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A 19-YEAR-OLD man from Katherine in the Northern Territory has snagged the catch of a lifetime, reeling in a tagged barramundi worth $1 million in Australia’s richest fishing competition.

Keegan Payne was fishing in the Northern Territory’s Katherine River with one of his sisters and a friend when he hooked the fish on Sunday morning.

The teen was blown away when told he had won the massive prize.

“This is crazy for us. We’re a big family, there’s eight of us, this is more money than we could ever ask for,” Mr Payne said.

“I can buy what I want, maybe help Dad…

FIGHTING billionaires and their proposals for coal mines may not be a typical way to spend your youth – but Murrawah Johnson comes from a long line of resistance warriors.

Ms Johnson, a Wirdi woman of the Burra Gubba nation of central Queensland, has been recognised with the Goldman environmental award, a major international prize for grassroots activism which will be announced in a ceremony in San Francisco.

“Having a strong Indigenous cultural identity is actually my superpower in navigating this world and really being able to find my place in the colonial apparatus that is Australia,” Ms Johnson said.

“I come from a long line of resistance fighters who are incredibly resilient…

FOUR significant cultural heritage items sent to Germany in 1840 by two Lutheran missionaries have been handed back to the Kaurna people in South Australia by a German museum.

The 180-year-old-plus items, a kathawirri (sword), tantanaku (club or bark peeler), wirnta (spear) and wikatyi (net) were officially returned during a ceremony at Adelaide’s Pirltawardli (Possum Park) – the location of the original exchange between Kaurna people and German missionaries.

The Kaurna people and representatives…

FACED with rising seas and the loss of their homes, two Torres Strait Islander Elders have made a final bid to force the Australian government into action.

Pabai Pabai and Paul Kabai have launched legal action in the Federal Court, seeking orders requiring the government to prevent further climate change harm to their communities, including cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Closing arguments were finalised last Friday after on-Country hearings in the Torres Strait in 2023, and the judge has adjourned…

NSW South Coast Aboriginal fishers have filed a class action in the Federal Court against the state of NSW.

The class action is about their right to practise cultural fishing without fear of prosecution.

It will likely take three to four years for the case to go to trial.

In 2009 the NSW government passed the Fisheries Management Amendment Act 2009.

It exempted Aboriginal cultural fishing from the catch limits that apply to recreational and commercial fishers.

Section 21AA of that Act made a special provision for Aboriginal cultural fishing and protected cultural fishers from compliance actions under the Fisheries Management…

UNDER cloudy skies that brought shade and refreshing winds from the south, 22 teams played their hearts out at the annual Battle of the Islands Touch Championships on Ken Brown Oval at Waiben-Thursday Island last week.

The fast-paced sport, that had a mix of teams from across the Torres Strait, played out over four days, from last Thursday (2 May) through to Sunday (5 May).

The teams played across two separate Men’s Open divisions – Pool A (5 teams) and Pool B (6 teams), a Women’s Open division (8 teams), and an Over 40s Mixed division (3 teams).

The event is hugely popular across the Straits, particularly with social…