WA cop charged with murder over shooting

BUNDJALUNG barber Micheal Day opened the doors to his business Black Comb Barbershop in Casino, northern NSW, in December and his appointments are already full to overflowing.

At just 25, Day is one of the youngest Indigenous entrepreneurs in the Northern Rivers area and when you combine his welcoming demeanour and positive attitude with his experience in the industry, it’s no surprise he is already having to turn customers away.

“I had absolutely no idea I’d be this busy and I’m blown away to have already booked in appointments up until the end of February,” Day said. 

“Barbering is something that I love and have always enjoyed, and to think I started with a fold out table and an old mirror, to where I am now running my own business, really is a dream come true.”

Day began his hair cutting career as a teenager, offering his mates from school the latest trends in cuts, right out of the family garage.

“But I knew there would come a time down the track where would I need to have some kind of formal qualification to barber and cut, especially if I wanted to start my own business,” he said.

“So taking on the advice of my partner Bianca, I enrolled in…

CASEY Donovan may not be off to the Netherlands as Australia’s Eurovision rep, but she’s still proud.

Donovan’s anthem of self-love and acceptance, Proud, won the public vote on Saturday but was pushed into second place to Montaigne once the points from a panel of industry experts were factored in.

“From the first line of the song to the end crescendo, I fell in love with this song. It spoke to me in a way music hasn’t in a very long time,” Donovan said. 

“Proud is merely a reminder to yourself, to be proud of who you are, proud of all of the ups and downs, to keep getting up despite the pain and push forward no matter how many people put you down.”

Australia has chosen Montaigne as its Eurovision representative.

The 24-year-old Sydney-based artist won the televised competition Eurovision – Australia Decides on Saturday night, booking a ticket for the final rounds of the international song contest to be held in…

RESEARCH into fire management and biodiversity on the Tiwi Islands is aiming to stop feral predators, particularly feral cats, in their tracks.

For the past seven years, Charles Darwin University post-doctoral researcher Dr Hugh Davies has been working with the Tiwi Land Rangers to monitor small mammal populations on the ecologically unique Tiwi Islands, located north west of Darwin. The current project has been running for the past two years thanks to funding delivered via the Threatened Species Recovery Hub, of the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science program. The project has seen Dr Davies and the rangers check more than 9600 animal traps for native mammals and process more than one million camera-trap images.

“The Tiwi Islands are a really special place for native mammals,” Dr Davies said. “The islands continue to maintain healthy populations of mammal species that have disappeared in other parts of Australia.

“When I compared my results to previous surveys, I found…

THE nation’s best and brightest Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) students and teachers were honoured at the Indigenous STEM awards in Melbourne last week.

The awards highlight the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to Australia and celebrate the next generation of Australia’s STEM talent.

The awards recognise and reward the achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander STEM professionals and students as well as schools, teachers and mentors working in Indigenous STEM Education.

After the announcement of the Awards, local award ceremonies will occur over six weeks to involve and acknowledge the winners’ local communities.

This year’s winners of the Indigenous STEM Awards includes Tamia Blackwell, who is the recipient of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Secondary Student STEM Achievement Award.

Tamia was one of the students at the CSIRO Young Indigenous Women’s STEM Academy, where she facilitated the algebraic traditional dance workshops this summer.

Tamia Blackwell is a Narungga woman from Point Pearce who attended Woodville High School in South Australia. Inspired by Indigenous mathematician Dr Chris Matthews, Tamia formed a workshop based on an alternative way of…

WHAT is raark? How do you make an eel trap? Which mountain ranges appear most often in Albert Namatjira’s paintings? 

These are just some of the questions that will be put to the panel of new comedy quiz show Faboriginal, screening on NITV tomorrow (February 13).

Faboriginal will be hosted by the fabulous Steven Oliver and the panel includes actors Shari Sebbens, Meyne Wyatt and Ursula Yovich; singer/songwriter Emma Donovan; journalist and radio broadcaster Daniel Browning; and actor/director/comedian Elaine Crombie.

The new show with a deadly twist is an arts game show designed to test its contestants’ and audience’s knowledge of Indigenous art. 

Oliver will host two teams, led by comedian and actress Elaine Crombie and radio presenter Daniel Browning and adjudicated by curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, Coby Edgar. 

They will be joined by celebrity contestants battling it out to answer complex art questions. 

Taking inspiration from the gallery’s art collection and filmed in the Yiribana Gallery, Faboriginal is a…

WIRADJURI Wailwan activist and criminal defence lawyer Teela Reid is calling on every Australian to stand in solidarity with Aboriginal people and demand a First Nations Voice be enshrined in the Australian constitution.

Ms Reid was at Western Sydney University late last year for the 22nd Yarramundi Lecture, a forum that discusses issues of local and national importance. 

The lecture acknowledges and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and provides the university community the opportunity to embrace Aboriginal culture through cooperation, sharing, genuine understanding and mutual respect.

This year’s lecture explored the 2019 NAIDOC theme, ‘Voice. Treaty. Truth. Let’s work together for a shared future’, and keynote speakers included Kungarakan Elder and Professor Tom Calma, and Wiradjuri Elder Jenny Munro, an activist and founding member of the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy.

“And the great thing about the Yarramundi lecture is the way…