Aboriginal?

From ABC, 11 Apr. 09

CULTURAL SENSITIVITY DIRECTIVES 'BAMBOOZLE' TEACHERS

An education expert says teachers are being "bamboozled" by mysticism surrounding Aboriginal children and letting educational standards slip.
Dr Chris Sarra, director of the Indigenous Education Leadership Institute in Queensland, was in Darwin this week addressing 200 principals and senior education department figures.
He says he told the conference teachers should demand high standards of Aboriginal children, instead of making allowances for cultural differences.
"There is the potential and I believe this absolutely, that the Territory education system can move from one that is perhaps been guilty of creating an underclass to becoming a world class education system," he said.

Dr Sarra says he read a paper last year directing educators "not to look Aboriginal children in the eyes" because it might somehow damage their psyche.
He says there is an impression that being culturally sensitive means accepting second rate outcomes from Aboriginal students, but that this approach does the students no favours.
"It presented Aboriginal children as being so mystical and so culturally different and so exotic, to the extent that lots of teachers were overwhelmed by that sort of information and forgot these are actually just kids in schools who deserve an education as much as anybody," he said.
"We can't get to a point where we just cannot see the kids for the black faces.
"We've got to take Aboriginal children as high-potential learners, high-calibre learners with tremendous potential."

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From ABC, 20 May 2009

ABORIGINAL HOMELANDS POLICY UNVEILED

The Northern Territory Government has unveiled a controversial new Indigenous homelands policy that it says will turn 20 remote communities into "towns like anywhere else in Australia".
The new direction will see $160 million over five years invested in education, medical and housing services in 20 "growth towns" across the Territory.

Critics have warned that such a move would have negative impacts on more than 500 small outstations, or homelands, where thousands of Aboriginal people live on their ancestral lands.
An Arnhem Land elder yesterday said the concentration of services would force people from their lands, creating "another Stolen Generation".

Other critics have raised concerns about the prospect of increased substance abuse as people shift to the serviced towns, where alcohol and petrol are readily available.
But the Government today dismissed those concerns, saying that while it would not develop any new outstations, it would continue to contribute $36 million a year to existing ones if they are occupied for at least eight months a year.

The 20 communities that will receive extra services are: Maningrida, Wadeye, Borroloola, Galiwin'ku, Nguiu, Gunbalanya, Milingimbi, Ngukurr, Numbulwar, Angurugu/Umbakumba, Gapuwiyak, Yuendumu, Yirrkala, Lajamanu, Daguragu/Kalkarindji, Ramingining, Hermannsburg, Papunya, Elliott and Ali Curung.
"Towns in the bush will have proper town plans, private investment, targeted government infrastructure and commercial centres," the Chief Minister, Paul Henderson, said in a statement.

"They will be towns like anywhere else in Australia and, like elsewhere, they will service the surrounding areas of smaller communities, properties, outstations and homelands."
The Government is also promising to improve road and public transport links to the service hubs and to bus remote children into preschools, high schools and colleges.

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From ABC, 9 Jun. 09

CUSTOMARY LAW NO DEFENCE FOR ACCUSED WIFE-STABBER

A legal challenge to Commonwealth Intervention legislation that restricts the use of Aboriginal customary law in sentencing has failed in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory.
The decision was related to the case of an Elcho Island man who claimed he enacted traditional 'discipline' on his wife.
Dennis Wunungmurra has been charged with stabbing his wife multiple times with a steak knife in September 2008.

Appearing for the defence, Rex Wild, QC, argued the seriousness of Wunungmurra's crime should be determined with traditional law in mind.
The defence team had presented evidence that Wunungmurra's wife had left the community for a number of years, and on her return had not partaken in community or family life as a traditional wife should.
An expert on Yolngu traditional law, Rosa Laymba Laymba, testified that Wunungmurra was the equivalent of a law enforcer or magistrate within his community and that under Yolngu law, husbands were allowed to punish errant wives as they saw fit, leaving scars, but not killing them.

Today Justice Stephen Southwood decided on the strict interpretation of Section 91 of the Emergency Response Act, which states that courts cannot take any form of customary law into account as a reason for excusing, lessening or aggravating the objective seriousness of a crime.

But Justice Southwood did say the legislation could result in disproportionate sentences, and that it distorts well-established sentencing principles of proportionality.
Wunungmurra remains in custody and will reappear in court for a mention in July.

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From ABC, 23 Jun. 09
DYING FOR A DRINK: NEW THEORY ON GIANT ROO EXTINCTION

Researchers have found more evidence that hunting by humans may have caused the extinction of the giant kangaroo.
Procoptodon goliah measured two metres in height and was wiped out about 40,000 years ago.
It was previously thought that climate change and land burn-off led to its extinction, but researchers at Flinders University say encounters with human hunters played a part.
They say the animal's size and its high-salt diet would have forced it to drink at waterholes which were also being used by humans, making it more vulnerable to hunting.
Dr Gavin Prideaux says the prehistoric animals ate saltbush, which could have survived in extreme heat.
"One thing about saltbush is it's salty, so because they had to drink more, they were drawn to water holes," he said.
"What we argue is that because people were also living around water holes ... it would have made Procoptodon goliah susceptible to hunting.
"The food that these animals were eating could not have been impacted by increased aridity because those types of plants thrive in the drier areas of Australia.
"So during the driest times those plants would've increased in abundance and the Procoptodon goliah would have had a larger food resource."

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What was your biggest career break?

Having the opportunity to be part of the management of a 100-year-old law firm with such a long and proud tradition, as well as being the first Aboriginal woman and first woman to be the managing director at Dwyer Durack. I am a Nygina woman from the Kimberley and I started my law degree as a mature age student in 1996. I would not be in this position if not for an indigenous student alternative entry program called Koora Kudidj at Murdoch University. (While) I was studying to obtain my law degree I was awarded the John Koowarta Scholarship, won the Commercial Law prize and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (Honours). Then in February 2000, I joined Dwyer Durack where I now head up the general litigation and commercial department.

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SirRumpole said:

Not so good for some though...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-30/uncle-jack-taxi/6901120

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Tisme said:

I'm guessing pigmentation is working against him.

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SirRumpole said:

Would be interesting to know if the driver that sped off was a dinky-di Aussie bogan or one of our foreign friends.

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