First Nations First

This year, NAIDOC Week focuses on building a legacy for the next generation. That’s also the focus of an Aboriginal chef, who grew up knowing very little about his own heritage. He has since made it his business to help connect young Indigenous people with their culture – through food.

A permanent Indigenous voice to parliament is on its way for Victoria. It makes Victoria the second state in Australia - after South Australia - to establish a state-based, democratically elected body to provide advice on laws and policies related to Aboriginal people. The agreements come at the same time as the handing down of the final report of the Yoorrook Justice Commission, after four years...

All over the country, there are concerns about rising rates of youth crime. At the same time, advocates are concerned about the rate of incarceration for First Nations people, fearing some communities are being criminalised and over-policed. Advocates say Australia is not on track to meeting Closing the Gap targets on imprisonment - and in fact, things are only getting worse for young offenders. I...

In the world heritage-protected Shark Bay, 800 kilometres north of Perth, a Malgana woman is working to save biodiversity. Considered one of the world's greatest wilderness treasures, she's carrying a unique responsibility passed on by Elders who've cared for the land before her.

The biggest cohort of First Nations graduates from a single degree have been celebrated at Monash University in Melbourne. The Master of Indigenous Business Leadership aims to encourage the next generation and diversify the sector.

Thousands of people have arrived in Naarm this week, joining the Yoorrook Justice Commissioner on the final steps of his Walk for Truth. The 500-kilometre journey marks the closing chapter for Travis Lovett in his Victoria’s landmark truth-telling process - where he trekked from Portland in the state's west all the way to Melbourne.

Every year, hundreds gather to mark the Myall Creek massacre in New South Wales. Once a no-go zone, today a memorial stands at the site as a tribute to the group of 28 unarmed Aboriginal people killed by a gang of stockmen on 10 June 1838. It was one of 438 sites where the mass killing of Aboriginal Australians took place during the period called the Frontier Wars, between 1788 and 1930. The event...

After years of campaigning, Stolen Generations survivor Tony Hansen says the establishment of a redress scheme in Western Australia is a milestone moment.

Stolen Generations survivors in Western Australia will now be eligible for redress for the harm caused by forced removals of children from family and community. The state government has announced living survivors will be eligible for payments of up to $85,000 under the scheme. As Reconciliation Week events take place across the country, former Labor Senator Pat Dodson has also called for Labor to...

Every year in conjunction with National Reconciliation Week from 27 May to 3 June, Australians are presented with the opportunity to learn more about the nation’s shared histories, cultures and achievements. This year, the theme is Bridging Now to Next - calling on the nation to reflect on the ongoing connection between past, present and future.

It has become a lightning rod issue: What should Australia do with its public statues celebrating leaders from the country's colonial past? One group thinks it has the answer. SBS' The Feed speaks to an anonymous group from Melbourne has been going after colonial statues – toppling, breaking or defacing them in the night.

Cost of living, housing, Medicare – some of the issues central to this election. But what some experts and advocates are saying is “absent” from the campaign trail is First Nations affairs. What are the key policy announcements? What are the interests and concerns of First Nations people? Where should Australia go after the referendum outcome?

While electoral enrolment is currently at an all-time high, voter turnout has been in decline since 2007. The 2022 election saw turnout drop to its lowest level since compulsory voting was introduced in 1925. And one area where voter participation is especially low is in remote communities.

Voters in the Torres Strait are preparing to cast their ballots in the May election. Climate change and water security have emerged as key factors in how leaders plan to vote.

The remains of 36 Indigenous ancestors being held at London’s Natural History Museum have been handed back to their communities. While repatriations are happening more frequently, there are calls from Aboriginal leaders for the British government to provide increased assistance so more remains can be brought back to country.

Victoria Park, also known for its traditional name Barrambin, used to be an Indigenous settlement of great importance and a meeting place for cultural practices - but it remains one of the most culturally significant sites in the city. The Queensland state government has now confirmed it is going to build Brisbane's Olympic Stadium there. Traditional owners say they are devastated by the announcem...

Housing, employment, and remote road infrastructure are key issues for voters in remote regions of the Northern Territory. As campaigning continues for the upcoming federal election on May 3rd, SBS travelled to the community of Ramingining, around 600 kilometres east of Darwin, where the Minister for Indigenous Australians took her pitch to voters this week.

Legal experts have lodged a complaint with the United Nations alleging the Australian government is breaching its obligations to First Nations children in detention under international human rights law. It comes as state and territory governments across the country crack down on youth crime with punitive laws.

An Indigenous-led program that’s already helping hundreds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people quit smoking and vaping is about to go national, thanks to a new $4.7 million grant. Which Way? Quit Pack has been developed by a team at the University of Newcastle, led by Wiradjuri woman Associate Professor Michelle Kennedy.

For thousands of years, Aboriginal people in Tasmania have harvested yula, also known as muttonbirds, a short-tailed shearwater. The harvest is one of the oldest cultural practices for Tasmanian Aboriginal people. But as another season is looming, it's facing a number of threats.

A High Court decision has cleared the way for "significant" compensation for the Gumatj people of the Northern Territory. The Court has upheld an earlier Federal Court ruling that a site at Gove in northeast Arnhem Land was not acquired in the 1960s for bauxite mining on just terms.

The second annual Call it Out report has been released by the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney. The report maps incidents of racism experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Indigenous Australians are most commonly experiencing widespread stereotyping and discrimination - and nowhere is safe for them from racist abus...

The anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations has been commemorated in Federal Parliament. It has been 17 years since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered a historic apology for racial discrimination against First Nations people. It is estimated that between one in three, and one in 10, Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their parents in the period between 1910 and 1...

The Northern Territory's soaring prison population has broken a grim new record. More than four and half thousand people are now crammed into prisons and police watch-houses. Police and justice advocates say chronic over-crowding and extended lock downs are taking a toll a toll on officers and inmates alike.

Five sets of ancestral remains from Australia that had been in German museum collections since the 19th century have been handed back at a ceremony that a community representative described as a sad but "very joyful" moment. The restitution is part of ongoing efforts by German museums and authorities to return human remains and cultural artefacts that were taken during colonial times.