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TWO Aboriginal women were honoured for their outstanding contribution to their work in mental health at the 2023 Australian Mental Health Prize at the University of NSW (UNSW) in Sydney last week. 

Presented by the Hon. Emma McBride MP, Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, four winners were announced in the categories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, professional leadership, lived experience, and community hero for their promotion of mental health and treatment of mental illness.

Megan Krakouer, a proud Menang woman of the Noongar Nation from Fremantle in Western Australia, took home the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander category prize, while Professor Maree Toombs, a proud Euahlayi and Kooma woman from Coogee in NSW, was awarded with the professional leadership…

CHANTING ‘if you don’t know, don’t stress, vote yes’, hundreds of people rallied together in the Lismore sunshine in a proud show of support for a ‘yes’ vote in the upcoming referendum. 

The rally and march on September 30 was one of hundreds of similar rallies held all over Australia in the lead up to the October 14 vote to decide if the Indigenous Voice to Parliament will become a reality. 

Rally organiser and Bundjalung woman Charlene Emzin-Boyd said she had been an educator for over 30 years and this referendum was the chance to finally change the situation for Aboriginal people in Australia

“This yes vote will get across the line,” she said. 

“My mum only went to year three at school and it’s imperative that all kids have the same opportunity as I… 

ASSOCIATE Professor Carmen Parter is using her own personal experiences of workplace and societal racism to call on Australia’s health sector to do better and combat all forms of racism in all of Australia’s health systems. 

During her keynote address at the recent Dental Board of Australia (DBA) Conference, Prof Parter challenged delegates there to push through being uncomfortable and to have the tough conversations that are needed to tackle all forms of racism in their workplaces. 

“Racism makes us sick,” Prof Parter said. “And believe us when we speak about racism,” she said. 

Professor Parter, a Darumbal and Juru and South Sea Islander woman, is the first Indigenous person on the board of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra). 

The DBA invited Prof Parter to speak about her experiences to help eradicate racism in dental professions and wider. 

Prof Parter spoke of the invisibility of racism due to the dominance of ‘whiteness’. 

“You must do critical thinking…

A TRADITIONAL Owner is elated after successfully challenging Woodside Energy’s plan to begin seismic blasting off Western Australia as part of its Scarborough gas project. 

But the head of Australian Energy Producers has called on governments to develop better regulations that provide clarity and certainty for industry. 

Traditional custodian Raelene Cooper, a Mardudhunera woman, filed for a judicial review in August of the regulator’s decision to approve Woodside’s blasting plan. 

The challenge argued the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority made a legal error. 

Federal Court Justice Craig Colvin agreed. 

Despite finding Woodside’s legally required consultation with First Nations stakeholders was inadequate, the authority gave approval for the seismic blasting on July 31 on condition further consultation be carried out first. 

Justice Colvin on Thursday set aside the regulator’s decision…

TRADITIONAL Owners have banned commercial fishing from an area of East Arnhem Land, citing concerns about gill-netting of dolphins, turtles, crocs and dugongs.

Indigenous custodians have blocked commercial barramundi fishing in a major bay because of concerns about wildlife and catch sizes. 

The Northern Land Council on Wednesday announced Traditional Owners were cancelling the waiver allowing commercial operators to fish in intertidal waters of Buckingham Bay in East Arnhem Land. 

The move was made due to concerns about marine life being caught in gill-nets and the amount of fish being taken from the area, the council said. 

Recreational fishing access…

NBA star Patty Mills saw his handiwork when the National Indigenous Basketball Tournament played out in Meanjin-Brisbane at the weekend.

The tournament is the on-court component of Indigenous Basketball Australia, which Mills formed in 2020. 

Mills, who joins the Atlanta Hawks for the 2023-24 NBA season, was in the country to launch the new 17s NIBT in which seven regions represented. 

For the first time, the NIBT featured a 17-years division. In this division were Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory Metro, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland South, Queensland North and Torres Strait Islands. 

And in what was an exciting first for the team, the Torres Strait Islands girls won their third-place play-off…