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Antarctic heat, wild Australian winter: what’s happening to the weather and what it means for the rest of the year

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/martin-jucker-379172">Martin Jucker</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/unsw-sydney-1414">UNSW Sydney</a></em></p> <p>Australia’s south and east have seen <a href="https://theconversation.com/southern-australia-is-freezing-how-can-it-be-so-cold-in-a-warming-climate-233977">freezing temperatures</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jul/29/australia-winter-weather-forecast-east-coast-colder-records">wild weather</a> this winter. At the same time, the continent as a whole – and the globe – have <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-03/australia-suffers-cold-winter-weather-despite-mild-forecast/104176284">continued to warm</a>.</p> <p>What’s going on? As ever, it’s hard to pinpoint a single cause for weather events. But a key player is likely an event unfolding high above Antarctica, which itself may have been triggered by a heatwave at surface level on the frozen continent.</p> <p>Here’s what’s happening – and what it might mean for the rest of this year’s weather.</p> <h2>When the stratosphere heats up</h2> <p>Out story begins in the cold air over Antarctica. July temperatures in the stratosphere, the layer of air stretching between altitudes of around 10 and 50 kilometres, are typically around –80°C.</p> <p>The winds are also very strong, averaging about 300 kilometres per hour in winter. These cold, fast winds loop around above the pole in what is called the <a href="https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/waugh/research/polarvortex">stratospheric polar vortex</a>.</p> <p>Occasionally, persistent high air pressure in the lower atmosphere can influence large-scale waves that extend around the globe and up into the stratosphere. There they cause the strong winds to slow down, and the air high above the pole to become much warmer than normal.</p> <p>In extreme situations the stratospheric winds can completely break down, in what is called a “sudden stratospheric warming” event. These events occur every few years in the northern hemisphere, but only one has ever been observed in the south, in 2002 (though another <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-air-above-antarctica-is-suddenly-getting-warmer-heres-what-it-means-for-australia-123080">almost happened in 2019</a>).</p> <h2>Pushing polar weather our way</h2> <p>Once the polar vortex is disturbed, it can in turn influence the weather at the surface by steering weather systems from the Southern Ocean towards the Equator. However, this is a slow process.</p> <p>The impact at the surface may not be felt until <a href="https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-22-0425.1">a few weeks or even months</a> after the initial weakening of the stratospheric polar vortex. Once it begins, the stratospheric influence can prevail for more weeks or months, and helps meteorologists make <a href="https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2601-2022">long-range weather forecasts</a>.</p> <p>In climate science terms, the weak stratospheric winds put an atmospheric system called the <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/sam/">Southern Annular Mode</a> into a negative phase. The main effect of this on surface weather is to bring westerly winds further north.</p> <p>In winter, this means polar air outbreaks can reach places like Sydney more easily. As a result, we see more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI4134.1">rain over much of southern Australia</a>, and snowfall in alpine regions. In spring and summer it means westerly winds blow over the continent before reaching the east coast, bringing warm and dry air to southeastern Australia.</p> <p>The exact impact of a weaker polar vortex depends on how much and for how long the weather systems are being pushed further northward. It will also depend on other weather influencers such as El Niño and the Indian Ocean Dipole.</p> <h1>This winter’s weirdness</h1> <p>Unpicking exactly why any weather event occurs is tricky at the moment, because global weather has been absolutely crazy over the past 12 months or so. Global temperatures are <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-just-blew-past-1-5-degrees-game-over-on-climate-not-yet-213364">much higher than usual</a>, which is making unusual weather very common.</p> <p>But there are indications that the stratosphere is having some influence on our weather this winter.</p> <p>The stratospheric polar vortex started to warm in mid-July, and is about 20°C warmer than the long-term average. At the time of writing, the winds slowed down to about 230 kilometres per hour, 70 kilometres per hour slower than average.</p> <p>These numbers mean that, technically, the event does not qualify as a sudden stratospheric warming. However, further warming may still occur.</p> <p>If we look at how southern hemisphere winds have evolved in the past few weeks, we see a pattern which looks like what we would expect from a sudden stratospheric warming.</p> <p>First, we see warming in the stratosphere which is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL095270">at first accompanied by a poleward shift of weather systems</a>.</p> <p>The stratosphere’s influence then propagates downward and seems to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-22-0425.1">induce many weeks</a> of weather systems shifted towards the equator.</p> <p>This coincides with the period of cold and rainy weather along Australia’s east coast in late July and the beginning of August. Forecasts suggest the Southern Annular Mode will be a long way from normal conditions in the first half of August – four standard deviations below average, which is extremely rare.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/611211/original/file-20240804-19-sp862a.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/611211/original/file-20240804-19-sp862a.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/611211/original/file-20240804-19-sp862a.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/611211/original/file-20240804-19-sp862a.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/611211/original/file-20240804-19-sp862a.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/611211/original/file-20240804-19-sp862a.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/611211/original/file-20240804-19-sp862a.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/611211/original/file-20240804-19-sp862a.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="Diagram showing atmospheric warming and winds" /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">How initial warming high in the stratosphere ends up changing winds near the surface and pushing polar weather further north.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://stratobserve.com">Z.D. Lawrence / StratObserve / Annotated by Martin Jucker</a></span></figcaption></figure> <h1>A surface disturbance</h1> <p>The main reason for the polar vortex to slow down is disturbances from the surface. Weather over the Amundsen Sea near Antarctica in the South Pacific is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-22-0425.1">an important source</a> of these disturbances.</p> <p>This year, we have seen disturbances of this sort. There have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/01/antarctic-temperatures-rise-10c-above-average-in-near-record-heatwave">near-record surface temperatures around Antarctica</a>.</p> <p>These disturbances may be due to the globally high ocean temperatures, or even lingering effects of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-23-0437.1">eruption of the Hunga Tonga volcano in 2022</a>. But more research will be required to confirm the causes.</p> <h1>What should we expect for the rest of the year?</h1> <p>There are two pathways until the end of the year. One is that the stratospheric winds and temperatures recover to their usual values and no longer influence surface weather. This is what the forecasts from <a href="https://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov">Ozone Watch</a> seem to suggest.</p> <p>Another is that the stratosphere keeps warming and the winds keep being slower all the way into summer. In this scenario, we would expect a persistent negative Southern Annular Mode, which would mean a spring and potentially even summer with warmer and drier than usual weather over southeastern Australia, and a small ozone hole.</p> <p>The seasonal forecasting models from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts <a href="https://x.com/drahbutler/status/1819142206348759170?s=46&t=sayfGwpo3_s310BwYpcdcQ">seem to favour this second scenario</a>.</p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/martin-jucker-379172">Martin Jucker</a>, Senior Lecturer in Atmospheric Science, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/unsw-sydney-1414">UNSW Sydney</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock </em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/antarctic-heat-wild-australian-winter-whats-happening-to-the-weather-and-what-it-means-for-the-rest-of-the-year-236067">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

Travel Trouble

How traditional Indigenous education helped four lost children survive 40 days in the Amazon jungle

