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Keywords: Sorry Day

  • AUSTRALIA

    Rudd's apology was also our apology

    • Michael Mullins
    • 15 February 2010
    6 Comments

    On the second anniversary of the apology to Indigenous Australians, we look instinctively to the Prime Minister to tell us what he's done. He presented his report card to Parliament on Thursday. But he's not the only one who needs to account.

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  • RELIGION

    Stradbroke Island homily

    • Frank Brennan
    • 18 August 2009
    1 Comment

    Before the mission was established here, the local Aboriginal community of 200 persons was forced to host 1000 convicts from the mainland for eight years. I daresay not all the convicts were easy-going beachcombers.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Asylum seekers good for Australia's soul

    • Irfan Yusuf
    • 14 August 2009
    11 Comments

    According to P. J. O'Rourke, today's asylum seekers are tomorrow's 'really good Australians'. Australia has established Uighur and Turkish communities and could easily accommodate the few remaining ex-Gitmo Uighurs.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Curry muncher

    • Roanna Gonsalves
    • 23 June 2009
    36 Comments

    Vincent and I were both international students from Bombay. He had lived here for a year while I had only arrived three months ago. We worked in the same Indian restaurant. The night of his attack, Vincent sounded upbeat on the train.

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  • RELIGION

    Sex and power in the church

    • Frank Brennan
    • 13 April 2009
    4 Comments

    Bishop Geoffrey Robinson's book is an invitation to put fear behind us. Given the treatment it has received by people who should have known better, it has become an icon; a call to conversation without fear.

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  • EDUCATION

    How to teach 'vampire' students

    • Eleanor Massey
    • 03 March 2009
    10 Comments

    The student teacher is doing his best, trying to teach abstract ideas in a difficult play about a postmodern world. A girl in the front row is discussing her new 'vampire' boyfriend. 'He's in 12B,' she says. 'I can't take my eyes off him.'

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Why we forgot the Apology

    • Myrna Tonkinson
    • 19 February 2009
    9 Comments

    The muted recognition of the anniversary of the National Apology was partly due to the bushfires in Victoria, which continue, understandably, to monopolise attention and emotion. But the momentous event of February 2008 has not been followed up by significant developments in Indigenous affairs.

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  • RELIGION

    Stolen Generations apology 'about right'

    • Frank Brennan
    • 06 January 2009
    5 Comments

    Most indigenous Australians appreciated Labor's wide consultation. Some were angered by elements of Brendan Nelson's speech. But he did well do bring the Liberal and National Parties with him, ensuring they did not rain on the national parade as they had in 1988 and 1997. (February 2008)

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  • ECONOMICS

    A frugal Christmas story

    • Margaret Rice
    • 16 December 2008
    3 Comments

    This time of year is marked by a fraught pre-Christmas anxiety, exacerbated this year by the economic crisis. My daughter Rachel lost her part-time job last week. Her loss is slight compared to her employer's, a young mother who works in the finance industry.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Pol Pot and the repentant Swede

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 24 November 2008
    1 Comment

    Gunnar Bergstrom returned to Cambodia last week hoping to atone for his one-time approval of the Khmer Rouge's Year Zero. In 1978 he and his comrades from the Sweden-Kampuchea Friendship Association were hosted by a gracious and grateful Pol Pot.

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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

    The Lawson long shot

    • Brian Matthews
    • 04 November 2008
    5 Comments

    It's 1996 and I'm saddling up to give the Sir Robert Menzies Lecture at London University. My topic is Henry Lawson and Manning Clark. 'Manfred who?' asks a baffled London colleague. The lecture's on Melbourne Cup Day. It could be an omen.

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