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THE Aboriginal Legal Service of WA (ALSWA) says the family of the late Mr Ward may still pursue civil action against the State Government and the prison transport company implicated in the Goldfields Elder's 2008 death in custody, in the wake of a Government offer of a $3.2 million ex-gratia payment. ALSWA CEO Dennis Eggington said the service was consulting the family further and had also asked for more information to determine whether an application would be made to have the inquest into Mr Ward's death re-opened.

THE West Australian Government has approved an ex-gratia payment of $3.2 million to the wife and children of a Goldfields Elder who died in January 2008 after being transported in the back of a prison van in searing heat. Attorney General Christian Porter said the payment, including an interim payment of $200,000 made earlier this year, would comprise $1.4 million to Mr Ward’s widow Nancy, and $400,000 to each of his four children, the latter to be held in trust. 

THE ABORIGINAL Legal Rights Movement Inc in South Australia has withdrawn its 2008 complaint to the United Nations regarding funding to Aboriginal legal services in Australia. ALRM chief executive Neil Gillespie said the Commonwealth’s recent decision to increase funding to legal services meant that the Labor Government had finally honoured its pre-election pledge.

NATIVE title claims in Victoria will be resolved faster, fairer and in a less costly manner under a landmark framework that will resolve the backlog of claims from Traditional Owners, Premier John Brumby said today. Mr Brumby said the Traditional Owner Settlement Bill was a fairer and more flexible way to resolve claims than under the Commonwealth’s Native Title Act, which had proven to be too technical and costly to deliver justice to indigenous Victorian communities.

MT NANCY resident Barbara Shaw will run as Greens candidate in the safe Northern Territory Labor seat of Lingiari. The outspoken anti-intervention campaigner will take on Labor Minister Warren Snowdon, who won the seat with a margin of 11.2 per cent at the last election.

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A GROUP of Traditional Owners from the Northern Territory are in Melbourne to challenge a Federal Government plan to build a nuclear waste dump on their land. They have instructed Maurice Blackburn and Surry Partners to commence a Federal Court challenge against the Federal Government and the Northern Land Council over the plan to build a nuclear waste dump on their land at Muckaty Station, 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek.

BUS routes have been extended to some town camps around Alice Springs in a move to improve access to services for Aboriginal people. The Northern Territory Council of Social Service (NTCOSS) has welcomed the extension, but said they should be seen as just the first phase of a longer-term strategy, and that some town camps were still missing out.

SOME say that pound for pound, he's arguably Australia's best professional boxer, but Fred Mundraby knows he has a long way to go make it into the big league. Mundraby is the Australian bantemweight champion. But when it comes to recognition, he's not in the same league as Anthony Mundine or Daniel Geale. And without recognition, he struggles to make a decent living from boxing.
 

THE biggest ever conference on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children will be held in Alice Springs next week. Nearly 1000 delegates from throughout the country are expected at the 27-29 July gathering, being organised by the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC) and canvassing child education, health, welfare, well being and rights. 

WHAT is believed to be the first non-Government funded Aboriginal-run health service in the country has opened in the north Queensland community of Bowen. Girudala Cooperative will run the Herbert Street service as a commercial operation, bulk billing patients and gleaning income from Medicare rebates and other incentive payments.

THE South Australian Greens have introduced a private members' bill to State Parliament seeking establishment of a tribunal to deliver 'communal' reparations to Indigenous people forcibly removed from their families. MP Tammy Jennings says nothing can fully compensate Stolen Generations members and their families for their grief and loss but measures such as healing centres, community education, genealogy projects, and counselling and health services would help.

 SHANE Parker will become the first Indigenous wrestler to represent Australia when he contests the men's Greco-Roman discipline at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October. The Greco-Roman discipline will be making its Games debut in Delhi. Parker is the current Australian and Oceania 55kg division champion in the Greco-Roman class.

A FOUR Corners program aired last night about last year's bashing death of Alice Springs Aboriginal man Kwementyaye Ryder has prompted calls for the NT Government to appeal against the leniency shown to the five young non-Aboriginal convicted over the trainee park ranger's killing. Chairwoman of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council Bev Manton says the men's sentences – ranging from just 12 months to four years – were grossly inadequate and cannot go unchallenged. 

