Protesters at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy have defended its existence while their message has been largely ignored by mainstream press. Jerico Mandybur reports.

Activist Isabelle Coe and a traditional dancer take part in sacred fire ceremony. Image: Jerico Mandybur

As Aboriginal protestors gathered to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy last Thursday, the majority of media coverage focused on a perceived threat of violence towards Prime Minister Julia Gillard, rather than on the group’s calls for representation and the recognition of sovereignty.

Michael Anderson, the last surviving founder of the Tent Embassy, stressed that the 1872 Pacific Islands Protection Act (which includes Australia) asserts Queen Victoria saying “I know not claim dominion or sovereignty over the Aboriginal people and their places or their leaders.” Mr Anderson continued by adding “the Government and the courts in this country haven’t got a high hope from now on, to take us on… because we will force these issues.”

Mr Anderson addressed the 1000-strong crowd, many of whom had gathered from interstate, on the subject of land rights, saying “we own this country; we’ve never given it away.

They’ve never beat us in war, they’ve never asked us to cede, they’ve forced us into situations, and look at us… we’re still standing, we’re still strong.”

One of the original Tent Embassy activists Paul Coe, spoke about the creation of Australia as a sovereign entity, contrary to Aboriginal people’s sovereign rights. “They never asked us. They never included Aboriginal people in what they were on about; we were excluded, marginalised, as if we didn’t exist… and unfortunately, that same process is still going on right now as we speak.”

Michael Anderson in front of a line of police. Image: Jerico Mandybur

The three-day-long program of events and workshops held at the Embassy were designed to celebrate the achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander activists, but also to honour those who defended the Embassy and have since died. “Here in 2012 we gather at this very sacred site, to pay tribute to those generations of patriots, to those men and women who’ve stood for the struggle… our blood is on that ground. The cops came here and smashed us, and we stood there as one mob, and we got up again,” says Murri Activist Sam Watson.

Prominent activist Rosalie Kunoth-Monks stated that the Invasion Day ceremonies were emotionally taxing for many involved, after hearing a roll-call of names of the deceased members of the original Tent Embassy protests in 1972. “Today we’re reminiscing about the struggles that we’ve had and just listening to that and thinking of the plight of the First Australians… Australia Day still brings a lot of pain.”

Rosalie Kunoth-Monks speaking her traditional Indigenous language.

Throughout the day, speakers from a cross section of nations and age groups spoke about a desire for self-determination and adequate national representation, with many referring to oft-quoted Indigenous public figures in Government as ‘gate-keepers’. Ms Kunoth Monks said: “the acknowledgement of black people as the first residents of this land is denied by our Government and it is a heartless, uncaring attitude by those that are supposed to be representing us.”

Elder Harry Nelson of Yuendumu, also brought attention to what he sees as a misrepresentation of his people, by those Aboriginal members on the advisory board with the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, saying “I find it really disgusting and shameful that these advisors to the Minister have never been to these communities, never spoken to us or sat around in a circle, discussing our problems.

The only advice that they give the Minister, is what they read in the papers.”

Similar sentiments were echoed by members of the Aboriginal Provisional Government, who issued an Invasion Day statement, saying “in a democracy, it is the right of Indigenous peoples to select their own representatives.

In the last 16 years, the opportunity for Aboriginal people to have our say has been stage managed by government and its lackeys, and the agenda has been theirs, not ours.”

1972 Aboriginal Protest Flag. Image: Jerico Mandybur

Redfern community leader Lyall Munro stated that Northern Territory Intervention should also be on the lips and tongues of all Aboriginal people in this country and claims “we cannot be free in the south unless our people in the Territory are free.

“We have to attack this racist indoctrination of our people for the want of land… what is happening up there is disgraceful and defies all international conventions that this country has signed and ratified.”

Barbara Shaw of the Intervention Rollback Action Group in Alice Springs feels strongly about the impact of the Intervention on the lives of local Aboriginal people, saying “four years I’ve been fighting the Intervention, and then they announce they’re going to have another Intervention for ten years.

We’ve had an Intervention for 200 years… we know what we want for our people. When will enough be enough?”

On the subject of Tony Abbott’s earlier comments on the Tent Embassy, in which he stated activists should ‘move on’, Ms Shaw said: “he is a coward to say that behind closed doors to the media… politicians and their parties need to recognise and understand and acknowledge that people were here before them. And we’ve got nowhere else to go, we were here first and we’re here to stay.”

Barbara Shaw being told of Tony Abbott’s statement.

