Northern development
Quintis, the NT government and picking major project losers
Bob GosfordAug 16, 20171 Comment
Similarly curious is the fact that the Gunner government has seen fit to continue Quintis' major project status. As will become clear, if there were grounds for concern about the company's activities in the NT eighteen months ago, recent events warrant even closer attention.
Yes, I can cook! Koulla Roussos on unrequited sex, art, food, jail and a pair of steel-capped boots
Bob GosfordAug 14, 20171 Comment
He winked and said, "no more chances". I slipped back into my steel cap boots, and marched confidently with a swagger towards the interview room. So yeah, I can fucking cook.
Buzzfeed, the Garma Festival and the noble savage
Bob GosfordAug 9, 2017
For mine it is but a few short steps from the Buzzfeed treatment of this year's Garma Festival to a neo-romantic and naive view of contemporary Aboriginal society as "noble savages". But Buzzfeed can easily do better than 16 Photos, as we can see in this piece by Simon Crera, 16 Powerful Photos Of The Oldest Living Culture On Earth, which looked at the 2014 Garma Festival.
Open Cut - people of the south-western Gulf of Carpentaria speak out in words and pictures
Bob GosfordAug 6, 20171 Comment
After 150 years of white development it’s time for environmental justice in the southwest Gulf, for fair treatment and meaningful involvement of Aboriginal people with respect to development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies in their ancestral lands. The goal must be a fair distribution of the environmental benefits and costs.
Jacky Green: I can hear the miners riding their trucks screaming “Yee-haw, I’m rich, Fuck you!”
Bob GosfordAug 6, 2017
I want the government and mining companies to know that we are still here. We aren’t going anywhere. We aren’t dead yet. We are still here, feeling the country. Jacky Green, Darwin, August 2017
Bill Shorten - Address to Garma Festival 2017
Bob GosfordAug 5, 2017
I cannot be any more clear than this: Labor supports a voice for Aboriginal people in our Constitution, we support a declaration by all parliaments, we support a truth-telling commission. We are not confronted by the notion of treaties with our first Australians. For us the question is not whether we do these things, the question is not if we should do these things but when and how. The Parliament needs to be engaged. The Parliament needs to be engaged now. The Parliament needs to start the process of engaging with the people of Australia now.
We Never Ceded Our Countries. Garawa, Gudanji, Marra and Yanyuwa people speak truth to power
Bob GosfordJul 27, 2017
The contamination of land, water, air and wildlife can be seen across the region. The Redbank Copper Mine was abandoned in the mid-1990s, with an estimated 54,000 tonnes of partially treated acid-forming material left exposed to the monsoonal rains for 17 years. Poor management has resulted in highly toxic waste bleeding into nearby waterways.
Ten years on, Muckaty Station is back in the news, and back in court
Bob GosfordJul 26, 2017
Last month—three years to the day since Justice North confirmed the settlement of the Muckaty court case between the Northern Land Council, the Commonwealth and the dissident Aboriginal community members—Ngapa clan members have launched legal action against the Northern Land Council. That action, Jason Bill & Ors v Northern Land Council, was filed in the Darwin registry of the Federal Court on 20 June 2017.
Raelene Webb QC: Re-imagining Native Title through the Eyes of Justice Kirby
Bob GosfordJul 21, 20171 Comment
Let’s start 25 years ago with Mabo when the High Court found ‘the Meriam people are entitled as against the whole world to possession, occupation, use and enjoyment of the lands of the Murray Islands’. With those words, the High Court inserted the legal doctrine of native title into Australian law. This was a truly watershed moment in Australian legal history, though it was not, of course, without critique and debate: Raelene Webb QC.
Essential documents from Aboriginal Australia: 6 - the 1972 Larrakia Petition
Bob GosfordJul 20, 2017
The battered document was later mailed to Buckingham Palace with a covering letter of apology, signed by Larrakia leader Bobby Secretary and four others, who claimed that there had been no reply to a note they gave to an aide with the Royal Couple, leaving the Larrakia’s last hope to try and break through the police barrier. The letter noted: ‘We are sorry to send the petition in this condition. We hoped and planned to present it personally to Princess Margaret.’