Ace History Desk – For the first time, a federally recognized Indigenous tribe in the U.S. has led research using DNA to show their ancestral history.
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The Picuris Pueblo, a sovereign nation in New Mexico, has oral histories and cultural traditions that link the tribe to the region of Chaco Canyon, one of the ancient centers of Pueblo culture and society.
“We’ve been telling our stories as long as time immemorial,” said Picuris Lt. Gov. Craig Quanchello. But he said those traditions were often “overlooked and erased.”
As members of the Picuris Pueblo seek a greater voice in shaping decisions about the future of Chaco Canyon, where debates about oil and gas drilling loom, leaders including Quanchello decided that using DNA sequencing to complement or corroborate their oral histories could be a useful tool. The group began a collaboration with an international team of geneticists.
“The DNA could help us protect” our heritage, he said. “Now we can say, ‘This is ours, we need to protect it.’”
The findings, published Thursday in the journal Nature, show close links between the genomes of 13 current members of Picuris and ancient DNA recovered from 16 Picuris individuals who lived between 1300 A.D. and 1500 A.D. in or near Chaco Canyon.
“The results show a strong relationship between ancient and present-day Picuris,” said co-author Thomaz Pinotti, a geneticist at the University of Copenhagen.
The genetic analysis was led by the Picuris. The researchers said this model of collaboration contrasts with a long history of archaeologists and geneticists seizing and studying artifacts and remains without the consent of Indigenous groups.
“It wasn’t an easy decision” to begin the collaboration with scientists, said co-author and Picuris Gov. Wayne Yazza. “This is life-changing data.”
There are 19 Pueblo tribes in New Mexico. The new study does not refute the historic connections of other tribes to Chaco Canyon.
Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site managed by the U.S. National Park Service. It is famous for sweeping desert vistas and for monumental sandstone structures — including multistory homes and ceremonial structures — built by ancestral Pueblos.
“It’s super important that we don’t talk about Chaco in the category of ‘lost civilizations,’ like the Egyptian pyramids or Stonehenge,” said Paul Reed, a preservation archaeologist at Archaeology Southwest, who was not involved in the study. That notion “is particularly damaging in this instance because it disenfranchises the Pueblo people who live all around the canyon to this day.”
Brian Vallo, a member of the Acoma Pueblo who leads the Chaco Heritage Tribal Association, said a current concern revolves around drilling and mining permits on federal land adjacent to the park, which also impact the environment within the canyon.
“We have these close connections because our ancestors migrated and built these places –- they remain central to the preservation of our own Indigenous culture,” said Vallo, who was not part of the research.
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Ace History Desk – Art is a dream Noongar and Yamatji woman Norma MacDonald never gave up on. Now 81, she has a storied career, with works held in the Art Gallery of WA and the National Gallery of Australia and numerous exhibitions and books to look back on.
But when she was 14, her father made her leave school so she could get a job.
From left to right, Norma MacDonald, Emily Rose, and Robyn Jean with Emily’s mural at PICA. (ABC News: Emma Wynne)normal
“I didn’t go to high school, and it played on my mind,” MacDonald said.
“I got married and had my children.
“When I was 45, I went back and got my diploma in fine arts.”
MacDonald later taught at Midland TAFE and gave numerous workshops in schools while pursuing her own artistic career.
“When I go to all the schools, I tell the kids what they can do. If I do it, so can you,” she said.
“I come from nowhere, nothing. And I wasn’t given any chances. Kicked out to work at 14.
“But I knew in my own mind what I wanted to do.”
Art provides voice
MacDonald wasn’t only chasing her dream of being an artist but also using art as a powerful form of self-expression, with paint giving voice to her experiences as an Aboriginal woman.
Norma MacDonald with a cloth her grandmother embroidered at Mogumber Mission. (ABC News: Emma Wynne)normal
As a lighter-skinned Aboriginal person, MacDonald felt people often overlooked her Aboriginal identity. At the same time, she wanted to honour the experiences of her parents and grandparents, who grew up on missions and experienced the full force of child removal policies.