Isabelle Coe is the wife of the late Billy Craigie, another of the Tent Embassy’s original founders. She has devoted her life to working for Aboriginal sovereignty and recognition. Looking back on the birth of the Embassy, Ms Coe said: “the people that came here back then, we only came here for one thing, and that was tell to the government that this country belongs to Aboriginal people.

I hope I don’t have to stay here for another 40 years.”

PJ Harvey performs 'Silence'. Image: Il Fatto Quotidiano

Justine McNamara reviews PJ Harvey at The State Theatre.

PJ Harvey last caused a stir in Sydney in 2008, when she was touring 2007 album ‘White Chalk’. That show saw her mostly alone on stage, with only a little help from long time performance buddy Mick Harvey. He joined her again on this tour, along with John Parish and Jean-Marc Butty, to bring life to her most recent album ‘Let England Shake’.

The band arrive on stage before PJ and waited for her to walk out. She doesn’t waste any time with greetings or introductions and jumps straight into the album’s title track. Her voice sounds delicate and wavers throughout the song’s high notes, but this is no criticism. The nature of it calls for urgency and vulnerability, which she delivers.

They finish abruptly and shuffle around in darkness to prepare for single ‘The Words That Maketh Murder’. The lyrics to this song are incredibly graphic and war-themed but it’s easily the catchiest on the album. The lyrics: “I’ve seen soldiers fall like lumps of meat… Arms and legs were in the trees,” should sound sinister but set to this melody, it’s hard not to dance.

PJ swaps between an auto harp and a guitar throughout the set and while both are played perfectly, she’s clearly more comfortable holding the guitar. The only song that has any movement from her is ‘Pocket Knife’ where she dances around the stage showing off the top of her leg by pulling up her dress.

The sound in the State Theatre is loud but not confronting and every note on every instrument sounds clear. The only problem on the night is at the start of ‘Bitter Branches’ – Mick Harvey’s guitar isn’t making any noise. But no one makes a fuss, PJ simply comes closer to her microphone and plays her guitar harder until Mick’s can be heard. PJ stays silent between every song until the encore and then introduces her band. The lights are still on when they start ‘The Piano’ and this unfortunately takes away from the haunting atmosphere they’d built before.

‘Silence’ is the last song of the encore and upon finishing, the crowd jump up into a standing ovation. PJ and her band watch us and smile for a few minutes, giving people a quick chance to snap some photos, before they walk off and leave us to reflect on the beauty we’ve just witnessed.

Two decades on since the Royal commission into Deaths in Custody, have we given Indigenous youth a chance? Image: alimander

Government report recommends re-establishing Indigenous bodies to improve shocking incarceration rates. Ashleigh Berdebes reports.

A House of Representatives report, released in June, calls it a “shameful state of affairs” that Indigenous youth are currently 28 times more likely to be incarcerated than non-Indigenous juveniles.

The situation has only worsened in the 20 years since Government accepted the previous Royal Commission’s recommendations, with the incarceration rate for Indigenous Australians increasing by 66 per cent between 2000 and 2009.

Recommendations such as cross-cultural training for police, arrest and gaoling (as a matter of last resort), and an advisory body to liaise with police and Government regarding Indigenous justice were also present in 1991’s Royal Commission report and have reappeared 20 years later in the current one.

Ray Jackson, President of the Indigenous Social Justice Association, says Doing Time – Time for Doing: Indigenous Youth in the Criminal Justice System is just “reinventing the wheel”.

“If one has a look at the recommendations that are in the report, one can quite easily refer those recommendations back to the 1991 Royal Commission that handed down 339 recommendations.”

The Federal Government recently accepted all of the report’s 40 recommendations to minimise incarceration, recidivism and the overrepresentation of Indigenous youth in the criminal justice system, who represent 53% of Australia’s juvenile inmates.

Ray Jackson says, “The major problem with all of these reports is the recommendations appertaining to the police are totally ignored.”

“The police will not accept any of the recommendations that change their everyday work practices, and they will continue just to do what they do every day, which is focus in on Aboriginal kids and continue to churn them through the courts.”

With 58% of Indigenous offenders being re-imprisoned within 10 years, the Law Council of Australia suggests that “‘therapeutic’ or restorative justice mechanisms” such as “Aboriginal sentencing courts, youth courts, drug and alcohol courts… have been demonstrated to have a greater impact on recidivism, particularly among young people.”

Constructive proposals in the Commission’s report include finding accommodation for those let out on bail, hearing tests for all pre-schoolers, providing pre-natal and ante-natal support for Indigenous mothers, diagnosing and officially recognising Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder as a disability, creating school attendance incentive programs, and providing teacher development and defense force recruitment.