<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/eliran-arazi-1447346">Eliran Arazi</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/hebrew-university-of-jerusalem-855">Hebrew University of Jerusalem</a></em></p> <p>The discovery and rescue of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/four-missing-colombian-children-found-alive-jungle-sources-2023-06-10/">four young Indigenous children</a>, 40 days after the aircraft they were travelling in crashed in the remote Colombian rainforest, was hailed in the international press as a “<a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/06/11/miracle-in-the-jungle-colombia-celebrates-rescue-of-children-lost-in-amazon-rainforest_6030840_4.html">miracle in the jungle</a>”. But as an anthropologist who has spent more than a year living among the Andoque people in the region, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/100474974/Amazonian_visions_of_Visi%C3%B3n_Amazon%C3%ADa_Indigenous_Peoples_perspectives_on_a_forest_conservation_and_climate_programme_in_the_Colombian_Amazon">conducting ethnographic fieldwork</a>, I cannot simply label this as a miraculous event.</p> <p>At least, not a miracle in the conventional sense of the word. Rather, the survival and discovery of these children can be attributed to the profound knowledge of the intricate forest and the adaptive skills passed down through generations by Indigenous people.</p> <p>During the search for the children, I was in contact with Raquel Andoque, an elder <em>maloquera</em> (owner of a ceremonial longhouse), the sister of the children’s great-grandmother. She repeatedly expressed her unwavering belief the children would be found alive, citing the autonomy, astuteness and physical resilience of children in the region.</p> <p>Even before starting elementary school, children in this area accompany their parents and elder relatives in various activities such as gardening, fishing, navigating rivers, hunting and gathering honey and wild fruits. In this way the children acquire practical skills and knowledge, such as those demonstrated by Lesly, Soleiny, Tien and Cristin during their 40-day ordeal.</p> <p>Indigenous children typically learn from an early age how to open paths through dense vegetation, how to tell edible from non-edible fruits. They know how to find potable water, build rain shelters and set animal traps. They can identify animal footprints and scents – and avoid predators such as jaguars and snakes lurking in the woods.</p> <p>Amazonian children typically lack access to the sort of commercialised toys and games that children in the cities grow up with. So they become adept tree climbers and engage in play that teaches them about adult tools made from natural materials, such as oars or axes. This nurtures their understanding of physical activities and helps them learn which plants serve specific purposes.</p> <figure class="align-center "><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="A youg girl holding up an insect as her family works alongside" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A local Indigenous girl on an excursion to gather edible larvae.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy of Eliran Arazi</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>Activities that most western children would be shielded from – handling, skinning and butchering game animals, for example – provide invaluable zoology lessons and arguably foster emotional resilience.</p> <h2>Survival skills</h2> <p>When they accompany their parents and relatives on excursions in the jungle, Indigenous children learn how to navigate a forest’s dense vegetation by following the location of the sun in the sky.</p> <figure class="align-left zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="Map of the Middle Caqueta region of Colombia." /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">Map showing where in Colombia the four lost children are from.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Gadiel Levi</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>Since the large rivers in most parts of the Amazon flow in a direction opposite to that of the sun, people can orient themselves towards those main rivers.</p> <p>The trail of footprints and objects left by the four children revealed their general progression towards the Apaporis River, where they may have hoped to be spotted.</p> <p>The children would also have learned from their parents and elders about edible plans and flowers – where they can be found. And also the interrelationship between plants, so that where a certain tree is, you can find mushrooms, or small animals that can be trapped and eaten.</p> <h2>Stories, songs and myths</h2> <p>Knowledge embedded in mythic stories passed down by parents and grandparents is another invaluable resource for navigating the forest. These stories depict animals as fully sentient beings, engaging in seduction, mischief, providing sustenance, or even saving each other’s lives.</p> <p>While these episodes may seem incomprehensible to non-Indigenous audiences, they actually encapsulate the intricate interrelations among the forest’s countless non-human inhabitants. Indigenous knowledge focuses on the interrelationships between humans, plants and animals and how they can come together to preserve the environment and prevent irreversible ecological harm.</p> <p>This sophisticated knowledge has been developed over millennia during which Indigenous people not only adapted to their forest territories but actively shaped them. It is deeply ingrained knowledge that local indigenous people are taught from early childhood so that it becomes second nature to them.</p> <p>It has become part of the culture of cultivating and harvesting crops, something infants and children are introduced to, as well as knowledge of all sort of different food sources and types of bush meat.</p> <h2>Looking after each other</h2> <p>One of the aspects of this “miraculous” story that people in the west have marvelled over is how, after the death of the children’s mother, the 13-year-old Lesly managed to take care of her younger siblings, including Cristin, who was only 11 months old at the time the aircraft went down.</p> <figure class="align-center "><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="Three Indigenous people in western clothes stood under trees in front of a wide building." /><figcaption><span class="caption">Iris Andoque Macuna with her brother Nestor Andoque and brother-in-law Faustino Fiagama after the two men returned from the search team.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Iris Andoque Macuna.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>But in Indigenous families, elder sisters are expected to act as surrogate mothers to their younger relatives from an early age. Iris Andoke Macuna, a distant relative of the family, told me:</p> <blockquote> <p>To some whites [non-Indigenous people], it seems like a bad thing that we take our children to work in the garden, and that we let girls carry their brothers and take care of them. But for us, it’s a good thing, our children are independent, this is why Lesly could take care of her brothers during all this time. It toughened her, and she learned what her brothers need.</p> </blockquote> <h2>The spiritual side</h2> <p>For 40 days and nights, while the four children were lost, elders and shamans performed rituals based on traditional beliefs that involve human relationships with entities known as <em>dueños</em> (owners) in Spanish and by various names in native languages (such as <em>i'bo ño̰e</em>, meaning “persons of there” in Andoque).</p> <p>These owners are believed to be the protective spirits of the plants and animals that live in the forests. Children are introduced to these powerful owners in name-giving ceremonies, which ensure that these spirits recognise and acknowledge relationship to the territory and their entitlement to prosper on it.</p> <figure class="align-center "><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="Woman in pink t-shirt sat on chair inside." /><figcaption><span class="caption">Raquel Andoke, a relative of the missing children and friend of the author.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy of Eliran Arazi</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>During the search for the missing children, elders conducted dialogues and negotiations with these entities in their ceremonial houses (<em>malocas</em>) throughout the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Middle-and-Lower-Caqueta-River-region-State-of-Amazonas-Colombia-Map-from_fig1_255580310">Middle Caquetá</a> and in other Indigenous communities that consider the crash site part of their ancestral territory. Raquel explained to me:</p> <blockquote> <p>The shamans communicate with the sacred sites. They offer coca and tobacco to the spirits and say: “Take this and give me my grandchildren back. They are mine, not yours.”</p> </blockquote> <p>These beliefs and practices hold significant meaning for my friends in the Middle Caquetá, who firmly attribute the children’s survival to these spiritual processes rather than the technological means employed by the Colombian army rescue teams.</p> <p>It may be challenging for non-Indigenous people to embrace these traditional ideas. But these beliefs would have instilled in the children the faith and emotional fortitude crucial for persevering in the struggle for survival. And it would have encouraged the Indigenous people searching for them not to give up hope.</p> <p>The children knew that their fate did not lie in dying in the forest, and that their grandparents and shamans would move heaven and earth to bring them back home alive.</p> <p>Regrettably, this traditional knowledge that has enabled Indigenous people to not only survive but thrive in the Amazon for millennia is under threat. Increasing land encroachment for agribusiness, mining, and illicit activities as well as state neglect and interventions without Indigenous consent have left these peoples vulnerable.</p> <p>It is jeopardising the very foundations of life where this knowledge is embedded, the territories that serve as its bedrock, and the people themselves who preserve, develop, and transmit this knowledge.</p> <p>Preserving this invaluable knowledge and the skills that bring miracles to life is imperative. We must not allow them to wither away.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207762/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/eliran-arazi-1447346">Eliran Arazi</a>, PhD researcher in Anthropology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (Paris)., <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/hebrew-university-of-jerusalem-855">Hebrew University of Jerusalem</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-traditional-indigenous-education-helped-four-lost-children-survive-40-days-in-the-amazon-jungle-207762">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Caring