In her paintings, MacDonald tells stories of life on the missions, stolen generations and life on stations.
“As an Aboriginal person at schools and everywhere, you’ve got fair skin and you cop it because your mother’s Aboriginal and dark,” she said.
“I felt that I couldn’t just let that fade away. Our people have been treated so bad. And the more I read and study, it makes me shudder.
“So, you know, I don’t go out waving flags or anything. I just tell my story through all my art.”
MacDonald dedicated herself so intently to art at times that her late husband would call her from work during the day to check if she remembered to have lunch.
Art runs in the family
The passion for creating is something that MacDonald has passed on to her daughter Robyn Jean and granddaughter Emily Rose.
It’s also something MacDonald’s forebears did — she still has exquisite embroidery done by her grandmother in Mogumber mission.
Fittingly, she’s brought the embroidery along on her visit to see her granddaughter’s latest work, a large-scale mural on the ground floor at Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA).
Emily Rose’s piece has been commissioned as part of the Revealed exhibition in the main gallery space at PICA.
Emily Rose says the mural celebrates the generations of women in her family. (ABC News: Emma Wynne)normal
An annual showcase of Aboriginal artists from centres across WA, Revealed is the largest showcase for emerging artists in the state.
For Rose, the commission has been a chance to celebrate the generations of women in her family and what they have been through.
In addition to rivers of paint on the wall, she has also created six large, three-dimensional gum leaves out of paper and wire, each of which bears an image of six generations of women in her family.
The gum leaves represent artist Emily Rose’s family. (ABC News: Emma Wynne)normal
“I was asked to create some sort of mural to have here at the PICA Hub,” Rose said.
“The idea is that children, families, schools, basically the wider community can come in and do an activity, and the idea started forming that they could come in and create their own leaves and that would speak to the diversity of the community.
“So for the installation, I created leaves that represented my family and my story with a wider message of our connection to our mothers.”
One of the leaves also features Rose’s three-years-old daughter, who Rose hopes to inspire to produce her own art one day.
“I hope I’ve paid homage to the Noongar people, the Whadjuk country here and represented it,” she said.
Her mother Robyn Jean, who practises in photography as well as poetry and song, said art had given all the generations a voice.
“We’ve all had our own personal struggles and creating, doing art, whether it’s painting or doing photography, whatever, brings us back to our root foundations, and feeling secure and solid in a way that nothing else can do,” she said.
Norma MacDonald and Emily Rose look at the leaf that pays tribute to Norma. (ABC News: Emma Wynne)normal
For MacDonald, seeing the mural for the first time was “mind-blowing”.
“Emily reminds me of myself, and today I’m just so proud of what Emily’s done.”
The Revealed exhibition is at PICA until June 15.
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Ace Business Desk – In short: Residents in Wadeye have agreed with the NT government to settle a class action over what they say were discriminatory healthcare policies in the remote Aboriginal community. The agreement ends a long-running lawsuit dating back to 2019, after Wadeye man Patrick Cumaiyi claimed he did not receive appropriate treatment following “an incident” involving police.
NT Health Minister Steve Edgington says the government is “committed to providing high-quality healthcare in Wadeye”.
Residents in the remote Aboriginal community of Wadeye have effectively settled a racial discrimination lawsuit with the Northern Territory government claiming they were unlawfully deprived of adequate healthcare.
As part of the settlement the government has said it would endeavour to increase interpreters, allocate at least two full-time doctors and establish a local dialysis service in the community within three years.
Lead claimant Patrick Cumaiyi filed the first of two lawsuits in 2019 after he was allegedly taken to the local health clinic following “an incident” involving police in 2016, before being deemed “fit to be detained in police custody”.
Mr Cumaiyi claimed the consultation lasted just 10 minutes and did not involve interpreters to relay his responses to the nurse, who instead relied on information provided by police.