The Federal Government has also promised to act on the recommendation of the creation of an Indigenous Law and Justice Advisory Body, a mediating force between youth and the criminal justice system, strikingly similar to one which Ray Jackson was a chairman of in the early 1990s, following the first Royal Commission.

When being asked what happened to the previous Aboriginal Justice Advisory Council, or, AJAC, Ray Jackson says “well, the police didn’t like it, because we used to question the police on their methods, and we questioned the government on their methods.”

“The major problem was, at each monthly meeting, we would have a different Copper with a different rank… they just stumbled through the whole thing, they just filibustered, in a sense. And we were bought to a screeching halt.

“We couldn’t do anything, nothing was happening.”

In response, Aboriginal members of AJAC decided to abandon the Government offices and take the meetings to Aboriginal members of the public, in places like La Perouse, Liverpool, and Mount Druitt. During this time, AJAC was dismantled by the Government.

“The Coppers didn’t like it, the government didn’t like it, so they shut us down.”

The justice system – including police and juvenile justice, is the responsibility of the each State and Territory Government, making the extensive reform of Indigenous justice practises that the Commission recommends difficult to monitor and more vulnerable to bureaucratic neglect.

Ray Jackson believes that if anything is to be achieved following this report, the Government needs to do away with self-regulation, and that an oversight body needs to be established that includes community representatives.

The accountability for implementing these recommendations needs to be sufficiently regulated; responsibility must be allocated, enforced, and audited on a long-term basis to have any effect on the incarceration rates for Indigenous youth and intergenerational disadvantage and discrimination in general.

“They have to have equal involvement and power to the government bodies, and the departmental bodies.

“It’s no use going to meetings and they just politely hear to what you’ve got to say and you walk out and it’s all over… It’s forgotten.”

“I don’t have any great belief that the government really wants an Aboriginal advisory body that’s going to tell them like it is, they want a tame cat body who will come along and mumble a few words and have a few beers and a canapé or something and that’s it!

“Well, we want more than that.”

With the rise of internet shopping on sites like ASOS in Australia, Danielle Gay finds out how traditional local retailers will stand the aggressive competition.

The Australian Retailers Association is urging traditional local retailers to remain competitive, by boosting their online options. Image: maistora

Britain’s biggest online fashion store has launched in Australia, bringing with it increased competition for local retailers.

ASOS, which stands for As Seen on Screen, released its highly anticipated Australian URL in September.

Russell Zimmerman, Executive Director of the Australian Retailers Association (ARA), said the introduction of the site would bring further competition to local brick-and-mortar stores.

“Consumers are looking overseas for brands and they understand these brands,” he said. “We are all very much into the online scene at the moment.”

ASOS, which is marketed to 16-34 year-olds, sells cut-price fashion, with hundreds of new pieces added to the online store daily.

The cult website sees 13 million visitors to its UK site a month and has named Australia as its second biggest market after the UK.

Mr Zimmerman said the wide range of options is the biggest driver of the brand’s success.

Boasting 40,000 branded and own label product lines, ASOS is a virtual wardrobe, covering everything from dresses to beauty products.

“It’s their range, their offer, there’s a raft of reasons why the website works well,” said Mr Zimmerman.

The Australian URL has brought advantages for consumers with shorter delivery times and local returns, offering a faster exchange service.

It is a localised experience, with domestic currency options, and there are plans to base the apparel designs on Australian seasons.

Already, the website has ignited a positive response from Australian fans.

“ASOS welcome to Australia with arms wide open!” one fan wrote on Twitter, while another added: “Kind of feel the need to shop on ASOS Australia, just cos [sic] it launched.

However, the site has brought more online competition to already struggling brick-and-mortar retailers.

According to figures from retail forecasters Deloitte Access Economics, this year retailers had faced a small growth of just 1.5 per cent, up from 1.3 per cent in 2010-2011.

Scott Ewing, researcher at The Swinburne Institute for Social Research said this is compared with domestic Australian online sales, which are at 4 per cent with a further 2 per cent going overseas.

“I think all traditional retailers should be considering the impact of online retail on their business,” said Mr Ewing, whose research is part of the World Internet Project.

Mr Zimmerman said the competition is good and believes it will encourage retailers to diversify their own range.

“This will make our Australian retailers look at their range and their offering to ensure they remain competitive to these overseas international brands,” he said.

“It’s a good thing all-round.”

Mr Zimmerman said the competition of international brands like ASOS should be seen as an opportunity.