Aussie actress in catastrophic bus crash offered $16 voucher as compensation

<p>An Aussie tourist left injured and stranded after a fatal bus crash in southern Italy has claimed the travel company only offered her a meal voucher for the inconvenience.</p> <p>Australian actress Sinead Curry, who has starred in TV shows like The Haunting of Nancy Drew and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, said that nine hours following the crash, the European bus company offered her a $16 meal voucher for her troubles.</p> <p>Curry and partner Salma Salah, both from Sydney, boarded the FlixBus in the city of Bari on June 3 for the long journey to the Northern city of Bologna with a transfer to Rome.</p> <p>However, two hours into the trip Curry said the “bus hit something”.</p> <p>“We were all asleep, it went airborne and spun around a bunch of times,” she said in a TikTok video posted the following day, showing her in hospital wearing a neck brace.</p> <p>Curry told followers the bus was “flung around like in a blender” before it landed down by an embankment, which she claimed was “on the other side of the road”.</p> <p>“Several cars then hit the bus moving the bus closer and closer to the side of the road,” Curry explained in her video.</p> <p>Italian and German media reported the bus crash occurred near the town of Avellino, approximately 50km east of the southwest city of Naples.</p> <p>Five cars were caught up in the accident and local emergency services were quoted as saying the “lifeless body of a man was found” along with 14 people sustaining injuries.</p> <p>Curry said there were 38 people on the bus, including another Aussie woman called “Caity”, who suffered a broken collarbone.</p> <p>After Curry was discharged from the hospital, fearing her nose was broken but was assured it was not, she made another video emphasising how she felt abandoned by the bus company.</p> <p>“FlixBus none of your numbers are working,” an emotional Curry urged.</p> <p>“They ring out and they hang up on us. We cannot get any information from FlixBus, we cannot get our luggage back.</p> <p>“They offered us by text a 10 euro ($16) meal replacement voucher for the inconvenience.</p> <p>“There are a bunch of people here who nearly died we don't have any information.”</p> <p>Curry later claimed FlixBus even blocked her on social media.</p> <p>“We just want some information and some help,” she explained, complaining that she was still waiting on her luggage to be returned.</p> <p>FlixBus issued a statement claiming “a support line and email” was provided to all passengers and their families following the incident.</p> <p>"Outbound calls were made to passengers who had registered their mobile numbers, and emails were sent to passengers with instructions,” the bus company said.</p> <p>“At all times, the safety of its passengers and drivers is of highest priority to FlixBus.”</p> <p>Two days following the incident Curry received her luggage and was in Rome after an emergency shuttle had been deployed for stranded passengers.</p> <p>However, she said that as they arrived in Rome, passengers were finding “shrapnel” from the crash in their bodies and she had gotten a piece out of herself.</p> <p>On June 5 Curry took to TikTok again, saying she and her partner were grateful to be “safe and in Rome”.</p> <p>Although safe, she did note that they were heading to the hospital to get checked again as she was suffering from “very severe headaches” and had intense pain in her jaw.</p> <p>Curry then thanked the “heroes” in Italian fire and rescue, who she said took her and her partner in and gave them pasta, crackers, water and a change of clothes.</p> <p>She said FlixBus had rung her twice at a later date to tell the couple to keep receipts for a full refund.</p> <p>Curry jetted to Europe for her dream holiday but given the incident, she and her partner are dumping their Italian plans to recuperate in Rome.</p> <p>“We are so grateful to be alive please hold your loved ones close,” she said.</p> <p><em>Image credit: TikTok</em></p>

Legal

Indigenous artist seeking white Australian to donate their “future deceased body” to an art installation

<p dir="ltr">An Indigenous artist has put a call out for Australians of “British descent” to donate their “future deceased body” to an art installation. </p> <p dir="ltr">Nathan Maynard, a well known Palawa artist and playwright, put an advertisement for the unusual request in the weekend edition of The Age newspaper.</p> <p dir="ltr">Maynard signed the bizarre request as a “palawa” artist: one of the terms First Nations people from Tasmania use when referring to themselves. </p> <p dir="ltr">“Palawa artist wanting to find an Australian of British descent who is willing to donate their future deceased body to an art installation,” the notice read. </p> <p dir="ltr">“The work will speak to sacrifice for past sins perpetrated against the palawa. Potential applicants should see this opportunity as an honour.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“The body and memory of the successful applicant will be treated with the utmost respect at all stages of the project.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The call-out was quick to spark backlash when it was reposted on social media, with one writing, “You can’t just obtain bodies for display in newspapers now. This is very bizarre on multiple levels.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Others questioned the legality of the request, with one person writing, “I dunno that this would be legal, tampering with a corpse is a crime! You can donate your body to medical science, but I don’t think this.” </p> <p dir="ltr">Another wrote, “Borderline psychotic, definitely completely illegal.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Despite the criticism, Mr Maynard told Daily Mail Australia that since the notice went to print, he has received half a dozen applications for their body to be used in the installation in November. </p> <p dir="ltr">The artist said if white Australians are upset by the request, they should ask themselves why they didn't have the same reaction to the mass murder of Aboriginal people. </p> <p dir="ltr">“If you’re not an Aboriginal person and you’re upset by this, I think you should ask yourself why you’re not upset that there is still First Nations remains that have been stolen from their people, stolen from their country in institutions all around the world that are still not repatriated to their own communities,” he said.</p> <p dir="ltr">Nathan said the motivation behind his installation revolves around the fact that thousands of First Nations people were killed by colonists, with their remains being sent overseas to be displayed in institutions and museums without a proper ceremony. </p> <p dir="ltr">“So many Aboriginal people's remains are still overseas. People are trying to bring their ancestors home and they are being denied that right,” Mr Maynard said. </p> <p dir="ltr">“Human bodies are very sacred and they should be treated with respect.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“Whitefellas obviously don't know how to handle remains with respect, so I'm going to show them how,” he said. </p> <p dir="ltr">The artwork has already received support from the state-funded Tasmanian Museum and Gallery and the Hobart City Council, which has donated $15,000 to the unusual installation.</p> <p dir="ltr">The artwork has been commissioned to appear as part of an exhibition for the popular Hobart Current biennial exhibition in November 2023. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Facebook / The Age</em></p>

Music

New flag furore erupts as Djokovic crushes Aus Open final

<p>Novak Djokovic has won the Australian Open in convincing fashion to equal Rafael Nadal's Grand Slam record, a year after he was deported over his COVID vaccination status.</p> <p>The Serbian star defeated Greek player Stefanos Tsitsipas in three sets in the final in Melbourne on Sunday, making it Djokovic's 10th Australian Open title – equal to Nadal's Grand Slam record of 22 men's singles titles.</p> <p>However, during the broadcast an eagle-eyed viewer couldn’t help but single out the disturbing appearance of a flag bearing a controversial far-right symbol, waved by a Djokovic supporter.</p> <p>“Why am I seeing a Chetnik flag amongst the Serbian crowd at the Tsitsipas vs Djokovic match?” wrote Twitter user Sophie Mak. “Are ultra fascist symbols allowed in the Australian Open now?”</p> <p>The Chetniks were paramilitary ultranationalists who committed war crimes during WWII. Respected tennis journo Ben Rothenberg then responded by calling for future Australian Opens to be completely flag free if security cannot control such incidents.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">I really think they need to make the 2024 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AusOpen?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AusOpen</a> a flag-free zone if their security repeatedly can't figure this stuff out.</p> <p>Tournament security has been pretty abysmal (though we haven't had the ~annual court invader during the men's final yet). <a href="https://t.co/Mztq6NstPg">https://t.co/Mztq6NstPg</a></p> <p>— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/BenRothenberg/status/1619649716932988929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 29, 2023</a></p></blockquote> <p>“Tournament security has been pretty abysmal (though we haven’t had the ~annual court invader during the men’s final yet),” added Rothenberg.</p> <p>Tennis Australia were moved to introduce a complete ban on Russian and Belarusian flags earlier in the Australian Open after a Belarusian flag was spotted being waved during a Ukrainian’s match. </p> <p>Djokovic’s father Srbjan was then caught up in a controversy when he inadvertently posed alongside pro-Vladimir Putin protesters outside the stadium who were holding up a flag with the Russian leader’s face on it. Srbjan then elected not to attend the semi-final nor the final of the tournament in which his son was victorious for a record tenth time.</p> <p><em>Images: Twitter</em></p>

