Education

Two film makers are exploring the vital role Aboriginal transport played in the Victorian economy. Seeing the Land from an Aboriginal Canoe is a documentary film which explores the significant contribution of the stringybark canoe. The filmmakers were inspired by historian, Dr David 'Fred' Cahir, who specialises in forgotten Indigenous history. They were particularly drawn to his research into the stringybark canoe and its role in Victoria's waterways. In the film, Dr Cahir said most Aboriginal history was about violence and massacres, and not the Aboriginal contribution.

Archaeologists and Aboriginal elders are hoping the most comprehensive study of rock art in the Kimberley region will confirm the images are among the oldest made by humans anywhere in the world. More than a dozen scientists took part in two field trips to study remote faces on Dambimangari and Balanggarra country. They used pioneering techniques to collect and analyse hundreds of samples to narrow down the timeframes in which the striking images of people, animals and shells were made. Professor Peter Veth, from the University of Western Australia, said they were expecting to have the first results through by the end of the year.

According to a duo of Australian scientists, Aboriginal society has preserved memories of Australia’s coastline dating back to 11,000 – 5,300 BC.

11 September 2015

Work on the Chichester Trunk Gravity Main has led to around 3,000 Aboriginal artefacts being uncovered at Tarro, near Maitland, New South Wales.

(Image source: ABC News Pic: Hunter Water)

Work on the pipeline that delivers drinking water to 40 per cent of the Hunter region has led to around three-thousand Aboriginal artefacts being uncovered near Maitland.

Ancient Indigenous Australian bush-burning could be used around the world to radically cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to United Nations research, which also challenges Prime Minister Tony Abbott's refusal to embrace the purchase of international carbon credits. Abbott has previously said buying overseas offsets sends money "offshore into dodgy carbon farms in Equatorial Guinea and Kazakhstan".

The government this month delayed considering the measure until 2017 or later, saying it would rather make cuts domestically.

A new genetic study is threatening to transform theories about who the original Native Americans were after finding certain tribes in the Amazon are related to Aborigines in Australia. Researchers believe these stories could constitute some of the oldest accurate oral histories in the world, passing through some 300 generations. Traditional stories passed down through generations by Australian Aborigines may be among the oldest accurate oral histories in the world. 'About 2 per cent of the ancestry of Amazonians today comes from this Australasian lineage that's not present in the same way elsewhere in the Americas.'

"Advance Australia Fair" was the national anthem proclaimed as Australia's National Anthem by the Governor-General on 19th April 1984. 'Advance Australia' and 'Fair' are the key words and title of their anthem, and it appears that they were extracted from the 'White Australia March' songbook which materialised a few years after Federation in 1901. The information with the White Australian March sheet music stated; 'Of the National Policy Song, and is intended to express the life, character, and aspirations of the Australian born, depicting in musical form the patriotic spirit of the race ...'

A young First Nations woman was subject to such brutality in a domestic violence situation, she was inflicted with injuries were so severe, she was left profoundly Deaf and legally blind.

Nevertheless, her life has turned around and Rosie is now an author, and in her spare time she promotes awareness of issues relating to domestic violence as well as the extreme racism towards First Nations people by the Australian government.
-  

Throughout Australian history, principle has been overwhelmed by economic interest, and the idea of justice embodied in natural rights is voted down by justice made in the image of the majority. The Mabo decision of the High Court in 1992 might be taken as a paradigm case of what has been called "complex space." Instead of assuming a homogenous jurisdiction over Australian territory, the court had to acknowledge the validity of a different legal system and "storied" country inside the national borders. - Theological Critique by Mark Brett, Professor of Old Testament

An Aboriginal elder in Central Australia has shed tears of joy upon the rediscovery of a sacred site lost for the past 70 years. Previous attempts to find the Tanami Desert site, known as Kurlpurlunu, had proved fruitless until Warlpiri elders, George Jungarrayi Ryder and Molly Nappururla Tasman flew over the area in a helicopter last week. The elderly pair had visited the site as children and recognised some of the features, including a distinctive tree and a rock. The site's identity was confirmed by 82-year-old Jerry Jangala.