ILHA - Indigenous Legislative History Archive

20/02/2016

This chart shows the number of instances of our keywords ("Aboriginal/Aborigine", "Indigenous", "Torres Strait") found in all current legislation. Interesting to note the spikes in usage 1976 and 2005/06. Also of note is the obvious shift in language from the 1970s to the 2000s; the term "Indigenous" became increasingly popular from 1998 to present, but did not replace the term Aboriginal. Perhaps a deeper study into the semiotics is warranted?

*NOTE: all our source data (that is, the actual pieces of legislation we search through) comes from comlaw.gov.au

Follow the link to view the data

17/02/2016

Here's a quick data update which explains a little of what we are looking for in this leg of the project...

Top 3 Acts of Parliament that contain any of the keywords ("Aboriginal/Aborigine", "Indigenous" & "Torres") in the title AND in the body of the text:
1) Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 - 3971 keywords
2) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act 2005 - 1933 keywords
3) Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 - 1188 keywords

Top 3 Acts of Parliament that contain any of the keywords in the body of the text BUT NOT in the title:

1) Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 - 188 keywords
2) Crimes Act 1914 - 106 keywords
3) Corporations Act 2001 - 86 keywords

More data on the way. As always, find us here on Facebook, and find the legislation timeline here: http://timeglider.com/t/ab810e74ca09616f?min_zoom=1&max_zoom=100

26/01/2016

https://newmatilda.com/2016/01/26/the-worlds-most-popular-website-just-ripped-the-rug-out-from-under-australia-day/

If you were hoping to wake up to an all ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi’ Australia Day this morning, then whatever you do, don’t log onto the world’s largest website. In a stunning departure from convention, today’s ‘Google Doodle’ – the picture that adorns the Google logo, and changes based on…

13/01/2016

We'd like to give a shout out to our favourite research centre in the world: the Centre for Creative & Cultural Research of Canberra. Keep up the amazing work, you guys!

A centre for research into contemporary creative & cultural issues; focusing on poetry, creative writing, digital media, cultural heritage and design.

27/12/2015

We have some data for you, which can be viewed by following the link. We have searched every Act of Parliament available on the government's law website (www.comlaw.gov.au) for the following keywords: "Aboriginal/Aborigine", "Indigenous", "Torres Strait". The point of this exercise is to determine where Indigenous people are mentioned in legislation, and which parts of Australian law are specifically relevant to Indigenous people.

This viz tells us where any of the keywords turned up and answers two questions:

1. "Are any of the keywords present in the title of the Act?"
2. "Are any of the keywords present in the body of the Act, but NOT present in the title?"

The viz is interactive so hover the mouse over each part of the viz to see detailed numbers.

14/12/2015

We're still here! Our latest project (see previous post) is consuming a massive amount of time, but we are almost ready to share some fresh data viz with you.

In the meantime why not try and guess why the tag "Aboriginal" is found 3 times in Atomic Energy Act 1953...? Or perhaps have a go at why the tag "Torres" appears 11 times in the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011 - and why we initially counted over 40 instances in a case of false-positive identification?

02/12/2015

So begins the next stage of the ILHA project...and it's a whopper! We are currently keyword searching every piece of state and federal legislation for the terms "Aborigine", "Aboriginal", "Indigenous", "Torres Strait Islander" & "Native" to bring you a comprehensive list of the official dialogue on Indigenous people - specifically contained within the Acts of Parliament. Many of these Acts do not contain any of the above terms in the title, and can slip 'under the radar' during the research process.

Thanks to our new data visualisation capacity, we will be able to bring you more vibrant and exciting charts, designed specifically to clear away many common obstacles to good research. This is a massive undertaking and will require a lot of time, patience and diligence. We will post progress updates here in installments.

To get us under way, here is the very first item in this list - taken directly from comlaw.gov.au: the Aged Care Act 1997
https://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2015C00509

29/11/2015

We've been playing around with some new data visualisation (viz) software and came up with a couple of simple charts to describe our metadata in a prettier way than simple text fields. The first viz is a description of all the actual legislation contained on the ILHA vs all "other" publications (statistics, govt. & independent reviews and reports, and all other significant documents). The second viz is a breakdown of every publication in the ILHA, and whether or not it contains the word/s "Aborigine", "Aboriginal", "Indigenous", and "Torres" (as in Torres Strait Islander).

Yes, bubble charts were our favourites today, but there will be more varied visual data coming your way in the near future.

23/11/2015

Our new website is being built as we type this message! Here is a snapshot of the current Timeglider interface. Take good look, because it will soon be replaced by our very own site. Updates as they occur...

18/11/2015

Nice talk on data visualisation by David McCandless - precisely what we are working with here at the ILHA: https://www.ted.com/playlists/56/making_sense_of_too_much_data

It's the age of Big Data. But what, exactly, do we do with all this information? These talks explore practical, ethical -- and spectacularly visual -- ways to understand near-infinite data.

18/11/2015

This came across our desk last night. Checked it out with the National and NSW State libraries and it seems to have been created in 1982 - although we have not found a concrete date yet.

We are cross-referencing to see whether this kit is complete. It contained 10 paper items (some of which we'll put up here soon), ranging from political policy statements, summary of recommendations and a price list of relevant books, films and slides available from the compiler: the Action for World Development Resource Center in Sydney.

A quick check has revealed no online presence for this group (it may have come and gone as so many of lobby/action groups do), but we are digging deeper to unearth the outcomes/impacts of this particular lobby kit on the land rights movement in Australia.

visit the archive here: http://timeglider.com/t/ab810e74ca09616f?min_zoom=1&max_zoom=100

15/11/2015

HIGHLY RECOMMEND: The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database for anyone interested in digital histories, especially pertaining to the subjugation and persecution of minority cultures. The site is quite technical, and there is a slight learning curve in adapting to the interface, but overall it is a magnificent resource on the history of slavery.

Find them here: http://www.slavevoyages.org/