News

Kate Walsh shares how she met the Australian love of her life

<p>Kate Walsh has revealed how she first crossed paths with her Australian fiancé, Andrew Nixon. </p> <p>On an episode of Kelly Clarkson’s talk show, the American actress - best known for her role as Addison Montgomery on <em>Grey’s Anatomy</em> - confirmed the rumour that the two had met on a journey to Antarctica. </p> <p>“We were on a ship to the Antarctic,” she told Kelly when the singer expressed her disbelief, “and that's how I met him.”</p> <p>The trip took place in early 2020, and Kate explained how she had wanted to see Antarctica in the wake of the planet’s climate crisis, having already visited the Arctic. </p> <p>Kate shared some of the highlights from her trip, featuring everything from the animals to the scenery - including, of course, love at first sight. </p> <p>"It was incredible,” she said, “it was an incredible trip and then bonus, you know, found the love of my life. Saw the penguins, check. Ice, check. Whales, check. Man, check.”</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B8eg95UnsAY/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B8eg95UnsAY/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Kate Walsh (@katewalsh)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>The couple got engaged in 2022, with the 54-year-old actress revealing the news during an Instagram Live in October. Andrew Nixon, a Western Australian farmer and Kate’s fiancé, made an appearance in the video. </p> <p>Speaking with Kelly, Kate opened up about living in Australia, and how driving on the left side of the road has proven to be quite the change for the actress, admitting that it’s often as though “some old operating system clicks in”.</p> <p>Kate initially moved to Australia a month after the Antarctica trip. She was visiting friends and exploring the Margaret River when COVID-19 cases broke out across the country, and she made the decision to buy a property when lockdowns were enforced.</p> <p>"I got a little place up here in Perth and that's where I am," Kate told 9Honey Celebrity at the time, "and I have to say, I love it. I really love Perth.”</p> <p>Kate and Andrew now live together in Perth, and made their red carpet debut as a couple in December for season 3 of Kate’s hit Netflix show <em>Emily in Paris</em>. </p> <p>Andrew posted a photo from the event, of the two of them smiling and matching in grey outfits. Fans were delighted to see the pair so happy together, with Kate commenting, “we cute.” </p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CmCDkkdLcp2/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CmCDkkdLcp2/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Andrew Nixon (@andynix1)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Despite Andrew’s post, and the occasional appearance in Kate’s Instagram Lives, the farmer of over 30 years is primarily kept private when it comes to what Kate shares with her audience. </p> <p>Whatever their reasons, the couple appear to be happier than even. No wedding date has been announced, but supporters are eager for news, and thrilled for this exciting new chapter in their lives. </p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images, Instagram</em></p>

Relationships

"He wants to get in my head": Djokovic takes stand against rowdy fans

<p>Novak Djokovic has spoken out against tennis officials for how they reacted when a group of fans disrupted play at the Australian Open.</p> <p>The Serbian tennis player, ranked world number one, was up against World Number 191 Enzo Enzo Couacaud when he was forced to take his fight from the court to the stands. </p> <p>A group of four young men dressed in <em>Where’s Waldo </em>costumes were responsible for the chaos, and poked at the tennis star’s patience until the fourth set, when Djokovic had had enough. </p> <p>“He’s been provoking all night, the entire night, the entire night,” Djokovic said to the chair umpire, “what are you going to do about it?”</p> <p>The problems began when the group saw fit to shout and taunt during Djokovic’s serves, with their drunken antics leading him to suspect they intended to throw off his game. </p> <p>“The guy's drunk out of his mind, from the first point he's been provoking me,” he told the umpire, gesturing to the trouble in the crowd, “he's not here to watch tennis. He just wants to get in my head.</p> <p>“So I’m asking you, what are you going to do about it? You’ve heard him at least 10 times — I’ve heard him 50 times. What are you going to do about it?”</p> <p>Djokovic called for the expulsion of the disruptive fans, asking officials, “why don’t you get security guards and get him out of the stadium?”</p> <p>A security guard was reportedly sent to speak with the men, and sat in the row before them.</p> <p>The week before, the organisers of the Australian Open stated that anyone who was found to be taunting Djokovic without reason, and disrupting the enjoyment of everyone else, would be removed from the venues. </p> <p>The measure was likely put in place as Djokovic, like Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios, is frequently the subject of heckling from audiences at these events. </p> <p>Despite the security guard’s presence, the interruptions were ongoing, and eventually the men were escorted from the game - but it may have proven too little too late for the Serbian player. </p> <p>In a press conference about the event, Djokovic told reporters, “it’s just unnecessary because why should we as players be put in a position where we have to always react when it‘s been two hours. It’s not been 10 minutes. This is what I mind, and this is why I felt the need to go out there because I had enough, you know?</p> <p>“I can tolerate five, six times somebody telling me something, but there is a limit. That limit was crossed, and I stepped in and I asked the chair umpire, is he going to do something about it or not? He did, and I thanked him.”</p> <p><em>Images: Getty Images</em></p>

News

“A little life update”: Naomi Osaka’s big news

<p>Right on the heels of <a href="https://www.oversixty.co.nz/news/news/best-year-yet-ash-barty-shares-pregnancy-announcement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ash Barty’s announcement</a> that she will become a mum in 2023, Naomi Osaka has revealed that she too will join Barty in welcoming a baby to the world this year.</p> <p>Tennis fans were rightly downcast when two-time Australian Open champ Osaka pulled out from the tournament last week – but now the world can see that her reasons were joyous indeed, after the 25-year-old revealed the news she was expecting on Instagram on Thursday morning.</p> <p>Posting a snap of an ultrasound in a carousel of images, Osaka wrote: "Can't wait to get back on the court but here's a little life update for 2023."</p> <p>This will be the first child for Osaka and rapper boyfriend Cordae, 25.</p> <p>In a statement shared in English and Japanese in the slides of her Instagram post, Osaka shared reflections on her next chapter.</p> <p>"The past few years have been interesting to say the least, but I find that it's the most challenging times in life that may be the most fun," she wrote.</p> <p>"These few months away from the sport have really given me a new love and appreciation for the game I've dedicated my life to."</p> <p>"I realise that life is so short and I don't take any moments for granted, every day is a new blessing and adventure.</p> <p>"I know that I have so much to look forward to in the future, one thing I'm looking forward to is for my kid to watch one of my matches and tell someone, 'that's my mum,' haha."</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CnSHJx9Jw7Z/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CnSHJx9Jw7Z/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by 大坂なおみ🇭🇹🇯🇵 (@naomiosaka)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>In her post, Osaka said she would be back playing in time to compete at the 2024 Australian Open.</p> <p>"2023 will be a year that'll be full of lessons for me and I hope I'll see you guys in the start of the next one cause I'll be at Aus 2024. Love you all infinitely," she wrote.</p> <p><em>Images: Instagram</em></p> <p> </p>

Family & Pets

Novak Djokovic holds no grudge against Australia

<p>Novak Djokovic says he still has plenty of love and admiration for Australia, despite being deported due to the vaccine mandates.</p> <p>Djokovic says he received the reception he wished for in his triumphant return to singles action in Australia.</p> <p>Djokovic booked a spot in the second round of the Adelaide International 1 with a thumping 6-3 6-2 win over Frenchman Constant Lestienne on Tuesday.</p> <p>It was his first singles match in Australia since being deported in January 2022 for refusing to have the COVID-19 vaccine.</p> <p>The 21-time grand slam champion received a rousing reception when he stepped out on court on Tuesday, and he didn’t disappoint his adoring fans.</p> <p>Djokovic’s power, court speed, and deft work at the net proved too much to handle for Lestienne, with the match lasting just 74 minutes.</p> <p>The world No.5, who lost his low-key doubles match on Monday, repeatedly touched his heart before signalling to the crowd and the sky upon winning his singles match.</p> <p>He also kissed his hand and touched the court, later saying he was delighted to be back in the country where he’s won nine of his 21 grand slam trophies.</p> <p>“I’m glad to be back in Australia,” Djokovic said in his post-match on-court interview.</p> <p>“Thank you all for coming out today. Thank you for giving me the welcome that I could only wish for.</p> <p>“Over the years, Australia has been the place where I’ve played my best tennis, without a doubt.</p> <p>“If I have to pick one country where I’ve had the most success, which treated me in the best way in terms of tennis, it’s here, definitely.</p> <p>“Even the circumstances last year, it wasn’t easy for anybody. But I’m just happy to be here focusing on tennis, and enjoying my time with you guys.”</p> <p>The result sets up a round of 16 clash with Frenchman Quentin Halys, who defeated Australian Jordan Thompson in straight sets on Monday. Djokovic lost only five points on serve during the opening set, but did have to save a break point in the fifth game.</p> <p><em>Image: Getty</em></p>

