Sexually mutilated infants, toddlers raped, children sodomised, women so badly beaten they come to envy dogs. Stripped of cant and buck-passing, beyond a patronising and indulgent judiciary, remote Indigenous communities are being eaten alive by the cancers of grog, misogny and endemic violence

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One hears much of Aboriginal suffering from those who would pin the blame on "invaders". Politically expedient as those excuses may be, they omit a richly documented record of appalling sexual violence and mutilation

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It is fashionable to excuse the current and appalling levels of Indigenous violence on dispossession and oppression, but the unpalatable truth is that it has been a feature of Aboriginal culture since long before the First Fleet

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Death, disease, degradation -- that is what the enormous expenditure "close the gap" is buying. That and a bureaucracy which wraps its failures and waste in the management-speak

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Despite its improbable plot, critics are hailing a semi-autobiographical play by "emerging" Indigenous artist and grant recipient Nakkiah Lui. What a pity she didn't omit the tired cliches of black victimhood and simply tell her own story

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By all accounts, The Monthly's John van Tiggelen was a picture of gentlemanly decorum at the launch of Stephanie Jarrett's brave new book on the roots of Indigenous violence. Back at the office, however, the bile poured forth

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Few now remember the Indigenous Family Resettlement Scheme, an astonishingly successful pilot program to help Aboriginal families start new lives in urban centres. Billions of squadered dollars after opponents of assimilation saw it scrapped, the simple and cost-effective scheme is well worth reconsidering

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Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott agree our nation's foundation document needs tweaking  to recognise Indigenous Australians. Having found common ground at last, they are both on the wrong side

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A frank and distressing exchange with author and academic Stephanie Jarrett, whose book, Liberating Aboriginal People from Violence, voices a ground-breaking demand that policymakers abandon their fuzzy cliches and patronising indifference and implement realistic remedies

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Senator-to-be Nova Peris may be better qualified than many of her detractors believe. After all, what better training for Canberra than a series of lucrative and well-intentioned contracts that did very little to achieve their goals?

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