The following evening, Mr Cumaiyi alleged he was handcuffed and placed in the back of a caged police vehicle which he then jumped out of while travelling at at least 60kph.
The documents claim he was again taken to the clinic for treatment without the assistance of an interpreter, where the interaction was again “based on solely or predominantly” information provided by police.
Later that night, Mr Cumaiyi said he was flown to Royal Darwin Hospital where he was diagnosed with a fractured skull and admitted to the intensive care unit, arguing his earlier treatment was the result of unlawful racial discrimination.
In a second class action filed in 2021, Wadeye residents argued they were provided with a lower level of healthcare compared to other remote centres like Nhulunbuy and Tennant Creek due to the community’s significantly higher Indigenous population base.
The class actions have now been withdrawn with the government agreeing to make a public commitment to try to improve services. (ABC News: Tristan Hooft)normal
Unlike those other towns, they argued there was no full-time local GP and no hospital or private medical clinic in Wadeye, while the sole government clinic did not have a permanent doctor on site or “any effective after-hours ambulance services”.
At the time, the NT government denied racially discriminating against the residents or that medical and interpreter services in Wadeye were inadequate.
In a defence filed with the court, the government said Mr Cumaiyi had been “ground stabilised” after “recklessly endangering the safety of an aircraft whilst on a police aeroplane” that was taking off from Wadeye.
But both groups withdrew their lawsuits last week on the condition that the government publicly commit to try improving health services in Wadeye, including a minimum “interpreter attendance rate of 85 per cent for the Murrinh Patha language”.
In a statement to the ABC, NT Health Minister Steve Edgington said the government was “committed to providing high-quality healthcare in Wadeye”.
“We will continue to assess and review health service delivery in Wadeye, and across the territory, to meet community needs,” he said.
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Ace History Desk – Professor Jackie Huggins joins the ABC as Elder-in-residence and wants the broadcaster to become a ‘blueprint’ of cultural safety
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Amid a hum of clacking typewriters, office chatter and the urgent jangling of telephones ringing, a crackle of tension cuts through the haze of cigarette smoke hanging in the air.
It’s 1972, and along the corridors of the ABC’s Toowong headquarters in Brisbane, a sense of change is being ushered in. The streets are awash with anti-Vietnam war protests, while on TV, scenes of the Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra being broken up by police leap from the screens.
Flags fly in front of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy outside Parliament House, Canberra, in 1972. (National Archives)normal
And a 16-year-old Jackie Huggins is also making history as she travels from the Brisbane suburb of Inala to Toowong to take up her first job as a typist for the nation’s revered broadcaster. It was not something many Indigenous people had ever achieved.
Warning – this story includes the names and images of people who have died. Readers are advised the story also contains the a racial slur used for historical context.
“I was the only Aboriginal employee in those times in the ’70s in Brisbane,” says Professor Huggins. “Prior to that my cousin, Lillian Holt, rest in peace, was the only person I knew [who] had worked at the ABC.”
In 1962, Holt was the first Aboriginal person to be employed at the ABC in Queensland.
She spent four years working in the Brisbane office and then another four in Sydney. Holt went on to have a distinguished career in education and gained international acclaim before her passing in 2020.
The drive to push boundaries seems to be a family trait.
‘Something that I never imagined’
Now, more than 50 years since Professor Huggins first stepped foot inside the ABC, and with a lifetime of lessons learned, she is returning as the corporation’s inaugural Elder-in-residence.
“My new role is something that I never imagined I would do when I started my employment at the ABC when I was 16 years of age,” says Professor Huggins, who is a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA).
“It’s come the full circle now that I’m heading towards my 70s and I’m in a different space, different part of my whole life’s journey.” Loading…
The position of Elder-in-residence was created in response to criticism from Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) employees who have experienced racism while working at the broadcaster.
In October 2024, the ABC publicly released an independent report, Listen Loudly, Act Strongly, into the media organisation’s systems and processes in response to staff experiences of racism.
The report included submissions from past and current employees of Indigenous and CALD backgrounds, of whom 120 gave details of their experiences. All but one had shared direct exposure to racism during their employment at the ABC.