A QUEENSLAND Senate candidate for controversial political party One Nation has proposed the creation of two Aboriginal seats in the Federal Parliament. Rod Evans says the major political parties have done little to improve conditions for Aboriginal people but independent Aboriginal seats in the House of Representatives could make a difference. One Nation was founded by former MP Pauline Hanson who was elected in 1996 after insisting that Aboriginal people received more privileges than other Australians.

THE Rudd Government says it has achieved a lot in Indigenous Affairs since it was elected in 2007, despite the many difficult challenges still facing Indigenous Australians. Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin used an address in Canberra yesterday to talk up recently reported outcomes in Indigenous housing, $1.2 billion worth of expenditure in the NT communities, and employment reforms as evidence of progress in an area where previous governments 'found it all too difficult and gave up'.

A PALM Island man jailed for leading riots in the north Queensland community following the 2004 death in custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee has been released on parole on the condition he does not speak to the media or address public meetings. The Black and White Justice Foundation says the ‘gag’ upon Lex Wotton is appalling and breaches his civil rights. The support group is seeking legal advice on the validity of the condition.

THE first Australian study into the prevalence and impact of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder on Indigenous children is to be undertaken in the Fitzroy Valley in Western Australia's Kimberley region. The study was initiated by the Fitzroy Valley community, and will pool the expertise of paediatricians, allied health professionals and social workers.

THE Federal Government has announced $28 million in funding aimed at reducing the number of young people in prison in the NT. The funding will enable the employment of about 30 youth workers and about 30 trainee Indigenous youth workers in Indigenous communities, and projects such as music workshops, sports and youth leadership initiatives, bush trips, and early intervention services around self-harm. 

ABORIGINAL lawyer Michael Mansell has called on the Tasmanian Government to fully disclose an alleged secret plan to 'con' the Aboriginal community over the proposed Brighton Bypass near Hobart. The Mercury newspaper reported on Saturday that  a disgruntled Aboriginal former ALP volunteer had made the allegation on a social networking site. Mr Mansell says the public should be told about any ‘dirty tricks’ plan over the controversial road project. 

FEDERAL Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor will visit the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) in Darwin tomorrow. NAAJA CEO Priscilla Collins says the agency is keen to tell the Minister about its 'Throughcare' project, which aims to reduce re-offending by supporting Aboriginal prisoners and juvenile detainees around rehabilitation, accommodation, employment, education, training, health, life skills, reconnection to family and community and social connectedness. 

NOMINATIONS are now open for the 2010 Human Rights Medal and Awards. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda is calling on Indigenous communities across the country to nominate a human rights hero in their community, saying the awards were a celebration of of those went out of their way to protect and promote the human rights of others. 

THE FEDERAL Government has claimed reforms to remote indigenous housing programs have delivered 316 new houses and 828 refurbishments across Australia. Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said the combined state and Northern Territory 2009-10 targets for remote Indigenous housing were 320 new houses and 587 refurbishments.

ART galleries, dealers and auction houses have been urged to sign up to code of conduct aimed at ending dodgy sale practices within the multi-million dollar indigenous art sector. The voluntary code follows a 2007 Senate inquiry that found many indigenous artists were working in squalor for minimal pay, drugs and second-hand cars.

THE Australian Greens today announced that the popular Northern Territory singer/songwriter, Warren H Williams, would run as a Greens Senate candidate in the next Federal election. The Western Arrente man has voiced opposition to the NT intervention, uranium mining and a proposed uranium dump on Aboriginal land. His campaign is being launched in Alice Springs today.

ABORIGINAL smokers consume less cigarettes each day than the wider population, according to a new study that looked at cigarette sales at five remote communities in the APY lands in South Australia. Less access to stores and the importance of sharing in Aboriginal communities were two of the reasons put forward in the study.

THE Australian and Northern Territory Governments today announced the commencement of the buy-back of three take-away liquor licences in Alice Springs. Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said the licences, held by BP Gap, Hoppy’s Cash Store and the Heavitree Gap Store, would not have been granted under current liquor licensing practices.

THE Federal and NT Governments have announced a $12.5 million partnership to deliver new family support services in 18 Indigenous remote service delivery sites and 'growth towns' in the Territory over the next three years. The services will include playgroups, parenting workshops, individual parenting consultations and home visiting services.

