University of Arizona Law professor James Anaya, in his role as Special Rapporteur for the UN, has issued a report on the status of Indigenous Australians and Torres Straits Islanders. Here's the link: http://www.un.org.au/Special-Rapporteur-on-Indigenous--Australia-Report-...

Sad news from the Cherokee Phoenix:

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – Former Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller, one of the few women ever to lead a major American Indian tribe, has been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer, her husband said March 2.

http://www.cherokeephoenix.org/24645/Article.aspx

I got the message below this morning as a member of AAUP:

This is a time of and for action. A time for faculty, students, and professionals in the academy to form common cause and to take the lead in reversing current patterns of policy and practice. A time to rebalance the academy and to refocus on the broad public purposes of higher education.

In March, 1970, over 200 people attended the First Convocation of American Indian Scholars in Princeton, New Jersey in the US, so this is the fortieth anniversary. I am working on a way to recognize those who attended this historic meeting during our NAISA meeting in Tucson, but could use some help figuring out who from the participant list might still be around these days.

NAISA member Steven Salaita has a new post at Pulse asking if isn't time to start profiling white Christians for the sake of safety.

Read it here:

http://pulsemedia.org/2010/02/22/time-to-start-profiling-white-christian...

NAISA has five newly elected officers, including Kate Shanley, who will become president-elect of the association at the conclusion of the upcoming annual meeting in Tucson May 20-22. Also, Kim TallBear and Vince Diaz were elected to the NAISA Council, and Joanne Barker and Bronwyn Fredericks were elected to the Nominations Committee. Congratulations to all!

For a short report on the numbers, click read more...

After signing up and paying membership, there are 2 steps to logging into the site for those seeking to vote before the election closes Wednesday at noon Central Time (North America):

1.  Create a website account at http://www.naisa.org/user/register Use the same email as you used when paying your membership, so the membership records can be associated with the website user account.

2.  Login with the new web account with the one time login in the email you receive.

3.  If you want to vote, you may need to logout (http://www.naisa.org/logout  then log in a second time.

[NOTE (2/24): If you have voting-related problems after following the steps below ((including the incorrect message "Your vote has been recorded" when you haven't filled out your ballot), please contact rwarrior@illinois.edu. Most of these problems have to do with the voting interface and have been easy to fix.]

The 2010 NAISA election is open until Wednesday, February 25 at noon Central Standard Time (North America). All current NAISA members who have activated or created their user accounts for this website are eligible to vote by clicking on the 2010 Election link on the left side of the page. If you are current in your member dues and have an account but are not listed as eligible in the text block at the top right of this page, try logging out and logging back in, then email rwarrior@illinois.edu for help if that doesn't fix things.

If you need to renew your membership, click membership in the menu of links to the left. If you are logged in to the site when you renew, make sure you log out and log back in before checking your eligibility.

There's more...

Two years after his apology to Indigenous Australians, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made the following speech:

Mr Speaker, two years ago I made a formal Apology in this Parliament to the Indigenous peoples of Australia, and particularly to the Stolen Generations, on behalf of the Government, the Parliament and the people of Australia.

(read more for the full text)