Murray Island) and 17 ethnographic objects. This remarkable discovery brings to light a significant addition to the known indigenous-themed works credited to Roberts. Although modest in scale, they make an exciting contribution to Australian art history and to the history of encounters in the Torres Strait.
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Tags: Australia, Human Rights, Religion
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Thursday, March 4th, 2010
Justine Ferrari; 4/3/10
Aboriginal Dreamtime stories will be removed from the national science course on the orders of curriculum head Barry McGaw, who said religious and spiritual beliefs had no place in the science classroom. Professor McGaw, chairman of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, said he had not realised the Dreamtime had been included in the science course until it was reported by The Weekend Australian last Saturday. “I’m a science graduate and a former science teacher,” he said. “I think Dreamtime is a religious or spiritual interpretation of the beginnings of life. “For the same reason, we wouldn’t let intelligent design or creationism be included. “It shouldn’t be in the science curriculum, and we’re going to take it out.”
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Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Religion
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Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
Troy Lennon; 2/3/10
The documentary “Contact”, screening on the ABC (Australia)_ on Thursday, looks at the moment that first contact took place between the last wandering band of Martu Aborigines and white people in the West Australian deserts less than 50 years ago. In 1946, the Australian government had announced plans to establish a rocket- testing range at Woomera in South Australia, with a target zone in Western Australia. But right in the path of the rockets were thousands of hectares of land still inhabited by bands of nomadic Aborigines. In the ’40s the government appointed a native patrol officer, Walter MacDougall, whose job was to make sure no people lived in the rocket target zone. MacDougall had to cover a vast, arid area – an easy place for people to hide. He cleared many of the people out but even after more than a decade, some still remained.
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Tags: Aboriginal, Arms, Australia, Human Rights
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Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
Paul Bibby; 2/3/10
More than 20,700 hectares of government land worth $70 million has been granted to indigenous people in NSW under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act in the past 18 months. But it has barely made a dent in the sea of claims made by Aboriginal land councils across the state. New figures show that a total area of land roughly equivalent to the Lamington National Park, on the NSW-Queensland border, was granted to the councils as the government churned through 1300 claims.
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Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights
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Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
Debbie Guest; 2/3/10
Western Australia’s Corruption and Crime Commission will review an internal police report that cleared an officer who shot a petrol sniffer with a Taser in the remote desert community of Warburton. Ronald Mitchell was engulfed in flames and suffered third-degree burns to up to 30 per cent of his body after the incident last July. The internal police report into the incident found Sergeant Nick Hamer was justified in using his Taser because he fired it in self-defence. No changes to police procedures were recommended. At the time of the incident, police claimed Mr Mitchell ran towards Sergeant Hamer with a container of petrol and a lighter and WA Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan said there was a “strong possibility” that the fire was caused by the lighter.
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Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Drugs, Legal
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