
Aborigenes more likely to be jailed in Australia
Aborigines are 13 times more likely to be jailed than other Australians and the government must step up efforts to tackle drug and alcohol abuse fuelling crime in indigenous communities, researchers said today.
Almost a quarter of all prisoners are indigenous even though Aborigines make up just 2 percent of the population, according to a report by the Australian National Council on Drugs.
“The figures are appalling,” Gino Vumbaca, the council’s executive director, said in a telephone interview. “Every family in indigenous communities knows somebody who has been to prison or is in prison.”
Aborigines remain the poorest and most disadvantaged group in Australian society, more than 200 years after Europeans settled the nation in 1788. Their life expectancy is 17 years less than other Australians and they are three times more likely to experience coronary problems, according to the Australian Medical Association.
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Intricate Rainforest Sculptures of Olinda
Deep in an Australian rainforest lie sculptures dedicated to the Aboriginal’s of Australia. In the times between 1949-1960, self taught sculptor William Ricketts learned about the culture of the Pitjantjatjara and the Arrernte peoples and their connection with nature. These sculptures were born out of that time.
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I often have discussions on whether or not Australian peoples should be considered part of the black world. In Australia they’re referred to as black people even though they are not descendants of Africa. ”Direct” descendants I should say considering every day they find more information to prove human life is from the continent of Africa, but I am not a scientist, so.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080819/ts_afp/sciencebritainaustraliaaborigineslanguage_080819112757
Australian Aboriginal children can count even without having words for numbers, according to a study by British and Australian experts released Tuesday.
The findings run counter to recently revived scientific claims that children can only count if they know the words for numbers, said the lead author of the research, from University College London (UCL).
The study found that four to seven-year-olds from two Aboriginal communities have an “innate system” to count with, even though their languages only have normal words for one, two, few and many.
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http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/441626
Some cried quietly, others bowed their heads, closed their eyes or rose to applaud as Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized to Canada’s aboriginals today for the suffering caused by residential schools. Whatever the reaction, there was no doubt the thousands of natives who gathered in meeting halls, former school sites and on Parliament Hill listened intently as Harper asked for forgiveness after admitting on live television that the government-funded, church-run schools “caused great harm.”
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http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=580606
As Prime Minister Stephen Harper made his historic apology to the former students of the residential school system, ears were trained to hear the subtext behind the carefully written speech. Matthew Coutts of the National Post asked experts to offer their opinions on what Mr. Harper said and didn’t say. The panel included: Allan Bonner, of Allan Bonner Communications Management Inc., an image and crisis management consultant who has counselled several premiers and cabinet ministers; Michael Dorland, a professor of journalism and communications at Carleton University; and, Jeff Ansell, of Jeff Ansell and Associates Inc. Communications Consultants, a former journalist and an Associate of the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program “Dealing with an Angry Public.”
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