The report made 15 recommendations, with the ABC promising to respond to all and to track their progress. Among them was recommendation 14.i: “ABC Leadership should look at systemic approaches to improve cultural safety, such as establishing a First Nations Elder-in-residence program.”
Kelly Williams is the ABC’s acting director of First Nations strategy, also a new role for the broadcaster. The Bundjalung woman has been integral to creating Professor Huggins’s new position.
“Professor Huggins is able to bring her lived experience to what has changed and what hasn’t — and provide advice on how to move that conversation forward,” Williams says.
She is a natural fit for the role, Williams says. As well as her work at the ABC as a young woman, Professor Huggins brings decades of work in the reconciliation movement, experience as a regular contributor across ABC platforms and a strong connection to Indigenous young people, she says.
A path out of poverty
For Professor Huggins, “being the first” is a hallmark of her life.
But it was far from the expected path for the Bidjara and Birri-Gubbu Juru woman whose father died at 38 from injuries sustained as a prisoner of war on the Thai-Burma railway. Professor Huggins ended up leaving school early to help keep her mother and siblings out of poverty.Loading…
“We grew up very poor,” she recalls. “I remember the one dress I had to wear all week to school. No shoes. And I thought, there’s got to be a way out of this.”
The “way out” meant taking up a fight that has endured across the fields of media, public service, academia, writing and reconciliation.
From her start as a 16-year-old at the ABC, Professor Huggins went on to work for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in Canberra.
The late 1970s was a period of massive change for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership and the advancement of Indigenous rights. Community-led organisations were starting to form, land rights were being recognised and land councils were taking shape.
“I left the ABC at the age of 24. I went to Canberra and met Charles Perkins and his angels, they used to call them the angels,” Professor Huggins remembers.
The “angels” Professor Huggins refers to included men such as Vince Copley, John Moriarty, Joe Croft, Ben Mason and others.
Freedom rider Charles Perkins, right, talks with Aboriginal residents of Moree. (Supplied: State Library of NSW: The Tribune)normal
Always at the forefront was Perkins AO, the Arrernte and Kalkadoon man who had shot to fame in 1965 in the Freedom Ride that drew public attention to the inequalities faced by Indigenous people in Australia.
“I was the only young Indigenous woman in the room at times where I’d be taking minutes,” she says. “They really progressed my career.”
Charles Perkins’s Freedom Ride bus in 1965. (Supplied: University of Sydney)normal
In 1978, Perkins was the assistant secretary of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. He quickly recognised Professor Huggins’s potential. She was a quick study in those heady days of Black politics. From writing up the minutes of department meetings Huggins rose quickly and was heading up DAA’s first women’s unit by the time she was 28.
“That was my first kind of big leadership role and I was in charge of around 50 women,” says Professor Huggins.
Another key mentor was Dr Evelyn Scott AO, a woman synonymous with Australia’s reconciliation movement from her time serving as chair of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (CAR) and whose work with the council culminated in the Walk for Reconciliation across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on May 28, 2000.
Evelyn Scott, a former chair of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, here with former PM John Howard, was a mentor to Jackie Huggins. (AAP: Alan Porritt)normal
“It was a cold and windy morning. I had all my family there,” Professor Huggins recalls. “And I just remember seeing those trains coming to North Sydney. Seeing them packed as. And then they went back empty. I thought, oh, they can’t all be coming here, you know. Yes, they were.”
“Sharing Our Future” was the theme for Reconciliation Week that year and 250,000 people showed they shared a belief in the future when they walked over the bridge together that day. Throughout the week, multiple events were held across the country marking the biggest collective demonstration of public support that has ever taken place in Australia.
Following Dr Scott’s lead in the reconciliation movement, Huggins joined Reconciliation Australia in 2001, taking the position of co-chair. She was also awarded the Australia Medal that year, in recognition of her work on reconciliation, social justice, literacy and women’s issues.
