‘It’s only because of your son that my daughter’s living’: overcoming the cultural barriers to organ donation

1 June 2024 at 16:00

Culturally and linguistically diverse communities account for just 15% of organ donations made in 2023, but advocates say the more diversity among donors the better

When doctors told Mili Udani there was nothing more they could do to treat her seven-year-old son Deyaan’s brain haemorrhage, her “world came crashing down”. Only a week earlier they had been enjoying a holiday to see family in Mumbai when he began complaining about headaches.

After three doctors declared Deyaan brain dead, Udani’s cousin asked her if she had thought about organ donation. The question suddenly brought back a memory from a few weeks earlier.

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‘Denying history is simply lying’: how the University of Melbourne honoured racists, thieves and body snatchers

The Guardian

Lorena Allam

28 May 2024 at 05:00

An unflinching examination of its own history has revealed shocking stories in the sandstone foundations of a revered institution

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Nazi apologists, massacre perpetrators, grave robbers, racists and eugenicists were hugely influential across the entire history of the University of Melbourne, according to its own research.

The university has published a shocking account of the dark side of these erstwhile heroes of Australian academia in a book it hopes will tell a greater truth about the institution and its dealings with Aboriginal people.

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Comedian drops plan for a billboard of Gina Rinehart portrait in Times Square

The Guardian

Kelly Burke

28 May 2024 at 09:17

Dan Ilic wanted to project Vincent Namitjira’s work after Australia’s richest woman tried to have it removed from the National Gallery

An Australian comedian has dropped his plan to broadcast Vincent Namatjira’s contentious portrait of Gina Rinehart to thousands of tourists and New Yorkers in Times Square.

Dan Ilic told Guardian Australia on Tuesday lunchtime that, after exceeding his crowdfunding target of A$30,000, his stunt would go live in Times Square at 8pm on Friday night.

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The moment I knew: she left $50 on my bed and a note that said ‘buy yourself another bottle of wine’

The Guardian

Will Stubbs

25 May 2024 at 16:00

Will Stubbs was eager to impress Merrkiyawuy but couldn’t put a foot right. Then one humiliating evening, she saw the humour in his missteps

In 1993 I was working as a young criminal lawyer for Aboriginal Legal Aid in the Northern Territory. One day I was sent to the remote community of Yirrkala in north-east Arnhem Land to pay our respects at the funeral of Roy Dadaynga Marika, “the father of land rights”.

Overwhelmed by the beauty and richness of the ceremony and the shock of seeing my first dead body, I staggered out of the funeral shelter and turned back for a moment to take a photo of the pomp and colour of the scene, including the beautiful woman sitting right in front of me.

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New Photo of Australia’s Sand-Swimming Northern Marsupial Mole

NYT: Science

Anthony Ham

1 May 2024 at 00:02

Indigenous rangers in Australia’s Western Desert got a rare close-up with the northern marsupial mole, which is tiny, light-colored and blind, and almost never comes to the surface.

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