Travel Trouble

Ash Barty makes history while flashing her stunning wedding ring

<p dir="ltr">Ash Barty has once again made history when she became the first person to win a fifth Newcombe Medal at the Australian Tennis Awards.</p> <p dir="ltr">The retired tennis player turned heads when she arrived at Melbourne's Crown Palladium on Monday night where she was honoured for her Australian Open success.</p> <p dir="ltr">All eyes were on the 26-year-old as she stunned in a black dress and massive $14,000 diamond wedding ring as she walked down the red carpet with her husband Garry Kissick.</p> <p dir="ltr">The former world No.1 was then presented the highest individual honour in Australian tennis by John Newcombe following her success at the 2022 Australian Open - 11 singles and four doubles victories.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It’s obviously an amazing way to cap off what has been an incredible journey,” Barty said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“The journey of a lifetime, the journey of me chasing after my dreams and exploring what was possible out in the world.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Barty beat six Newcombe Medal nominees including: Hunter, Ajla Tomljanović, Nick Kyrgios, Alex de Minaur, Matt Ebden and Max Purcell.</p> <p dir="ltr">Tennis legend Evonne Goolagong Cawley was also honoured that night receiving the Spirit of Tennis Award.</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>Full list: 2022 Australian Tennis Awards recipients as per Tennis Australia</strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Newcombe Medal: Ash Barty (QLD)</p> <p dir="ltr">Spirit of Tennis Award: Evonne Goolagong Cawley (NSW)</p> <p dir="ltr">Female Junior Athletes of the Year: Talia Gibson (WA) and Taylah Preston (WA)</p> <p dir="ltr">Male Junior Athlete of the Year: Edward Winter (SA)</p> <p dir="ltr">Most Outstanding Athlete with a Disability: Heath Davidson (VIC)</p> <p dir="ltr">Most Outstanding School: Aitken Creek Primary School (VIC)</p> <p dir="ltr">Most Outstanding Tennis Club or Venue: Collaroy Tennis Club (NSW)</p> <p dir="ltr">30+ Tennis Senior of the Year: Jarrod Broadbent (VIC)</p> <p dir="ltr">Coaching Excellence – Club: David Grainger (SA)</p> <p dir="ltr">Coaching Excellence – Development: Luke Bourgeois (NSW)</p> <p dir="ltr">Coaching Excellence – Performance: Craig Tyzzer (VIC)</p> <p dir="ltr">Excellence in Officiating: Robyn Tucker (SA)</p> <p dir="ltr">Most Outstanding Tournament: Euroa Lawn Tennis Club Labour Day (VIC)</p> <p dir="ltr">Volunteer Achievement Award: Julie Polkinghorne (SA)</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Beauty & Style

The five best books to read by the pool this summer

<p>Australian literature is having a real moment, so here’s our pick of the best Australian novels to soak up with the sun this summer…</p> <p><strong>The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan</strong></p> <p>It took Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan 12 years to write this Booker Prize-winning novel, and it’s easy to see why.</p> <p>Based on his father’s real-life experience, it’s a beautifully written, haunting read about a Japanese Prisoner of War camp on the Thai-Burma death railway during the Second World War.</p> <p>It focuses on Dorrigo Evans, an Australian surgeon haunted by a love affair with his uncle's young wife two years earlier, struggling to save the men under his command from starvation, cholera, and brutal beatings. </p> <p>At times the novel is harrowing, graphic and disturbing, but is ultimately a story of love in the midst of a cruel war.</p> <p><strong>The Light Between Oceans, M. L Stedman</strong></p> <p>Read this novel. We could just leave it there, to be honest, it’s that good.</p> <p>Hollywood movie rights were recently snapped up so, because books are nearly always better than subsequent films, read it quickly! It has won three prestigious ABIA awards, including their 'Book of the Year', and also won the Indie Awards' 'Book of the Year'.</p> <p> It’s 1926 and Tom Sherbourne is a young lighthouse keeper on a remote island off Western Australia. He and his young wife Isabel live a quiet life, cocooned from the rest of the world.</p> <p>Fatefully soon after suffering devastating miscarriages, a boat washes ashore carrying a dead man and a crying infant.</p> <p>Only years later do they discover the devastating consequences of the decision they made that day - as the baby's real story unfolds.</p> <p>Get your tissues ready. This book will stay with you for life. Promise.</p> <p><strong>The Night Guest, Fiona McFarlane</strong></p> <p>Fiona McFarlane’s debut novel has been shortlisted for the Stella prize and the Miles Franklin Award.</p> <p>One morning Ruth, an elderly widow, wakes thinking a tiger has been in her house in a small coastal town. Later that day a carer, Frida, arrives to look after her. Both Frida and the tiger are here to stay, and neither is what they seem.</p> <p>The Night Guest is a mesmerising novel about love, dependence, and the fear that the things you know best can become the things you're least certain about.</p> <p><strong>Eyrie, Tim Winton</strong></p> <p>Tim Winton’s 25<sup>th</sup> book follows Tom Keely, whose reputation is in ruins, whose marriage is over and career finished. Holed up in a grim high rise, cultivating his newfound isolation, he reluctantly meets a woman from his past and a boy who will change his life.</p> <p>Eyrie is heart-warming and human, and reassures the reader that no matter how low you can feel, life will renew itself and take new paths, whether you want it to or not. </p> <p><strong>The Swan Book, Alexis Wright</strong></p> <p>This is like nothing you’ve ever read before.</p> <p>Set in the future, around the time of Australia’s third centenary, we see Aboriginals still living under the Intervention in the north, in a country fundamentally altered by climate change.</p> <p>The book centres around the life of a mute young woman called Oblivia, the victim of gang-rape by petrol-sniffing youths. We follow her from the displaced community where she lives to her marriage to Warren Finch, the first Aboriginal president of Australia, and her elevation First Lady.</p> <p>Alexis Wright’s previous novel, <em>Carpentaria</em>, was a prize-winning best-seller and The Swan Book has been short-listed for the Miles Franklin Award. </p>

Domestic Travel

Locking up kids has serious mental health impacts and contributes to further reoffending

