Australian politics Archives - Page 5 of 58

Smoke signals

Image: Alf van Beem By Mark Butler “YOU’LL smoke and drink and wear sandals, grow a beard and be a beatnik, you won’t believe in marriage and you’ll bring your children up the same way …” So my mother, wreathed in a cloud of cigarette smoke, often predicted during one of her monologues across the [...]

By Bob Gosford|2023-08-10T19:28:40+09:30June 29th, 2023|Australian politics, FARRAGO, Some places I've been, The Northern Myth, Writing and writers|Comments Off

Essential documents from Aboriginal Australia: 11 – The Barunga Declaration – June 2023

In June 2023 the four Northern Territory Aboriginal land councils met to sign the Barunga Declaration which addresses all Australians and urges them to support a Voice to Parliament. More than 200 representatives of the Northern, Central, Tiwi and Anindilyakwa land councils gathered on the traditional lands of the Bagala clan group at Barunga, south-east [...]

By Bob Gosford|2024-02-16T17:03:01+09:30June 23rd, 2023|Australian politics, Essential Documents, Fun stuff, Indigenous land management, Northern development, Northern Territory politics, Some places I've been, The Law, The Northern Myth|Comments Off

Spoiled Sports

By Mark Butler This is the second of an occasional series of articles by contributing authors under the general title of FARRAGO*. MY initiation in 1956 as a seven-year-old into the realities of sporting fervour was terrifying. My father, who was taking my older brother and me on one of his post-desertion, pre-divorce excursions out of [...]

By Bob Gosford|2023-06-14T23:36:53+09:30June 14th, 2023|AFL, Australian politics, Crime, FARRAGO, Media, Sport, The Northern Myth|Comments Off

A reflection on a dictionary’s long-awaited birth

Guest post by Chips Mackinolty* While “we speak our mother’s tongue” is a universal truism, it is something often forgotten in the context of colonialism and the overt and extended suppression of Indigenous languages across what is now called Australia. How can a “mother’s tongue” be spoken if the children have been taken away? If [...]

By Bob Gosford|2023-06-16T07:59:06+09:30June 14th, 2023|Australian politics, Northern Territory politics, The Law, The Northern Myth, Writing and writers, Yuendumu|Comments Off

Memoir of a footnote

Tranter’s death came out of the blue and, to the ABC’s undying shame, was not noted by its gutted and gutless news service.

By Bob Gosford|2023-05-07T11:22:43+09:30May 7th, 2023|Art, Australian politics, Media, Some places I've been, The Arts, The Northern Myth, Writing and writers|Comments Off

Ten essential documents from Aboriginal Australia

Lately there’s been a lot of people demanding more detail about the Uluru Statement From The Heart. Over the years I’ve collected a bunch of foundational documents made by Aboriginal people that have called for land rights, a Treaty, constitutional recognition, redress for past injustices and much more. It is no coincidence that many of [...]

By Bob Gosford|2023-04-09T09:19:37+09:30April 8th, 2023|Australian politics, Indigenous land management, Northern Territory politics, The Law, The Northern Myth|Comments Off

Tribute. Yunupingu, 30 June 1948—3 April 2023

I have lived my song cycle … In remembering this extraordinary Aboriginal leader it is difficult to forget the meaning of his family name—Yunupingu—which in the Gumatj dialect of the Yolngu Matha language family means “the rock that stands against time”.Across so many decades, Yunupingu’s deeds and actions in the struggles for lands, seas, language [...]

By Bob Gosford|2023-04-03T22:58:38+09:30April 3rd, 2023|Aboriginal & Islander Art, Australian politics, Indigenous land management, Northern development, Northern Territory politics, Some places I've been, The Law, The Northern Myth|Comments Off

Vale. A great great Yolŋu man, father and leader

I find it hard to put into words just how much this great Yolŋu man achieved and how much we owe him. When he first became Chair of the Northern Land Council in 1977, the Fraser Government had only just passed into law the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976. He would be Chair [...]

By Bob Gosford|2023-04-03T22:02:36+09:30April 3rd, 2023|Australian politics, Indigenous land management, Northern development, Northern Territory politics, Some places I've been, The Law, The Northern Myth|Comments Off

The Voice—Second Reading Speech, 30 March 2023

The Hon Mark Dreyfus KC MP delivering the second reading speech for the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) Bill 2023 This is the Second Reading Speech for the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) Bill 2023 as delivered by Attorney-General The Hon Mark Dreyfus KC MP earlier today, 30 March [...]

By Bob Gosford|2023-03-30T11:23:27+09:30March 30th, 2023|Australian politics, Indigenous land management, Northern development, Northern Territory politics, Some places I've been, The Law, The Northern Myth|Comments Off

Death on a dirt road. The killing of Jabanardi by NT Police at Ti Tree on 20 July 1980

We may never get to a “true” version of what happened on that dirt road forty-one years ago. Further crucial details may be found in the many thousands of pages of Court, Coronial and RCDIAC transcripts and the numerous submissions, statements, correspondence and exhibits used in those matters.

By Bob Gosford|2024-08-04T11:10:12+09:30July 20th, 2021|Australian politics, Crime, Northern Territory politics, NT Police, Some places I've been, The Law, The Northern Myth|0 Comments