Thousands of Australians are expected to protest on Saturday as a national holiday intended to celebrate the birth of modern Australia divides the country.

Australia Day on Jan. 26 marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the "First Fleet" to Sydney Cove, carrying mainly convicts and troops from Britain. For many indigenous Australians, who trace their lineage on the continent back 60,000 years, it is "Invasion Day", the start of Britain's colonisation of aboriginal lands and their brutal subjugation.

"Celebrating Australia Day on January 26th is offensive," said Joe Williams, a mental health worker and former professional rugby league player.

"To celebrate an invasion which has seen our people dispossessed, displaced and oppressed for some 230 years, is plain offensive," he told Reuters Television.

Australia's 700,000 or so indigenous people track near the bottom of its 25 million citizens in almost every economic and social indicator. While opinion polls suggest up to half the country supports changing Australia Day, the conservative government is under pressure to legally entrench Jan. 26 as a national holiday.

"We should keep the 26th of January as a special day in our calendar," said Nick Folkes, a painter from Sydney.


"It means respect and acknowledgement of the sacrifices made by explorers, settlers, our convicts," he added.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison's government, which faces a general election due in May, opposes any change and has moved to shore up support for the holiday. This month it ordered local councils to hold induction ceremonies for new citizens on Australia Day and the Australian Citizenship Day holiday on Sept. 17, or have their authorization revoked.


Morrison has also pledged nearly A$7 million ($4.9 million)for a replica of explorer James Cook's HMS Endeavour, the first ship to reach the east coast of Australia in 1770. The replica ship will circumnavigate Australia next year to mark the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook's voyage.


Opposition leader Bill Shorten has criticized Morrison for spending taxpayer's money on a "bizarre Captain Cook fetish," but the prime minister said it will unify Australians.

"I believe it will be a voyage of bringing Australians together," Morrison said in Cairns this month. "I'm keen for it to be done very much in that spirit."
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Protesters hang a #AbolishAustraliaDay banner off Westminster Bridge ahead of #AustraliaDay to show solidarity with Aboriginal & Torres Straight Islander peoples in Australia. #InvasionDay2019 #changethedate #changethenation #7DaysOfResistance #breaking pic.twitter.com/WXnAJcZr4H

— Stefan Simanowitz (@StefSimanowitz) January 25, 2019

South African comedian Trevor Noah is facing heavy criticism after a video of a stand-up routine from 2013 where he made a joke about Australia's Aboriginal women resurfaced online.

Australians on social media are now calling for a boycott of his tour scheduled to begin with a performance at Melbourne's Hisense Arena on August 23.

Noah can be seen making a joke about Aboriginal women in the video, which was first shared by Australian photographer, LaVonne Bobongie.

"All women of every race can be beautiful," the host of the Daily Show said. "And I know some of you are sitting there now going, 'Oh Trevor ... I've never seen a beautiful Aborigine' But you know what you say? You say, 'Yet.' Because you haven't seen all of them, right?"

"Plus it's not always about looks, maybe Aborigine women do special things, maybe they'll just like, jump on top of you," he said, before making a suggestive gesture.

The video has now been taken down and a contrite Noah wrote on his Twitter account that he would make sure it was not promoted anywhere again.


Several notable indigenous Australians criticized Noah and Australian academic Anita Heiss said she was "appalled and disgusted at the comments."

Former Australian National Rugby League Player, Joe Williams who posted the video on the social media platform, expressed his disapproval and asked Noah to apologize.

