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Keywords: Brian Mccoy

  • AUSTRALIA

    Abbott's vision for a better Australia

    • Michael Mullins
    • 07 December 2009
    25 Comments

    There is a view that Tony Abbott is seeking to expand the public's moral imagination rather than simply pander to avarice. This should be tested against his characterisation of the ETS as a giant 'tax grab'.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Back to the future for Indigenous youth

    • Brian McCoy
    • 06 July 2009
    4 Comments

    Young people ideally move into adulthood with pride and a sense of generational history. Identity is not just about becoming an individual, but knowing, valuing and embodying one's ancestral past. But moving forwards while looking backwards can be risky.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Obama and Baz Luhrmann's Australia

    • Brian McCoy
    • 23 January 2009
    4 Comments

    Australia Day comes this year shortly after Obama's entry into the White House. Like the child in Australia — a film that captures something of the mixed history of our Australian footprint — Obama embodies the possibility of healing across racial and other divides.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Truth the first casualty of war film

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 27 November 2008
    3 Comments

    Brian De Palma's Redacted took as its grim inspiration the true account of the rape and murder of a 15-year-old Iraqi girl, and the murder of her family, by a wayward group of US troops in 2006. It plays pretty fast and loose with the facts.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Standing up for students' rites

    • Brian McCoy
    • 12 November 2008
    7 Comments

    Media exposure of some students' controversial end-of-school celebrations revealed a cultural deficit. Aboriginal men experience rituals that support their transition from boyhood into adulthood. Rituals in Western society are less clear.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Sharing of wisdom under the Boab tree

    • Chris Laming
    • 07 November 2008

    After nearly 40 years living in Indigenous communities, Brian McCoy manages to move through difficult terrain with the sure-footedness of an ancient Aboriginal tracker, and a confidence founded on years of sitting, listening, observing and quietly healing.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Reflections of one who came to stay

    • Brian McCoy
    • 09 October 2008
    6 Comments

    Those of us not of Aboriginal ancestry can be tempted to see our origins in foreign lands. Although we may not share the identity of First Australians, we owe the benefits of our lives to the land that was, and continues to be, theirs.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Abbott's complex Aboriginal odyssey

    • Brian McCoy
    • 04 September 2008
    11 Comments

    The news Tony Abbott would spend three weeks in a remote Aboriginal community came as a pleasant surprise to many. He gave himself a chance to learn, and his reflections reveal a genuine interest in the lives of the people.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The roots of Aboriginal activism

    • Brian McCoy
    • 06 June 2008
    2 Comments

    Events such as the National Apology and the Northern Territory Intervention loom large in the collective memory. Many of the struggles faced by early 20th century activist Fred Maynard regarding the protection of Indigenous rights remain with us today.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    'Being there and listening' could be Government policy

    • Michael Mullins
    • 03 March 2008
    2 Comments

    'Nothing beats being there and listening. I wonder who cares enough to live with the communities?' If the logic of last month's Parliamentary Apology to the Stolen Generations is translated into Government policy and action, there is every hope that 'being there and listening' could be adopted as an official strategy.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    After apology, it's back to the future

    • Brian McCoy
    • 27 February 2008
    17 Comments

    The missionaries thought the removal of children 'for education' was both the good and only thing to do. Modern attitudes reflect old ones, especially when people enter Aboriginal communities with a set of ready-made answers around employment, health and education.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Make foolish haste while the Treasurer smiles through gritted teeth

    • Michael Mullins
    • 08 August 2007

    Opinion polls suggest the ALP's "me too" strategy is enhancing their electibility. But in the end, Australians may just stick with the devil they know. "It's time" may have worked for Gough Whitlam, but only time will tell whether "Kevin 07" will do the same for Kevin Rudd.

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