THE WA Deaths in Custody Watch Committee says it'll continue public protests over the 2008 death in custody of Goldfields Elder Mr Ward unless the State Government agrees, within 14 days, to a list of demands including reopening the coronial inquest into the death, and establishing an independent review of the DPP decision not to lay charges over the death, and another into institutionalised racism in the WA criminal justice system.

DENNIS Eggington, the head of the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia, was last night named the NAIDOC Person of the Year at a ceremony at the Melbourne Convention Centre. About 1100 people turned out for the awards night, which honoured the best and brightest from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

 ABORIGINAL and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda says Andrew Johns and Timana Tahu have drawn a line under their racism row after the pair met on 28 June. It was the first time the former Newcastle and NSW rugby league team-mates had come into contact since Tahu stormed out of the Blues camp on 11 June after Johns made racist remarks about Queensland superstar Greg Inglis ahead of the second State of Origin clash in Brisbane. "They now wish to rule a line under this incident and move forward to work together," he said.

THE 2010 National NAIDOC Awards ceremony is being held at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre tonight. The annual awards recognise the outstanding contributions that Indigenous Australians make to improve the lives of Indigenous people in their communities and beyond, or to promote Indigenous issues in the wider community, or the excellence they've shown in their chosen field.
 

HUMAN rights group Amnesty International has written to the federal attorney-general demanding he do more to protect indigenous Australians held in police custody. Amnesty's call follows high-profile investigations into the deaths in custody of Aboriginal men Mulrunji Doomadgee on Palm Island and an elder known as Mr Ward in Western Australia.

INDIGENOUS rights campaigners and supporters have converged on Alice Springs for the Defending Indigenous Rights Conference at Yirara College. Issues on the agenda include the Northern Territory Intervention, bilingual education, imprisonment rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the impacts of uranium mining on Aboriginal land. The conference finishes tomorrow with a public rally.
 

ABOUT 200 people gathered today for the official declaration of the Cubawee Aboriginal Place. Located about seven kilometres from Lismore in northern New South Wales, Cubawee was a self-managed Aboriginal settlement from the 1930s to the 1960s. The land is now owned by the Ngulingah Land Council, and there are plans to re-develop the site with some housing, gardens, plantations, sports grounds and other areas for community activities.

A JUDGE has retired to consider if Queensland's top cop should be banned from deciding the fate of officers who investigated the Doomadgee death-in-custody on Palm Island. Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson was in June given a deadline to say what disciplinary action he would take against six officers. In a Brisbane court on Wednesday, the Crime and Misconduct Unit agreed to another delay after the existing deadline expired at noon.The concession will allow Supreme Court Justice Peter Lyons to resolve an application for an injunction from two of the six officers.
 

QUEENSLAND Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson should delegate a decision on whether action should be taken against six police officers accused of mishandling investigations into a death in custody on Palm Island, a court has been told. During Tuesday’s hearing in the Supreme Court in Brisbane, lawyers acting for Detective Senior Sergeant Raymond Kitching and Detective Sergeant Darren Robinson made an application for an injunction against any disciplinary proceedings. The hearing continues today.

THE 40th annual NSW Aboriginal Rugby League Knockout could attract up to 60 teams, say the organisers of the 2010 event. The carnival will be held at Woy Woy, on the NSW central coast, during the October long weekend and will be hosted by 2009 Knockout winners BAC Walgett.

CASEY DONOVAN has taken out the Best Supporting Actress award at an Asian international music festival. The former Australian Idol winner won the 4th Deagu International Musical Festival Awards honour for her role in the musical The Sapphires.
 

QUEENSLAND Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson is due reveal today how he will discipline six officers who are accused of conducting a flawed investigation into the 2004 death in custody of Palm Island man Cameron Doomadgee. The Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) more than a fortnight ago released a scathing report into the officer's actions and gave Commissioner Atkinson until Tuesday to say what action he will taken against them.

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has appealed to the Senate to 'get on with it' and pass the Government's welfare reform Bill this week. If passed, the legislation would extend contentious income quarantining beyond NT Intervention communities to most welfare recipients in the Territory from 1 July and throughout the country within two years. Mr Rudd said the reforms would encourage individual responsibility and fight passive welfare. 