In 2000 the Walk for Reconciliation across Sydney Harbour Bridge attracted tens of thousands of participants. (DG/PB (Reuters))normal
‘I’ve got armour’
As the ABC responds to Listen Loudly, Act Strongly, engages with the findings and supports staff who have faced racism in the workplace, it’s an opportune time for Professor Huggins to reflect on her experiences.
“You never forget those times when people scar you or inflict that racism upon you,” she says. Whether that’s being asked: “What’s it like to live in a traditional Aboriginal society?” by a university lecturer when you’re the only First Nations student in the room, or having a colleague say to you over a cup of tea “Do you speak the boonglanguage that they speak at [Brisbane’s] West End?”.
“I just feel like I’ve got this armour. This absolute armour,” says Professor Huggins. “And I’d like to see every employee of the ABC stand up, name it and really have those conversations.”
Professor Jackie Huggins says “You never forget those times when people scar you or inflict that racism upon you” but she now has “armour”. (ABC News: Liz Pickering)normal
The ABC’s new managing director, Hugh Marks, has highlighted the importance of the responsibility to respond meaningfully to Listen Loudly, Act Strongly.
“With Professor Huggins and Kelly’s leadership, and with so many other contributors around the ABC, we are well placed to act strongly. We should do our work well, we must have an ambition to reach far, and we must ensure our approach reaches into every part of the organisation,” Marks says.
“I intend it to be a real priority for me in my new role as MD.”
Professor Huggins believes the response should be a guide for other organisations.
“I think it’s become a blueprint for other organisations to follow too,” she says, always looking further ahead to push what’s possible.
Professor Jackie Huggins took her first leadership role at age 28 and has pushed boundaries throughout her career. (Supplied: Syrenne Anu)normal
Moving on, together
In an already impressive career, Huggins describes her appointment as the ABC’s Elder-in-residence as “one of my highest badges of honour”.
She is looking forward to “taking care of, speaking up for and mentoring” those around her. Just as her Elders did for her.
“I had, of course, my mother, father and my mother’s brothers and sisters,” she says. “They’d mostly growl at me because they loved me. I find that I’m doing that too to a lot of people. So, we do growl because we do love you and we want to put you on the right path.”
Professor Jackie Huggins, on left in pink dress with her family, including her mother Rita Holt, seated. (Supplied: Jackie Huggins)normal
Not one to rest on her laurels or measure success through individual achievement, that “right path” for Huggins stretches beyond the ABC.
Roberts has carved out her own exceptional career in media, the arts, social justice and health.
It comes as no surprise Roberts and Huggins know each other well and will bring their collective wisdom to this new phase for Australian public broadcasting.
“We go back 40 years at least. I call her a Tidda-girl,” says Huggins, referring to the expression of womanhood among First Nations women.
The two women hope to collaborate. “You’ve got to have the other mob and their point of view,” Huggins says.
For Roberts, the chance to closely align their work is an opportunity she relishes, describing Huggins as a “ground breaker”.
“To have her as ABC Elder-in-residence with not only her academic qualifications but her passion for our people, particularly women, being able to write and look at our activism and unpack it and then talk to you without judging you, I mean, it’s a certain style of leadership that I would always call our kinship leadership,” says Roberts.
Rhoda Roberts is the elder-in-residence at SBS and hopes to collaborate with Jackie Huggins, her ABC counterpart. (ABC Arts: Anna Kucera)normal
It’s precisely this way of working which has placed Huggins at the interface of race, reconciliation and justice in Australia, serving as a beacon for the way forward.
With the 25th anniversary of that blustery bridge walk just weeks away, and the theme for this year’s Reconciliation Week, Bridging Now to Next, there is an added symmetry to this moment which is not lost on Professor Huggins.
“That’s the most important thing, that we move on, together, as a nation.”
Professor Jackie Huggins will be interviewed by Bridget Brennan this morning at 8.35am on ABC News Breakfast. Click on the livestream here.
