Latest news with #WAtoday
Sydney Morning Herald
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Three Things I Love: Community leader shares her top Perth experiences
In this series, WAtoday reaches out to the Perth community to discover three things people love most about our coastal capital. Today we feature Ilona McGuire, an artist and cultural leader whose drone-light performance First Lights opened the 2021 Fremantle Biennale then toured regional WA. McGuire, a Bibbulmun Noongar and Kungarakan woman and the daughter of Walter and Meg McGuire, founders of Go Cultural Tours, has work held in collections including the Janet Holmes à Court Collection and John Curtin Gallery. She leads Blak Dingo Club, a social and events club that celebrates Indigenous achievement and is running a month-long program of free film screenings and a community quiz night in the City of Melville. I love Mudurup (Cottesloe area), and every Saturday morning I get up and walk for ages on the beach and be mindful, think about the place I'm in, and about my ancestors here; like so many places in Perth, this was a significant gathering area. I love looking at the seagrass in the shallow waters, a simple thing but also rare and vulnerable. When we had some mob visiting from Queensland who have been advocating for bringing back seagrass to the Great Barrier Reef, they mentioned how special it was to see it here. I also look at the shells, and I don't often collect or take those, but I do collect sea glass. I look at Wadjemup (Rottnest Island) when it's a clear day and think about the things our people have been through here, and about how despite everything that's happened, I am still here to find this place home, and share stories, language and culture. I can share, for example, that the name of this place is Mudurup, and I'm privileged that my family holds that knowledge. I love our new river conservation project BoorYul-Bah-Bilya (Magic River). My family owns Bibbul Ngarma Aboriginal Corporation and this project has been in the works for some time. We've partnered with our family friends who are environmental scientists, and we envision it will also empower the community to improve the health of the river: from Mandoon Bilya (Helena River) to the Derbarl Yirrgan (Swan River) to Walyalup (Fremantle). It's about sharing knowledge about the state of the river, which parts are healthy and which need more love and care, like the city area in particular. It will empower the public to monitor and take ownership of areas. We will be running workshops, cleanups and teaching people about water testing. This river is the heart of our country, and the water in it stretches to neighbouring clans and language groups that benefit from its level of health. So too will future generations, so this is an exciting intergenerational piece of work that will grow and expand. I love Kidogo Art House, in Walyalup (Fremantle). It's a gallery, exhibition and live music venue that also hosts events and functions and dining experiences, all in this beautiful building – one of the oldest heritage buildings in Fremantle. It has had many lives, but it is now such a hub for art, storytelling and music, run by my family friend Joanna Robertson. I love it for its creative community. We have helped with its Hand in Hand Irish Aboriginal Festival which celebrates the friendship and cultural similarities, and often blood ties, between these two communities. It's always a great time, and you end up meeting and connecting with new people every time you go there. Loading
Sydney Morning Herald
28-05-2025
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
The ‘toughest anti-nang laws in the country' only work if you enforce them
On the day then-health minister Amber-Jade Sanderson proclaimed a ban on 'nangs' last October, I walked into a convenience store and bought the illegal nitrous oxide gas canisters — no questions, no ID, no proof of purchase, no problem. Day one of the new regulations, fair enough, give them time, despite a promise to 'enforce compliance from today', having long sounded a warning the ban was coming. That was seven months ago. But this week, I walked into that same convenience store and tested their compliance as part of a 9News Perth investigation. Once again, no questions, no problems. Ten nangs for $10. Tobacconists and retailers in the Perth CBD and Northbridge are flagrantly flouting the law. And why wouldn't they, when the state government is not policing what it touted as the 'toughest laws in the country'. 9News Perth and WAtoday revealed this week that not a single fine has been issued by the Department of Health for the sale of nangs. It is difficult to believe, when any teenager — or at least anyone with a working debit card — can buy the popular and potentially deadly party gas in the ubiquitous corner stores or even online, delivered to your door in under 30 minutes, just like Uber Eats. Nangs give users a high when they inhale the gas. And they are popular; an ED doctor even told me during my investigation that he had used nangs. They can also cause seizures, heart attacks, psychosis, or irreversible neurological damage — like the case of Perth teenager Molly Day, who paid the price for the cheap thrill.
