Koori Mail

ACCLAIMED Aboriginal director, writer and performer Leah Purcell was awarded the 2017 Sydney-UNESCO City of Film Award at the closing night of the Sydney Film Festival last night. The $10,000 prize is awarded annually to someone whose work stands for innovation, imagination and impact. In addition to the cash prize, Ms Purcell will be offered the opportunity to take a desk at ‘Charlie’s’, the hub for the Australian film-making community in Los Angeles.

CHANGES to the Native Title Act regarding Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUAs) have passed the Senate, with Labor supporting the Government’s amendments. Changes to the Native Title Act were introduced earlier this year in response to a successful Federal Court challenge by four Noongar people that ruled all native title claimants must sign off on an ILUA. The Greens opposed the changes, insisting they were being rushed through to appease Indian mining Adani, whose ILUA on Wangan and Jagalingou land is the subject of four court actions.

A hearing to determine whether there is fresh and compelling evidence to retry a man previously cleared of murdering Aboriginal youths in Bowraville, northern NSW, has been listed for November. The man, who can’t be named for legal reasons, was acquitted of murdering Evelyn Greenup, 4, and Clinton Speedy-Duroux, 16, in late 1990 and early 1991. A judge has now set out a timetable for the application made to the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal by state Attorney-General Mark Speakman seeking the retrial. The hearing is scheduled to start on November 28.

Northern Territorian Abby Cubillo is in the Australian team for basketball’s Under-19 World Cup in Italy next month. The FIBA Under-19 World Cup will be held from July 22-30. Cubillo is the only Territorian in the side that is dominated by Victoria, with six selections. Cubillo was part of Australia’s first ever gold medal at the Under-17 World Championships last year, a tournament they went through undefeated.

June 5: Thousands of people have turned out around Australia to mark Mabo Day, held on Saturday. The day commemorates the historic 1992 High Court decision overturning the legal fiction that Australia had been ‘empty land’ at the time of European arrival. It is named for the late Eddie Koiki Mabo, a man from Mer in the Torres Strait who became a champion for Indigenous land rights. Mabo Day was the final day of National Reconciliation Week, which this year had the theme ‘Let’s Take the Next Steps’.

Traditional owners of the Northern Territory’s Watarrka National Park, which includes Kings Canyon, are celebrating after the land was ruled off limits for mining and fracking. The Central Land Council says the NT Government has declared a mineral and petroleum reserve over the park area. CLC director David Ross says traditional owners have rallied against mining for the past 15 years and opposed two exploration permit applications for the park in 2012. “It just goes to show what can be achieved with a persistent, patient and united campaign,” he said.

June 1: Indigenous player Andrew Fifita turned in a performance of Arthur Beetson proportions as the NSW Blues demolished Queensland 28-4 in the opening match of the 2017 State of Origin rugby league series at Lang Park, Brisbane, last night. Fifita, 27, was brilliant, making 183 metres and scoring a try as the Blues ran away with the game after a first half described by seasoned judges as one of the best exhibitions of rugby league where both sides completed all of their set tackles.

May 31: Tobacco is the number-one preventable cause of the life-expectancy gap between Indigenous and other Australians, Cancer Council Australia and the National Heart Foundation say. Speaking today on World No Tobacco Day, Cancer Council Australia chief executive Professor Sanchia Aranda and National Heart Foundation tobacco control spokesperson Maurice Swanson said Indigenous Australians were three times more likely to die of preventable causes as other Australians, with smoking the top reason for the disparity.

Aboriginal player Ash Barty has tuned up for the French Open tennis tournament winning the Strasbourg International women’s doubles final with fellow Australian Casey Dellacqua. Barty and Dellacqua had a 6-4 6-2 win over Taiwanese sisters Yung-jan Chan and Hao-ching Chan. The Australian pair are to meet the French combination of Virginie Razzano and Marine Partaud this Wednesday in the opening round of the women’s doubles at the French Open.

FOR the second year running, Leichhardt Oval, Sydney, will host the NSW Aboriginal Rugby League Knockout carnival. It will again be hosted by the Redfern All Blacks (RAB) and will be from Friday, September 29 to Monday, October 2. RAB board member and spokesman Dean Widders said the Knockout would follow the tradition of past knockouts, but organisers were looking at ways of improving it.