"Hey @Trevornoah, your comments about Aboriginal @IndigenousX in this clip are utterly unacceptable! As a man of color, you are usually in point with racism & divide - here you are perpetrating & encouraging racial abuse!!" Williams wrote.
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I am so disgusted and appalled by the comments by @Trevornoah and his attempted humour that denigrates Aboriginal women I hope Australians boycott his shows in #Brisbane #Sydney #Melbourne #Perth #Australia That kind of ‘humour’ is not funny and does damage! #racismitstopswithme https://t.co/yplwK2CtI7

— Dr Anita Heiss (@AnitaHeiss) July 22, 2018

Hey @Trevornoah, your comments about Aboriginal @IndigenousX in this clip are utterly unacceptable! As a man of colour, you are usually in point with racism & divide - here you are perpetrating & encouraging racial abuse!! #boycotttrevornoahinoz https://t.co/UNXE8TlBtq RT

— Joe Williams - TEW (@joewilliams_tew) July 22, 2018

A police officer who was filmed running down an Indigenous teenager has reportedly stood down. The West Australian officer was stood down from duty as an investigation is undertaken into the arrest and running over of the 18-year-old man, Nine News reported.

The incident which occurred on Wilfred Road, Thornlie, West Australia, was caught on camera, showing the undercover police car knocking down the Indigenous teenager, before he suffered multiple seizures.

Family members are calling for the senior sergeant to face criminal charges after the horrific incident which sent the teenager to hospital.

Initial footage of the incident was released earlier this week on Facebook, which police claim the teenager 'collided' with the police car.

However, the new footage shows the undercover police car crossing the road and hitting the teenager before he suffers multiple seizures.

A police officer is seen following the 18-year-old on foot on Sunday afternoon, before the unmarked police car crosses the road to cut him off before hitting him, SBS reported.


The teen falls to the ground after being struck by the vehicle before he begins seizing.

When he began to seize, police turned him to the side, as he continues to convulse, and is then handcuffed.

He was taken to Fiona Stanley Hospital for treatment.

CEO of Ngalla Maya Aboriginal Corporation Mervyn Eade, told NITV News that WA police had a long history of incidents involving Indigenous people.

The teen's uncle Mervyn Eades described the incident as "brutal" and "intentional". (9NEWS)

Gerry Georgatos of the National Indigenous Critical Response Service, also told NITV News that the police officers involved should be stood down.

West Australian police claimed the teenager was being sought after for questioning after people in the area complained about 'suspicious activity', SBS reported.
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Aboriginal people in Ontario are prepared to lay down their lives to protect their traditional lands from any unwanted development, a group of First Nations chiefs said Tuesday.

Aboriginal communities have seen what Canadian and Ontario laws have done to their land over the last 147 years, Beardy said.

"The land has become sick," he said. "We become sick. We become poor, desperate and dying."

The people of Grassy Narrows First Nation are still suffering from mercury poisoning decades after the Wabigoon river around their land was contaminated by a local paper mill, Beardy added.

Grand Chief of Treaty 3, Warren White, argued that Prime Minister Stephen Harper recognizes the state of Israel, but not the lands of Canada's aboriginal peoples.

"He needs to have the same principles that he's saying about Israeli lands to Treaty 3 territory and native lands in Canada," White said.


"Clean up your own backyard before you go and spill a lot of money into disasters in other countries."

Grand Chief Harvey Yesno of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation added that the province's aboriginal people will draw a line in the sand, put a stake in the ground and tie themselves to it if that's what it takes to protect their land from unwanted resource development.

"We're no longer just going to be civilly disobedient. We're going to defend our lands, and there's a big difference there," he said.

"Our young people are dying, our people are dying. So let's die at least defending our land."

Aboriginal communities don't want to harm others, said Beardy. But they'll do what they must to stop an incursion on their lands, such as forming human blockades to stop the clearcutting of trees, he said.

"Anything that happens on our aboriginal homeland now, they must consult with us," said Roger Fobister Sr., chief of Grassy Narrows First Nation. "Even if they're going to cut down one tree, they better ask us."
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For the past four decades, Noelene Lever has provided a haven for children in need, giving them the most important thing in life - love.

The 78-year-old selfless widow from the NSW north coast has opened her home to more than 50 foster children since the late 1970s, while working two jobs and caring for five of her own kids.

Ms Lever, who normally avoids too much fuss, was named the Barnardos NSW Mother of the Year on Tuesday, honouring her lifelong commitment to caring for children.

