EDITION 797 OUT NOW!

THE team behind Alex Winwood’s rapid rise in boxing will aim the Nyoongar man toward a June 16 main-event title fight after putting away former world champion Tibo Monabesa in four rounds recently. 

Veteran trainer Angelo Hyder said post-bout that 25-year-old Winwood has what it takes to become world champion. 

“I put him in the category of very few fighters and I’ve trained a few world champions, he’s special,” Hyder said after watching Winwood dismantle the world No. 13 Monabesa. 

“Power and speed in every punch in both hands that he’s got – these guys are once-in-generation fighters that you rarely come across. 

“At this stage of his career, he’s in that special athletic group of fighters that are born with god-given speed and power and talent. 

“We wanted to see how Alex would go with that level of opponent under that type…

BRIDGET Cama believes it’s time to take a different approach to Close the Gap. 

Ms Cama co-chairs the Uluru Youth Dialogue and spoke at the launch of the 2023 Close the Gap campaign in Sydney. 

“Australians know that the gap exists between Indigenous and non- Indigenous Australians,” she said. 

“Government-implemented initiatives, policies and laws imposed on us and our communities to address or manage First Nations affairs have not worked. 

“They continue to fail us because at every stage we are shut out of the decision-making processes.” 

The Close the Gap campaign represents more than 50 organisations who, since 2006, have advocated for Aboriginal and Torres Strait…

THE home where Kumanjayi Walker was fatally shot by police is now a ‘memory house’ out of respect for the Indigenous teenager, the inquest into his death has been told. 

At the request of the 19-year- old’s family, the property in Yuendumu, northwest of Alice Springs, has been removed from the Northern Territory government’s replacement and refurbishment program for public housing. 

Territory Families, Housing and Communities deputy chief executive Brent Warren said talks were underway with the current tenants about finding them alternative accommodation. 

“It’s my understanding that the request received was to stop treating that property as public housing, so that it could be used as a memorial for the sad death,” Mr Warren said. 

But he said the department was committed to continuing to make repairs and maintain the house as necessary. 

“We need to clarify whether it’s going to be used as a home or whether it’s going to be used as a place to visit and memorialised,” he said. 

“Because that will determine what kind of maintenance we do there…

FEDERAL Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney says the referendum for an 

Indigenous voice to parliament is on track, despite having not yet released a question. 

Speaking from South Australia’s parliament house, Ms Burney said the referendum would be held by the end of the year. 

“We are doing the work that is needed to get this voice right. I can assure you that the voice is on track,” she said. 

“We are taking our time, consulting and being very deliberate … to make sure this voice is the voice that people are asking for.”

Both the referendum working group, which includes a cross-section of representatives from First Nations communities across Australia and the engagement group, which also includes representatives from Indigenous organisations, met in Adelaide last week. 

The federal government has said it will introduce legislation by the end of the next parliamentary sitting on March 30. Working group member Thomas Mayor said meaningful recognition of First Nations people in the constitution was long overdue. 

“We are doing a lot of hard work to reach a set of words we can take to the Australian people to see our nation become…

THE very first objects taken from Australia by the British are finally coming home.

When James Cook and his crew first made contact with Aboriginal people in 1770, the British soldiers took dozens of spears from their camps at Botany Bay. 

More than 250 years later, only four of those spears remain and they will soon be permanently returned to the Aboriginal community of La Perouse. 

The historic announcement was made last Thursday at Bare Island in Botany Bay, which is known as Kamay in the local Indigenous language. 

La Perouse Aboriginal Land Council chairwoman Noeleen Timbery described the return of the artefacts as ‘unimaginable’. 

“These spears are the markers of when our shared history began,” she said. 

“They’re important objects for all Australians, because they tell the story of what happened…

TRADITIONAL Owners from Murujuga on Western Australia’s Burrup Peninsular have travelled across the continent to protest outside the Sydney office of Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek. 

The protest follows a community campaign launch held in Redfern on February 26 where Murujuga Traditional Owners teamed up with Gadigal Traditional Owners to escalate their fight for better protection of sacred Murujuga rock art from ongoing industrial threats. 

Murujuga Traditional Custodians, along with local supporters and allies, addressed the media outside Ms Plibersek’s office on March 2. 

“We are here this morning on Gadigal Country to stand with Traditional custodians around the country in opposition to the Federal Government continuing to allow industry to desecrate our culture, our communities and our Country,” Mardudhunera woman and former chair of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation Raelene Cooper said. 

“The minister has just made international headlines announcing the World Heritage values of our sacred Murujuga rock art, but she’s allowing Woodside’s Burrup Hub to continue pumping out massive emissions…