<p><em>This article contains information on violence experienced by First Nations young people in the Australian carceral system. There are mentions of racist terms, and this piece also mentions self harm, trauma and suicide.</em></p> <p>The ABC Four Corners report “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-14/locking-up-kids:-australias-failure-to-protect/101652954" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Locking up Kids</a>” detailed the horrific conditions for young Aboriginal people in the juvenile justice system in Western Australia.</p> <p>The report was nothing new. In 2016, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-25/australias-shame-promo/7649462" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Four Corners</a> detailed the brutalisation of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory’s Don Dale Youth Detention Centre, in its episode “Australia’s Shame”. Also in 2016, <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.au/amnesty-international-welcomes-queensland-youth-detention-review/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amnesty International</a> detailed the abuse children were receiving in Queensland’s juvenile detention facilities.</p> <p>Children should be playing, swimming, running and exploring life. They do not belong behind bars. Yet, on any given day in 2020-21, an average of <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/youth-justice/youth-justice-in-australia-2020-21/contents/summary" target="_blank" rel="noopener">4,695</a> young people were incarcerated in Australia. Most of the young people incarcerated are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.</p> <p>Despite Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in WA making up just <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/youth-justice/youth-justice-in-australia-2020-21/contents/state-and-territory-fact-sheets/western-australia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">6.7%</a> of the population, they account for <a href="https://www.oics.wa.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Banksia-Hill-2020-002.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than 70%</a> of youth locked up in Perth’s Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Centre.</p> <p><a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/agispt.20211109056541" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The reasons</a> so many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are detained are linked to the impacts of colonisation, such as intergenerational trauma, ongoing racism, discrimination, and unresolved issues related to self-determination.</p> <p>The Four Corners documentary alleged children in detention were exposed to abuse, torture, solitary confinement and other degrading treatment such as “folding”, which involves bending a person’s legs behind them before sitting on them – we saw a grown man sitting on a child’s legs in this way in the documentary.</p> <p>The documentary also found Aboriginal young people were more likely to be held in solitary confinement, leading to the young people feeling helpless. Racism was also used as a form of abuse, with security calling the young detainees apes and monkeys. One of the young men detained at Banksia Hill expressed the treatment he received made him consider taking his own life.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">No action taken against Don Dale guards over 'excessive force' in fresh Four Corners vision <a href="https://t.co/RdJgN8vQhu">https://t.co/RdJgN8vQhu</a></p> <p>— Sarah Collard (@Sarah_Collard_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Sarah_Collard_/status/1592451372808802305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p><strong>How does incarceration impact young people’s mental health?</strong></p> <p>Many young people enter youth detention with pre-existing neurocognitive impairments (such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-youth-with-foetal-alcohol-spectrum-disorder-need-indigenous-run-alternatives-to-prison-56615" target="_blank" rel="noopener">foetal alcohol spectrum disorder</a>), trauma, and poor mental health. More than <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10398560902948696" target="_blank" rel="noopener">80%</a> of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in a Queensland detention centre reported mental health problems.</p> <p>Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare revealed that more than <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/youth-justice/young-people-in-child-protection/summary" target="_blank" rel="noopener">30%</a> of young people in detention were survivors of abuse or neglect. Rather than supporting the most vulnerable within our community, the Australian justice system is <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/agispt.20211109056541" target="_blank" rel="noopener">imprisoning traumatised</a> and often developmentally compromised young people.</p> <p><a href="https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S027273581300010X?token=9CBCD682BF76BBE308B2073C2A3980D63745C157813CAC79F171AA4577C849EC40D0B848B6DB0D009AFACC05B8BC6185&originRegion=us-east-1&originCreation=20221116031322" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Research</a> has shown pre-existing mental health problems are likely exacerbated by experiences during incarceration, such as isolation, boredom and victimisation.</p> <p>This inhumane treatment brings about retraumatisation of the effects of colonisation and racism, with feelings of <a href="https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/committees/SCLSI/Youth_Justice_System/Submissions/Submission_44-Parkville_College.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hopelessness</a>, worthlessness and <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/completed_inquiries/2004-07/inst_care/report2/c06" target="_blank" rel="noopener">low self-esteem</a>.</p> <p>Youth detention is also associated with an <a href="https://www.ranzcp.org/news-policy/news/detention-of-children-in-adult-prisons-must-stop#:%7E:text='Youth%20detention%20is%20associated%20with,substance%20use%2C%20and%20behavioural%20disorders." target="_blank" rel="noopener">increased risk</a> of suicide, psychiatric disorders, and drug and alcohol abuse.</p> <p>Locking young people up during their <a href="https://www.cypp.unsw.edu.au/sites/ypp.unsw.edu.au/files/Cunneen%20%282017%29%20Arguments%20for%20raising%20the%20minimum%20age%20of%20criminal%20responsibility.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">crucial years</a> of development also has long-term impacts. These include poor emotional development, poor education outcomes, and worse mental health <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5260153/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in adulthood</a>. As adults, post-release Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-842X.2004.tb00629.x" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ten times</a> more likely to die than the general population, with suicide the leading cause of death.</p> <p>You don’t have to look far to see the devastating impacts of incarceration on mental health. Just last year, there were <a href="https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Hansard/hansard.nsf/0/A4A8FAAE33FDD6BE48258844001C7E29/$File/C41%20S1%2020220511%20All.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">320 reports</a> of self-harm at Banksia Hill, WA’s only youth detention centre.</p> <p><strong>Locking up kids increases the likelihood of reoffending</strong></p> <p>Imprisoning young offenders is also associated with future <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027273581300010X?casa_token=TJ6WoQJnWnsAAAAA:NKTzeYv-LJcHuwT7Xs5fxeHUx9lHsKzVlQDpLpWPyG7u4KAXb1866s-sdupwbQmcbPR93qArg99O" target="_blank" rel="noopener">offending behaviours</a> and <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Committees_Exposed/atsia/sentencing/report/chapter2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">continued contact with the justice system</a>.</p> <p>Without proper rehabilitation and support post-release, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young peoples often return to the same conditions that created the patterns of offending in the first place.</p> <p>Earlier this year, the head of Perth Children’s Court, Judge Hylton Quail <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-10/hylton-quail-slams-conditions-banksia-hill-detention-centre/100819262" target="_blank" rel="noopener">condemned</a> the treatment of a young person in detention at Banksia Hill, stating:</p> <blockquote> <p>When you treat a damaged child like an animal, they will behave like an animal […] When you want to make a monster, this is how you do it.</p> </blockquote> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Today marks 5 years since the recommendations of the Royal Commission into the Detention and Protection of Children in the NT, which recommended closing Don Dale.<br />We now have record numbers of Aboriginal children incarcerated due to punitive bail laws introduced last year. <a href="https://t.co/buxMFFucW7">pic.twitter.com/buxMFFucW7</a></p> <p>— NAAJA (@NAAJA_NT) <a href="https://twitter.com/NAAJA_NT/status/1593059263223844864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 17, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p><strong>What needs to be done?</strong></p> <p>There needs to be substantive change in how young people who come in contact with the justice system are treated. We need governments to commit, under <a href="https://www.closingthegap.gov.au/national-agreement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Closing the Gap</a>, to whole-of-system change through:</p> <ol> <li> <p>recognising children should not be criminalised at ten years old. The <a href="https://raisetheage.org.au/campaign" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Raise the Age</a> campaign is calling for the minimum age of responsibility to be raised to 14. Early prevention and intervention <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/agispt.20211109056541" target="_blank" rel="noopener">approaches</a> are necessary here. Children who are at risk of offending should be appropriately supported, to reduce pathways to offending.</p> </li> <li> <p>an approach addressing <em>why</em> young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are locked up in such great numbers is required, driven by respective First Nations communities. This means investing in housing, health, education, transport and other essential services and crucial aspects of a person’s life. An example of this is found in a pilot program in New South Wales called <a href="https://www.justreinvest.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/JRNSW-I-Reinvestment-Forum-I-Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Redefining Reinvestment</a>, which tackled the social determinants of incarceration using a community approach.</p> </li> <li> <p>future solutions must be trauma-informed and led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.</p> </li> </ol> <p>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are not born criminals. They are born into systems that fail them, in a country that all too often turns a blind eye before locking them up.</p> <p>The Australian government needs to work with First Nations communities to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including our future generations.</p> <p><em>If this article has caused distress, please contact one of these helplines: <a href="https://www.13yarn.org.au/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAsdKbBhDHARIsANJ6-jfrUNMB9So6Gd1ICVQPd6uvGbfEaceXNR0BNYnEVCoxnMs7eiMmv20aAjDaEALw_wcB">13yarn</a>, <a href="https://www.lifeline.org.au/">Lifeline</a>, <a href="https://headspace.org.au/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAsdKbBhDHARIsANJ6-jdx8qmNF8hzPZNjURGbT9af0wT_xGUjDU26wX5Eftykygb35_OPLccaAp5uEALw_wcB">Headspace</a></em><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194657/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em>Writen by Summer May Finlay, </em><em>Ee Pin Chang, Jemma Collova </em><em>and Pat Dudgeon. Republished with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/locking-up-kids-has-serious-mental-health-impacts-and-contributes-to-further-reoffending-194657" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.</em></p> <p> </p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

Mind

“I want to go back”: Novak Djokovic weighs in on Australian visa outcome

<p dir="ltr">Novak Djokovic has said he was “very happy” to find out that he will be allowed to compete at the Australian Open next year, after he was granted a visa that lets him return to the country.</p> <p dir="ltr">The World No.1 was barred from entering Australia until 2025 after being at the centre of a major international drama ahead of this year’s Australian Open, which saw him being held in a detention centre for attempting to enter the country without being vaccinated.</p> <p dir="ltr">But, Djokovic will now be able to go for his record-extending 10th Australian Open title after receiving the visa and has said he couldn’t have received “better news”.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It’s a relief, obviously, knowing what I and people closest to me in my life have been through this year with what happened in Australia and post-Australia obviously,” he said after defeating Andrey Rublev at the ATP Finals in Turin.</p> <p dir="ltr">"I could not receive better news for sure — during this tournament as well. [The] Australian Open has been my most successful grand slam. I made some of the best memories there.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Of course, I want to go back there, I want to play tennis, do what I do best, hopefully have a great Australian summer.</p> <p dir="ltr">"I'm always thankful to go through experiences, no matter what the experiences are. I try to be optimistic and positive in life.</p> <p dir="ltr">"I look forward to starting the new year in Australia, and we'll see how the next year goes."</p> <p dir="ltr">Having received the news before the match, where Djokovic beat Rublev 6-4, 6-1 to qualify for the semi-finals, the 35-year-old reckons the good news helped him perform on court.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Did it affect my game today? I would like to believe it did,” he said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Why not? I don't think it did affect me too much because I'm familiar with what I need to do in order to prepare myself for every match.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Of course, knowing that I have clarity now, what I do in the off-season, starting the season in Australia, also of course it did relieve some of the pressure me and my team felt. Just giving that clarity makes it great for us."</p> <p dir="ltr">After missing out on this year’s competition, the Serbian athlete’s future in Australia has looked like a possibility since the government ended rules requiring overseas visitors to declare their Covid vaccination status in July.</p> <p dir="ltr">Earlier this week, Djokovic commented that he had received positive signs about the ban being overturned and his potential return.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-22a4009e-7fff-0279-d152-f1bb40eb3082"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Twitter</em></p>

