The NRL's All Stars game might be a mere pre-season exhibition. A chance for the fortunate few to soak bodies aching from the rigors of the pre-season in the Gold Coast surf and catch up with mates. But its significance becomes apparent when you talk to the players, particularly those in the indigenous team.

The bias, hysteria and divisiveness of our public political conversation is never far from view, but this week I encountered it firsthand.

Forty years ago, the establishment of the Aboriginal tent embassy was a stroke of political genius. A striped beach umbrella planted on the manicured lawns outside Parliament House in Canberra came to symbolise Aboriginal Australians' sense of alienation in their own country.

A group of hip hop artists from regional New South Wales have overcome challenges to start music careers as well as improve their classroom performance.

For some it's a Canberra eyesore, for others a curiosity but on the eve of its 40th anniversary the Aboriginal Tent Embassy is still in place - an icon of indigenous struggle for generations of Australians.

The 2012 Saltwater Freshwater Festival is ready to rock the riverfront at Queen Elizabeth Park, Taree on Australia Day.

The expert indigenous panel has overreached with its complex set of recommended constitutional changes in the interests of Australia's indigenous peoples.

The Australian constitution must abandon the 19th century idea that Aboriginal people's identity is based on race. Racism turns your life into a lottery. It reduces your ability to control your destiny or make decisions for yourself. To stay or go becomes a matter of life or death.

The debate about formally recognising Indigenous Australians in the Constitution is set to flare following the release of recommendations from the expert panel advising the Government on the issue.

Separating people according to their race is based upon a discredited 19th-century scientific theory in which a person's race can determine everything from their intelligence to their suitability for certain roles.

On 15 December 1993, Uluru became the first icon in Australia to be given an official dual Aboriginal-English name, giving birth to a wave of dual-named sites and landmarks across Australia.

Muslim conversion is growing in Indigenous communities. In the 2001 national census, 641 Indigenous people identified as Muslim. By the 2006 census the number had climbed by more than 60% to 1014 people.

Indigenous students progress through school at the same rate as their classmates but tend to score lower on average because they start school further behind and are never able to catch up.

There was no lighting, no speakers or entourage and the location was down the road from a former atomic bomb testing site. But Jessica Mauboy was at ease on her outback stage.

The father of reconciliation, Pat Dodson, has declared racial discrimination should be removed from the nation's Constitution, as voters are asked to support the creation of a new power to legislate for the "advancement" of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

It may be the most maligned piece of swimming attire ever, but a surprising number of Sydney footballers have lined up to wear budgie smugglers in public tomorrow.

Prized Parramatta recruit Chris Sandow is one of five newcomers in a star-studded Indigenous All Stars team announced today at Redfern for the 2012 Harvey Norman Rugby League All Stars at the Gold Coast’s Skilled Park on February 4.

In the first two years of study toward her masters' degree, Jennifer Symonds from suburban Wollstonecraft, earned the right to carry a woven pandanus dilly bag and a digging stick adorned with yams painted in ochre.