You can lead a nation to slaughter, but you can’t make it think

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anzac Day ceremony, to coincide with NAIDOC Week 2013 in Sydney.

POLITICS is all about the timing, so this column might initially seem a little out of place. But stick with me.

Mumma mia… here we go again

Delta Goodrem’s tweet promoting blackface.

COMEDY is a personal thing, and I like mine political, particularly when white people come in for a pasting. Why? Because my career pretty much revolves around explaining to white Australians that we are not the master race. So I like the validation.

All that said, sadly, I never got to see Fear of a Brown Planet, the smash-hit comedy show by Nazeem Hussain and Aamer Rahman which, by all accounts, goes a considerable way to evening up the score.

All quiet on the Western Front

OF ALL the world’s trouble spots, it turns out the tiny NSW town of Bourke is the worst of them. No kidding. At least that’s the claim of the Sydney Morning Herald, which – after putting two and two together, and coming up with 86 – reported that Bourke was the most dangerous place on earth. We’re still not kidding. CHRIS GRAHAM* and CHRIS MUNRO* report from a town that is under siege not from terrorists with guns, but journalists with vivid imaginations.

All roads lead to Byron, and blackfellas

The Aboriginal flag flying high at the Byron Bay Bluesfest.

MUSIC, at least for me, is an intensely personal thing. I was fortunate to be raised by parents who have a great love of music, so they made sure that my three brothers and I got a good musical education.

We all had to learn multiple instruments, we all had to join choirs, we all had to play in brass and concert bands. Most of the time, when I was forced to sit down and practice (piano, or drums, or briefly trumpet) I would have obviously rather been out riding my bike. But looking back, I’m grateful for the experience because even though I never went on to pursue music as a career, it fostered in me a strong love and appreciation that continues to grow to this day.

That’s one of the amazing things about music – it gets better with age. And that explains how, finally, I found myself at the Bluesfest in Byron Bay over the Easter break.

Drunk, naked West Australian uni students hit the streets to sell racist hate-speech… all in the name of charity

Some of the team behind Prosh, directors Maitlyn Hansen and Raymond Maujean and Prosh editor Sam Bayford (2nd, 3rd and 4th from left) with Perth’s Nova morning crew, Nathan (far left), Nat and Shawn (right).

MORE than 1,000 West Australian university students – many of them drunk and at least some of them naked – hit the streets of Perth early yesterday morning to help promote racist hate-speech which depicts Aboriginal people as lazy, alcoholic, petrol sniffers, and which attacks land rights, tent embassies and Aboriginal art.

But before you get offended, it was all just satire, and done in the name of charity.

‘White trash mixed with black blood’: The truth about Toomelah

THE tiny NSW town of Toomelah has made headlines, and once again it’s because of poverty and community dysfunction. But why has a community that’s received so much attention over the years failed to thrive? CHRIS GRAHAM takes an in-depth look at the town, and a bad government policy that, above all others, has set the community back decades.

Bolt’s Law: You are who Andrew says you are

HERALD Sun columnist Andrew Bolt has been knocked down, and before he gets up he should try and learn a few lessons about Aboriginal identity, writes CHRIS GRAHAM*.

Conservatives all at sea over human rights

Asylum seekers arrive by boat on Christmas Island, July 8, 2011.

THE greatest threat to our nation is not boat people – it’s been living here for the past 200 years, writes CHRIS GRAHAM*.

The spirit of Australia? We’re all in trouble!

Wallabies star Radike Samo with the two fans in blackface, who attended the game courtesy of Qantas.

I’VE ALWAYS believed that self-praise is not really any recommendation. Which goes some way to explaining why I’ve never really believed that Qantas is actually ‘the spirit of Australia’.

Until now.

A column about the First Boat Peoples of our nation

AUSTRALIANS have to hate somebody. We’re famous for it. In the 1960s and 70s, we hated the ‘Eyeties’ (Italians, for those too young to remember, which includes me). Then it was the Greeks. In the late 80s, and early 90s we turned on the Vietnamese. Then during the ‘Noughties’ we discovered how much we hated the Lebanese. Today, it’s the Sudanese.

None of this, of course, should surprise.