Indigenous

After several workshops in Tennant Creek last week, felting tutor Tanya Hattingh returned to Alice with 30 beanies made by Tennant Creek residents for entry into the 2023 Beanie Festival ... The festival was organised to sell beanies crocheted by Aboriginal women in remote communities, and has grown into a fun event where Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal artists share their cultures and exhibit together.

Friday is National Sorry Day, the annual event held on 26 May to acknowledge the pain, injustice and enduring impacts of the stolen generations on our First Nations communities.

National Reconciliation Week 2023 has been launched at TribalLink in Mapleton with a fire ceremony, traditional dance and presentations from Sunshine Coast Elders. Hundreds gathered on Jinibara Country to celebrate and learn more about First Nations’ history and culture.

A landmark report by the National Farmers’ Federation and KPMG released on 25 May 2023 has underscored the need for better engagement to unlock the economic potential of Indigenous agriculture. The Realising the Opportunity report, released at an NFF forum in Darwin on 25 May 2023, aims to strengthen the economic and cultural empowerment of Indigenous Australians through accessible and collaborative pathways in agriculture.

The Central Victorian Indigenous Film Festival is back in 2023 to celebrate National Reconciliation Week ... Festival screenings include High Ground, DJAKAMIRR, Storm Boy, Carriberrie, Night Cries, Gurrumul, The Lake of Scars, Fighting Giants, The Drovers Wife, Emily in Japan and The Last Daughter.

Two friends, one white, one black. Two film makers, one white, one black. A couple more than 30 years together, one white, one black. Signs of hope for Alice Springs at a time when there isn’t much. The film maker is Penny McDonald and her co-producer is Audrey Napanangka, who also gives the new movie her name.

The Malinauskas Labor Government is delivering on its election commitment with the introduction of new laws for stronger penalties for people who disturb or destroy Aboriginal heritage ... The new laws will make the maximum penalty for the damaging, disturbing or interfering heritage offences $2 million for body corporates and $250,000 for individuals and/or 2 years prison.

Patricia Gill. Merninger Elder Lynette Knapp feels for her country the same way as her family does: "Which is the way I taught them". A DNA test conducted through the Esperance Aboriginal Group 12 years ago showed her as having a 75,000-year ‘proper’ connection to Country, other Noongars tested being African or Asian-related.

Caddens artist Shannon Boyd has completed a striking mural of former Narrandera boxer Trevor Christian OAM for the Sydney Region Aboriginal Corp (SRAC). Trevor Christian OAM, Wiradjuri Warrior/Elder, was a Narrandera-born man who passed away December 13, 2011.

A fishing season for a high value sea cucumber in the Torres Strait has reopened for the first time in 20 years thanks to a concerted conservation and stock restoration effort ... Torres Strait Islanders will have exclusive access rights to black teatfish, which is estimated to be worth $380,000 to the local economy.

Les Turner, CLC CEO. The twice-rejected Western Davenport water allocation plan unmasks the Northern Territory government’s disregard for Aboriginal rights and sites and lacks social licence ... Alekarenge community leader Graham Beasley  says: “That’s our country. We should be involved. What’s going to happen to our sacred trees?”

Earlier this week during his Run for the Voice ultra marathoner Pat Farmer ran to Yanchep National Park from Optus Stadium before heading north the next day. It was dark when Mr Farmer arrived at the Yanchep Inn on Wednesday, May 3 but a small group of people were there to greet him including Noongar cultural guide and didgeridoo player Derek Nannup.

JUTE Theatre Company’s award-winning First Nations residency program, Dare to Dream, hits the road this month, touring the Far North and Cape with, I Gut this Feeling, an engaging new theatre work aimed at empowering young people with knowledge for building safer communities ... I Gut this Feeling is clever, comical, and entertaining and has been created by Drandic to engage and educate audiences both young and old who rarely have opportunities to access or participate in theatrical arts expression of this kind.

Prepare to be stunned by the Boonkaj Fashion Parade, taking place at the Boab Metals Ord Valley Muster, Art In The Park, on Sunday 21 May. The Boonkaj Collection celebrates the “emerging or coming out” of designs by five textile artists from the Waringarri Aboriginal Arts in Kununurra, Western Australia.

Members of the executive of the Indigenous-Aboriginal Party of Australia (IAPA) were pleased to welcome Senator Lidia Thorpe onto Barkindji Country, in far west NSW, this week (18/04/2023). Gathering at Mutawindji National Park, one hour from Broken Hill, the IAPA executive yarned with Senator Thorpe about current issues affecting IAPA members, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

"I remember getting my first teaching position in the outback and just wanting to connect and learn from others as much as I could about what I was heading into ... We want teacher success because teacher success equals student success": Hakea Hustler. ARR.News found out more from Hakea and fellow remote teachers Carl Merrison and Lynette Gordon.

A development application is currently on public exhibition for a new portrait of Yaegl elder Uncle Ron Herron to be painted on a Maclean pump station after it was graffitied last August in what was described as a ‘kick in the guts for our mob’. The colourful portrait of the widely respected Yaegl elder on the River Street pump station, by street artist Austin ‘Nitsua’ was painted over in white paint over the weekend of August 7 and 8, 2022, with the perpetrator still unknown.

Key details about the proposed $12m Yipirinya  boarding facility  remain unclear while the Federal Opposition has further assured its support for the project in a meeting with the school’s board of Aboriginal elders. Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, and Shadow Minister for Education, Senator Sarah Henderson, said the school is “like a family” when they visited the campus.

How is Aboriginal cultural heritage defined in the Guidelines? ... Are there any records we can search to identify heritage sites? ... What is an exempt activity? ... If I need a permit or plan what are the timelines? ... Isn’t there a better way?

The Voice is not on the agenda of two of the three local governments in the Central Australian bush, and it is understood that this is also the case with the MacDonnell Regional Council ... Adrian Dixon, President of the Central Desert Regional Council, said the Voice had not been spoken about in the council and there had been no consultation about the Voice ... And  Barkly Mayor Jeffrey McLaughlin says:  “We don’t need a Voice, we want an Ear first.”