Keeping Indigenous languages alive

Tackling serious Indigenous justice issues

$5 million to give Indigenous girls a Sporting Chance
http://www.deewr.gov.au/ministers/gillard/media/releases/pages/article_090819_144944.aspx
SNIPPET: The Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, today opened a new funding round for Sporting Chance Program academies focused on projects for Indigenous girls and young women. As announced in the 2009-10 Budget, the Rudd Government has committed $10 million to expand the Sporting Chance Program over the next four years. The Sporting Chance Program uses sport as a basis to engage Indigenous students in education.

Factors affecting crime rates in Indigenous communities in NSW
Ruth McCausland, Alison Vivian Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning10 August, 2009 There are notable differences in the Local Court data on crime rates between different Aboriginal communities in NSW.

Northern Territory student attendance 2005 to 2007
Bruce Dunn School for Social and Policy Research 17 August, 2009 This document reports on the student attendance rate for NT DEET schools during 2005 to 2007. It compares the student attendance rate and the average weekly enrolment for all NT DEET students.

A mental health first aid training program for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
Len G. Kanowski, Anthony F. Jorm, Laura M. Hart International Journal of Mental Health Systems17 August, 2009 This paper describes the adaptation of the Mental Health First Aid program to create an Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander course and presents an initial evaluation of its uptake and acceptability.

'From little things, big things grow'
11 August, 2009 Interview with Dick Estens, Chairman of the Aboriginal Employment Strategy.

APO Research

Bridges and barriers - addressing Indigenous incarceration and health
National Indigenous Alcohol and Drug Committee Australian National Council on Drugs24 July, 2009 This report argues that the strong links between substance misuse and Indigenous incarceration highlight an urgent need for government to address this disturbing problem.

Staying strong on the outside: improving the post-release experience of Indigenous young adults
Robyn Gilbert, Anna Wilson Indigenous justice clearinghouse27 July, 2009 This research brief draws on international research to identify current understandings of good practice in prisoner reentry generally as well as issues particular to Indigenous prisoner reentry.

Official Launch of the Indigenous Policy and Dialogue Research Unit and 'So, what?' Lecture with Professor Patrick Dodson
LOCATION: 20 August, 2009 You are warmly invited to the Official Launch of The Indigenous Policy and Dialogue Research Unit in conjunction with the So, what? public lecture with Professor Patrick Dodson

Are Indigenous perpetrators homogeneous?
It was never a cultural trait to wilfully violate the innocence of our children or brutalise our women, and it never will be.Indigenous Affairs - Stephen Hagan - posted 4/6/2009

APO Papers

Some reflections on the quality of administrative data for Indigenous Australians: The importance of knowing something about the unknown(s)
Boyd Hunter and Aarthi Ayyar / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy ResearchAnalysis of the Repeat Offenders Database collated by the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research shows that the Indigenous population of offenders are substantially undercounted in administrative data collections. Posted 31-03-2009

Towards a gender-related index for Indigenous Australians
Mandy Yap and Nicholas Biddle / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research There has been extensive research into the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous outcomes but very little of this has adopted a gender perspective. Posted 31-03-2009

Closing the gap - targets for indicator diseases Stephanie Davis / Department of Health and Families, NT GovernmentThis article discusses the clear gap between the rates at which Indigenous and non-Indigenous people suffer from communicable diseases. Posted 27-03-2009

Policing public nuisance

Policing public nuisance: the legacy of recent events on Palm Island
Paula Morreau / Indigenous Law Bulletin and the Indigenous Law Centre
Paula Morreau writes about Palm Island and police culture suggesting that improvements to police culture will be slow unless contextualised. Morreau argues that the deconstruction of the complex dynamic between state institutions and Indigenous peoples should not be left to the discretion of ill-equipped police officers. There is a need for a more comprehensive response in changing the way Indigenous life is viewed: not merely as a problem and threat, but as the human manifestation of a disadvantaged sector of our community. Posted 23-10-2007

Aboriginal Intervention

Late Night Live ABC Radio National 03 October 2007 MP3 / Audio
Professor Jon Altman
Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the ANU
Harry Scott
Chief Executive Officer of the Titjikala Community Government Council.
An update on the progress of the federal government's intervention into Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.

