6 20 Northern waters Bill of in focus Rights The water crisis in the south has The age of terrorism has ushered implications for the way the vast in a new debate about human rivers and wetlands of the north rights in Australia. are managed. 22 24 26 Statehood Indigenous Cleaning and equality suicide up the Act The Northern Territory move Research will try to find why Heritage legislation in the towards equality with the rest of young Indigenous men commit Northern Territory is creating the country intensifies as the suicide in clusters. controversy rather than clarity. Steering Committee on Statehood unfolds its arguments. News Profiled Indigenous sea rangers learn the art of 4-5 Vietnamese researcher Binh Thai is navigation, a new deal for elite athletes 14 breeding the perfect carp. and a special jellyfish. 34 Forensic scientist Kate Pollard discovers new ways of dealing with DNA. Opinion 12 Political scientist Allan Patience offers a provocative view of the corruption that Q+A engulfs Papua New Guinea. 16 Walkabout Chef Steve Sunk reveals the secrets of his past. Charles, My Hero Global Territorian 19 Paul Willis on the radically unorthodox ideas of one of the world’s truly original thinkers. 30 One of America’s most successful chemical executives was once a Darwin school boy. Environment History 40 The marvellous marine life of the Territory’s coastline will be protected under plans for 44 Surveyor George Goyder set up the first marine parks. settler’s camp in Darwin in rapid time. Limited Edition Arts 46 Eubena Nampitjin’s high-key print depicts 43 Some of the biggest names in the world of the soakwaters and sand dunes far to classical guitar will perform at the Darwin the south of the Great Sandy Desert International Guitar Festival in July. using 34 separate colour screens in the printing process. 2 CRedits Origins Origins is produced by Charles Darwin University’s Corporate Communications. Managing Editor Anthony Smith Editor Ron Banks Project Management Meaghan Bryant Writers Contributors Ron Banks, Sue Bradley, Kathy De La Rue, Karen Edyvane, Nathan Franklin, allan patience was Professor of Political Science at Will Martin, Jason McIntosh, Allan Patience, the University of Papua New Guinea for three years Robyn Smith before taking up the same post last year at CDU. Photographer He has studied the politics of this troubled country Barry Ledwidge for many years and written extensively on its fate Contributing Photographers for both the national media and political journals. David Hancock, Michael Douglas, In his first story for Origins he gives his personal Jason McIntosh, The Northern impressions of a country that he finds is sliding Territory Library deeper into economic chaos and corruption. Design Letterbox robyn smith is a Darwin-based writer and historian who has been observing the behaviour of politicians in Printer regard to heritage laws for many years. She reveals Finsbury Green Printing how the former Country Liberal Party Government subverted the notion of heritage preservation by a Corporate Communications is grateful to the bizarre amendment to the Heritage Conservation following people for their contributions and assistance in compiling this edition. Act – and how Labor, despite its promises, has yet Chris Austin, Sheree Cairney, Michael Douglas, to fix the problem. Julie Carmichael, Christine Edward, Liz Evans, Emma Fowler-Thomason, Leonore Hanssens andrew Liveris, Will Martin, Kate Pollard, Grant Rubock, Penny Shirras, Rachel Carey, ron banks is a former journalist with The West Steve Sunk, Eric Valentine, Merrilyn Wasson, Australian newspaper in Perth, having covered arts, Binh Thai, Adrian Walter, Paul Willis politics and feature writing for 28 years. He was the Opinions and views expressed in this edition newspaper’s arts editor for 15 years and a regular do not necessarily reflect those of Charles Darwin University. Reproduction of any reviewer of theatre, music and films before relocating material appearing in this edition requires to Darwin. He has written several articles for this written permission from Anthony Smith edition of Origins, based on interviews with CDU [email protected] researchers, lecturers and students whose areas of Published May 2007 interest provide fascinating material for a good story. This edition is also available at www.cdu.edu.au/newsroom/origins/ jason mcintosh is CDU’s media man in Alice Springs, CRICOS Provider 00300K responsible for the stories that come out of this central Design and Printing Notes desert region. His feature story for Origins follows the Text face Caecilia delivery of VTE education to the remote community Display face Maple Black Italic www.letterbox.net.au of Laramba, where students are being introduced to literacy and numeracy through the medium of horticulture studies – with remarkable success. Origins is printed with vegetable based ink, no isopropyl alcohol and ninety five per cent of all waste products used in the process are recycled. In a carbon neutral printing process, using the world’s best practice ISO 14001 environmental