THREE Indigenous candidates in Western Australia are contesting the same Lower House seat for the upcoming Federal election.The contest centres on the seat of Hasluck covering large parts of the Eastern and Hills suburbs of Perth, held by Labor’s Sharryn Jackson by just one per cent. Ms Jackson’s competitors include high-profile Nyoongar health professional Ken Wyatt, who is representing the Liberal Party, Yamatji Glenice Smith for the Greens and Nyoongar Elder Dot Henry for the newly formed First Nations Political Party.

ABORIGINAL dance group Descendance have continued their criss-crossing of the globe, most recently spending time in Russia. They became the first Australian act to perform at the 2010 Arkhangelsk Festival in the northern city of Arkhangelsk on the banks of the Northern Dvina River. Descendance joined performers from France, Argentina, Czech Republic, South Africa, Switzerland
and Russia to make the festival a memorable event for more than 200,000 spectators in more than 15 locations throughout the city.

AN ABC Television program on the killing of a young Aboriginal man in Alice Springs last year has prompted calls for the Northern Territory Government to appeal over the sentences for five non-Aboriginal men involved. The Four Corners episode ‘A Dog Act’ was screened last Monday. NSW Aboriginal Land Council Chairperson Bev Manton said no decent Australian who watched it could help but be appalled by the killing of Kwementyaye Ryder and the sentences – ranging from just 12 months to four years – handed down to Anton Kloeden, Joshua Spears, Tim Hird, Glen Swain and Scott Doody.
 

AN alcohol lobby group in Alice Springs has welcomed an announced buy-back of three liquor licences, but says more needs to be done to combat problem drinking in the desert town. The Federal and Northern Territory Governments said recently that the licences held by BP Gap, Hoppy’s Cash Store and the Heavitree Gap Store would not have been granted under current liquor licensing practices.
 

A MEDIA gag on Lex Wotton, who was released from jail on parole on July 19, has been slammed. Mr Wotton is known as ‘the Warrior’ by many Indigenous people and was sentenced to six years’ jail in November 2008 for inciting the burning down of the Palm Island police station and an officer’s residence in November 2004. The riots were sparked by the death in police custody of Aboriginal man Mulrunji Doomadgee a week earlier.
 

HUNDREDS of people came to witness the final laying to rest of a Nyoongar patriot earlier this month, exactly 177 years after he was cut down in the prime of his life by a bullet from a settler’s gun.
The reburial ceremony for the kaat (head) of Yagan also marked the opening of the Yagan Memorial Park in the upper Swan Valley on the north-eastern outskirts of Perth, almost 13 years after it was brought back from England in September 1997.
 

A $4.4 MILLION plan to improve the health of Aboriginal Victorians was being cooked up in the Koori Kitchen at Peninsula Health in Frankston recently. The plan is expected to provide better access to vital health services. Visiting the kitchen on 15 July, Victorian Health Minister Daniel Andrews, Frankston MP Alistair Harkness and Cranbourne MP Jude Perera launched the strategy, which is called the Southern Metropolitan Melbourne Closing the Gap on Aboriginal Health Plan.
 

SHANE Parker will become the first Indigenous wrestler to represent Australia when he contests the men’s Greco-Roman discipline at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October. The 20-strong Australian team was announced in Brisbane on 13 July and includes the first Australian female wrestlers to compete at the Commonwealth Games.
 

Her name is Amanda Fowler and she is an amazing young teenager.
She has overcome incredible obstacles to etch her name in national and State record books in a number of sports. How’s this for starters: Speed skating, roller blading, athletics, cross-country, cycling, triathlon and diving. And we haven’t mentioned her real strength ... swimming. Amanda is pictured here with a swag of medals – eight gold, one silver and a bronze – she collected at a recent national swimming meet.
 

THE love of netball among Indigenous West Australians was there for all to see at the NAIDOC Week netball carnival in the Perth suburb of Langford on 7 July. Players came together from regions across the State, and the carnival was a fitting celebration of NAIDOC Week, WA Department of Sport and Recreation Director-General Ron Alexander said. A record number of teams competed in this year’s carnival, with 58 sides registered – 18 more than last year.
 

THREE outstanding young Indigenous talents from Port Augusta were part of the North Adelaide country side’s win in the annual under-15 South Australian State Titles, which culminated in a thrilling grand final at AAMI Stadium. The match was played as a curtain-raiser to the Australian Football League (AFL) Adelaide Crows v Geelong Cats Friday night blockbuster on 16 July. The trio, Tye Starkey-Trelaor, Jonathon Buzzacott-Ed and Clayton Milera, played significant roles in the Roosters’ second ever championship win at this level.
 

