© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

“Brandy” of Dungog: a glimpse of a life

White accounts of the lives of Australian Indigenous people are usually condescending, especially those written while the ethnic cleansing of Aboriginal people was in its later stages. I don't intend to offend with that choice of words, incidentally. I hope that fair-minded and objective white readers will understand my meaning: that whatever motives any particular white people may have had, the overall effect of the takeover of the country easily met modern definitions of genocide. That's not to say that cordial relationships did not occur, nor that good intentions were absent. History doesn't deserve to be…

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Read more about the article Why I’m voting Yes to the Voice
Peter Dutton and His Master's Voice. By Peter Lewis.

Why I’m voting Yes to the Voice

An angry old white bloke had a go at me the other day. He didn’t like my “Free Assange” T-shirt. His reaction took me a little bit by surprise. I’d forgotten I was wearing that shirt. And I’d also forgotten about that other country, the alternative Australia that exists alongside mine but where things look different. Of course I visit that old colonial outpost every day, but I slip across the border like a ghost in disguise, conduct my business and head home again. “What do you mean, ‘Free Assange?’”, he snorted at me. I had…

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In memory of body-snatchers and headhunters

It's a tricky business, naming modern-day edifices after long-dead people. You might have an idea in mind that your candidate was a solid citizen with many outstanding virtues, but it's often worth checking just in case there's a skeleton or two in the closet. The John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle, NSW, offers a couple of examples. I was health reporter for The Newcastle Herald at the time the John Hunter Hospital was opened, and I recall a suggestion by the health board chairman that the hospital be named the "Johns Hunter". This was, I think, a…

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