Australia

Mick Dodson has held wide-ranging positions since becoming the first Indigenous Australian to receive a law degree in 1974, most recently serving as Reconciliation Australia’s co-chair and Pacific region representative to th

The   Tufts   University  Art  Gallery presents  Aboriginal Australian artist Richard  Bell:  Uz  vs.  Them,  from  September  8  to  November   20. Tufts   University   will   be  the  first  of  four  venues  to  host  this  mid-­?career   survey   exhibition   of   works   by  contemporary   Australian   Aboriginal  artist   Richard   Bell,   the   first-­?ever   U.S.  tour   of   Bell’s   work.  

Native languages are threatened to the point of extinction all over the world, and nowhere is this more apparent than on the Australian continent. Of the 500 to 600 dialects and 250 to 300 different language groups spoken within the past 100 years, only 20 have more then 1,000 speakers today, and local dialects are being lost at an even quicker rate.

Les Malezer, a member of Cultural Survival's board of directors, has just been elected the first co-chair of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, which aims to unite all of the country's Indigenous populations and represent their interests in the nation as a whole.

On January 10th, Australia´s first Indigenous political party was officially registered and will participate in the next federal election and Northern Territory (NT) state elections.  Indigenous people are estimated to make up about 2.7 percent of the Australian population and 32 percent of Northern Territory residents are Indigenous.

Experts in New Orleans believe that erosion was a major reason behind the failure of levees in Hurrican Katrina. One of the approaches being used to prevent future failures is not the high-tech solution that might be expected. Instead, it is a simple, inexpensive technique used for centuries by indigenous farmers in South India: planting vetiver grass. Historically planted to mark borders and help maintain moisture and nutrients in soil, this ancient technology has been used successfully over the past decade to clean up toxic waste and prevent erosion in dozens of countries.

As Ellen Lutz reports in her letter on  page 3, the administration of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced on April 3 that the country will endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The decision  comes on the heels of Rudd’s recent speech apologizing to Aborigines for the government’s former policy of forcibly removing Aboriginal children from their families and placing them with white families or institutions—the so-called Stolen Generations.

The e-mail subject line read, “And then there were three . . .

After 12 years of a conservative Australian administration that was markedly hostile to indigenous rights and its own Aboriginal populations, the new labor government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took a dramatic step by issuing an apolo

A new wave of racism against indigenous peoples is emanating from figures so hallowed they are intimidating to confront. But confront them we must; and recognize their words and deeds for what they are.

Throughout her life, Pat Anderson has played various roles in the movement for Aboriginal justice in Australia. She has been an education union officer, community education instructor, and health worker.

Australian Apocalypse. The Story of Australia’s Greatest Cultural Monument

By Robert Bednarik

Melbourne: Occasional AURA Publication No. 14. Australian Rock Art Research Association Inc., 2006.

In a ground-breaking decision, an Australian federal judge has found in favor of an Aboriginal land claim that would give the Noongar people native title to an area of 2,300 square miles, including offshore islands and the city of Perth, which has a population of 1.7 million. The ruling, which was handed down on September 19, drew cheers from the 100 Noongar who were present and cries of outrage from the state government.

Just six months ago, the majority of the artists now exhibiting at the Woolloongabba Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia, had never held a paintbrush in their hands.

In Australia, Aboriginal paintings- which boast an extremely contemporary "look" despite the millennia of traditions from which they arise—are displayed in prestigious museums alongside such modern masters as Jackson Pollock, Helen Fran

As a traditional owner of her Aboriginal country, Melissa George has some suggestions for those in Australia concerned about the environment.

Melissa George is Wulgurukaba, her clan is Nwalgibain, and her language group is Wulguru. She works to secure the recognition of indigenous rights and interests in environmental and natural resource management—locally, nationally, and internationally.

Indigenous Activists Tell Cultural Survival What The Decade Meant To Them