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Ace History Desk – In **The Natural: Unleashing Extraordinary Talent with Unwavering Confidence**
The History Museum in London has handed over the remains of 36 First Nations, the lineage that connects us to our Australian ancestors. Representatives. More than 1,775 First Nations people’s remains have been repatriated from across the world, including more than 1,300 from collecting institutions and private holdings in the United Kingdom.
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What’s next?
First Nations people (left to right) Smithy Wilson, Wayne Blair, Thomas Holden and Keron Murray were at the repatriation ceremony. (Supplied: The Australian Government)normal
Thirty sets of remains are handed back from the Natural History Museum under the Australian government’s stewardship, while their traditional custodians are identified.
The remains of 36 First Nations people have been returned to Australia during a formal ceremony at the Natural History Museum in London.
The ceremony saw six ancestors’ bodies handed over to four Indigenous representatives from the Woppaburra, Warrgamay, Wuthathi, and Yadhighana communities in Queensland.
The remaining 30 ancestors are under the Australian government’s stewardship, while their traditional custodians are identified.
“It is our cultural duty and responsibility to bring our ancestors home, to be reburied on country, finally laid to rest, with dignity and finally at peace,” Woppaburra representative Wayne Blair said.
He described the repatriation as “an eternal flame. The eternal healing is both spiritual and physical”.
“The repatriation of ancestors’ remains is the embodiment of reconciliation and healing for First Nations communities across Australia,” Mr Blair said.
“Domestic and overseas, you are not returning science specimens, you are returning ancestors to their families, their descendants, whose eternal pain of loss brings healing.”
Keron Murray (left) and Smithy Wilson (right) were among the First Nations representatives in London for the ceremony. (Supplied: Natural History Museum)normal
Keron Murray, a Wuthathi man representing his community at the ceremony, said it was a vital step in healing the wounds of the past and restoring the spiritual and cultural balance that was disrupted.
“For the Wuthathi people, bringing our ancestors home is not just about physical return — it is about respect, dignity, and reaffirming our deep connection to country,” he said.
First Nations people (left to right) Smithy Wilson, Wayne Blair, Thomas Holden and Keron Murray were at the repatriation ceremony. (Supplied: The Australian Government)normal
“It allows us to fulfil our cultural obligations, honour our old people, and ensure their spirits can finally rest where they belong.
“This process strengthens our community, reinforces our identity, and helps heal the intergenerational trauma caused by their removal.”
The remains of more than 1,775 First Nations people have been repatriated from across the world, including more than 1,300 from collecting institutions and private holdings in the United Kingdom, according to the Australian government’s Office for the Arts.
This was the fourth return of remains from the Natural History Museum to Australia.
“Museum staff carried out detailed archival research to understand the provenance of the ancestors, working with complex historical resources held at several organisations,” it said in a statement.
“A report was shared with the Australian government and communities, who then outlined their wishes.”
The Commonwealth government released a national cultural policy in 2023 to acknowledge the importance of respecting and promoting the rights of First Nations people to repatriate their ancestors back to their homelands.
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Construction of the Garma Institute will start next year. (ABC News: Michael Franchi )normal
Ace History Desk – In short, Architects and Yolŋu elders have been working on the design of the new Garma Institute, which has received millions in funding from the federal and NT governments. The tertiary education precinct has been a long-term dream of Yolŋu leaders in Arnhem Land.
ABC AU News Report
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the names of people who have died.
What’s next?
The Garma Institute is set to be built on the Gove Peninsula from 2026, and open by 2028.
It’s been hailed as a game-changer for higher education in remote Australia — a brand new, multi-million dollar precinct on the edge of the Northern Territory.
A vision of north-east Arnhem Landelders now passed, and a place to share ancient Yolŋu ideaswith some of Australia’s top academics.
For the first time, the ABC can reveal design plans and a timeline for the construction of the Garma Institute at Gunyaŋara on the Gove Peninsula.