"I like to sit in the background and make a cup of tea while everyone else talks," she said after winning the gong.

Noelene lost her husband in a car accident and moved to Sydney to find work to support her five children in the late 70s.

She remembers clearly the first foster child she helped just after losing her husband. She was living in Sydney when a 12-year-old local boy asked if he could live with her family.


"I didn't question the parents but their attitude was like 'Well, if you think you can handle him, then fine he can stay with you'," Ms Lever said on Tuesday.

"He was good with me and I just gave him love."


Ms Lever never opted to adopt any of the 50 children because at the time it would have meant severing all ties with the foster children's families.

"To me it was important for them to know their family," she said.

Ms Lever was also heavily involved with the Aboriginal community in Redfern and worked with the Aboriginal Legal Service before she retired to live in Forster some eight years ago.
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Pauline Hanson has blasted the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony as “disgusting” for focusing on Australia’s indigenous heritage.

In an interview with Sky News, the One Nation leader said she considers herself indigenous because she was born in Australia and that she’s tired of “feeling like a second-class citizen in her own country”.

“I thought it was disgusting, absolutely disgusting,” she said of the ceremony.

“The indigenous Australians are part of the culture, the heritage of this country.

“They are not what Australia is about.”

Hanson blasted the 20-minute performance that featured Mau Power, the first hip-hop artist to emerge out of the Torres Straight, and didgeridoo player William Barton.


“I’m not used to seeing aboriginals singing rap,” she said. “I have got nothing against the Aboriginal people but I’m sick and tired of being made to feel as if I’m a second-class citizen in my own country.

“I’m indigenous as far as I’m concerned. I was born here. This is my country as much as anyone else.

“I’m sick and tired of people having a go at me because ‘it’s racism’. “Our country is what it is being of the migrants that are here.”

Naturally occurring clay from British Columbia, Canada—long used by the region's Heiltsuk First Nation for its healing potential—exhibits potent antibacterial activity against multidrug-resistant pathogens, according to new research from the University of British Columbia.

The researchers recommend the rare mineral clay be studied as a clinical treatment for serious infections caused by ESKAPE strains of bacteria.

The so-called ESKAPE pathogens—Enterococcus faecium, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species—cause the majority of U.S. hospital infections and effectively 'escape' the effects of antibacterial drugs.

"Infections caused by ESKAPE bacteria are essentially untreatable and contribute to increasing mortality in hospitals," says UBC microbiologist Julian Davies, co-author of the paper published today in the American Society for Microbiology's mBio journal.

"After 50 years of over-using and misusing antibiotics, ancient medicinals and other natural mineral-based agents may provide new weapons in the battle against multidrug-resistant pathogens."

The clay deposit is situated on Heiltsuk First Nation's traditional territory, 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Vancouver, Canada, in a shallow five-acre granite basin. The 400-million kilogram (400,000 tonne) deposit was formed near the end of the last Ice Age, approximately 10,000 years ago.


Local First Nations people have used the clay for centuries for its therapeutic properties—anecdotal reports cite its effectiveness for ulcerative colitis, duodenal ulcer, arthritis, neuritis, phlebitis, skin irritation, and burns.


"We're fortunate to be able to partner with UBC on this significant research program" says Lawrence Lund, president of Kisameet Glacial Clay, a business formed to market cosmetic and medicinal products derived from the clay. "We hope it will lead to the development of a novel and safe antimicrobial that can be added to the diminished arsenal for the fight against the ESKAPE pathogens and other infection-related health issues plaguing the planet."


In the in vitro testing conducted by Davies and UBC researcher Shekooh Behroozian, clay suspended in water killed 16 strains of ESKAPE bacteria samples from sources including Vancouver General Hospital, St. Paul's Hospital, and the University of British Columbia's wastewater treatment pilot plant.
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Aboriginal teen Sarafina Elliott has climbed to Mount Everest base camp and left a little piece of her heritage.

 The 16-year-old Yawuru/Ngarluma girl planted the Aboriginal flag on the world’s tallest mountain to honour her culture.

