community-and-society

Ringbalin shares Indigenous culture and healing environment message

Ringbalin, a Ngarrindjeri word for ceremony, involves sharing stories of Indigenous culture and staging healing ceremonies for the waterways.

"It's about the spirit of this land, it's about the spirit of the river and the stories that we tell our children," Ngarrindjeri elder Major Sumner explained.

"[They are] stories that need to be passed on — about the river, about creation of the land that we live in."

Music video highlights generational conflict between modesty and modernity

PNG has strict laws against pornography and strong censorship of sexually related content in movies and television.

But rapper Tati Mangi has pushed the boundaries of what's acceptable with a video clip that's got the whole country talking.

Who knew women's backsides could cause such a fuss?

Tati Mangi probably did, but he released a video clip for his song Bootilicious featuring young PNG women dancing in bikinis anyway.

The Aboriginal stand-up comedians cracking up Australia

Melbourne's International Comedy Festival first held its Deadly Funny competition in 2007 and The Deadly Funnies have helped to sustain the genre.

More recently we've have TV shows like Black Comedy8MMM, and Comedy Up Late

Compare the eel recipes used by the Aboriginal people of Parramatta and colonial settlers

Each season when the eel was spawning along the Parramatta River, they would gather with other Indigenous tribes to celebrate and share stories.

After 1788, those practices were slowly lost as colonial settlers moved into the area.

On Sunday the annual Eel Festival at Elizabeth Farm in Rosehill will give visitors a chance to understand the ways of the Dharug people and how significant eel was to the way they lived.

Sydney Harbour Bridge celebrated 85th birthday

The Queen Mother said it was "one of the wonders of our time".

But of all the nicknames Sydney's iconic landmark received in the past 85 years, the Iron Lung is one that echoes its significance for those who built it.

The construction employed 1,400 builders who were paid as little as four pounds a week at the height of the Great Depression.

More than 200 families living in the far New South Wales south coast town of Moruya were able to put food on their tables because they worked out of the quarries which provided the granite for the bridge pylons.

Loxton Mardi Gras, Australia's oldest, celebrates its 60th year

That makes it one of the longest-running festivals in Australia and possibly the oldest festival in South Australia.

The Loxton Mardi Gras will be held this weekend and while "Mardi Gras" has become synonymous with the LGBTQI community, organisers of the Loxton festival hold firmly to the religious meaning behind the name.

"Mardi means Tuesday and Gras means grand," said one of the festival's organisers, Peter Magarey.

"It's a family religious festival to eat up big before the austerity of Lent."

Guns N' Roses bring 'bad boy rock 'n' roll' to Melbourne

After a rough start in which the Melbourne crowd was confused for Sydney, founding members Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan reunited to perform for local fans for the first time since 1993.

Fans:

Rob Mopar

I've loved Guns N' Roses since grade 5 so I had to come. My olds were pretty strict and wouldn't let me come when I was 14. I'm 38 now and they're old men.

Sarah Kelly

Where nursery rhymes really come from

Despite the proliferation of explanations for the meanings and origins of nursery rhymes, many, if not most, are unfounded.

Ring a Ring o Rosie, we all fall dead?

Since the 1960s, but not before, it has often been said that the nursery rhyme Ring a Ring o Rosie is about the bubonic plague in England.

Ring-a-ring o' roses,

A pocket full of posies,

A-tishoo! A-tishoo!

We all fall down.

Chlamydia and gonorrhoea cases up in Queensland as doctors fear rise in unsafe sex

Figures from Queensland Health showed 27,506 people were diagnosed with an STI in 2016, up 10 per cent on the previous year.

About 82 per cent of cases were for chlamydia, however experts have been surprised by a large spike in gonorrhoea.

In 2016, 4,006 Queenslanders were diagnosed with gonorrhoea, up from 3,038 the previous year.

The bacterial disease can affect both sexes, and has the potential to cause infertility in women and harm unborn babies.

Most cases were recorded Brisbane's Metro North and Metro South reporting areas.

Moanas in real life: Samoan man teaches his daughters traditional Pacific voyaging skills

Nafanua, Leilani and Emma are 14, 12 and 10-years-old respectively, and their dad Xavier Lui is teaching them the traditional skills of Pacific sea voyaging.

Emma says she likes seeing turtles, riding the bow of the va'a ("boat" in Samoan), and feeling connected to her culture.

"It uncovers the history and you can make your own history while you sail, go on that big boat and make your own," she says, gesturing to the Samoan Voyaging Society's double-hulled canoe, the Gaualofa.