ARA is urging retailers to remain competitive, by boosting their online options with a series of e-tail seminars.

“We’ve done two in Sydney and we’ve got another couple to go,” he said. “The reason we’re doing them is to ensure that we educate our retailers in the necessity to be in the online space.”

“They need to be in the online space to make sure that they’re competitive,” he said.

Mr Ewing agrees, saying he also urges retailers to consider what they can offer as a point of difference to online stores.

He said customer service and personalised advice are two things that keep consumers going back to traditional retailers.

“I think all retailers should be identifying their point of difference from online options and strengthening and communicating that point of difference,” said Mr Ewing.

Mr Zimmerman said Australia is becoming a global marketplace and retailers need to consider this.

“We’re very much an international country now, we have a whole bunch of retailers coming to Australia,” he said. “We need to make sure we’re engaged with the consumer at that level.”

A international leader in successful organ transplants, Australia still has one of the lowest donation rates in the world. Lucy Cormack asks why.

The lacking support structures and negative experiences during the initial request process are a major factor in many families' decision to decline donation in Australia. Image: #PACOM

It’s a frightening thought, to be asked to give away the vital organs of our loved ones.

But for registered nurse and PhD student, Holly Northam, it’s even more frightening that less than 60 per cent of Australian families ever say yes.

A recognised leader in successful transplants, Australia has one of the lowest organ and tissue donation rates in the developed world.

In her ten years of medical experience, Northam has seen a stark conflict between the approach taken by hospitals requesting donations and the reactions of potential donor families.

It’s the “agony of the human aspect of organ donation”, said Northam, which prevents shocked and grief-stricken families from being able to handle such an emotional and confronting decision.

Northam’s PhD research, due for completion in 2013, canvasses families who have declined a request to donate their deceased relative’s organs in the last three years.

Despite it being early days, Northam’s data already outlines a strong link between the decision to say no and the way families are approached in the hospital. Many were initially pro-donation.

Specific guidelines for initially approaching donor families recommended by the Australasian Transplant Coordinators Association are largely unknown.

“It is the doctors themselves doing the requesting and many are not aware of the steps,” she said.

Northam hopes her study will support a growing view that lacking support structures and negative experiences during the initial request process are a major factor in many families’ decision to decline donation.

“In the past we haven’t had suitable people working in hospitals with families,” she said, though she pointed out that public hospitals are gradually starting to address the issue by re-training staff to work specifically with remaining relatives.

“If we don’t understand, it’s hard to fix it.”

The current Australian process relies on an individual or their family expressing the intention to donate organs.

Potential donors can register their wishes on their driver’s licence, though there is no legal requirement to do so.

Confusion arises, however, when hospital staff and relatives have the authority to override directions to donate.

Transplant surgeon, Dr Deborah Varren, said she is often asked to explain who has the final say on the matter.

‘Why are my relatives asked for consent if I have said yes to donation on my drivers licence?’ is a common question, she said.

The difficulty is often in helping families and potential donors understand the many other factors involved with such a sensitive issue. It’s important that they do, however, as a possible donor’s wishes will only be enforced if their relatives verify the deceased’s intentions and medical history and consent to moving and operating on the patient.

Yael Cass, CEO of the Organ and Tissue Authority , agrees that Australia’s historically low donor rate is a direct result of an incohesive national system.

“Holly’s hypothesis is that donor family support is key, and we support that,” she said.

A 150 million dollar, Commonwealth-funded National Reform Agenda aimed at re-focusing a consistent approach to the request process was launched in 2008. A specialist workforce, intensive training and improving public relations, community awareness and acceptance of organ donation were key improvements to be made.

The results, said Cass, are a huge improvement. Australia’s donor acceptance rate has jumped by 51 per cent to 14.5 donors per million, on par with the UK and Germany.

Though the improved rate is still nothing close to Spain’s world record of 34 donors per million, Australia’s recent result is much closer to the European average than previously.

The most effective way to continue increasing donation rates it to ensure an individual’s wishes are translated into family knowledge. It’s already starting to become a common point of domestic discussion, said Cass.

Northam is also positive about the future.

“The money’s in the right place and the heart’s in the right place,” she said. “Now we’ve just got to keep going.”

For more information on organ donation, visit the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplant Authority’s website, Donate Life.

Found on the streets of Newtown, crystal meth is on the rise in Australia again. Image: michelle.irish

It is one of the world’s most dangerous drugs and has been for a number of years. So why, after a brief hiatus, is crystal meth on the rise in Australia again? Sean Slatter investigates.

