Category Archives: Indigenous Australians

Sentence extended but no jail for NT hit-and-run driver Jake Danby who called victims ‘oxygen thieves’

Posted on by

Jake Danby’s sentence for hitting two Aboriginal men with his car, killing one, was extended from five months to two years in home detention

The family of an Aboriginal man fatally run down before the driver bragged about his death are angry and heartbroken after their brother’s killer has again avoided jail on appeal.

In June 2024, Jake Danby hit two Aboriginal men with his car on a Darwin street, killing one and injuring the other.

Continue reading...

Liam Alexander Hall named as man accused of attempted Invasion Day bombing in Perth

Posted on by

Liam Alexander Hall is the first person to be charged with terrorism offences in Western Australia

A Perth magistrate has lifted a suppression order on the identity of Liam Alexander Hall, a 32-year-old man accused of attempting to bomb an Invasion Day rally in Perth.

Magistrate Lynette Dias told the court on Tuesday that openness of the court is fundamental in the administration of justice.

Continue reading...

Police sergeant found guilty of causing death of 16-year-old Indigenous teenager Jai Wright

Posted on by

Benedict Bryant convicted of dangerous driving occasioning death after placing police car in path of 16-year-old’s trail bike in Sydney in 2022

A police sergeant who was told not to pursue a teenager riding a trail bike has been told he caused the death of the young man when he placed his unmarked car in his path.

Benedict Bryant, 47, was found guilty on Friday of dangerous driving occasioning the death of Indigenous teenager Jai Kalani Wright in February 2022 in an inner Sydney suburb.

For information and support in Australia call 13YARN on 13 92 76 for a crisis support line for Indigenous Australians; or call Lifeline on 13 11 14, Mensline on 1300 789 978 and Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636

Continue reading...

Guardian Australia wins Walkley award for Indigenous affairs for The Descendants series

Posted on by

Christopher Hopkins also named the Nikon-Walkley Press Photographer of the Year for work published in Al Jazeera, The Age, and the Guardian

Guardian Australia has won a Walkley award for excellence in journalism for a series on Australians facing the truth of their family’s involvement in frontier violence.

Guardian Australia won the Walkley Indigenous affairs at Thursday night’s ceremony for the The Descendants series, which built on Guardian Australia’s 2019 Walkley award-winning series The Killing Times. The series explored the deeply personal process of truth-telling about some of the most horrific incidents in Australia’s past, from both sides of the frontier.

Continue reading...

Neo-Nazi leader Thomas Sewell abused by protesters after getting bail over alleged Camp Sovereignty attack

Posted on by

Sewell, 32, must not be in Melbourne’s CBD or talk to alleged camp attack co-accused as part of bail conditions

A neo-Nazi who allegedly led a violent group attack on a First Nations protest camp in Melbourne has been greeted by protesters shouting “Nazi scum, off our streets” after being released on bail.

Thomas Sewell, 32, hired a top barrister to successfully argue in the supreme court that he should be released, after failing in a previous application for bail two months ago.

Continue reading...

Traditional owners file native title claim over Melbourne and surrounding areas

Posted on by

Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung elder says the claim would allow First Nations people to work with government to ‘look after that country’

Traditional owners have filed a native title claim over Melbourne and surrounding regions.

The claim by the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people covers thousands of square kilometres, from the mouth of the Werribee River north to its headwater in the Great Dividing Range, east to Mount Baw Baw, south through Bunyip and west to Mordialloc Creek.

Continue reading...

Prisoners spending entire jail term in police cells as Victoria’s justice system buckles

Posted on by

Prisoners in police cells often have less access to healthcare and less chance of being visited by family and lawyers

In winter this year, a young Aboriginal man with a history of self-harm who had been remanded in custody in Melbourne was told he would be moving cells.

But he was not shifted across the corridor or to another building nearby: he was driven 300km to the police cells in Wodonga.

Continue reading...

Australia’s first formal treaty with Indigenous traditional owners passed in Victoria

Posted on by

Step towards reconciliation hailed as ‘a historic moment’ with premier Jacinta Allan saying it gives Aboriginal Australians the power to shape policies that affect their lives

The Australian state of Victoria has taken a historic step towards reconciliation, passing the nation’s first formal treaty with Indigenous traditional owners.

After two days of debate, the upper house of Victoria’s parliament passed the statewide treaty bill without amendment by 21 votes to 16, just before 9pm on Thursday.

Continue reading...

‘Dreadful wrongs’: WA governor apologises to Noongar people for 1834 Pinjarra massacre

Posted on by

Between 15 and 80 Binjareb Noongar people were killed in the massacre which was led by the then WA governor, James Stirling

Warning: This article contains historical records that use racist and offensive language, and descriptions of events that will be distressing to some readers. It also contains references to Indigenous Australians who have died

Almost 200 years ago, a state governor led a massacre of at least 15 Aboriginal people.

On Tuesday, Western Australia’s current governor, Chris Dawson, went to the massacre site, south of Perth, with a different intent.

Continue reading...

Children under 14 are incapable of evil and should be protected from criminal responsibility, NSW review finds

Posted on by

Review was led by former supreme court judge turned parole authority chair Geoffrey Bellew SC and former NSW police deputy commissioner Jeffrey Loy

A centuries-old legal presumption that children aged between 10 and 14 are not capable of evil should become law, a New South Wales review led by a former supreme court judge and a former senior NSW police figure has recommended.

In NSW, the criminal age of responsibility is 10 but the common law presumption of doli incapax – Latin for “incapable of evil” – can apply up to 14, offering protection for children being prosecuted on the presumption they don’t understand the difference between right and wrong.

Continue reading...