Construction of the Garma Institute will start next year. (ABC News: Michael Franchi )normal
Yothu Yindi Foundation chief executive Denise Bowden said construction of the Garma Institute was setto start in 2026, with doors to open by 2028.
“It’s actually, fundamentally, a very emotive experience for us all,” Ms Bowden said.
“Because this has been a dream probably 30 years from inception to this very real time for us now.”
Denise Bowden says the institute will open in 2028. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)normal
The project was a long-term vision of Yolŋu elders and driven vocally by the late Gumatj clan elders, brothers, and former Australians of the Year, Yunupiŋu and Dr M Yunupiŋu.
Their younger brother Djawa Yunupiŋu, now the leader of Arnhem Land’s powerful Gumatj clan, said he never imagined he’d see the project so close to fruition.Loading…
Construction of the Garma Institute will start next year. (ABC News: Michael Franchi )normal
“My brothers had this vision, and I am grateful to them,” he said.
“It’s something to be done for the future of our kids, and their kids, and their kids.
“It means a lot for Australia because as the song goes, from little things, big things are growing.”
Construction of the Garma Institute will start next year. (ABC News: Michael Franchi )normal
Djawa Yunupiŋu said the institute was the long-term vision of his two late brothers. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)normal
Yothu Yindi Foundation board member and Gumatj elder Djapirri Mununggirritj said the Garma Institute would be “one of a kind for the north-east Arnhem Land region”.
Construction of the Garma Institute will start next year. (ABC News: Michael Franchi )normal
“It’s unique, it’s going to be a Yolŋu-driven, Yolŋu-controlled vision, and that is what Yolŋu have always wanted,”
She said.
“It is our big opportunity after all those many years … in the history of Yolŋu education in Arnhem Land.
“This is it, this is the opportunity.”
Djapirri Mununggirritj says the institute will be a game-changer. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)normal
The Yothu Yindi Foundation says it will also partner with Charles Darwin University, which recently opened a new campus on the Gove Peninsula.
“That seed funding, and that ability to create something that is real and tangible, is really important,” Ms Bowden said.
“It gives certainty to a region that is undergoing a transitional phase at this moment in time, and to be able to get some security around that after a 30-year journey is quite extraordinary.”
Yothu Yindi Foundation board members have viewed the planned new building’s design. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)normal
‘Great honour’ for architects
Troppo Architects director Jo Best said it was a “great honour” to have been selected to help bring the Garma Institute to life.
“To be able to realise a vision that has been long-held in this community by Yolŋu people … has provided us an opportunity you can only dream of as an architect,”
She said.
Jo Best is designing the institute. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)normal
“[The design] is very much driven by the place, in terms of embracing the natural characteristics of the site, engaging with the prevailing breezes that we see across the peninsula.”
In partnership to deliver the institute’s design is Wailwan and Gamilaraay man and director of Greenaway Architects, Jefa Greenaway, who said it was a “real opportunity to showcase Indigenous culture, loud and proud”.
“It really becomes hopefully a way to showcase and celebrate Yolŋu culture here on Yolŋu country,” Mr Greenaway said.
Construction of the Garma Institute will start next year. (ABC News: Michael Franchi )normal
Designs for the Garma Institute
The Garma Institute is set to open its doors by 2028. (Supplied.)normal
The Garma Institute will be a first-of-its-kind Aboriginal-led tertiary and vocational education facility. (Supplied)normal
The Garma Institute will be located at Gunyaŋara on the Gove Peninsula. (Supplied.)normal
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Ace History Desk – The arrest of an American tourist after visiting a highly restricted island in the Indian Ocean has raised the interest in the plight of its inhabitants.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov set foot on North Sentinel Island, part of India’s Andaman Islands, in a bid to meet the Sentinelese people.
The Sentinelese have been seen standing guard when people approach the island previously. (Supplied: Christian Caron)normal
He left behind a can of Diet Coke and a coconut and filmed his experience with the tribe on the island.
The Sentinelese are believed to be the last pre-Neolithic tribe in the world and have had very little contact with the outside world.