“I thought everyone knows Australians go there and I don’t think the Aboriginal flag has been up there,” she told NITV News.

“I don’t know how many Aboriginal people had been up there before, so I thought it was important that she take an Aboriginal flag and take some pictures and maybe inspire some other Aboriginal people or young women to do the same sort of trek,” Mr Elliott told NITV News.

The pair, who’ve just returned to Australia following their Nepalese adventure, spent a year planning for the 60km climb. Sarafina, who has just started year 12, said reaching base camp was surreal.

“It was like walking on top of a rocky iceberg and there was just snow on the floor and rocks everywhere and flags everywhere,” she said.


“Once you get there everyone’s like ‘congratulations, we made it’. It’s like a very friendly attitude and atmosphere up there.”

Sarafina’s mother, June ‘Moonie’ Djiagween, said she raised her daughter to be proud of her indigenous heritage. Ms Djiagween said her daughter wanted to “represent our people” by planting the Aboriginal flag on Everest.


“People get confused that it’s the land rights’ flag, but it’s not the land rights flag, people like to fly that flag to say ‘we are Aboriginal people,” she said.

“She flew that to say ‘I’m an Aboriginal person and I’m on Mt Everest’.”
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Researchers are now systematically surveying the surrounding area to find additional sites, to see if even older evidence can be found.

 The findings on about 11,000 artefacts from Kakadu national park, published on Thursday in the journal Nature, prove Indigenous people have been in Australia for far longer than the much-contested estimates of between 47,000 and 60,000 years, the researchers said. Some of the artefacts were potentially as old as 80,000 years.

The significant trove of thousands of artefacts was buried in 2.6 metres of sand and sediment on the western edge of the Arnhem Land plateau. The site at Madjedbebe is on the traditional lands of the Mirarr people, but currently within the confines of the Jabiluka uranium mining lease, and surrounded by the 20,000 hectares of the heritage-listed Kakadu.

Much of the success of the five-year-long project is credited to a unique and benchmark-setting agreement between the researchers and the Mirarr, who retained total control over the dig and the artefacts.

“We’d like to tell people we were here long enough – tell all the Balanda [non-Indigenous people] about the stories, that people were here a long time,” Mirarr traditional owner May Nango said.

More than 10,000 artefacts were uncovered in the “zone of first occupation”, including ochre and reflective paint substances, as well as the oldest unbroken ground-edge stone axes in the world, by about 20,000 years, and the oldest known seed-grinding tools in Australia.


In the deepest levels of sediment, some artefacts were estimated to be about 80,000 years old – or at least 95% likely to be older than 70,000, the report noted.

“It’s special because it has a lot of sacred sites, and back in the old days our old people used to walk over here looking for bush tucker. They used the rocks and axes.”
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“These men are Wiradjuri men and they didn’t worry about any sort of race or colour or anything when they were doing their bravery act,”

 A new sculpture pays tribute to local Indigenous people who risked their lives to save their European neighbours in one of the most devastating floods in Australia’s history.

The New South Wales town of Gundagai could have been wiped out during the Great Flood of 1852, if it wasn’t for the efforts of two Wiradjuri men.

Over the weekend, on the 165th anniversary of the Great Flood, Gundagai unveiled a sculpture honouring Yarri and Jacky Jacky who risked their lives to rescue a third of the town’s population.

“They just do what they need to do, just did what they thought was necessary to save the people and didn’t think twice about it.”

In 1852, Gundagai was a budding village with 250 residents but when flood waters rose along the Murrumbidgee River the town was totally unprepared.


It’s estimated 89 people died in the flood, making it one of the most deadly natural disasters ever recorded in Australia. Yet the death toll could have been much worse if it wasn’t for the actions of Yarri, Jacky Jacky and other Wiradjuri people who saved an estimated 69 people from drowning in the flood.


Aunty Sony Piper, is also a member of the ‘Yarri and Jacky Jacky Sculpture Committee’ and said she was very proud of the sculpture.