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price didn’t check details of media release that allegedly defamed CEO, court hears

Posted on by

High-profile lawyer Sue Chrysanthou SC representing Central Land Council boss in the case against NT senator

The outspoken Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price pushed ahead with a media release that defamed an Aboriginal land council boss without checking the details were true, a court has heard.

Nampijinpa Price is fighting a claim by the Central Land Council chief executive, Lesley Turner, that she defamed him in the July 2024 press release.

Continue reading...

Weapons maker Saab ‘directly linked’ to human rights breach after missile found in South Australian Indigenous area

Posted on by

Lawyer hopes investigation for OECD into 2021 find near Australian military testing range sets precedent

The weapons manufacturer Saab was “directly linked” to a human rights violation when a missile it produced was found in an Indigenous heritage area, an investigation for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has found.

The four-year investigation could lead to more companies being held accountable for how their weapons are used by clients, according to human rights lawyers involved in the case.

Continue reading...

Mass slaughter in Gaza stands apart from other genocides, Chris Sidoti says: ‘People cannot escape’

Posted on by

Australian human rights expert who was on UN commission of inquiry labels Israel’s strategy a failure that ‘has not brought peace and has not destroyed Hamas’

“The people of Gaza have absolutely no way to escape the killing: they are literally a captive population.”

Chris Sidoti knows the brutality of conflict too well, his experience investigating international crimes is devastatingly comprehensive. But he sees a categoric difference in the violence in Gaza.

Continue reading...

NT attorney general criticised after confirming family link to hit-and-run driver

Posted on by

Marie-Clare Boothby faces questions after revealing she is related to man spared prison over a crash that killed Aboriginal pedestrian

The Northern Territory’s attorney general, Marie-Clare Boothby, has faced criticism after confirming she is related to a man who was spared prison last week over a hit-and-run car crash that killed an Aboriginal man.

Jack Danby, 24, was sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order in relation to the crash in June 2024. Danby hit two Aboriginal pedestrians, killing one, and fled the scene.

Continue reading...

Human rights commissioner blasts Queensland government’s ‘hostile’ approach to First Nations people

Posted on by

Scott McDougall uses speech at parliament to warn the LNP is ‘walking us backwards’ on reconciliation as he prepares to exit role

Queensland’s human rights commissioner has blasted the state government’s “hostile”, “assimilationist” approach to First Nations people in a speech at Parliament House.

Scott McDougall, Queensland’s first-ever human rights commissioner, has consistently criticised both sides of politics over a range of issues, particularly the state’s youth law and order crackdown. His seven-year term in the role comes to an end next month.

Continue reading...

University of Melbourne law professor’s allegedly racist emails were protected ‘political opinion’, court hears

Posted on by

Lawyer argues university’s move to fire Dr Eric Descheemaeker breached Fair Work Act and freedom of academic expression policy

A law professor at the centre of a leaked email controversy says the University of Melbourne attempted to expel him over his political expression after it unearthed allegedly racist emails which included references to First Nations people.

Dr Eric Descheemaeker launched legal action against Australia’s top-ranked university over his proposed dismissal earlier this year, alleging he was suspended over his political opinion.

Continue reading...

Bristol returns cultural artefacts taken from Larrakia people in Australia

Posted on by

Objects including three-metre spears were collected in late 19th and early 20th centuries and donated to city’s museum

For decades, they have languished in storage in the basement of a museum in the English West Country. Finally, an extraordinary collection of weapons and ceremonial objects taken from the Larrakia people more than a century ago is beginning a winding journey home to the saltwater landscapes of the Northern Territory in Australia.

During an emotionally charged ceremony, Bristol city council formally handed over 33 objects including spears that would have been used to hunt creatures from fish to buffalo, some still gleaming with the red ochre used to decorate them.

Continue reading...

Jai Kalani Wright: video of Indigenous teen’s fatal collision with police car prompts family walkout of Sydney court

Posted on by

Benedict Bryant has pleaded not guilty to a charge of dangerous driving occasioning death

Harrowing footage has been aired in court of the moment an Indigenous teenager riding a trail bike crashed into a police vehicle, as a battle erupts over the relevance of an earlier collision.

Sgt Benedict Bryant, 47, was behind the wheel when Jai Kalani Wright rode the motorbike into his unmarked police vehicle in inner-city Sydney on 19 February 2022.

Continue reading...

Murray Watt advised by own department to declare protection order over ‘significant Aboriginal area’ in WA

Posted on by

Exclusive: Environment department document states that Burrup peninsula site near Woodside gas plant ‘under threat of injury or desecration’

The environment minister, Murray Watt, has been advised by his department to declare a protection order over part of the Burrup peninsula in Western Australia due to its significance as an Aboriginal site, a government affidavit filed in the federal court shows.

A Murujuga traditional custodian, Raelene Cooper, applied in 2022 to protect the area’s cultural heritage from nearby industrial activities, including Woodside’s planned extension of its North West Shelf processing plant.

Continue reading...

National Indigenous Music awards 2025: Emily Wurramara wins artist of the year

Posted on by

Warnindhilyagwa singer also wins film clip of the year, while Malyangapa Barkindji rapper Barkaa wins album of the year

Emily Wurramara expressed solidarity with the people of Palestine and “all Indigenous peoples around the world” experiencing oppression as she accepted the artist of the year award at the 21st National Indigenous Music awards at the Nimas in Garramilla/Darwin on Saturday night.

“There’s nothing like coming back home and being here and playing for mob and playing for the people,” the Garramilla-born Warnindhilyagwa singer said. “Because the music is about the people. The music is freedom. Free Palestine, free Congo and free all Indigenous peoples around the world from their oppressors. It always was, always will be Indigenous land.”

Continue reading...