A YOUNG Indigenous lifesaver has been declared the rookie of the year in the Hunter Lifesaving Awards of Excellence. She is 13-year-old Courtney Webb, of Tea Gardens, on the northern side of Nelson Bay. Courtney, a Worimi girl, is a member of the Tea Gardens-Hawks Nest Surf Life Saving Club, starting as a nipper at the age of five.
 

MEET some of Indigenous Australia's very finest. They're the winners of this year's National NAIDOC Awards, presented last Friday at the annual NAIDOC Ball, held in Melbourne. Around 1100 turned up for the national gala event, joining thousands more around the country taking part in Indigenous Australia's very own celebration. This year's NAIDOC theme was 'Unsung heroes: Closing the gap by leading their way'.

SIX police officers criticised by Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission over their roles in the investigation into the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee have still not been disciplined. Instead, Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson, the CMC and the police union were in court last week, locked in a battle which critics described as another 'cover up'.

TORRES Strait Islanders have won a nine-year court battle to secure native title rights over more than 40,000 square kilometres of ocean between Cape York and Papua New Guinea. The Federal Court granted traditional owners native title rights in a landmark ruling handed down on 2 July by Justice Paul Finn.

THE WA Deaths in Custody Watch Committee has called on the Coroner to re-open the inquest into the death in custody of Goldfields Elder Mr Ward because a police report was not included in the original hearing. The family and supporters are furious at a decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions not to lay charges against the two security guards involved.

CONVENOR of the Defending Indigenous Rights Convergence at Alice Springs Richard Downs has declared Australia is living under a system of apartheid. Mr Downs spoke at the four-day convergence, which was held from 6-9 July at Yirara College. It brought together Indigenous and other people from across Australia.

The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation's inaugural gathering was recently held in Townsville.  It was an emotion-charged three days as the 'Let's talk healing' gathering brought together hundreds of Stolen Generations members, traditional healers, mental health practitioners, Elders and others. The theme was 'Strong spirit, strong culture, strong people'.

THE all-Indigenous Lloyd McDermott Rugby Development Team (LMRDT) has won the Australian Rugby Football Schools’ Union championships division two title with a 27-17 grand final victory over Victoria Country at Geelong Grammar School. The Indigenous team went through the carnival undefeated, beating Victorian Presidents XV 14-0 on the opening day, South Australian Schools 21-5 on day two, and Western Australia Schools 22-0 on a wet and windy third day.

ABORIGINAL and Torres Strait Islanders hope that a rematch between Danny Green and Anthony ‘The Man’ Mundine comes to fruition this year. Green made a whirlwind visit to Townsville and the Aboriginal community of Palm Island on 30 June and was well accepted by locals. Coincidentally, that night Mundine beat Argentinean Carlos Adan Jerez on a unanimous points decision in B
 

FORMER rugby league great David Peachey has signed with the Collegians club in the 2010 Illawarra Carlton competition. He was wooed by Collegians coach and close friend Aaron Raper. Peachey, 36, retired from top-level rugby league three years ago, but has maintained his fitness by making guest appearances at carnivals in NSW and Queensland. Raper and Peachey played together at the Cronulla Sharks.
 

THE skills of the AFL’s Indigenous superstars and rising stars are showcased on the Marngrook Footy Show, which airs live around Australia on Foxtel’s NITV channel on Thursday nights from 7.30 to 9.30. Champions and Indigenous role models such as Sydney’s two-time Brownlow Medal winner Adam Goodes, Adelaide’s two-time premiership star and two-time Norm Smith Medal winner Andrew McLeod, and Collingwood livewire Leon Davis have featured on the show since its debut in 2007.
 

FOR the second year in a row, Australian cricketers have paid a visit to Palm Island during their northern winter series. Australia A players George Bailey, Jake Haberfield and Andrew McDonald took time out of their playing schedule against Sri Lanka A during their recent matches in Townsville to journey to Palm Island. The trio conducted a development clinic and provided cricket equipment to the Island’s Indigenous children at the Palm Island Sport and Recreation Centre.