As a single girl living in Newtown mid last year, Stacy did enjoy a night out. The stresses her job placed on her during the week meant that it was not uncommon for her to want a little something extra when enjoying the weekend nightlife with her friends. A woman in her early thirties, she had previously experimented with drugs and was well aware of the dangers certain substances could pose to her general well being. Her knowledge and experience meant that she was not afraid to occasionally indulge in methamphetamine’s such as ice on a night out.

Stacy however was by no means dependent on the drug. Government advertisements might have you believe that she sits at home all day scratching her arms for imaginary bugs but the reality is invariably different. She has a career and a large network of friends, many of whom share her experience when it comes to drugs such as methamphetamines. While she would never publicly endorse crystal meth or recommend it to anyone, she believes that the government has gone the wrong way about warning people about the dangers of the drug. “All that they did is create a stigma. Once I experienced it, I realised that their propaganda is for the most part just a scare campaign. It wouldn’t have stopped addicts and I don’t think it stopped casual drug users from trying it.”

The government launched its hard hitting media campaign against crystal meth, otherwise known as ice in late 2007 as a response to the near epidemic levels of usage by Australians in 2006. Despite a slight decrease in usage in the couple of years following this, it appears as though the drug is on the rise again with a study released by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) this month showing a significant increase in its usage among drug users in the last year. Forty-five per cent of people who inject drugs said they had used ice in the previous six months- up from 39 per cent in 2010. There has also been a surge in the worldwide consumption of the drug with amphetamine-type stimulants now ranking as the world’s second most widely used drug after cannabis (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime).

Natasha Sindicich, Illicit Drugs Reporting System Coordinator for NDARC says the increase can be traced back to a number of different factors in the Australian drug trade, most notably a shift where the drug is being produced. “There has definitely been a change in the major players, countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia used to be just middle men in the distribution cycle (of ice). What we are seeing now is that these countries are beginning to make and sell their own stuff on the market.” As well as this, Sindicich also believes that international trends are having an effect on the popularity of certain substances within Australia “We tend to mimic Europe a lot when it comes to this sort of thing and right now they are definitely having a taste of it”.

These recent developments have meant that methamphetamine has inevitably become more accessible to those who have the means at their disposable. On the subject of accessibility, Stacy states that she was able buy crystal meth more or less whenever she wanted it last year and a lot of the time she says, “it was just a phone call away”. The phone call that was made was to a man who is known only as T. A heavy user who deals to supplement his habit, he confirms that there has been somewhat of a boom in the methamphetamine market over the past year. “Yeah there is a lot of good cold stuff (ice) coming in at the moment … you don’t have to look far”. In regards to his sources for the drug, T confirms Sindicich’s theory concerning its production “(I get it from) Asian syndicates mostly. They seem to have the best stuff”.

When T is talking about the ‘best stuff’, he is referring to the purity, another major factor in determining whether a drug increases or decreases in popularity. In the case of methamphetamines such as ice, the quality of the product relies almost entirely on how it is made. One of the reasons given for the significant increase of the substance was that it had become easier to make. Recent US reports have told of how people are now manufacturing meth without specially made laboratories. According to NDARC, the four main processes used by ‘cooks’ in the production of meth are ‘red phosphorus’ in which the title chemical is used as the catalyst, ‘the nazi method’(much the same as red phosphorus but was invented during WW2), ‘P2P’ which uses chemical precursors, and hypophosphorus which can reduce the need for pseudoephedrine in the production.

Despite a large number of websites promising to give the exact details of each of these procedures, Sindicich says that government authorities are well aware of what’s out there. She also claims another concern for the authorities could be the success of tv shows such as Breaking Bad which focus heavily on the production method. Sindicich, explains that while the popularity of these types of shows may broaden the scope of public curiosity towards illicit drugs, it is unlikely to have an effect on the actual market. “There is no doubt that people will being asking questions after seeing episodes of shows like Breaking Bad. However I think it is fairly unlikely that we will see an increase in production rates as a result. People are still aware of what could happen if they get involved with a drug like this”.

The plot of Breaking Bad revolves around a high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with cancer and decides to cook meth so his family will have some money to live off after he is gone. The meth that he cooks is so pure that it becomes the only drug that users ask for. Although the circumstances were somewhat different, a similar kind of phenomenon could be seen to be occurring in Australia in 2010. The purity of the meth that was coming into Australia meant that other substances such as ecstasy were often rejected in favour of the crystallised form of speed. NDARC’s research shows that crystal meth’s recent rise in popularity is coupled with a steady decline in the quantity of ecstasy that was taken last year in the Australian drug community. According to the council, in 2011 only 27 per cent of drug users surveyed named ecstasy as their drug of choice. This is down from 37 per cent in 2010 and seems to be a part of a continuing trend which has seen less and less people purchasing pills over the last couple of years. A suggestion perhaps that maybe the once infamous party drug is on the way out and the stronger form of speed has taken its place. After all, 27 per cent is around half of the 52 per cent who nominated it as their main drug in 2003.

