You have got to have a soul like Jesus to be handed a peach.
Rumi, TBRB, p. 28
Latest Papers
The working papers collection comprises historical papers as well as current ideas and works in progress on some of the major issues and topics of our times.
When a homeland has no working vehicle, planes become the fallback — at far greater cost.
Mata Mata is a Yolŋu homeland in North East Arnhem Land, founded by Gatirri Burarrwaŋa and family around 1948 and supported by Marthakal Homelands & Resource Centre. It has no working vehicle. Homelands have a strong health record, but homeland programs do not fund a transport system, and private vehicles are a gap that families fill themselves.
No great revelations here just some notes on issues that perhaps those living in cities and mainstream life have not thought about too much.
Deep trauma can never be put into words, it is like a fog that persists over generations.
For around twenty dollars you can sit in a regional Australian cinema — bird’s-eye view, subtitles included — and watch one of the world’s great opera houses deliver a brand-new production of Carmen. I saw it on Sunday at the Empire in Bowral. No plane ticket. No hotel. No three-hundred-dollar seat in the gods. Just a darkened room in an ordinary town and the full weight of the Teatro alla Scala orchestra and chorus, recorded live in Milan on 8 June 2026.
Hansonism is sweeping Australia. It threatens to smash the Liberal National conservative consensus and to challenge the Labor party’s political rule in Canberra and in every State and region of the country. Make no mistake the revolution is real. The fire is out of control and the thought that a Trump like change cannot happen in Australia needs to be firmly rejected.
A think piece by Dan Swinney and Peter Botsman, April 2026
Getting More Young People Into Industrial Career Pathways: The Chicago Experience, Austin Polytech &
Lessons Learned
Is it still relevant? The 2011–2012 report Learning from Chicago explicitly identifies the Goulburn Valley / Shepparton region as one of the highest-potential sites in Australia for adapting Chicago’s poly-technical education model. It highlights the Yorta Yorta leadership (Paul Briggs, Kaiela Institute), the iconic local manufacturing heritage of J Furphy & Sons, and the need to connect young Aboriginal people to “the ongoing tradition of manufacturing in the Goulburn Valley” (pages 9–10). The report argues that a “Manufacturing Renaissance Council” model—linking industry skill gaps, schools, and community leadership—could create sustainable, high-quality jobs in advanced manufacturing and food processing, mirroring Chicago’s success in serving African American communities.
