"..we need something in whitefella law which is strong and lasting and faithful to our law. The closest whitefella law which can do this is the constitution."
G. Yunupingu
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.
Don Russell’s “little green book” will be a heavily underlined bible on the desks of senior public servants, ministerial staff and policy makers.
The ghost of Charles Throsby haunts south-west Sydney, the Illawarra, and the regions south to Lake George and west to Bathurst. He opposed the pattern of violence that would extend from Sydney to Tasmania and to the Port Phillip district (Victoria). The words of his Glenfield Farm letter of 5 April, 1816 reflect on Australia'
s original sins: of barbarous violence, appropriation of Aboriginal lands, environmental destruction and subjugation of Aboriginal culture.
This conversation with Alex Podolinsky was never released. I can't remember whether it was Alex or I that felt it needed a bit more work. Now Alex is no longer with us I feel it is important to release it as it conveys something of his philosophy. Alex had a profound influence on Australian agriculture and he held true to Steiner's original biodynamic principles that were lost in Europe and had to be re-imported. He is sorely missed.
“Bran Nue Dae” is kriol, pidgin spelling. There were so many different nationalities aboard the pearling luggers of late nineteenth and twentieth century Broome that a dialect had to emerge. Not only did a dialect emerge but so too did a unique cultural creativity that was busting at the seams to talk about justice, life and freedom. That is what is at the heart of Bran Neu Dae, perhaps Australia’s greatest musical ever written to date.
Bushfire reflections on fourteen years of working papers, reports and writing.
Stephen “Bamba” Albert was a giant on whose shoulders we are all carried.
Kakadu plum (Terminalia ferdinandiana) which is known as gubinge, madoorr, madoorroo (Bardi), garbiny (Yawuru), kabinyn (Nyul Nyul), marnybi (Wadeye), nghul nghul, manhmohpan, murunga (East, Central, North East Arnhem) \äṉ’ka-bakarra (North East Arnhem) and colloquially “billy goat plum”, has come, correctly, to be labelled, as a `’super food` but it is much more than that.1 Of all Australian native fruits the chemistry of the kakadu fruit and tree has multi-various therapeutic and bio-active applications for world food, medical, bio-security, beauty, health and manufacturing industries. For the many Northern Aboriginal worlds this borum (bush fruit) symbolizes a strength, vitality and healthfulness of an ancient world that for the first time, the modern world, has come to recognise and seeks in great quantities.
In 1995 Mrs. P. B. Burarrwaŋa and the students of Gatirri School, Mata Mata illustrated a song that she and her nephew George had written and reflected on. It was all about their homeland and the life they led in North East Arnhem land and the islands of the Arafura sea.