“To be Aboriginal men, there's not many statues around and we wanted that to be in Gundagai,” she said.

“For a lot of the tourists to come through and see about these heroes - these two Aboriginal heroes.”
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The director of the eagerly anticipated blockbuster Thor Ragnarok, the third feature film in Marvel's Thor franchise, says he made the hiring of Indigenous crew in Australia a priority.

 “It’s a responsibility you have to the Indigenous people. You’re coming to a country and you’re bringing money into the economy and creating jobs but I think you have an even bigger responsibility to look after the people that have less opportunities,” director Taika Waititi told BuzzFeed News from the film's Queensland set.

Waititi, who is of Māori descent, said that he made it clear to producers from the beginning that he wanted Indigenous people working on the film.

"I was exploring the idea from the moment I got to LA, telling the producers at Marvel and they were fully onboard with it. We got a few attachments and it’s really cool. We’ve got them all throughout different departments and I feel quite good about it," Waititi said.

On the first day of filming, the Yugambeh people, who are the traditional owners from the Gold Coast where the Warner Brother's backlot is situated, performed a welcome to country ceremony.

The production has also contracted an Aboriginal company to supply water to the set. There are eight Aboriginal people working on the film in different areas including directing, stunts, set design and production and grips.


Cinematographer Cornel Ozies and award-winning actor Shari Sebbens are working directly with Waititi, and Jaru producer and writer, Kodie Bedford, is working in the stunts department. "We are finding those new talents and giving them an experience not many people have. I mean, I am 40 and this is my first experience on a set like this and giving that experience to young native people is invaluable and a really cool experience," he said.


The attachments are part of an initiative by Screen Australia’s Indigenous Department to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders a foot in the door of the film industry. One of the former participants in the scheme is Ryan Griffen who went on to create the acclaimed television series Cleverman.


"All of my Aboriginal friends feel very much like family, and for me it’s such a weird and new thing for me to work on a Hollywood film. Having Indigenous people and New Zealanders in the crew helps calm me down and makes me feel relaxed," Waititi said.
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An online campaign to have the Aboriginal flag permanently flying above Sydney Harbour Bridge is gaining momentum.

 An online campaign signed up to by thousands is calling for the NSW Legislative Assembly and NSW Government to consider a third flag be flown alongside the Australian and NSW flags on a permanent basis.

Kamilaroi woman Cheree Toka created the petition and wrote: "as Australians, we are proud of our Aboriginal heritage and we want to recognise and celebrate this heritage every day."

Ms Toka said the Aboriginal flag should be flown every day.

"It needs to be flown 24/7, seven days a week to recognise and acknowledge Aboriginal people," she told NITV. "I don’t want any flag replaced. We have a flag to represent Australia and the Aboriginal flag is to represent the First Peoples of Australia, which is an acknowledgement to them."

Ms Toka said she wants to see a change in Australia.


"Everyone is all for unity and reconciliation and I feel the perfect way to get that is to have the Aboriginal flag on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is Australia’s iconic landmark and everyone from each and every country come to Australia, and to recognize that flag is recognizing the old culture that was here a long time ago," she said.


The change.org petition has already garnered thousands of signatures from across the country.

"The response I've been getting and the support, it's just amazing how many people are actually on board, and non-Aboriginal. I really do appreciate everyone’s support wholeheartedly," she said.

Ms Toka says this small step to unity can make a big difference.

Support this petition to fly the Aboriginal flag on Sydney Harbour Bridge! https://t.co/pzd846bZEm @amnestyOz

— Roxy Moore (@RoxyAmnestyOz) February 22, 2017

"I feel like it’s a small step for something greater for Aboriginal people. I would feel greatly respected and I’m already proud of my culture but I’d be even more prouder," she says. "At the end of the day I just want these decision makers or the Legislative Assembly to come to a decision and raise that flag on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. What an amazing day it will be for all Aboriginal people to see that happen."
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Senior Bininj (Aboriginal) artist in Kakadu West Arnhem, John Lamibanda, created this bark painting as a show of solidarity with Standing Rock reservation and First Nations peoples gathered in North Dakota.