National Indigenous Times Issue 139 04 Oct 2007

How do you miss 73,000 Aboriginal people in a Census count?
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: Indigenous Australians have been included in the national population count since 1971. But as it turns out, we missed a few. CHRIS GRAHAM reports on yet another fiddle in the fraud-filled world of Indigenous affairs.

EDITORIAL: When ‘whoops’ just won’t do
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: Dr John Taylor’s work in uncovering the massive undercounting of the Aboriginal population by the Australian Bureau of Statistics should be applauded.

INVISIBLE ABORIGINAL: Out of sight, out of mind, out of pocket
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: Dr John Taylor, the author of the now infamous Taylor report which revealed massive government underspending in the remote NT community of Wadeye, is a demographer with the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) at the Australian National University in Canberra.

Officer could face charges over Wadeye teen death
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: A police officer who fatally shot an Aboriginal teenager during rioting at a remote Top End community could face fresh charges, an inquest heard on Monday.

Fed govt offers to fund fees
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: The federal government offered a group of Aboriginal people legal funding to appear before a coronial inquest into Aboriginal deaths in Western Australia’s north after the state government refused.

Australia named as top ‘hot spot’ for vanishing languages
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: Linguists alarmed at the unceasing extinction of many Indigenous languages have identified five global “hot spots” where the problem is worst, led by northern Australia and a region of South America.

Outback travel subsidy not good enough: report
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: Sick people in regional and remote areas are not getting the medical attention they need because government travel subsidies are too stingy, a new report has found.

Spoken crossroad
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: The federal government’s NT Indigenous intervention will spell the end for many Indigenous languages, Adelaide linguistics expert Rob Amery says.

Potential nuke dump site to be assessed
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: A fourth potential site for a radioactive waste dump in the Northern Territory will be assessed for its suitability, Science Minister Julie Bishop said last week.

More child sex charges laid in WA community of Kalumburu
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: Charges have been laid in the wake of fresh child sex abuse allegations in the remote and troubled West Australian Aboriginal community of Kalumburu, police say.

Light beer expected to escape ban
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: All but light beer sales are likely to be banned in an alcohol-ravaged Kimberley town after the local pub said it would not oppose plans for Western Australia’s strictest liquor licensing conditions.

Compensation for Stolen Generation urgent: Calma
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice commissioner Tom Calma has called for a national scheme to properly compensate all victims of the Stolen Generation.

Child care plan welcomed
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: The federal government’s Indigenous Child Care Services Plan, designed to offer culturally appropriate early childhood services to Indigenous children, has been welcomed by the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC).

Siewert calls on WA, fed govt to repay stolen wages
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: Tens of millions of dollars stolen from Aboriginal workers must be repaid by the West Australian and Commonwealth governments, Senator Rachel Siewert says.

Aboriginal art: the French connection
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: After fetching record prices in Australia, Aboriginal art is carving out a place on the art market in France, spurred by the opening last year of Paris’ Quai Branly museum of tribal arts.

31 charged in Aurukun riot
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: Thirty-one people have been charged after a riot in the remote Queensland Aboriginal community of Aurukun in mid September.

‘Don’t give us Disneyland’: tourists
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: Tourists visiting Indigenous communities don’t want a “Disneyland experience”, according to Aden Ridgeway, Executive Chairman of Indigenous Tourism Australia.

Cairns hearing into policing
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: The Crime and Misconduct Commission will hold a one day public hearing in Cairns as part of its inquiry into policing in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities.

Researchers look to bush medicine for answers
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: NT research could lead to Aboriginal bush medicine being used to combat disease in agricultural crops.

Tiwi islands under threat : Greens
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: The Tiwi islands, off Darwin, are in danger of becoming a wasteland because of excessive land clearing, the Australian Greens say.

Building blocks for business
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: A new style of small business training designed especially for the needs and learning styles of Indigenous entrepreneurs has been successfully piloted on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.

Melbourne standard for Aboriginal art
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: Australia’s first Code of Practice for galleries and retailers on Indigenous art has been launched by the City of Melbourne.