These statistics are backed up by results from research done by the Australian institute of Criminology which conducted its own investigation into these trends. Rachel Mcgregor works for the Drug Use Monitoring Australia program, a branch of the AIC that gains information about the current state of the Australian drug market through interviewing drug detainees immediately after their arrest. She states that the changes in usage rates of crystal meth over the last couple of years indicate the direction in which the illicit drug market is heading towards. “In 2009 13 per cent of detainees had used ice in the month before they were arrested. In 2011, 21 per cent had. Both Cocaine and heroin rates remained stable in this period. Our research has shown that the increase in ice has come as a result of an improved product that is being provided by more sellers.”

So with the once notorious ecstasy on the slide and the more dangerous, more addictive methamphetamine ice on the rise, there remains the question of what needs to be done to stem this recent pattern in the Australian drug trade. Both Natasha and Rachel are in agreement with Stacy that a different tact needs to be tried than the one the government was using in 2007. “Things are different now” says Sindicish. “We know more about the long term effects that it can have and that needs to be emphasised in any education that is given regarding the drug”. Meanwhile Rachel believes that advertising should be aimed at people who know someone who is taking the drug rather than at the users themselves, “I don’t think the campaigns made by the government would have had an effect on regular users. We need to show the effect that their usage is having on people close to them”.

At the end of the day however, it appears as though usage of meth will depend on what drugs are the most accessible to Stacy and her friends . . . and their quality.

The name of Stacey and T has been changed as per the request of interviewees.

A new study done in the US has shown that children exposed to media before bedtime, or violent content in the media, are more likely to experience sleeping issues. Shauna O’Carroll reports.

Recurring nightmares sound like a normal phase for children to go through but sleep specialists say media exposure is a contributing factor to irregular sleeping patterns. Image: dcmpnad

Dylan wakes from his slumber with a start, he is covered in sweat and shaking from head to toe.

Dylan has been experiencing recurring nightmares for a few months now, as well as having issues with getting to sleep and repeatedly waking during the night.

“I thought that maybe it was just a phase he was going through,” said Sharon O’Neill, the mother of Dylan.”

“You hear from every parent that their child has problems sleeping, so you think it is normal behavior,” she said.

Dr Arthur Teng, Head of the Department of Sleep Medicine at Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick said that it is a common perception for parents.

“There is the perception that this is normal behaviour for children, but it can be more.”

A new study done in the US has shown that children exposed to media before bedtime, or violent content in the media, are more likely to experience sleeping issues.

Dr. Chris Seton, sleep specialist for Westmead Children’s Hospital, believes that not all children’s sleep is affected by media exposure.

“It is not applied to all children, some children are unaffected by the media and others are sensitive to it and sensitive to content,” he said.

“During the time of the bushfires a few years ago, we had a lot of children having recurrent nightmares and dreams about their house burning down. Media is the conveyor of information to children in general.”

Sharon said that Dylan is exposed to television before bed, however she never thought that it would be extensive enough to cause issues with sleeping.

“I know lots of parents whose children watch television before bed and they don’t have a problem at all,” she said.

“I mean everyone gets nightmares, even adults, and everyone can have problems with sleeping.”

Through his work Dr. Teng has found that nightmares regularly occur in children, through media exposure or not.

“Nightmares are very common in children, they are affected by what happens in life during the day. If something bad happens it plagues on the mind and can become a nightmare,” he said.

In his treatment of sleep disorders in children, Dr. Seton said that monitoring the media exposure for patients is a key part of treatment.

“When we look at night terrors, nightmares, an inability to sleep and waking in the night, we have a blackout period of media up to an hour before bedtime as part of our treatment,” he said.

Sleep Medicine is a relatively new concept in the world of medicine; with the study of childrens’ sleep beginning only twenty years ago.

However, Sleep Medicine is gaining momentum is Australia, with the public becoming aware of the positive and negative effects of sleep on the functioning body.

“In 1992 when I started my work on children sleeping disorders at the clinic I saw 2 patients a day.” said Dr. Seton.

“Now on a busy day I will see up to 40 patients.”

Research has shown that illnesses and disorders common to children may actually be attributed to sleep disorders and sleep deprivation.