Travel Trouble

“I was always going to be back”: Ash Barty shares career news

<p dir="ltr">Tennis champion Ash Barty has announced that she will be returning to the sport at next year’s Australian Open - but she won’t be returning as a player.</p> <p dir="ltr">After she caused a stir when she hung up her racket earlier this year, the 26-year-old has rejected suggestions that she would be returning to her professional sport in the future.</p> <p dir="ltr">Instead, Barty will be attending the Australian Open as an ambassador for the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I was never going to run away, I promise. I was always going to be back,” she told the <em>Today Show</em>.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It wasn't something that it was close the door and never come return.”</p> <p dir="ltr">While she won’t be making an appearance on the centre court again, Barty said she will be “doing my thing” in the background.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I certainly will be enjoying it, like everyone else,” she told the program.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I can't wait, it's scary to think it's so close, it feels like a couple of sleeps and it will be here.</p> <p dir="ltr">“But I am certainly excited for a big summer ... It's an incredible way to bring people to the Australian Open to help them experience it in just the most incredible fashion.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Barty shared her excitement at attending the championship, saying it “will be a great way to bring people together”.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Obviously Melbourne during the Australian Open is crazy for the players and now I am excited to actually see what it is like on the other side,” she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Experience the culture, the different way the city buzzes.”</p> <p dir="ltr">This year has been a busy one for the former World No.1, who married her long-term partner Garry Kissick, and released several books, including her memoir <em>My Dream Time</em> and <em>Little Ash</em> children’s book series with Jasmin McGaughey and Jade Goodwin.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I'm not bored, I think this year obviously was very busy with all my book stuff and the memoir release, the Little Ash books which has been great,” Barty said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It's been a lot to take in. I think there was a part of me that was a little bit scared and fearful of how it would be received.</p> <p dir="ltr">“But so far, so good.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It's the first time that really my life, my thoughts, my biggest fears were on the page for people to read and judge and to take in.</p> <p dir="ltr">“So many people cheered for me when I won, cried with me when I lost and now it was time to let them in and really enjoy the journey for what it was in all of its truths, some of it ugly, some brilliant, but for all that it was.”</p> <p dir="ltr">When asked whether she missed tennis, Barty had a mixed answer.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Yes and no. There are certainly parts of it that I miss,” she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I miss testing myself against the world's best, I miss seeing my mates that I met from all corners of the globe.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I'm certainly happy and I know that it was the right time for me, it was the right decision and certainly no regrets.”</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-8d5a855f-7fff-bfe8-bbec-c188124b90bc"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: @ashbarty (Instagram)</em></p>

News

Steve Martin discusses his love for Indigenous Australian art

<p dir="ltr">Comedian and actor Steve Martin has long been an avid art lover and collector. </p> <p dir="ltr">After making onto ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list several times in the 1990s, he has recently turned his attention to Indigenous Australian art and its deep cultural history. </p> <p dir="ltr">With his wife Anne Stringfield, he’s bought works by Indigenous artists such as Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri, Timo Hogan, Carlene West, Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, and Doreen Reid Nakamarra, among many others.</p> <p dir="ltr">His love for these works began almost 10 years ago, as he shared with <a href="https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/actor-steve-martin-on-the-joys-and-the-difficulties-of-collecting-contemporary-indigenous-australian-art-1234644806/">ARTnews</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">He said, “It all started with one picture by this artist, Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri. I just really liked it, bought it, and hung it in our house for several years. I really didn’t know that there was a whole big funnel going back this way of its history.” </p> <p dir="ltr">“I hadn’t really seen anything like this before. And they were available, which is an aspect of the art world now that is the opposite—most things are unavailable. And I loved them. I thought they were great.”</p> <p dir="ltr">He said his collection, which includes over a hundred works, is “hard to improve” when dealing with art pieces that are increasingly rare. </p> <p dir="ltr">Some of the works he owns have been displayed in non-selling shows at Gagosian locations in New York and Beverly Hills, California, with Steve saying he “loves just getting these pictures seen” by like-minded art fans. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

Art

“I’ve tasted the faintest bitter edge of racism”: Ash Barty admits to being racially abused

<p dir="ltr">Ash Barty has confessed that she’s been on the receiving end of “bitter racism” after finding out about her Indigenous heritage. </p> <p dir="ltr">In her autobiography, <em>My Dream Time</em>, which will be published on November 2, Barty opens up about the moment she found out about her family’s past. </p> <p dir="ltr">The former tennis player said it was a difficult moment when her father searched for the truth and eventually told Barty and her sister which then led to “vile racism”. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I’ve seen glimpses and tasted the faintest bitter edge of racism” she wrote.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I’d win a Deadly Award but get vilified on line. I’d become a Tennis Australia First Nations Ambassador and then find some muppet calling my heritage into question.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The three-time Grand Slam winner said there was still a lot of work and educated needed to address the importance of Indigenous Australians. </p> <p dir="ltr">“There was no need for us to talk about that in the moment but it was certainly something that confused me a little bit as to why someone would criticise something that is so personal to me,” she told NewsCorp.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Looking back now it’s all about the education and giving people the tools to understand others and appreciate what came before us.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Barty went on to reveal that her trip to Central Australia where she worked with First Nations children was when she was convinced of a connection with them. </p> <p dir="ltr">“If anything it has just reassured to me that the path I want to go down in the future is to try and help First Nations youth around the country.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Eventually, Barty found out of her Indigenous heritage when her father Rob traced back his roots. </p> <p dir="ltr">At 13 he was told by a cousin that there was Indigenous heritage in the family but his parents denied it, claiming their connection was only to Māoris in New Zealand. </p> <p dir="ltr">Rob did not accept that and went on to trace back his family history where he found out that his great grandmother was an Indigenous Australian who married a white man. </p> <p dir="ltr">Barty’s dad sat her and her sister down when she was just seven and told them the truth. </p> <p dir="ltr">The family then went on to record their names with the Ngarigu Nation. </p> <p dir="ltr">“It was not a conversation his parents could have with him,” she wrote.</p> <p dir="ltr">“To his parents, Aboriginal ancestry was something to be ashamed of and not something he should be curious about.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Instagram</em></p>

Family & Pets

Princess Mary’s adorable 50th birthday wish fulfilled

<p dir="ltr">Princess Mary has finally received her 50th birthday present - months after announcing that the Australian animal exhibition at Copenhagen Zoo would be expanding.</p> <p dir="ltr">The Princess announced on February 5 that "Mary's Australian Garden" at the zoo would be introducing several more Aussie animals for visitors to enjoy.</p> <p dir="ltr">Among the Aussie animals already calling the Princess’ Garden home are kangaroos and Tasmanian Devils.</p> <p dir="ltr">The new facility is home to the cockatoo, the rock kangaroo, the emu and the ant hedgehog, and the bear-like wombat.</p> <p dir="ltr">The new additions include koalas, echidnas, yellow-footed rock wallabies, wombats and emus.</p> <p dir="ltr">But the most special animal to arrive at Mary’s Australian Garden is the kookaburra, described as the "Australian laughing bird" by the zoo.</p> <p dir="ltr">"We are of course happy and proud to be able to accommodate that," Copenhagen Zoo director Jørgen Nielsen said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"In the Australian Garden, we can draw guests even closer to the animals and the zookeepers' daily work, and the hope is that our commitment and efforts to look after the world's animals rub off on both children and adults.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Back in 2006, Princess Mary was gifted four Tasmanian Devils for the baptism of her son Prince Christian.</p> <p dir="ltr">Copenhagen Zoo was the first place outside of Australia to keep the animals and then went on to successfully breed a pup in 2013.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

