There’s been a lot going on in Aboriginal Affairs in the last few years, some good and some not so good. There is also plenty of opinion broadcast from all sorts of news sources and pundits, but very rarely do you hear the opinions of the Aboriginal people themselves. In this case, the Aboriginal people are the Noongar people of Western Australia, and while from time to time there will be posts and comment on national and international issues, the main focus of this blog will be the Noongar community and the matters that concern us. We’re not concerned with just commenting on issues though, as there is a need for us, the Noongar community, to improve our dialogue, our thinking and our knowledge. It’s too common for our dialogue to be about slogans and clichés rather than clear and critical thinking about the issues that face us and the directions we need to take to address them. There are a great number of very talented, intelligent and inspiring Noongar people of all ages, people who provide all sorts of leadership from cultural, social, land, legal, intellectual and more. We want to make space for these people to have a voice and to be able to discuss and debate opinions, points of view, attitudes and feelings about matters both serious and not so serious. While this blog is primarily a product of SWALSC (and we’ll be publishing information and opinions about our line of work and the thinking that forms the directions that we take), our aim is to also have contributors from throughout the community, no matter what sector they operate in and whether they are community, industry, or government based. Of course, the ability to comment is one of the main functions of a blog and this will be invited. However, such contributions will need to comply with the comments policy, which will be posted shortly when comments are enabled in the near future. Our aim in initiating this blog is that we want it to be a constructive exercise that engages in debate. Happy reading and here’s to the success of the Noongar Nation. Glen Kelly SWALSC CEO

Welcome to the new blog here you will find all the latest SWALSC up dates.