Indigenous

Terry Collins. Kariong artist Garry Purchase is one of the few Australians who can say they have had their artwork featured on the sails of the Sydney Opera House. But that's just what happened on Australia Day, when Mr Purchase's painting Dancing in the Moonlight lit up the sails at the reflection held on Sydney Harbour at dawn.

The town of Yass has had many lives. Today it is a market town, but also a dormitory suburb for Canberra’s younger public servants and a place of retirement for farmers and pastoralists who have handed their land on to the next generation. As a result, it is a pleasing mix of both young and old ... As the title suggests, this book describes the growth of Yass and charts some of its several aspects, from a frontier town surrounded by bushrangers to the gateway to the Murray River and the great grazing lands of western New South Wales and Victoria.

“WAFarmers are reaping what they sow,” Ben Wyatt declared recently, reflecting on the looming Maddox case and claims by WAFarmers that the current laws are being selectively targeted by the department ... There is a curious habit among former ministers once they leave office: they rediscover principle. Mr Wyatt’s recent commentary on Aboriginal cultural heritage laws is a textbook example.

Indigenous Cultural Fire Practitioners and Queensland farmers are working together to improve grazing landscapes using First Nations land management practices, including Cultural Burning - transforming the way food and agricultural systems work.

Normanby Aboriginal Corporation and Esparq Ventures have announced they have raised $600,000 as part of their mission to raise $10 million to commercialise, launch, and nationally scale their innovative and sustainable enterprise, Bush Beef ... ethical, climate-friendly food sources are in growing demand ... ARR.News found out more from Dominiqe Bird of Esparq Ventures.

The Americans had Apollo. The Soviets had Soyuz. The Chinese have Tiangong. And Australia? We now have the world’s first taxpayer-funded attempt to guide space exploration using songlines ... The real culprit here is modern academia, which now treats all “knowledge systems” as equal. They are not. Knowledge that is testable, repeatable, measurable and falsifiable is superior to knowledge that is not.

The Gannawarra’s newest community meeting and digital connectivity space is officially open for business. More than 100 people gathered at Kerang’s Sir John Gorton Library this morning for the official opening of The Glasshouse.

Cambooya State School students were treated to an unforgettable musical experience recently when internationally acclaimed performer Adrian Fabila Tjupurrula – known as Tjupurru – visited the school. A proud descendant of the Djabera Djabera people of the WA Kimberley region, Tjupurru has earned a global reputation for his innovative fusion of ancient culture, modern technology and extraordinary musicianship.

More than 20 restaurants may be permitted to serve full-strength alcohol only with a full meal between 11.30am and 3pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. The Liquor Commission also proposes to require the Todd Tavern, the NT Rock Bar, Bojangles and Uncles Tavern to establish an identification system, similar to the one used in bottle shops, but including scanning the person's face.

'Winhanganha-yanhi – We Remember' Exhibition which opened at Narrandera Arts Centre last week will continue until Sunday 7 December. Indigenous war veterans, even after many years in the public eye, still have not been fully and rightfully honoured across the nation.

A vivid ode to Country and an intimate portrait of an Aboriginal elder’s final year as he strives to preserve his culture and heal his homeland, scarred by the largest contaminated site in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) has welcomed new research that combines Indigenous knowledge and ecological science to protect and restore the Darling (Baaka) River. The study, led by the Wilcannia Barkandji community, highlights the enduring Cultural, spiritual, and ecological significance of Barkandji stone fish traps along the Baaka near Wilcannia.

Terry Collins. The NSW Government has come in for strong criticism for allowing just three days extra for public comment on its controversial Draft Central Coast Strategic Conservation Plan ... "The Plan proposes 14,000 new residential lots; it outlines how our unique biodiversity will be managed for the next 30 years and it describes how the NSW Government will deliver its housing targets by unlocking new lands for development": Acting Mayor John Mouland.

Members of the local Aboriginal community gathered on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River at Koori Beach Narrandera for a Welcome Baby to Country celebration on Wiradjuri land. Around 20 babies from Narrandera and Leeton aged 0–12 months and their families attended the ceremony.

Victoria has made history, but at what cost to democracy, equality, and social cohesion? Member for Western Victoria Bev McArthur has condemned the Allan Labor Government’s Statewide Treaty Bill 2025, describing it as “a monument to division” that undermines equality before the law and the unity of all Victorians.

Aboriginal communities across NSW are working with Forestry Corporation to integrate cultural burning into government bushfire management frameworks. These local partnerships, under the Federal Government-funded program Fire, Country and People, aim to strengthen community resilience to major bushfire events and improve land management practices across traditional Aboriginal lands.  

White Cliffs dugouts are some of the most unique homes in the country, but the underground residents say the stress of ongoing ownership issues is affecting their health and stifling new businesses ... The ongoing land tenure dispute at White Cliffs, NSW, is a deeply complex problem, but behind the Native Title legalities are real people, and decades of frustrated community expectations. As expected, when homes and businesses are threatened, emotions run high.

Supply Nation ... announced a new national milestone with members recording a total of over $5.83 billion in procurement spend with verified Indigenous-owned businesses in the 2024-25 financial year ... Supply Nation’s recently released report The Sleeping Giant Rises found that for every dollar of revenue produced by Indigenous-owned businesses, $3.66 of positive economic and social value was generated into the Australian economy.

After reviewing "Black, White + Colour - A biography of Mervyn Bishop, Australia's first indigenous professional photographer", Aedeen Cremin was able to speak with the author, former journalist Tim Dobbyn, about his book and its celebrated subject, a long-time family friend.

You may not know Mervyn Bishop’s name, but you certainly know his work. He took the ultra-famous photo of Vincent Lingiari and Gough Whitlam at Wattie Creek, NT, in that defining moment when the Prime Minister of Australia poured earth into the right hand of the representative of the Gurindji people ... The biography starts with a road trip to Mervyn’s birthplace of Brewarrina ... It is absolutely charming and we get to know and - to an extent - understand Mervyn’s life and achievements.

A landmark plan to address inequities in water ownership will see the NSW Government put water back in Aboriginal peoples’ hands, strengthen their role in water management, and create new opportunities for self-determination.