“Children who have undiagnosed sleep disorders have emotional, behavioural and physical problems. They are labelled with other disorders because of their behaviour, they have trouble learning and have decreased social skills,” said Dr. Teng.

Dr. Seton agrees, saying that he is pleased that the public is more aware of the problems of ineffective sleep, as it is helping to diagnose and treat children accordingly.

“Once the message gets through, people are informed, it heightens awareness, which is a good thing,” he said.

“Often a sleep problem is labelled as something else, such as a behavioural disorder, and once you know it is a sleep problem you can fix them. They don’t have to have the stigma of their previous label for the rest of their life.”

Sharon said that after speaking to a sleep specialist she is trying new things to change Dylan’s sleeping patterns.

“He doesn’t watch television anymore before bedtime, or have exposure to any other media,” she said.

“I make sure the lights are dimmed and that we do something that is relaxing, like reading instead.”

Sharon said it is only simple changes that will cause a world of difference. “His sleeping has improved so much since I made these changes,” said Sharon.

“He isn’t experiencing as many nightmares, he doesn’t wake during the night and he has more energy during the day because he is getting enough sleep.”

Sleep specialists believe that all it takes is more awareness of the effects of sleep on the body for a significant change in public perception and the difference in children getting diagnosed and getting the help they need.

“It has increased just through awareness,” said Dr. Seton.

“People who have been referred become aware, parents become aware. Anything with the media, especially on television, about sleep issues in children, triggers a whole lot of referrals.”

“As I tell my medical students, sleep is the centre of the medical universe, it affects every part of your body, mentally and physically,” said Dr. Teng

Amnesty International Chief Salil Shetty met with Indigenous Ministers after being shocked to see the living conditions of Indigenous Australians. Jerico Mandybur reports.

Community Leader and Utopia resident Rosalie Kunoth Monks told Salil Shetty, that her people want to stay on the land, but are forced to deal with overcrowding, and lack of access to basic facilities like electricity and water. Image: Publik15

Amnesty International Chief Salil Shetty met with MP Jenny Macklin and opposition MPs in Canberra to demand an end to the Northern Territory’s Growth Towns policy, which encourages the removal of Indigenous people from their traditional homelands into regional hub towns.

After spending 12 days touring the country and meeting local spokespeople and community members in the Utopia region of N.T, Shetty said he was shocked at what he saw.

“I can’t believe I’m actually in one of the richest countries in the world and you have people, Aboriginal communities here who are living in conditions which are really almost inhumane,” adding “I think it’s quite shocking that you can have this level of poverty and this level of lack of basic facilities.”

Shetty’s visit coincided with the release of Amnesty International’s report The land holds us: Aboriginal Peoples’ right to traditional homelands in the Northern Territory, which recommends urgent political and financial support for homelands and details the ways in which current Government policies undermine the basic rights of Aboriginal people who wish to stay on their homelands, as well as directly ignoring aspects of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.

The Government is currently funding the creation of 20 major growth towns or “mega shires”, which receive almost $800 million in housing, while on remote communities and homelands, no new houses are built and the minimum standard of repairs are maintained.

As Community Leader and Utopia resident Rosalie Kunoth Monks told Salil Shetty, that her people want to stay on the land, but are forced to deal with overcrowding, and lack of access to basic facilities like electricity and water.

She believes the Government policy is about forced assimilation and the acquisition of land for mining.
“It’s not that they’re coming here with bulldozers or getting the army to move us it’s that they’re trying to starve us out of our home,” she said.

“They won’t support us becoming sustainable in our own right.

“If you’re made to feel a second class humanity, if it’s not ethnic cleansing please let me know what it is.”

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous People has echoed the report by Amnesty, saying the “health of Indigenous people living on homelands is significantly better than those living in larger communities.”

As well as maintaining a spiritual and cultural connection to their country, Amnesty International have also supported the voices of many Indigenous elders who oppose the policy, saying that homelands communities also retain some measure of community control and agency, quoting many examples of strong self-governance models.

“I think there is a fundamental problem. I think at one level the government doesn’t fully understand how central the relationships Aboriginal people have with land,” Shetty said.

“It’s not just the physical aspect. It’s a cultural aspect, it’s their identity, it’s their spirit, and it’s their ancestors.”

A 2005 research paper entitled Healthy Country: Healthy People? Exploring the Health Benefits of Indigenous Land Resource Managementshows that Indigenous Australians living on their traditional homelands are significantly healthier and live a lot longer.

