In Aussie Outback, It's All in 'Skin' Name

Julia Gillard stumbles as she tries to pass through indigenous right supporters

(NEWSER) - It sounds perfectly routine: Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott appeared at a restaurant in Canberra today—which just so happens to be Australia Day—to preside over an awards ceremony. What it turned into was an ugly mess, as some 200 supporters of indigenous rights surrounded the restaurant and started banging on the windows. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the scene grew so unruly that Gillard's security decided she needed to be removed from the building. And as some 50 police pushed a path through the crowd to a waiting car, she stumbled and lost a shoe. More»

Anonymity offers the chance for a fresh start: Alina Simone

(NEWSER) - Twelve years ago, Alina Vilenkin took her mother's maiden name and became Alina Simone, and with the switch came a whole new life. She went from being a person who never followed through on anything to one who finally pursued her true passion: singing. "I changed my name and it changed me," she writes in the New York Times . "I poured my best self into my new name." So when she heard that an audience member at one of her shows decided to change her own name to "Alina Simone," Simone No. 1 wondered if Simone No. 2 would follow a similar path. More»

Kids are 28 times more likely to be detained than other Australian kids

(AP) - For Australian Aborigines, life in the Outback has grown so bleak, jail is not only more appealing, it has nearly become a rite of passage for teens. A parliamentary report last week called the worsening situation a national crisis, noting the imprisonment rate for indigenous Australians has soared 66% in the past decade. Persistent unemployment, disease, and alcoholism have worked against 40 years of government efforts to help the 517,000 indigenous living on the fringes of society. Aborigines make up 2.3% of the country's 22.6 million people, but about 25% of Australia's adult prison population is Aboriginal. More»

Gillard plans referendum on changing constitution

(NEWSER) - Australia is planning a referendum on whether to officially recognize indigenous people in the country's constitution for the first time. Prime Minister Julia Gillard described the move as a "once-in-50-year opportunity" to heal the government's relationship with Aborigines and improve their living conditions, the BBC reports. More»

(NEWSER) - Australia’s interventions in remote Aboriginal communities “overtly discriminate” against them, and prove that entrenched racism remains in Australia, a UN official said today. In 2007, Australia sent police and troops to aboriginal lands, and instituted special bans on alcohol and pornography. These measures "infringe their right of self-determination and stigmatize already stigmatized communities," a UN special envoy concluded after a 12-day visit. More»