Archives January 2015

A book by Bruce Elder which has become widely used in teaching Aboriginal history at both secondary and tertiary levels. Bruce's account of the atrocities committed as white settlers pushed into the rich grazing lands is handled with a journalistic objectivity. One gruesome event at Myall Creek, Elder skillfully juxtaposes the harmonious relationships between the Aboriginal people and the farmhands, with a renegade gang determined to seek retribution on any Aboriginal people that happen to cross their path.

A federal government Ministers meeting passed a resolution supporting the four broad themes for change outlined in the federal government's initial response, which are reducing the overcrowding in the curriculum, promoting a parent-friendly version of the curriculum, improving accessibility for students with disabilities, and rebalancing the curriculum with the removal of the 'overarching themes' of Australian First Nations, Asia and sustainability issues embedded in curriculum subjects.

In the Anangu Pitjintjatjara Yangkunjatjara lands in northern South Australia, Ngangkari healers work alongside doctors and medical staff in community clinics and hospitals, and often visit Adelaide to attend to Indigenous hospital patients.
 
In the mental health area their involvement in the care of Aboriginal people is even enshrined in state law, and Ngangkari deal with everything from childhood illnesses to loss of spirit.

First Nations people are experiencing racism while seeking health care, say Victorian researchers. The authors found those who had experienced racism in a health setting were more likely to experience increased psychological distress than those who experienced racism in a different setting or had experienced no racism at all. Almost every Aboriginal Victorian who participated in this survey had experienced at least one racist incident in the previous 12 months.
- Includes a summary of Coroners Report into the Death of Ms DHU, WA, 2016.