Education the key to empowerment
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: Education leading to real jobs is the key to addressing the challenges faced by Aboriginal people in Australia today, according to a speaker at the recent Charles Darwin Symposium.

Trainees woo Gorge visitors
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: Tourists are learning about the Mossman Gorge and Aboriginal culture from two formerly unemployed Indigenous locals, thanks to funded traineeships.

Rangers protecting our borders
Issue 139, October 4, 2007: Indigenous ranger groups in Northeast Arnhem Land have recently received a welcome boost from Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education with the introduction of on-the-job training by specialists in natural and cultural resource management.

Indigenous victims of violent crime

Don Weatherburn (Director, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research)
CAEPR Seminar Series August 29, 2007 (Streaming audio, MP3)

Abstract: A number of theories have been put forward to explain the high level of violence amongst Australia's Indigenous population. Up until 2002, lack of suitable data on the risk factors associated with Indigenous violent victimisation made it very difficult to assess the adequacy of these theories. In 2002 the Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted a national survey of Indigenous Australians (the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey, or NATSISS). That survey made it possible to examine a range of correlates of Indigenous violent victimisation. Analysis of the NATSISS victimisation data, however, has so far been limited to a few bi-variate comparisons. This seminar presents the results of the first multivariate analysis of risk factors for violent victimisation among Indigenous Australians using the NATSISS. The results provide little support for cultural theories of Indigenous violence but strong support for social disorganisation, social deprivation and lifestyle theories, particularly the latter.

Community policing in Australasia: Lessons from the community

CAEPR Seminar Series August 15, 2007
Manuhuia Barcham (Director, Centre for Indigenous Governance and Development, Massey University)
Abstract: Much of the community policing literature looks at the ways in which police officers are able to more effectively interact with the community in terms of the maintenance of law and order and other policing functions. Less attention, however, is paid to the ways in which communities police themselves and how this impacts on policing more generally. Looking at the case of indigenous community policing initiatives in Australia and New Zealand this paper explores the impact that this form of policing is having in these communities. The paper ends by discussing how these types of initiatives might be usefully transferred through to other policing environments such as the Pacific Islands.

NT Indigenous intervention legislation

The Law Report. ABC Radio
21 August 2007
Last week the Senate passed 500 pages-worth of legislation aimed at tackling abuse of children in Aboriginal communities. Supporters say drastic action is required to protect kids. Opponents say the legislation will destroy Top End Indigenous communities.

National Indigenous law and justice strategy

National Indigenous law and justice strategy: consultative draft
Attorney-General's Department
The strategy is intended to facilitate development of a bipartisan, coordinated, long-term and multi-jurisdictional approach, working together to reduce the pressing and complex issues in Indigenous justice. Posted 20-08-2007

Indigenous victims of violent crime

Indigenous victims of violent crime: an exploratory analysis of risk and protection factors

Lucy Snowball and Don Weatherburn / NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research
This paper from the 2007 Australian Social Policy Conference presents the results of an exploratory analysis of risk factors for violent victimisation using a wide range of factors drawn from the National Torres Strait Islander Social Survey. The results show higher risks of violent victimisation amongst certain groups, with the strongest correlate of Indigenous violence being high risk alcohol abuse. Posted 18-07-2007

Koori Courts in Victoria

The Law Report ABC Radio National's Broadcast: 8.30am on Tuesday 3 July 2007
A Victorian elder from the Shepparton Koori Court discusses the rehabilitation of offenders.

Federal government's Northern Territory intervention

The Law Report, ABC Radio National's Broadcast: 8.30am on Tuesday 3 July 2007
A prominant magistrate identifies a key logistical problem - assuming the Federal government's intervention will lead to more prosecutions - where is the infrastructure in an already stretched criminal justice system?

Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse - Summary

The following is a summary of the Report of the Northern Territory Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse 2007.
Purpose of the Board of Inquiry
The Board of Inquiry was created by the Northern Territory Government in August 2006 to research and report on allegations of sexual abuse of Aboriginal children. The Chief Minister asked the Inquiry to investigate concerns about serious child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities. The Inquiry was established to find better ways to protect Aboriginal children from sexual abuse.