Democrats call for land rights probe
Changes to Aboriginal land rights in the Northern Territory should be referred to a parliamentary inquiry, the Australian Democrats say. The Age, 18th June 2006

International Indigenous art auctions to aid kidney dialysis funding
Proceeds of the sale of Indigenous art in Paris and London will go towards combating kidney disease in a central Australian community. ABC News, 17th June 2006

Revamp for Aboriginal housing
The entire system for allocating indigenous housing is to be overhauled after states and territories were exposed for having failed last year to spend $141 million on building homes for Aboriginal people. The Australian, 17th June 2006

Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival 2006
Three Indigenous Australian documentaries screened at this year's Message Sticks Film Festival in Sydney, each of them tackling a variety of moral and social issues. Avril Carruthers was there, pad and pencil in hand, amongst snaking queues and packed out auditoriums.

Ways of reading sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities
"Recent revelations of violent crime among Aboriginal people in Central Australia, and in particular of the sexual abuse of children and women, have caused a furore. While perfectly understandable at one level, they have also induced a weary cynicism in many observers of Indigenous affairs. The problems being highlighted are all too familiar; so is the alarm expressed by politicians, journalists and others. Missing from these intermittent outbreaks of moral panic is recognition that deplorable events are connected to the circumstances in which they occur. Dr Myrna Tonkinson, Eureka Street, 13th June 2006

Find out about the Message Stick Relay
From ancient times the message stick has been used in Aboriginal culture to call people from different tribes together. Today, the message stick is a call from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Pope John Paul II's historic visit to Alice Springs in 1986. On May 1, 2005, nine message sticks were launched from St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, initiating a period of renewal across the nation. These message sticks are being relayed among parishes and schools around the States and Territories of Australia. The Message Stick Relay will culminate in October 2006 with special celebrations in Alice Springs.

NATSICC (the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council) has produced a Resource Kit for parishes and schools to use for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday (July).

DOWNLOAD THE KIT

www.natsicc.org.au/message_stick_relay.htm

Message Stick TV
Message Stick is a half hour magazine style TV program about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lifestyles and issues. It features stories, interviews, archival footage, video clips and cooking segments and provides a slot where special half hour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander documentaries can be shown. It allows Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians to tell their stories in their own way and is the ABC's most recent series to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander's a voice on our television screens.

"In regard to the Aboriginal people of your land, there is still much to be achieved. Their social situation is cause for much pain. I encourage you and the government to continue to address with compassion and determination the deep underlying causes of their plight. Commitment to truth opens the way to lasting reconciliation through the healing process of asking for forgiveness and granting forgiveness - two indispensable elements for peace. In this way our memory is purified, our hearts are made serene, and our future is filled with a well-founded hope in the peace which springs from truth." United Pope Benedict XVI's address to Australia's New Envoy, 18th May 2006

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