International Travel

Australian man among 10 killed in Ireland explosion

<p dir="ltr">An Australian man has been identified as one of ten victims who died following an explosion at a petrol station in Ireland.</p> <p dir="ltr">James O’Flaherty, a 48-year-old who hailed from Sydney, died in the blast which police say occurred shortly after 3pm local time on Friday, October 7 at a petrol station in the village of Creeslough.</p> <p dir="ltr">The blast levelled the service station building, damaged an adjacent apartment building and shattered windows in nearby cottages.</p> <p dir="ltr">An additional eight people were injured in the explosion and hospitalised, with one person flown to Dublin in critical condition.</p> <p dir="ltr">An Garda Síochána, Ireland’s police force, released the names and photos of the ten victims, ranging in age from 5 to 59 years old.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-10645834-7fff-dd8f-bd18-3654d533e181"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">The victims included: James O’Flaherty, 48, Jessica Gallagher, 24, Martin McGill, 49, Catherine O’Donnell, 39, and her son James Monaghan, 13, Hugh Kelly, 59, Martina Martin, 49, Robert Garwe, 50, and his daughter Shauna Flanagan Garwe, five, and Leona Harper, 14.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/10/ireland-victims1.jpg" alt="" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>James O’Flaherty, 48, Jessica Gallagher, 24, and Martin McGill, 49, were among the victims who died in the blast. Images: An Garda Síochána (Facebook)</em></p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/10/ireland-victims2.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Catherine O’Donnell, 39, and her son 13-year-old James Monaghan, Hugh Kelly, 59, and Martina Martin, 49, were among the victims who died in the blast. Images: An Garda Síochána (Facebook)</em></p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/10/ireland-victims3.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Robert Garwe, 50, his five-year-old daughter Shauna Flanagan Garwe, and 14-year-old Leona Harper were among the victims who died in the blast. Images: An Garda Síochána (Facebook)</em></p> <p dir="ltr">Mr O’Flaherty, who was living in Rinclevan, Dufanaghy, will be laid to rest on Wednesday.</p> <p dir="ltr">He is survived by his wife Tracey and son Hamish.</p> <p dir="ltr">As police investigate the cause of the blast, superintendent David Kelly said evidence “is pointing toward a tragic accident”.</p> <p dir="ltr">Irish police superintendent Liam Geraghty said the event has left locals traumatised.</p> <p dir="ltr">"It was a very, very traumatic scene that people came across," he said. </p> <p dir="ltr">"It was a very, very confusing, as you can imagine. And there was a lot of debris." </p> <p dir="ltr">Siobhan Carr, an eyewitness, said the area was covered in ash and “a puff of smoke”.</p> <p dir="ltr">"And just within seconds, people from the community had just come running up the roads," she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Cars stopped, people getting out of cars running towards the building to see who could help."</p> <p dir="ltr">Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said the incident has had a national impact and that the country is in mourning.</p> <p dir="ltr">"The entire nation is mourning and really shocked and deeply saddened," he said at the cordon surrounding the blast site.</p> <p dir="ltr">"The young child in the shop loses her life and two teenagers, along with men and women who are going about their lives as well." </p> <p dir="ltr">“It is a very close-knit community and our heart goes out to them.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Talking to those on the front line and everyone involved, they were very moved by the extraordinary support they got from the community here almost immediately.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Many volunteers rushed to the scene to try and do everything they could to help because it was a horrific scene they came upon and we must always remember our emergency services.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-a8e64f6b-7fff-35a3-26d3-b1f2a4a63ae2"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: An Garda Síochána (Facebook)</em></p>

News

Artist reworks the classics to include Aboriginal women

<p dir="ltr">An Indigenous artist is reclaiming her heritage by reworking famous artworks to include Aboriginal women. </p> <p dir="ltr">Brandi Salmon, a Wiradjuri artist from Hobart, was first inspired to attempt these reimaginings after viewing numerous artworks about Aboriginal people that were created by non-Indigenous artists and that portrayed Aboriginal people in a negative light – in particular a 19th-century painting that depicts an Aboriginal person as a servant waiting in the presence of Captain James Cook. </p> <p dir="ltr">These negative depictions then led to the creation of a series of works celebrating Aboriginal people titled The Aunty Collection, which includes five famous paintings that feature Aboriginal women, often in regal positions and as the focal point of the artwork.</p> <p dir="ltr">After discovering her love of art as a child, Aboriginal presence in art became a focus when Ms Salmon attended university, where she studied creative arts.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CSJTBTkh32W/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CSJTBTkh32W/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Brandi Salmon (@brandisalmon.artist)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">“A lot of the paintings I came across were paintings of Aboriginal people as servants," she told the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-13/artist-appropriates-famous-paintings-to-include-aboriginal-women/101394128">ABC</a>. </p> <p dir="ltr">“What you see in a lot of paintings from those periods is a style of art which depicts Aboriginal people in such a way that justifies the colonial project," said Tiriki Onus, head of the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development at the University of Melbourne.</p> <p dir="ltr">"You will see Aboriginal people depicted in this almost animal-like, grotesque fashion that is indicative of a certain time period and romanticises invasion.”</p> <p dir="ltr">When Brandi first started The Aunty Collection for a university assignment, it evolved further than she ever imagined it would. </p> <p dir="ltr">"I wasn't taught how to do the traditional painting and I felt like I couldn't do it. I felt a need to create my own style," she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">The Aunty Collection now features paintings such as Botticelli's <em>The Birth of Venus</em> and Leonardo da Vinci's <em>Mona Lisa</em> re-imagined as strong and proud Aboriginal women.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CN42p4fhxAH/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CN42p4fhxAH/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Brandi Salmon (@brandisalmon.artist)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CUH0MSIh2vC/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CUH0MSIh2vC/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Brandi Salmon (@brandisalmon.artist)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Brandi said, "If you think about the classical works, they often depict people and their everyday world to some extent."</p> <p dir="ltr">"A couple of hundred years ago we were being depicted as servants, and now we have the freedom to do The Aunty Collection."</p> <p dir="ltr">"I don't think I realised how much of an impact that would have."</p> <p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 12pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><em>Image credits: Instagram</em><span id="docs-internal-guid-92d6872c-7fff-0194-caca-a9d72f7ea119"></span></p>

Art

Incredible teenage boy cracks coded coin in hours, but he isn’t the first

<p dir="ltr">Within hours of its release to the general public, a 14-year-old boy had cracked the codes hidden on <a href="https://oversixty.com.au/finance/money-banking/coins-covered-in-coded-clues-will-test-your-spy-skills" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a coin released by an Australian intelligence agency</a> - but some had solved them days earlier, due to an unusual legal rule.</p> <p dir="ltr">A 50-cent coin celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) was released last Thursday containing four levels of codes with hidden messages.</p> <p dir="ltr">But, the puzzles were already being discussed online ten days earlier, with some codes already being solved by August 20.</p> <p dir="ltr">This was due to requirements on the Australian Government to include the characters featured on the coin in legislation, available online, before the coin was made available to purchase on September 1.</p> <p dir="ltr">As well as a celebration of the agency’s history, it’s hoped the coin will act as a kind of recruitment drive and attempt to raise the profile of the ASD among the general public, with the agency planning to recruit another 1,900 people over the next decade as part of a $9.9 billion expansion. </p> <p dir="ltr">Dr Richard Bean, a research fellow at the University of Queensland who solved the coin’s puzzles within two hours of getting his hands on it, said the move was about attracting those interested in a career with the ASD.</p> <p dir="ltr">"The kind of people who would sit down and solve this kind of code on the coin, they're the kind of people the ASD wants to attract — innovative thinkers to solve difficult problems in cryptography in both an offensive and defensive sense," Dr Bean said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"So solving other nation's codes and protecting Australian government communications security.</p> <p dir="ltr">"It's about attracting the right candidates and putting the ASD in their mind, instead of having to go out in traditional recruitment channels."</p> <p dir="ltr">But let’s go back to our teenage whiz kid.</p> <p dir="ltr">Though the Tasmanian boy’s identity hasn’t been revealed, it’s clear he has talent and instinct according to Distinguished Professor Willy Susilo, who also directs the Institute of Cybersecurity and Cryptology at the University of Wollongong.</p> <p dir="ltr">“[What] is very important is actually not about whether you can crack the code or not, [what] is important is the thinking behind it, how to solve this kind of puzzle,” he told the <em><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-05/how-to-solve-spy-australian-signals-directorate-50-cent-coin/101405266" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ABC</a></em>.</p> <p dir="ltr">“To me, I think to get a person who, especially in this case, is 14 years old, can crack the code within just one or two hours is actually incredible in my opinion.</p> <p dir="ltr">"That really is the kind of skill needed in the Australian Signals Directorate." </p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-3c09a93f-7fff-0213-b8af-6fb92c5ceeed"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: ASD</em></p>

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Incredible teenage boy cracks coded coin in hours, but he isn’t the first