The Northern Myth

31/08/2025

🦈🦈

Cronulla have won just two of their past 12 finals games and are seen by many as just making up the numbers in September. That’s just the way they like it.

29/08/2025

Something’s Very Wrong With the CLP’s "Tough Justice" Strategy

A guest post by Marion Scrymgour, Member for Lingiari, originally published in the Sunday Territorian.

Jails are essential social infrastructure.

Murderers, rapists and armed robbers belong there.

But many other people convicted of a crime do not.

The measure of a successful society and a successful government is perhaps the extent to which prison numbers remain steady and close to static for the cohort who comprise the worst of the worst, while other offenders are comprehensively managed on the outside, and supervised intensively, including through the creative use of technology.

The goal there is rehabilitation.

Contrary to the assertion of the Attorney-General, no police force in the world—and especially not in a jurisdiction as vast and challenging as the Territory—can operate on the basis that every single law-breaker will be arrested.

Discretion is key.

Neither police nor the Attorney-General have the authority to determine who is or is not a law-breaker.

That is a matter for the courts.

To read the rest of this informed and realistic commentary, go to The Northern Myth here: https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2025/08/25/somethings-wrong-with-the-clps-tough-justice-strategy/






The NT News
Bob Gosford
The Northern Myth
Marion Scrymgour MP
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy - Northern Territory
Luke Gosling MP
Selena Uibo: Member for Arnhem
Chansey Paech: Member for Gwoja
Country Liberal Party
Australian Labor Party
North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency
Central Australian Aboriginal Congress

28/08/2025

You can’t handle the truth!

In this compelling guest post George Newhouse argues that If the NT wants to silence coroners from exposing systemic racism, then the Federal Government must step in.

The Northern Territory Government is preparing a response to Coroner Elisabeth Armitage’s detailed inquest findings into the 2019 police shooting of Kumanjayi Walker...
Any plan to undermine the coroner is not just dangerous, it is legally regressive, morally indefensible, and in direct conflict with the lessons Australia promised to learn from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody nearly 35 years ago.

As the lawyer representing the grieving family of Kumanjayi White (another recent death in custody), the government’s approach risks undermining the outcome of that inquest before it has even begun.

Initial responses to the Kumanjayi Walker findings and recommendations suggest that the NT government wants to turn away from the uncomfortable truths about how First Nations people are treated by institutions, like the police, that should be free from discrimination.

To read the rest of this article follow this link to The Northern Myth: https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2025/08/04/you-cant-handle-the-truth/




Northern Territory Police Force
Northern Territory Police Association

If the NT wants to silence coroners from exposing systemic racism, then the Federal Government must step in. Coroner Elisabeth Armitage (l) and NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro A guest post by George Newhouse*

28/08/2025

The "March For Australia" is a march against the rest of us.
Patriotism, Outsourced
A guest post at The Northern Myth from Andrew Morrison, Gunditjmara

This weekend's March for Australia events promise to be the greatest celebration of contradictions since the invention of “Aussie” lamingtons (a New Zealand dessert wrapped in an Australian flag).

Expect a sea of Made in China flags fluttering proudly above convoys of Japanese SUVs and German sedans, each tank filled with Middle Eastern oil.

Marchers will be kitted out in polyester “Aussie Pride” shirts, lovingly stitched together in Bangladesh for $2.50 an hour, while chanting about “protecting Aussie jobs.”

Lunch will be catered by KFC and McDonald’s—because nothing says “true blue” like a bucket of fried chicken and a large Coke.

Entertainment will no doubt include American rock anthems blaring from Bluetooth speakers, streamed via U.S.-owned tech giants.

All of this will happen on Aboriginal land—land cared for by the oldest living culture on earth, the very culture these marches work so hard to deny.

But the irony runs deeper.

To read the rest of Andrew's piece go to The Northern Myth here: https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2025/08/25/the-march-for-australia-a-march-against-us/

March for Australia



The Northern Myth
Bob Gosford

Patriotism, Outsourced By Andrew Morrison, Gunditjmara 100 per cent AI The March for Australia promises to be the greatest celebration of contradictions since the invention of “Aussie” lamingtons (a New Zealand

28/08/2025

The $1 billion question: Who controls Aboriginal futures?

A guest post by Nigel Browne, CEO of Aboriginal Investment NT

The reality is, unless the Aboriginal Benefits Account (the ABA) is managed by the right hands, it will not uplift our communities at a pace necessary to bring parity to the NT’s population as a whole.

In short, our hands are the right hands.

And so far, we have proved that the funds we steward are in safe hands, having achieved returns of 7-8 per cent through calculated strategic investments.

