NEW edition out on Wednesday

By Allan Clarke

On a chilly morning last month, white smoke from a traditional smoking ceremony, meant to cleanse and purify, perfumed the air outside the Tamworth courthouse. 

Locals walk past, getting on with their day, but for the family of Mark Haines, today is anything but ordinary. Ron, Lorna Haines and Uncle Don ‘Duck’ Craigie stand silently in the plumes of smoke, remembering Mark, a beloved brother and nephew. They’re about to find out if their almost 40-year marathon for answers might be over.

Standing beside them is deputy state coroner Harriet Grahame, her presence a symbolic gesture acknowledging a family that has spent nearly four decades fighting for justice.

By Allan Clarke

On 20 June, 2013, 24-year-old proud Aboriginal woman Monique Clubb left her hometown of Hervey Bay with three acquaintances, telling her mother they were heading south to Brisbane for the night. Later that night, in Brisbane, just after midnight, Monique sent a distressed text message to a friend stating she was starving, freezing, and had nowhere to stay. The following morning, Monique spoke with her mother, Sheena McBride, explaining that she was trying to secure fuel money and intended to drive home the next day.

What followed over the next 48 hours has become the foundation of a devastating mystery, one heavily compounded by early, inaccurate police assumptions that shifted the focus away from a rigorous missing person investigation and onto the criminalisation of a vulnerable Indigenous woman.

Students’ new song to help thousands learn a language Children from the remote north-western New South Wales community of Brewarrina will help teach Aboriginal language to thousands of students across Australia through the Indigenous Literacy Foundation’s (ILF) 2026 Busking For Change campaign. The official Busking For Change 2026 song, Minyan Ngabangka (What’s in the Water), was co-written by ILF ambassador Dobby, First Nations artist Kelsey Iris and children from Brewarrina.

Through the national program, students across Australia will learn and perform the song while raising funds to help kids in remote communities access books in language. Featuring Murrawarri language and inspired by Brewarrina’s deep connection to the Baawan/Bama River, the song invites students nationwide to engage with one of the world’s oldest living cultures through music.

SIXTY-FOUR outstanding works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from across Australia have been selected as finalists in the 2026 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (Telstra NATSIAA), the county’s longest-running and most prestigious celebration of First Nations art. Now in its 43rd year, Telstra NATSIAA showcases the strength, diversity and innovation of contemporary Indigenous art practice, bringing together artists from remote communities, regional centres and urban studios.  

Selected from 221 entries, this year’s finalists explore themes of intergenerational storytelling, cultural continuity, connection to Country and the ongoing impacts of colonisation through an extraordinary range of artistic forms and media. Presented by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) in partnership with Telstra, the awards provide a platform for First Nations artists at all stages of their careers, competing for a total prize pool of $190,000, including the $100,000 Telstra Art Award.

A powerful new exhibition opening during NAIDOC Week will showcase the artistic talents, resilience and cultural strength of First Peoples women with lived experience of incarceration. Presented by The Torch and the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre (QVWC), We Sit in Circle returns for its second iteration from July 3-30, bringing together paintings and weavings created by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women whose stories speak to survival, hope and self-determination. Featuring works by mothers, aunties, grandmothers, daughters and sisters, the exhibition explores the enduring role of culture as a source of identity, healing and connection.

Among the featured artists is Kim A – whose work Future Journey depicts four turtles representing her children. “Now more than ever I want to be out with my kids,” she said. “They’re represented by the four turtles. I can’t wait for change, change away from jail and change for a better future.”

By Peter Argent

A proud First Nations man of Ngarrindjeri, Narrunga and Kaurna heritage, Travis Dodd hailed from Salisbury Park in Adelaide’s northern suburbs. Both a state level junior baseballer and footballer in his youth, Dodd had to make a sporting choice at a young age.

“In baseball, I made the state under 14s team,” Dodd recalled. “I was a pitcher and short stop at club level, but a batter at state level.

“I scored the only home run for SA in that tournament… I often wonder what would have happened if I took the baseball path.” I played club baseball with Luke Prokopec who played for the famous Los Angeles Dodgers in America.

“Also being in the state soccer under 14s team, I needed to make a choice.”