The Age
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Three Things I Love: Community leader shares her top Perth experiences
In this series, WAtoday reaches out to the Perth community to discover three things people love most about our coastal capital. Today we feature Ilona McGuire, an artist and cultural leader whose drone-light performance First Lights opened the 2021 Fremantle Biennale then toured regional WA. McGuire, a Bibbulmun Noongar and Kungarakan woman and the daughter of Walter and Meg McGuire, founders of Go Cultural Tours, has work held in collections including the Janet Holmes à Court Collection and John Curtin Gallery. She leads Blak Dingo Club, a social and events club that celebrates Indigenous achievement and is running a month-long program of free film screenings and a community quiz night in the City of Melville. I love Mudurup (Cottesloe area), and every Saturday morning I get up and walk for ages on the beach and be mindful, think about the place I'm in, and about my ancestors here; like so many places in Perth, this was a significant gathering area. I love looking at the seagrass in the shallow waters, a simple thing but also rare and vulnerable. When we had some mob visiting from Queensland who have been advocating for bringing back seagrass to the Great Barrier Reef, they mentioned how special it was to see it here. I also look at the shells, and I don't often collect or take those, but I do collect sea glass. I look at Wadjemup (Rottnest Island) when it's a clear day and think about the things our people have been through here, and about how despite everything that's happened, I am still here to find this place home, and share stories, language and culture. I can share, for example, that the name of this place is Mudurup, and I'm privileged that my family holds that knowledge. I love our new river conservation project BoorYul-Bah-Bilya (Magic River). My family owns Bibbul Ngarma Aboriginal Corporation and this project has been in the works for some time. We've partnered with our family friends who are environmental scientists, and we envision it will also empower the community to improve the health of the river: from Mandoon Bilya (Helena River) to the Derbarl Yirrgan (Swan River) to Walyalup (Fremantle). It's about sharing knowledge about the state of the river, which parts are healthy and which need more love and care, like the city area in particular. It will empower the public to monitor and take ownership of areas. We will be running workshops, cleanups and teaching people about water testing. This river is the heart of our country, and the water in it stretches to neighbouring clans and language groups that benefit from its level of health. So too will future generations, so this is an exciting intergenerational piece of work that will grow and expand. I love Kidogo Art House, in Walyalup (Fremantle). It's a gallery, exhibition and live music venue that also hosts events and functions and dining experiences, all in this beautiful building – one of the oldest heritage buildings in Fremantle. It has had many lives, but it is now such a hub for art, storytelling and music, run by my family friend Joanna Robertson. I love it for its creative community. We have helped with its Hand in Hand Irish Aboriginal Festival which celebrates the friendship and cultural similarities, and often blood ties, between these two communities. It's always a great time, and you end up meeting and connecting with new people every time you go there. Loading
The Age
28-05-2025
- Health
- The Age
The ‘toughest anti-nang laws in the country' only work if you enforce them
On the day then-health minister Amber-Jade Sanderson proclaimed a ban on 'nangs' last October, I walked into a convenience store and bought the illegal nitrous oxide gas canisters — no questions, no ID, no proof of purchase, no problem. Day one of the new regulations, fair enough, give them time, despite a promise to 'enforce compliance from today', having long sounded a warning the ban was coming. That was seven months ago. But this week, I walked into that same convenience store and tested their compliance as part of a 9News Perth investigation. Once again, no questions, no problems. Ten nangs for $10. Tobacconists and retailers in the Perth CBD and Northbridge are flagrantly flouting the law. And why wouldn't they, when the state government is not policing what it touted as the 'toughest laws in the country'. 9News Perth and WAtoday revealed this week that not a single fine has been issued by the Department of Health for the sale of nangs. It is difficult to believe, when any teenager — or at least anyone with a working debit card — can buy the popular and potentially deadly party gas in the ubiquitous corner stores or even online, delivered to your door in under 30 minutes, just like Uber Eats. Nangs give users a high when they inhale the gas. And they are popular; an ED doctor even told me during my investigation that he had used nangs. They can also cause seizures, heart attacks, psychosis, or irreversible neurological damage — like the case of Perth teenager Molly Day, who paid the price for the cheap thrill.
The Age
22-05-2025
- The Age
Perth high school mass suspends students over filming, watching brawl
A high school in Perth's southern suburbs has mass suspended a group of students who gathered to watch and film a brawl that unfolded on school grounds. On May 12, two students were involved in a fight at Kent Street Senior High School, and a group of other students gathered around them to watch. A Department of Education spokesperson confirmed the two students who fought were suspended, and that 'every single student involved received a suspension for watching or filming the two students who were fighting'. They have not yet confirmed the length of those suspensions or the number of suspensions handed out as a result of the incident, but a source with knowledge of the incident told WAtoday the total number was 27. They said they had never heard of a situation where so many students were suspended in one go, over one incident, before. The department spokesperson said the fight was quickly disbanded by staff at the school, and that all parents were informed of the incident. They said suspending the students was in line with the state government's 10-point violence in schools action plan, Standing Together Against Violence. Under that plan, all students who instigate or take part in fights, including any student who films attacks or fights, will be automatically suspended. The plan states this is to discourage students from sharing footage with others or the wider community, to prevent the harmful impact of fights or violent incidents from being amplified.