Aboriginal Investment NT is here for the long term, and this is only the beginning.

To read the rest of this post, follow the links to The Northern Myth: https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2025/08/28/the-1-billion-question-who-controls-aboriginal-futures/

Garma Festival
Aboriginal Investment NT
National Indigenous Times
Northern Land Council
Bob Gosford
The Northern Myth

A guest post by Nigel Browne, CEO of Aboriginal Investment NT It has been just over a fortnight since the Garma Festival, the annual celebration and gathering that showcases Yolngu people, culture and Country.

28/08/2025

Chief Minister Dismisses Findings of Institutional Racism in Northern Territory Police Force
A guest post at The Northern Myth by Paul Gregoire published on 2 August 2025.

The Walker inquest found the NT Police Force is “an organisation with all the hallmarks of institutional racism”, which permitted Rolfe, a constable in his late 20s, to continue prioritising the use of excessive force during arrests involving Aboriginal males, despite repeated complaints, because dehumanising and devaluing First Peoples is the norm within the institution.

So, the NT chief minister really ought to have been tripping over herself to deliver a response, but instead, her silence was being deemed either “cowardly” or “arrogant” three days later, and when she did finally broach the subject a fortnight afterwards, it was to call for an overhaul of the coronial system due to the length and the cost of the Walker inquest.

Indeed, with the introduction of the Youth Justice Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 late last month, the Finocchiaro government has indicated that the pause that Armitage’s delivery of her inquest findings had afforded the Northern Territory, and further, the entire nation of Australia, is to be rode roughshod over, as NT Country Liberal architects proceed with plans to heighten incarceration.

Read the rest of this tale The Northern Myth here: https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2025/08/02/cm-dismisses-findings-of-institutional-racism/

Lia Finocchiaro MLA
Country Liberal Party



Northern Territory Police Force
Northern Territory Police Association

Bob Gosford
The Northern Myth

Sydney Criminal Lawyers

A guest post by Paul Gregoire. This article was first published by the Sydney Criminal Lawyers website. Released on 7 July 2025, the 683 page coronial report

28/08/2025

The NT Police Force – 45 years of ‘c***s’ and ‘ni***rs’ - recents posts from The Northern Myth

In 1977 Labor MP Jack Doolan began his quest to have NT police ordered to not use derogatory words about Aboriginal people.
They still do...
Roll forward – again – 45 years to 2022 and Jack Doolan’s prediction that bush Aboriginal people would ‘always be referred’ to as ‘c***s and ni***rs’ by NT police officers has the eerie and unfortunate ring of prescience...
I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that racist terms of abuse like ‘c***s’, ‘ni***rs’ and the like have long been consigned to history’s dustbin of common usage.

However, from the recent revelations in Coroner Armitage’s Report into the death of Kumanjayi Walker it seems that was naïve and, at least among a small group of NT police officers, racialised language was relatively commonplace.

Read the rest of this article at The Northern Myth here: https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2025/07/18/the-nt-police-force-45-years-of-c***s-and-ni***rs/



Northern Territory Police Force
Northern Territory Police Association
Bob Gosford
The Northern Myth
***s
***rs

I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that racist terms of abuse like ‘c***s’, ‘ni***rs’ and the like have long been consigned to history’s dustbin of common usage. However, from the recent revelations in Coroner Armitage’s Report into the death of Kumanjayi Walker it seems

27/08/2025

From The Northern Myth archives, June 2012.

One man, six bulls. Javier Castaño triumphs at the Feria de Nimes.

In may 2012 I was at a conference in Montpelier with a spare Saturday.

My hotel manager suggested I travel to Nimes for the annual Feria de Pentecôte, warning that I should beware of strong drink and drunken company.

“But you will enjoy the toros,” she said as I walked out the door.

There were two bullfights – corrida – that day so I bought tickets to both.

The midday corrida followed the usual order of proceedings – six bulls shared between three matadors.

That was my first corrida and an extraordinary enough event that I wrote about here and here.

In the evening matador Javier Castaño would fight six Miura bulls seul – solo.

One man and six bulls?

The read the rest of this tale and see my photos of the event go to The Northern Myth here: https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2013/03/24/one-man-six-muria-bulls-at-nimes/







The Northern Myth
Bob Gosford

It is a warm evening in late May 2012 and I sit on the wooden benches of the ancient Nimes arena, joining in the celebration of 60 years of the local Feria de Pentecote. By happy accident rather

27/08/2025

From The Northern Myth archives, June 2012.

