By William Brian Butler, as told to Nicola Butler. William Brian Butler was born 13th September 1938 at the Bagot Detention Centre in Darwin, Northern Territory My mother Emily Anne was born Annie Lawrie and my grandmother Eliza Gordon was born Lady Wilson and are of the Aranda tribe and my grandfather Toby is of […]
Feature Articles – Page 3
Only a little over a century ago Roebourne Prison was filled with inmates for crimes like ‘absconding’ from ‘blackbirding’ – slavery. Those who resisted strongly were sent to Wadjemup (Rottnest Island) and Fremantle Prison – most never to return. The word they used for policeman was “Marndamarangga” and means “chainhand” and is still used today. […]
“For most of these women, the notion of human rights is unheard of. They have lived all their lives believing that they have no rights atall,” said the founder of Sisters Inside, Debbie Kilroy – who counsels women while they are still in prison. As my PhD research progresses in studying Australian custodial systems and […]
General News
- The death of a child by suicide
18 Jan 2018
The death of a child is always heartbreaking but when it is by suicide it is as devastating as it gets, with long term psychosocial effects. There is a whole different level of anguish and grief. However the majority of […]
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- How I’d end absolute poverty and reduce relative poverty if I were Prime Minister
10 Jan 2018
Australia is masking its true unemployment levels, hiding the real number of its jobless, fiddling with the numbers of homeless, cheating Australians on the extent and depth of poverty. Poverty, acute and relative, is extensive, but we are sold that […]
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- Poverty, Sexual Abuse, Suicide – silence is not an option
3 Jan 2018
Internalising grief is toxic, it is a silence that maims and kills. The silences around sexual abuse, violence, emotional and psychological abuse, the –isms – sexism, racism, classism, ageism, ableism, the silences aggressively slow down and can shut down trauma […]
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- The horrendous lie of our generation is the one that poverty is being reduced
2 Jan 2018
There is more poverty on this earth today than ever before, with both absolute and relative poverty guaranteed to accelerate their increasing trend. The horrendous lie of our generation is the one that poverty is being reduced right around the […]
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- It is now time for a royal commission into Australia’s world record high rate of child removals
17 Dec 2017
Last week I reunited a 14 year old girl with her biological mother. She had been removed from her mother at 12 months of age. Children removed from their biological parents are among the most elevated risk groups to serious […]
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- Whatever Christmas is about, it should be about much more – leave no-one behind
17 Dec 2017
November has seen more people lost to suicide than in any other month this year. More than a quarter of the suicides are of persons born overseas, with a significant proportion relatively newly arrived. The grim reality is that the […]
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- Slavery in the 21st century
6 Dec 2017
Slavery remains a tragedy with the United Nations and the Global Slavery Index arguing that at least 40 million people around the world are in some form of slavery. The Global Slavery Index reports that at least 4,000 people in […]
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- Trauma must not become your injurious oppressor
17 Nov 2017
Our days on this earth are not many and what we do with our days matters, not only for us but for those around us and for those whom we leave behind. Trauma is a part of life, few are […]
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- We are being lied to about poverty — it’s grim
26 Oct 2017
A TRAGIC INDICATOR of increasing poverty and unemployment is the suicide toll. Another indicator is an increasing prison population. Another indicator is the widening gap between the average worker and the top one per cent of earners. Another indicator is […]
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- When are we Australians? – Xenophon, Australian born and bred
23 Aug 2017
Racism is a beast that threatens those whom it stares down and it regularly mauls its prey. This beast remains at all times as a firmament in the institutions of this Australian nation. Racism has many veils and layers – […]
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