Premier Colin Barnett is raising the profile of science in WA by appointing himself Minister for Science.
Colin Barnett
In his new role he says he wishes to foster a culture of science, and to attract more funding for scientific research in his state.
He has announced a new science policy unit to be created within his Department of Premier and Cabinet.
You can read my article in Science Network WA or click below.
STORY AND PICTURE BY GEOFF VIVIAN
Major news outlets were quick to congratulate Lewis Abdullah, 19, on receiving the Western Australian Young Person of the Year award last month. He was so honoured for his work with young offenders at Banksia Hill juvenile detention facility.
What they neglected to mention is that Lewis had not been able to hold his classes since January, when Banksia Hill was damaged in a riot and all of the boys got transferred to Hakea, an adult prison.
From The Koori Mail Wednesday 24 April 2013
Click on this image to make it larger.
TEXT BY GEOFF VIVIAN
from Artseen May 2000
I have just found something I wrote in 2000, as part of a review of an exhibition by Albany artist Shaaron du Bignon:
“… much post-modern art becomes the willing tool of the mighty. To give one example, Rupert Murdoch was able to set up his Sky-TV channels using almost unlimited free material from MTV video makers. The fact that they borrowed heavily on performance art, itself a derivative of Dada, is rarely mentioned. Dada was all about deconstructing authority. Its grand daughter, MTV, has become an unwitting and foolish accessory to unmitigated power.”
I must have been an opinionated art critic! To read more go to Judith McGrath’s Artseen or click below.
TEXT AND PORTRAIT BY GEOFF VIVIAN
from Artsource April – June 2013
Pierre Capponi is eyeing off a stack of ornate pressed tin sheets that once lined a room in
Pierre Capponi
an old house. The century-old building material is the main sculptural medium he uses to create life-sized figurative works that evoke Goldfields ghost towns, rural rubbish tips and desiccated mammals you sometimes find on dusty outback roadsides.
In his early teens he migrated here from Marseilles with his family, and pressed tin features in his earliest Australian memories.
“We lived in Smith Street in Highgate,” he says. “My father was reading the racing form guide one morning and there was a shadow of him on the pressed tin wall. I always thought that was a beautiful moment. Continue reading
TEXT BY GEOFF VIVIAN
from The Koori Mail
Ernie Bridge passed away late last month at age 76, suffering from asbestos-related diseases. He launched legal action in WA’s Supreme Court on 15 March for damages connected with the asbestosis and mesothelioma he contracted during his many visits to the former mining town of Wittenoom.
Mr Bridge was best known as a country and western singer and the WA parliament’s first Aboriginal member. He was also believed to be the first Aboriginal cabinet minister in any Australian government.
But as with all people, there was much more to the man. Continue reading
STORIES BY GEOFF VIVIAN PHOTOS BY JANE FYFE
from Science Network WA
Aboriginal artists have been painting Kimberley cave walls for tens of thousands of years.
Layer on layer, these ancient art sites can contain hundreds of images, some completely obscured by later paintings.
Cheap digital technology now allows 
archaeologists to peer below the layers and photograph what lies beneath the surface, while cutting-edge science makes it possible to accurately date them.
You can read more here and here.
The second story has now been republished in The Broome Advertiser on 13/06/2013.
From The Broome Advertiser 13 June 2013
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY GEOFF VIVIAN
from The Koori Mail
As the northern wet season draws to a close, Aboriginal station managers in the Kimberley are waiting to see if they can sell any cattle.
Robin Yeeda
Indonesia, the largest market, is yet to issue any import permits for Australian cattle this year.
For the last two years the country has only bought live cattle weighing 350 kilograms or less, and many cattlemen believe the Indonesians felt hurt and insulted after Australia imposed a live export ban for part of last year. Continue reading
TEXT AND PHOTO BY GEOFF VIVIAN
from WA Today
Relations between Aborigines and police in the North West have dived, say several former police officers.
Remote community residents are being neglected, those residents are running into more problems when they visit the towns, and more alcohol is coming into “dry” communities.
WAtoday.com.au spoke to several Aboriginal people who resigned from the force after police commissioner Karl O’Callaghan moved to encourage Aboriginal Police Liaison Officers (APLO) to become sworn officers on general policing duties.
WAToday [read this story]
PHOTO BY GEOFF VIVIAN
from The Western Independent
This is one of my original news photos. It appeared in The Western Independent’s April 2012 edition to illustrate a story by Amber Koenig.
STORY BY GEOFF VIVIAN
From Echo Newspapers