Further research conducted by Amnesty International Australia has also shown that homelands can be economically sustainable, forming a central part of the N.T tourism industry and contributing almost 6 percent of the Territory’s economy.

Sail Shetty has said that during their discussion, Jenny Macklin admitted that homelands communities were one of the most disadvantaged in Australia.

“She has given us a commitment, from the guarantee that these homeland communities will not be pushed out of their land, and that they will get their requisite funding, with a clear plan and budget in the coming months,” he said.

“We have offered to work closely with them, to support and help them, and, at the same time, we will be holding them to account.”

From rooftops, backyards to community gardens, urban beehives are becoming more and more common across Sydney. Anastasia Dimitrios reports on whether city bees can make a difference to a global crisis.

Urban Beekeeping from Anastasia Dimitrios on Vimeo.

Urban bee keepers are doing their bit to preserve the honey bee, which has become endangered all over the world thanks to an epidemic called Colony Collapse Disorder and a deadly parasite known as Verroa Destructor.

Facebook relationships increases contact with friends and family but it also advertises your relationship breakup. Su-Lin Tan reports on the effects of social media on relationships.

A facebook friend wheel - a data visualisation of facebook friend connections. Image: Superkimbo

Recent community surveys have shown social media can have a negative impact on relationships but it can also help to improve communication in relationships.

The latest survey by Relationships Australia has revealed users of social media have a mixed reaction to the impact of social media on their relationships.

Centre Manager for Relationships Australia Ballarat centre manager, Sue Yorston, said: “Staff at our centres often has anecdotal discussions about counselling challenges and we are hearing trend of social media related problems. That prompted the survey.”

Many respondents to the survey indicated social media has made it easier for them to maintain relationships with friends and families and also to reconnect with people from the ‘past’.

But respondents also indicated their heightened concerns about the privacy of online communication, the impersonal nature of online communication and jealousy about online relationships.

Respondents are worried that the use of social media and technology can lead to addiction to chat rooms and sex sites. They also raised the issue of bullying of young people; something now called ‘cyber bullying’.

Health and counseling practitioners also took part in the survey.

Practitioners revealed their clients often bring up Facebook and MySpace as one of the main causes of relationship problems.

Yorston said: “With social media, we now have ‘virtual affairs’. People are cheating on each other online.

“Warring parents have arguments and heated discussions on social media and their children see them, leading to breakdowns in families.

“Also, when one partner in a relationship spends excessive time accessing social networking sites it can really isolate the other partner.

“Finally, the amounts of time people spend on Facebook means less real time spent with the real people.”

Other examples cited in the survey include partners and parents ‘prying’ or ‘checking’ on partners’ and children’s social media account or email without their consent and relationship breakups playing out on Facebook – all leading to conflicts in relationships.

But practitioners say the use of social media can enhance relationships post-separation.

Facebook and email can allow for more business-like and safer communication between separating partners. A quick Skype call or Facebook post to say ‘goodnight’ can facilitate safe communication between children and non-primary parents.

A similar survey and study by the Australian Psychological Society shed more light on this social conundrum.

The 2010 survey, ‘The Social and Psychological Impact of Online Social Networking’, indicated most people have had some negative social media experiences often in the form of unwanted contact and people posting inappropriate or upsetting information about them online.

But many people also said social networking has allowed them to attend more social events when compared to before they were using social networking sites. This suggests the use of these sites increases both online and face-to-face social interactions.

In fact, people preferred to communicate in person rather than using online social networking sites. This shows people are not necessarily moving away from face-to- face interactions but perhaps using social networking to enhance their in-person communications.

This discovery has provided some comfort to the proponents of the benefits of physical interaction in human development.

Yorston said: “As human creatures, a lot of our communication is non verbal. So it is crucial to relationship building that we have eye contact, for example, and not one dimensional contact.”

“Early research also shows that for the brain to function well there is a need for live interaction between people.”

“Instant emailing stops the mind from ‘free thinking’ or ‘dreaming’ which are processes that allow the subconscious of the mind to process images and ideas.”

Subject experts on this area also agree the negative effects of social media on relationships outweigh the positives.

Cyber-psychology researcher for Cyborg Australia, Karyn Krawford, said: “Research shows there are little benefits to forming a relationship with a computer screen.

“Increased time online reduces people’s ability to empathise and takes them away from healthy living.

“The Pew Research Centre indicates that there are actually benefits to relationships in keeping in touch via email but show little benefits in connecting via social media.

Relationships Australia is committed to using the findings from their survey to spearhead a project in examining literature and research on this issue.

The organisation wants to use the information gathered to develop contemporary techniques to combat these emerging problems.