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 […]

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 […]