Dump(s) of the week: Borroloola. Gulf country, Northern Territory

AMSANT noted in its submission that it: "...note[d] that the many threats to environmental and public health that have been largely eliminated in the rest of the nation over the past century still blight many of our communities: urban, regional and remote. To this extent, the capacity of comprehensive primary health care to meet the needs of Aboriginal Territorians—to Close the Gap—will continue to be frustrated in environments in which fundamental public health protections are not available or unmet." AMSANT was concerned at the parlous state of environmental health of many of the communities that its members serve, where: "Poor environmental health conditions in remote communities and town camps include inadequate sanitation, water supply, rubbish disposal and grossly overcrowded housing. Basic infrastructure in many remote communities is either absent, inadequate and/or poorly maintained."

Guest Post – Frank Baarda’s Musical Dispatch from the Front

I suspect that Lajamanu’s Centrelink personnel, who will have the power to decide whether Jupurrula is responsible enough to be exempted from IM, and who probably are half his age and earn at least twice as much as him, are incapable of fixing taps and unblocking sewerage pipes, and even if they could wouldn’t be allowed to because they don’t have a ticket...I won’t bother to tell you the stories of ticketless Jampijimpa that used to run the Powerhouse, until he had this power taken off him, or of ticketless Jakamarra that could make a bulldozer dance.

Intervention Sign Wars in the Tanami Desert…part 1,045

Pornography Drop-off Point. "This one is at the airstrip and is one of a pair. The other one is at the entrance to Yuendumu near the patronising “Look for People” sign. We inspect the bins daily. So far nothing has been placed in them. Anything we recover from the bins, we will incinerate."

ZING! – my name is Sarah Brown and I am a paintaholic…

Being here this evening, surrounded by her work, is not all of what Sarah is about. At her opening last year I described her in the best of possible ways as a “mongrel dog”. With that description, I was describing her as central Australia’s leading advocate and activist for Aboriginal people with end stage renal disease. I described her as that because, quite simply, she is completely unafraid in her dealings with bureaucrats and politicians in her battles with them. call her that as a token of real affection. The real puzzle is that she is both mongrel dog activist, mother, carer of people within the Western Desert Renal Dialysis family—yet still finds the time to create objects of beauty and wonder.

Deeply depressing news from the North – the slow death of bilingualism in remote Northern Territory schools

Central Australian government schools have lost their last linguist. The funding allocated for the salary for the remainder of the year will go to the Darwin Languages Centre, which deals with non-Indigenous and Indigenous languages, but is mostly about teaching as a second language.1 No funding has been allocated for a Central Australian linguist in 2012. There’s an Indigenous Language and Culture Officer position who supports schools, but again no funding is guaranteed for 2012.

Birds of the week – Firehawks of the Top End

Is our landscape one shaped by humans and weather forces or might other agents - like birds - be in part responsible for the spread of fire across our landscapes? There are more questions here than answers...so far.

Live cattle ban – the beginning of the end of pastoralism in the Northern Territory?

Pastoralism in the Northern Territory is really a form of strip mining. The pastoralists are mining some of the soil nutrient elements (chemicals) out of the grasses and other leaves and exporting them in live cattle. This is happening to some of the poorest soils and ecosystems in Australia. The operation is being subsidised by the government to a considerable extent. Cattle are little more than parasitic grit in the machinery of our ecosystem. How could it be otherwise? How could the pastoral industry possibly be ecologically sustainable in the Northern Territory?

Of “Welsh-born women and Arnhem-born men”…the PM goes to Yirrkala

Friends. We meet here, your country. We meet here, on Australian soil, our country. And we come together in this place, at this time, to celebrate a moment uniquely yours, uniquely Australian. We celebrate an agreement between the traditional owners of this land and a mining giant.

Why am I in Columbus, Ohio?

I gave up attending conferences without presenting at them a long time ago and this year I'm giving two presentations tomorrow in a session dedicated to ethnoornithology and titled "Birds in historical, cultural & archaeological context" where we will "examine birds and human culture in a variety of contexts, including birds, humans and fire, birds and archaeology and what happens when birds, birders and sacred and ancient grounds meet."

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