management systems, this edition of Origins has been printed on Expression Satin paper comprised of sustainable forest fibre. Finsbury measures and offsets its C02 footprint cover Mataranka Swamp, Northern Territory Photograph Barry Ledwidge by planting trees. inside front cover Daly River, Northern Territory Photograph Michael Douglas Origins VICE-CHANCEOriginsLLO R FEATUeditoRIAESL 3 Northern waters Since the water crisis leapt into the public consciousness, This edition also introduces a new barely a day goes by without extensive media coverage feature – ‘Global Territorian’ – a profile of this complex, multi-faceted issue. of a Darwin-born success story on the international stage. Our first profile is Late last year, Charles Darwin University (CDU), in Andrew Liveris, who now heads the partnership with the Northern Territory, Government, international Dow Chemical Company held a two-day seminar to canvass the issues in regard in Michigan, USA, which has more than to northern waters. 130 plants and offices scattered around Experts from across the Northern Territory, Western the world. Australia and Queensland were invited to express their Recently CDU has taken on a new views on water resource management across the northern strategic focus, which aims to build on part of the country. our efforts over the past three years in After a series of stimulating papers, the experts came up bringing together the institutions that with a series of strategies and recommendations to help now make up CDU and in enhancing Governments decide on the best ways to overcome or at relationships with the community. least minimise what has become a national crisis. This new strategic plan ‘1st in 5 in 10’ Northern waters is the major theme of this edition of Origins. identifies five areas of focus that the We hope the space devoted to the topic will be a valuable university commits to being bench- contribution to the current debate on water management. marked in the top band of Australian public universities, progressively over In May CDU holds the first Charles Darwin Symposium the next 10 years. These areas are: for the year, inviting international and national experts to discuss human rights and Statehood for the Territory, • Indigenous participation and relevance issues that are linked by a resurgence of interest in the • pathways for learning movement towards equality with the other Australian • professional, globally oriented education states. The Symposium will explore the issues on many and training levels and Origins complements the debate with stories examining whether a national Bill of Rights is needed and • knowledge to solve complex problems whether the time is nearing for Statehood to be declared. of importance to the communities of No doubt both these issues have some way to run before our regions conclusions are reached, but the Symposium will play its • expanding our capacity through part in clarifying the issues. partnerships. This edition also covers other regional topics of contemporary I hope you enjoy this edition, which relevance ranging from a story on the troubling phenom- I believe reflects this new strategic enon of suicide contagion in young Indigenous men to commitment by CDU as well as the the development of new ways to breed the perfect carp diversity of opinion and activity in Vietnam. that underpins contemporary life, Our sense of history is not forgotten either, with PhD student not only in a university environment, Robyn Smith’s remarkable story of how heritage laws in the but also in the wider community Northern Territory need to be revised. with which we engage. Another PhD student, Kathy De La Rue, takes us further back in history with her story of the first waterfront settlement, known as Goyder’s Camp, on the sliver of land where the new convention centre is being built. Professor Helen Garnett psm 4 NEWS Origins Sport and study do mix Shore patrols Charles Darwin University is going out of its way to help elite athletes of the Northern Territory combine Crab Claw Island Resort sounds more like their sporting prowess with their tertiary studies. an exotic hideaway than a classroom for a In Semester One CDU signed a Memorandum of Understand- group of Indigenous sea rangers learning ing (MOU) with the Northern Territory Institute of Sport about boats. (NTIS), which will see athletes given special dispensations But that is what the holiday resort became for a when their sporting commitments interfere with study. month when Charles Darwin University’s maritime ‘It has always been a bit of a struggle when exams and lecturers offered the sea rangers the opportunity assignments coincided with sports carnivals’, said hockey to gain their coxswain’s certificate. player Simone Liddy, who will be one of the beneficiaries With the assistance of the Northern Land Council, of the scheme. CDU’s maritime lecturers set up camp, literally on Simone is in the third year of her Bachelor of Pharmacy the beach, to teach about 15 Indigenous men and degree while representing the Territory in her chosen sport.