On a warm bright day in May I’m sitting high in the stands of an ancient Roman arena watching a man kneel before and eyeball 530 kilograms of wild Spanish fighting bull that stands before him bloodied and weakened but no less dangerous for that.

Fifteen minutes earlier the bull had rushed into the Arena de Nimes in southern France on the last day but one of a week of bullfighting that is a large part of the Feria De Nimes in this southern French city.

He came in all wild-eyed furious and full of the running, aggression, rat-cunning and stamina that these Spanish fighting bulls are bred for.

In another 15 minutes or so he will be dead – struck through the heart with the estoque, the long thin sword that once plunged between the bull’s shoulders will sever the aorta and render a quick death.

Read the rest of this story and see more pics at The Northern Myth here: https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2012/06/03/bullfights-at-nimes-blood-death-and-glory-in-the-arena/







The Northern Myth
Bob Gosford

On a warm bright day in May I'm sitting high in the stands of an ancient Roman arena watching a man – the one-eyed matadore de toro Juan Jose Padilla weighing in at 80 kilograms dripping wet – kneel before and eyeball 530 kilograms

27/08/2025

From The Northern Myth archives, May 2012.

One Saturday in late may 2012 I was at the Feria de Nimes in southern France and spent a few hours in the Roman arena at the centre of town watching la Corrida – the bullfights.

I took a few photos of what happens when a banderillero – one of the crew intimately involved in the preliminary stages of a bullfight – gets it very wrong.

In the second of the three parts of a the traditional Spanish bullfight – known as the tercio de banderillas (“the third of banderillas”), three banderilleros each attempt to stab two banderillas – sharply barbed sticks – into the bull’s shoulders.

This is one of the most dangerous – and spectacular – parts of the bullfight, and one where the bull definitely has opportunities to exact some measure of revenge upon the banderilleros.

To see the rest of the photos gor to The Northern Myth at: https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2012/05/30/a-bad-day-in-the-office-for-this-bandillero-at-the-nimes-bullfights/

The Northern Myth
Feriadenimes.fr

Last Saturday just passed I was at the Feria de Nimes in southern France and spent a few hours inside the Roman arena at the centre of town watching la Corrida - the bullfights. I'll post a few more thoughts and photos

26/08/2025

Alice Desert Festival diary day two: the Bush Bands Bash!

From The Northern Myth, September 2010.

Ahead of the 2026 BBB in a few weeks, here are my thoughts and pix from the 2010 event - a great night out in The Alice!

The Bush Bands Bash is:

…at the forefront of contemporary Indigenous music in Central Australia and has attracted a significant following from both indigenous and non-indigenous audiences. BBB has made a significant contribution to the development of contemporary and experimental Indigenous music in Central Australia.

That we do things differently in central Australia is, for those of us fortunate to live here, just a matter of fact. One of the best indicators of that sense of difference is the importance of local culture – particularly local Aboriginal culture.

And because it is so much a part of the fabric of life here too many of us occasionally forget to give the centrality of Aboriginal culture – in all of its manifestations – the credit it is due...
One thing that made the Warumpi Band so remarkable was that they sang songs written in their own languages – either Gumatj, the language of their charismatic and sadly departed lead singer, or in Pintupi/Luritja, the closely-related languages spoken at the band’s homeland at Papunya, 300 or so kilometres to the north-west of Alice Springs.

See you in Alice in a coupla weeks!!

Read - and see - the rest here The Northern Myth here: https://www.thenorthernmyth.com/2010/09/12/alice-desert-festival-diary-the-bush-bands-bash/

MusicNT

CAAMA Radio
CAAMA Music
Bob Gosford
The Northern Myth
MusicNT's Bush Bands Bash

Saturday evening last weekend saw one of those rare events when the stars – and other heavenly bodies – come together in wondrous alignment.

26/08/2025

Save The Date!

On September 8 a bunch of good bands will perform at the Telegraph Station just outside Alice Springs - for mine the best of the lot might be the return of the wonderful Ilkari Maru!

Ilkari Maru is a Central Australian band originally formed in the 1980s.

Liam Tunkin has been working hard to revive his father’s legacy by carrying on the band with Webb Burton and other prominent musicians from the APY Lands.

They play country rock music and the original lineup of the band released two albums through CAAMA Music: Ilkari Maru (1984) and Lightning Strikes (Wangangarangk Rungkanu) (1987).

https://bushbands.com/

MusicNT





CAAMA Radio
CAAMA Music

MusicNT's iconic Bush Bands Bash celebrates 20 years on 15 September, 2024 at Alice Springs Telegraph Station. 10 live acts from remote Australia.