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News Archive - OCEANIA
Listed below are news from this year.
News from previous years can be found here:
 Oceania news archive 2008
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New Zealand: NGOs urge government to endorse DRIP
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31 July 2009
Several international human rights and indigenous peoples' organisations have sent a letter to the New Zealand High Commissioner in Canada. They are encouraging the government of New Zealand to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples without qualifications.
 Read the letter here |
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The Frontline of Climate change: Pacific Island peoples
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29 July 2009
On Tuesday night, July 28, around 300 people filled the Brisbane Room in Brisbane’s City Hall to hear speakers from the front line of climate change – residents of the Torres Strait and Pacific Island nations Tuvalu, Micronesia and Kiribati. It’s very rare for me to attend a forum with seven speakers all addressing the same topic where I haven’t been dying to leave by about the third speech. But the speakers at this forum were all direct, informative and engaging.
Read more (blogs.crikey.com.au) |
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Australia: Indigenous groups want nuke law scrapped
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13 July 2009
Indigenous communities are demanding the federal government stand by its election promise to scrap legislation which lays the groundwork for a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory.
Read more (Sydney Mornig Herald) |
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Australia: Gap dividing aborigines growing
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2 July 2009
A national report on Aboriginal social and economic trends in Australia has shown their condition has deteriorated. In particular it showed that the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous citizens has grown wider in areas like child abuse and domestic violence. It revealed that Aboriginal children are six times as likely to be abused as non-indigenous children. The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said it was a devastating report on an unacceptable situation.
Read more (BBC News) |
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Aborigines More Likely to Be Jailed in Australia
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25 June 2009
Indigenous Australians are 13 times more likely to be jailed than the rest of the population and the government must step up efforts to tackle drug and alcohol dependency in Aboriginal communities, researchers said today. Almost a quarter of all male prisoners and a third of female detainees in Australia are indigenous, the Australian National Council on Drugs said in a report.
Read more (bloomberg.com) |
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Aboriginal women subjected to domestic violence
18 June 2009
Indigenous Aboriginal women from the remote Western Australian town of Fitzroy Crossing have saved their community from the scourge of alcohol abuse, domestic violence and foetal alcohol syndrome by successfully fighting for alcohol restrictions in the region. The town has a total population of 928 persons, with 67.3 per cent Indigenous persons.
Read more (nation.ittefaq.com) |
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Indigenous Australians 'biodiversity guardians'
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7 June 2009
Academics from the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research are calling on the Commonwealth to better recognise Indigenous people's contribution to the conservation of Australia's biodiversity.
Read more abc.net.au |
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Australia: Native title report 2008
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28 May
This year’s report examines the operation of the native title system and its affect on the exercise and enjoyment of human rights by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples during the 2007-2008 reporting period. It will also discuss the effect of changes that were made to the native title system during 2007 under the previous Government’s native title reform process.
Read more (apo.org.au) |
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Australia: Aboriginals under ALP attack
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23 May 2009
Schools and clinics in many Aboriginal homelands and outstations are likely to close under proposed changes announced by the Northern Territory government on May 20. The NT government’s Working Futures — Remote service delivery discussion paper outlines its vision for outstations and homelands. Under the policy, 20 of the current 600 remote Aboriginal communities would receive $160 million to become “growth” towns. These towns would receive priority funding for infrastructure such as schools and health services. People living on other communities will be forced to move or commute for access to education or health services. Those communities will only receive $36 million a year between them.
Read more |
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Self-determination to Native Hawaiians
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1st March 2009
Nine years after it was first conceived, a bill giving self-determination to Native Hawaiians may finally have a shot at becoming law, according to the office of U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka. But instead of bringing consensus, the passage of time seems to have only deepened divisions over whether the so-called Akaka Bill is the right thing for Hawaiians. Both sides say they want Native Hawaiians to govern themselves, but while supporters believe the Akaka Bill will give them the tools for self-determination, opponents call the measure a "fraud."
Read more |
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President Barack Obama and U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka |
Australia: Cultural ties key to Indigenous wellbeing
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18th February 2009
Last week marked the first anniversary of Kevin Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generation and for past policies more generally which "inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians". One year on, however, there have been no signs of new directions in the approach to addressing Indigenous disadvantage. And while the inhumanity and short-sightedness of the policy of forcibly removing children from their natural families has now received some formal recognition, the assumptions underlying the policy are still widely accepted in the current debate.
Mike Dockery ABC News.
Read more |
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 Attachment to traditional culture is important for Indigenous wellbeing. |
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