Tag: Aboriginal Australians

The end of Australia’s last free river?

Arena Online

Martin Pritchard

11 Jun 2026

The Martuwarra is still alive: culturally, ecologically and politically, as a site of resistance to the idea that every river must submit to extraction. In an age of climate instability, protecting a free-flowing river is a test of whether we can act with restraint, learn from past damage and share power with those who know a river is more than water moving downhill

After the Voice: Making a turn towards the future

Arena Quarterly no. 23

Benjamin Abbotangelo

Oct 2025

The Voice failure showed that something can be worse than nothing. First peoples need to make bolder demands and material changes, to set a new agenda

Country Beyond ‘No’

Larissa Behrendt

28 Oct 2024

Forget ‘Yes’ campaign post-mortems. The current impasse began with Closing the Gap and framing First Nations people ‘in the deficit’. What’s needed is a new focus on empowerment and other roads to success.

The Mask of Curfew in Alice Springs

Arena Online

Lora Chapman

3 May 2024

The recent execution and looming possibility of a reinstated youth curfew are unlikely to quell well-established divisions between the town’s Aboriginal and settler-Australian populations.

It’s the voice of ‘rural nullius’ on ABC’s Jim Crow Country Hour

Arena Online

Brian Burkett

18 Apr 2024

Farmers in the south of Israel were granted nearly as much ABC air-time in the four weeks before the Voice vote as all the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations across all of Australia.

Silence and the Social Order

Arena Quarterly no. 17

John Hinkson

Mar 2024

It is not merely a matter of not knowing; it is knowing actively being suppressed by multiple mechanisms. In this respect Australia is an example of the role silence can play in making the formation of a certain kind of nation state possible.

Smashing, grabbing, falling: Trauma and the core self in youth offending in Mpwartne/Alice Springs

Arena Quarterly no. 16

Pamela Nathan

Dec 2023

The truth is that these youth have endured assaults and violations to their internal worlds also. It can be argued that they have lived with a form of ‘soul murder’.

History and Ancestry: On the collective imagination of our past

Arena Online

Andreas Pohl

14 Dec 2023

Harnessing the widely held belief of identity being connected to ancestry might well have the potential to break the spell of the triumphalist version of our history and hopefully others will follow in its wake.

Designated Indigenous Seats in the Senate

Arena Online

Michael Mansell

9 Nov 2023

Vesting authority in local Aboriginal communities gives the people tools to overcome dysfunction where it occurs, revives community integrity and enables people to plan for a healthy and vibrant Aboriginal society.

Lost in Translation

Arena Online

Aidan Hookey and Desmond Manderson

9 Nov 2023

After the first paragraph, he paused and took a breath. The interpreter started speaking in Pitjantjatjara. You could see the prime minister wasn’t expecting it. After all, who was he translating for?

The Voice: Dark Fault Lines Unfold

Arena Online

Melinda Hinkson

12 Oct 2023

The government that brought us the referendum has not assumed the courageous leadership that would be vital to refocusing the community at large, helping us to see things differently.

A New Right for Safe Drinking Water in NT Remote Community Housing

Arena Online

Liam Grealy

12 Oct 2023

The prevalence of uranium in drinking water has on some measurements reached three times the recommended maximum safe level under the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.