Cirrus@Austlit

In Australia, children as young as ten can be held criminally responsible for their actions.

This means they can be arrested by police, remanded in custody, convicted by the courts and imprisoned.

Next week, Australia’s state and federal attorneys-general will meet to discuss raising the age of criminal responsibility.

They cannot pass up this critical opportunity to change the way we treat vulnerable and marginalised children.

Source: The Conversation

There is growing disquiet and anger about restrictions on how the Aboriginal flag can be used, particularly after it was absent from the AFL’s recent Indigenous round.

On Thursday, the Senate set up a parliamentary inquiry to look at options to “enable the flag to be freely used by the Australian community”.

So, what are the options to try and secure wider use of a flag that up until now has been a “uniting symbol for all Aboriginal people”?

Source: The Conversation

This year’s Mabo Day, June 3, was a special day for Indigenous astronomy. That was when the International Astronomical Union officially accepted five new asteroid names that honour a selection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, elders and academics whose work has been particularly influential.

Source: The Conversation

If a doctor suspects a patient may be at risk of depression, they will likely ask about the person’s mood, appetite, sleep patterns, and energy and concentration levels, among other questions.

But understandings of mental health differ across cultural groups. So when a doctor is screening for mental illness, it’s important they consider the patient’s culture.

Source: The Conversation

It has long been assumed that Indigenous Australia was isolated until Europeans arrived in 1788, except for trade with parts of present day Indonesia beginning at least 300 years ago. But our recent archaeological research hints of at least an extra 2,100 years of connections across the Coral Sea with Papua New Guinea.

Over the past decade, we have conducted research in the Gulf of Papua with local Indigenous communities.

During the excavations, the most common archaeological evidence found in the old village sites was fragments of pottery, which preserve well in tropical environments compared to artefacts made of wood or bone. As peoples of the Gulf of Papua have no known history of pottery making, and the materials are foreign, the discovered pottery sherds are evidence of trade.

Source: The Conversation

'Professor Julianne Schultz AM FAMA has been appointed chair of The Conversation Media Group, following the retirement of Harrison Young.'