At first I didn’t think it was worthwhile responding to Sara Hudson’s response to me on the Intervention. I thought it was pretty insubstantial, and its ad hominem tone seemed to me suggestive that replying would reduce the issues to one of personalities, rather than the issues. However, I then decided that some comments may […]

Income quarantining has become part of life for welfare recipients in the NT. Originally it was part of the Federal Intervention, rolled out by Howard and his pet bulldog Mal Brough in 2007. Its aim was to prevent welfare money being spent on alcohol and cigarettes, rather than food, and on preventing ‘humbugging’ (demands for […]

I wanna tell you a story. A story of a house and its history. A story of its building. Its problems. Issues. I wanna tell you a story of its rebuilding. Of the promises made. Of the restructuring and the re-checking. Of the new paint job that cost $10 000. Of the new kitchen and […]

At this year’s Garma Festival a friend told me of a conversation she had with someone who used to work for the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA). When she told this guy that she was from Alice Springs, he commented that some people in FaHCSIA are talking of moving to […]

Culture Crisis: Anthropology and Politics in Aboriginal Australia Jon Altman and Melinda Hinkson (eds) UNSW Press Labelling something to be ‘in crisis’ can be a fraught activity; when the motivation is to create a rethinking of the issue at hand, it often leads to bandaid solutions to quickly fix the crisis. In this collection of […]

I got an email last week from a friend about some comments Nigel Scullion has been making. The comments were regarding the Wild Rivers legislation, and Tony Abbott’s private member’s bill in particular. As Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Scullion spoke about the lack of informed consent in regards to the way the Wild Rivers […]

The first thing that sticks out about Garma are the tents. Rows and rows of them set up in designated areas: artists, volunteers, cultural tourists, paying attendees, academics, forum participants – all the way across the other side of the bungal ground to the Yolgnu camp. It’s a mini-city that exists for five days all […]

With an election called it soon won’t be long before the list of election promises start filling screens and printed pages around the country. Promises from the last election will be brought up and assessed as to whether they’ve been broken, kept or whether they’re in progress. The adjective ‘core’ and ‘non-core’ may be resurrected. […]

The ascendancy of Julia Gillard to the office of PM has feminists going gaga. ‘OMG! A female PM’, has been the uncritical response I’ve been hearing of Julia Gillard’s slaying of Kevin Rudd from feminists everywhere. We’ve all heard reports of women rushing to screens to watch Julia’s first speech, feminist workplaces ringing with tears […]

On the Ross River Highway, before you get to Emily Gap, there is a small blue sign. Written across this sign in white letters is the word Amoonguna. Less than 15 kilometres from Alice Springs, it is the closest Aboriginal Community to Central Australia’s service capital, yet in the rounds of ministerial visits it is […]

Journeys to the Interior Nicholas Rothwell Black Inc. I’d read a few articles by Nicholas Rothwell and was somewhat ambivalent about what I’d read. I was unsure of his political perspective on life in the NT. He’d made some good points, but often his conclusions disturbed me; this was especially true of some of his […]

Recently I went on a trip up to Katherine with Barbara, from Intervention Rollback Action Group, and a few other friends to record people’s experiences of living under the Federal Intervention. These are some of the brief stories we heard as we visited Katherine, Beswick and Barunga. At Bindari, a small community about 20km west […]

Much has been written about the Intervention since it first came into place in 2007. Reports have been filed, reviews undertaken. The Government PR machine has gone overboard ensuring media is good. In among all of this something has been missing: the creation of real jobs out in communities across the NT. As part of […]

Driving out to remote communities is always an adventurous experience, particularly after a good dose of rain. Last week was no exception as a friend, her sister and I got into a hired 4WD ute and raced out to Ampilatwatja, a 320km trip up the Sandover Highway from Mparntwe/Alice Springs. Bad music; bogs, puddles, mud […]

For a couple of days I’ve been immersed in Jacqueline Rose’s volume of essays, On Not Being Able To Sleep, and mostly reading it at night when, as it happens, I haven’t been able to sleep. Jacqueline Rose is a Professor of English at some exalted establishment in the UK, and has written compellingly and […]