Sovereign Union

Indigenous leaders from north-east Arnhem Land have devised a new plan to deal with family violence in their community. It calls for a new approach to community policing, with a local authority of clan groups the first point of contact. They say misunderstandings about traditional and western legal systems are part of the problem. Featured: Yirrininba Dhurrkay, ARDS Aboriginal Corporation David Su...

The Northern Territory youth detention royal commission has been told children were held on rolling 72 hour isolation placements because there was nowhere else to put them. The Don Dale youth detention centre's former general manager has given evidence today. Russell Caldwell told the inquiry laws about prolonged isolation didn't account for the reality on the ground. Featured: Peter Callaghan SC,...

ABC RN Background Briefing Just five years ago this Northern Territory hospital was facing closure, its doctors were out of their depth and indigenous patients were leaving the wards in droves. This is the remarkable story of how Katherine Hospital turned its fortunes around. It now ranks among Australia's best for its relationship with its indigenous patients. How did the hospital do it and what...

In the Northern Territory, the grandmother of a former Don Dale detainee has told the youth detention royal commission how she thinks the system should change. Her grandson told the commission today he was handcuffed to a fence and forced to sleep in a wet cell without a mattress for 24 hours, after another detainee set off a fire extinguisher. This week the commission's hearings in Alice Springs...

On the first fleet there were eleven convicts who were freed slaves from America, and who for various reasons found themselves on a long and dangerous journey to what became the colony of Sydney. Judy Johnson has has not one but two of these black first fleet convicts as her ancestors, and has written a collection of poetry, based on the documents and personal accounts which still exits from that...

A Bill before Parliament to amend the Native title Act in relation to Indigenous Land Use agreements has been described by a veteran Aboriginal rights campaigner as "'one of the vilest racist acts we've seen". Ghillar Michael Anderson, Convenor of the Sovereign Union says the proposed amendments are a complete violation of the First Nations laws and customs because each clan makes its own decision...

Dylan Voller speaks out despite his Lawyers recommendation, two weeks after being released from prison

Indigenous painter Albert Namatjira is widely regarded as one our greatest artists--his beautiful watercolour depictions of his country in central Australia stand apart in our artistic heritage. Yet you may be surprised to learn that since his premature death in 1959, none of Namatjira's descendents have earned a cent from any reproductions of his work. That's because the copyright to his estate w...

A Yolngu leader and member of the Northern Territory Parliament has rejected claims that all Aboriginal communities are not safe for children and says that his people need to be empowered to put traditional tribal practice back in place. Yingiya Mark Guyula, the member for Nhulunbuy has slammed the Northern Territory Government's child protection system and says laws to place Aboriginal children w...

CAAMA NEWS 25th Jan 2017 Over the past year hearings, community meetings as well as victim testimonies have taken place. Community engagement officers Barbara Shaw and Nick Espie joined us in the CAAMA studios to discuss the Royal Commission in 2016 and what's occurring in the new year.

A lawyer representing victims of child sexual abuse is calling on the Federal government to extend the term of the national royal commission. The final public hearing is due to start next week, when consultations will also begin on a national redress scheme. Jason Parkinson from Porters Lawyers told The World Today's Emily Bourke that he also has grave concerns that the scheme could compromise the...

Henrietta Marrie, a Gimuy Walubarra Yidinji woman, has undetaken research in Australia and abroad on issues issues relating to traditional knowledge, access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing, protection of traditional knowledge as intellectual property, and the conservation and management of biological diversity. Earth Matters 3CR and the Community Radio Network

With Bruce Pascoe, Bill Gammage, Uncle Max Harrison, Beth Gott, Heather Buith, Jimmy Onus, Dr Penny Wurm, Lorraine Williams, Ken Stewart. Historians, writers and academics are upending the colonial lies and deception of First Nations agriculture, land management and medicinal plant knowledge, The first Nations peoples had complex systems of agriculture that went far beyond the hunter-gatherer tag....

Northern Territory Police are investigating allegations a former Don Dale detainee received a death threat ahead of his appearance before the royal commission into youth detention. Kenny Rogan, 14, has been out of youth detention in Darwin for six months. He has alleged that while he was there guards stripped off his clothes with a knife. Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "rig...

Indigenous communities harvesting gubinge in Western Australia's far north are reporting some big yields this wet season. (ABC News) January 2017 The bush tucker, which is also known as Kakadu plum, is found across northern Australia and regarded as having more vitamin C than any other fruit. Lenny O'Meara from Kimberley Wild Gubinge said after big rains in December, there was an abundance of qual...

The University of Melbourne has issued an apology to the Forgotten Australians, expressing regret that researchers linked to the institution were involved in experiments performed on children in state care. The move has prompted calls for other educational institutions to follow suit and make a concerted effort to contact anyone used as a subject without consent. Barbara Miller reporting for ABC R...

The WA Government has once again refused to commit to a mandatory notification service when an Aboriginal person comes into police custody, despite the recommendations of a high-profile coronial inquest. Last week the coroner found 22-year-old Aboriginal woman Ms Dhu had been "treated inhumanely" and that her death in custody was preventable. The coroner recommended WA once again consider a Custod...

Bruce is a prolific writer and editor of fiction for adults and young people, and he also writes essays and history. His most recent work presents a radically different picture of Australia's original inhabitants, and how they maintained their culture over millennia. From the journals and records of early explorers and surveyors, Bruce has accumulated astonishing descriptions of a pre-colonial Abo...

In Every Mother’s Son is Guilty, Chris Owen provides a compelling account of policing in the Kimberley district from 1882, when police were established in the district, until 1905 when Dr. Walter Roth’s controversial Royal Commission into the treatment of Aboriginal people was released. Owen’s achievement is to take elements of the pre-existing historiography and test them against a rigorous archi...

ABC Alice Springs

The Northern Territory youth detention Royal Commission has been told that vitriolic comments by government members created an environment for the abuse of young offenders. Alice Springs Legal Aid lawyer Russell Goldflam gave evidence during the commission's final day of public hearings this year. The hearings had been set aside for evidence from young people, but those plans were abandoned. Featu...

The longest surviving culture on earth has a lot to offer modern Australia CAAMA NEWS 8th Dec 2016 Indigenous mental health academic Tanja Hirvonen talks to CAAMA's Paul Wiles about how the longest surviving culture on earth has a lot to offer modern Australia ...

From the series 'What keeps me Awake' ABC Radio National Dr Tony Birch Academic, educator and author of Ghost River The Bruce McGuiness Indigenous Research fellowship, Moondani Balluk Academic Unit, Victoria University

The Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory has been told the current Don Dale detention centre is being run like a human storage facility. The author of a damning report about the Territory's corrections system is giving evidence at public hearings this week. Keith Hamburger says he and his staff have been horrified at conditions inside the former...

Between the 1790's to the 1870's, many shipwreck survivors and convict escapees managed to survive after being taken in by Australia's Indigenous communities. Living with the Locals tells the stories of some of these men, women and children. Authors John Maynard and Victoria Haskins join Patricia Karvelas in The Drawing Room. John Maynard is the Director at the Wollotuka Institute of Aboriginal St...