But who are they, and how have they remained disconnected for so long?
In the wake of the 2004 tsunami this member of the Sentinelese tribe was photographed firing arrows at a helicopter. (Supplied: Indian Coastguard/Survival International)normal
What do we know about the Sentinelese people?
In truth, not a lot.
They are the most isolated Indigenous people in the world.
The tribe lives on their own small forested island called North Sentinel in the Indian Ocean.
It is not known for certain, but the ancestors of the Sentinelese may have lived on the island for over 50,000 years.
The island is just under 60 square kilometres in size and is 1,200km from the Indian mainland.
Most of what is known about them has been gathered by viewing the tribe from boats, and they are known to hunt and gather in the rainforest.
They have also been seen fishing in the coastal waters.
Their language and customs remain a mystery to outsiders, and the group shun all contact and have a record of hostility to anyone who tries to get close.
Survival International spokesperson Johnathan Mazower said the tribe had developed a sophisticated way of living.
“They have clearly not wanted any outside interaction for a long time but they have evolved a very sophisticated way of life … and clearly thrived on this island in a self-sufficient way for a very long time,” he said.
“If you look at all the photos and videos that have been taken they have been clearly extremely healthy and doing very well.”
North Sentinel Island is approximately 60 square kilometres and the exact population is unknown. (AP: Gautam Singh)normal
Why is it illegal to visit?
Despite their isolation, the Sentinelese come under Indian government rule.
In 1956, India declared North Sentinel Island a tribal reserve and put a ban on any travel within 5 kilometres of it.
To this day, India maintains a constant armed patrol in the surrounding waters to stop people from making contact with the tribe.
This is to protect the Indigenous people from outside diseases and to preserve their way of life.
The Sentinelese have lived on their island for thousands of years and have no contact with the outside world. (Supplied: Survival International)normal
In 2017, the Indian government introduced further laws that forbid taking photographs or making videos of the Andaman tribes.
They haven’t been completely forgotten by the Indian government though.
The Sentinelese survived the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and following the incident the Indian Navy sent a helicopter to conduct a welfare check on the group.
Whilst flying overhead, the helicopter was shot at with arrows by members of the tribe.
Previous encounters end in tragedy
There has been many attempts at contact with the tribe throughout history, some proving somewhat peaceful but most ending in tragedy.
The family of American missionary John Allen Chau (R) have asked that no-one be punished for his death. (Instagram: johnachau)normal
The first reported contact with the tribe came in the late 1800s when a M.V. Portman, the British ‘Officer in Charge of the Andamanese’ landed with a large team on the island.
“In the interest of science”, an elderly couple and four children were kidnapped and taken to Port Blair where it is believed the couple died.
The British group then dropped the four children back to North Sentinel Island with a hoard of gifts.
Reporting in his notebook at the time, Mr Portman said “we cannot be said to have done anything more than increase their general terror of, and hostility to, all comers.”
During the 1970s and 80s, the Indian government made trips to the island to try and befriend the locals.
Those attempts proved futile and the visiting parties were met with force, however in 1991 the Sentinelese reportedly welcomed gifts from an Indian government envoy.
In 1996, the visits by the government stopped altogether.
A picture taken on an Indian government trip to the island. (Supplied: Andaman and Nicobar Police)normal
Since then, all landings on the island have been made by non-government groups and have been illegal.
Two Indian fishermen were killed by the tribe on 27 January 2006, after their boat drifted towards the island when their anchor failed during the night.
And most recently, was American Youtuber Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov’s visit.
He allegedly kept blowing a whistle off the shore of North Sentinel Island for an hour to attract the tribe’s attention.
“He landed briefly for about five minutes, left the offerings on the shore, collected sand samples, and recorded a video before returning to his boat,” Andaman and Nicobar Islands police chief HGS Dhaliwal said.
“A review of his GoPro camera footage showed his entry and landing into the restricted North Sentinel Island.”
He is now on a three-day remand for further interrogation.
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