'This painting shows the black narin (snake). It represents the pipeline killing Bininj (Indigenous) people, and the land out there. The Bininj people are stopping it, throwing monkolli (spears). Bininj are fighting that black narin to stop it before it goes more further and kills everything.

In my painting Ngaliod (Rainbow Serpent) is helping to save their land and water and the people. Our Ngaliod is namak (good) she helps us to look after the land. We respect her, she gave us knowledge. We know she looks after the land and she will get upset. Those people who disrespect the land, she will come loud to their dreams….she will show them… stop them.'

Children’s Ground is the first organisation of its kind in Australia. Their approach focuses on long-term change, working with each child, each family and each community, so that children learn, grow and thrive in communities that celebrate cultural, social and economic wellbeing.

Thousands of Indigenous Australians have joined a global social media movement to show solidarity with those protesting against the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in the United States.

Over the weekend, Indigenous Australians – including actors, elite sportspeople, politicians, and activists – joined the movement with Native Americans.


Traditional owners in Australia’s Northern Territory are hopeful that the widespread support for Standing Rock protesters will lead to greater awareness of a proposed Australian gas pipeline that locals claim will also destroy sacred sites and poison the water table.

The project is called the Northern Gas Pipeline, a 622-kilometre pipeline that would run from the Northern Territory town of Tennant Creek to Mt Isa in Queensland, where the gas would then be exported.


“The company is not telling us the proper story about this pipeline,” said Betty Rankine, a Wakaya traditional owner. “We know it will mean fracking for gas to fill it, which will damage our country, and we’re not happy about it.”

Recently, several traditional owners stormed out of a presentation by the Singaporean and Chinese company Jemena, which would manage the project if it goes ahead.

The Wakaya are calling on more Australians to join their protest.
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An ancient Aboriginal site at a secret location in the Victorian bush could be the oldest astronomical observatory in the world, pre-dating Stonehenge and even the Great Pyramids of Giza.

Scientists studying the Wurdi Youang stone arrangement say it could date back more than 11,000 years and provide clues into the origins of agriculture.

Duane Hamacher, a leader in the study of Indigenous astronomy, has been working with Aboriginal elders at the site to reconstruct their knowledge of the stars and planets.

"Some academics have referred to this stone arrangement here as Australia's version of Stonehenge," Dr Hamacher said.

"I think the question we might have to ask is: is Stonehenge Britain's version of Wurdi Youang? Because this could be much, much older."

If the site is more than 7,000 years old, it will rewrite history and further disprove the notion that first Australians were uniformly nomadic hunter-gatherers.


Scientists believe the arrangement of stones was able to map out the movements of the sun throughout the year.

Custodian Reg Abrahams said the region around the observatory seemed to have once had semi-permanent villages with evidence of early fishing and farming practices.

"If you're going to have a stone arrangement where you mark off the seasons throughout the year with the solstices and equinoxes, it kind of makes sense if you're at least most of the year in one specific location to do that," he said.


"So if that's the case, it would make sense if you're near permanent food and water sources."

He said there were areas where eel traps would have been set up and even signs of "gilgies", or terraces used in farming.

"You see a lot of agricultural and aquacultural practices, so evidence of this agriculture may go back tens of thousands of years, pre-dating what anthropologists commonly think of as the dawn of agriculture which is about 11,000 years ago in Mesopotamia," he said.

Dr Hamacher said early first Australians had complex knowledge systems.

"They understand very well the motions of the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars throughout the year and over longer periods of time," he said.


"White Australians don't generally recognise that the history of colonialism has erased that, so what we're doing is helping the communities piece that information back together by working with communities."

Traditional owners like Judy Dalton-Walsh say research into the site and Aboriginal astronomy means that the knowledge can continue to be passed on.

"We learnt at school the European names for the stars and the Milky Way and it's also good to know that we traditionally had a name for them as well. Our gods were up there in the stars," she said.
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