Archive for July 2nd, 2012

A man who was present at the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra 40 years ago confirmed, at a NAIDOC Week ceremony at the University of New England today, that “the spirit of the Tent Embassy lives on”.

Steve Widders, Aboriginal Community Liaison Officer at Armidale Dumaresq Council, was speaking as the community representative at the ceremony. He explained how, as a young teenager, he had found himself on the lawns of Parliament House on that day in 1972 realising that he was “part of history”.

Now a member of the National NAIDOC Committee, which makes key decisions on the celebration of NAIDOC Week throughout Australia, Mr Widders said that change had come about “as a direct result of the establishment of the Tent Embassy”. “The Tent Embassy still stands – and the fire still burns – on the lawns of Parliament House,” he said.

The theme of this year’s NAIDOC Week celebrations (1-8 July) is “Spirit of the Tent Embassy: 40 Years On”.

Mr Widders and the other speakers at today’s ceremony agreed that much progress had been made in the past 40 years but that there was “still a long way to go”.

The Vice-Chancellor of UNE, Professor Jim Barber, noted that NAIDOC Week this year was celebrating “unity, pride, equality, and education”. “That’s what the Tent Embassy stands for,” he said, adding that “education is fundamental to closing the gap”.

Professor Barber pointed out that the relatively high percentage of Aboriginal students at UNE was recognised, in the current Good Universities Guide, by the maximum rating of five stars for “Aboriginal participation”, and he paid tribute to UNE’s Oorala Aboriginal Centre for helping the University to “lead the nation” in this respect.

One of UNE’s current Aboriginal students – Victor Briggs – spoke about the significance of the Tent Embassy in the context of the struggle for equal rights by dispossessed peoples around the world, and the power of non-violent protest on the road to reconciliation.

The Oorala Aboriginal Centre organises UNE’s NAIDOC Week ceremony, which culminates each year in the raising of the Aboriginal Flag.

A researcher at the University of New England believes that the ability to browse on a range of trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, roots and mosses might be important for the health and wellbeing of horses.

Mariette van den Berg, a professional equine nutritionist, is giving horse owners the opportunity to contribute to her research by participating in the National Horse Foraging Survey.

In 2009, Ms van den Berg moved to Australia from The Netherlands and founded MB Equine Services, which provides specialised equine nutrition and horse property design and pasture management. “In designing pastures as part of the business,” she said, “I started to investigate the role of alternative forage sources as a drought reserve. And a bit of research made me realise that, in nature, horses browse a lot.

“This raised the question: ‘How do domesticated horses cope with an enclosed environment in which there is no – or only limited – access to browsing?’ Is there something in browsing that might be important for their nutrient balance or gut and dental health?”

Ms van den Berg is hoping to provide some answers to these questions in her research towards a doctoral degree at UNE. She’s inviting horse owners to contribute their own observations of browsing to the National Horse Forage Survey. “I like the idea that people can make a valuable contribution to horse research in this way,” she said. “And the results of the survey are sure to provide me with directions for further research.” The survey is at: http://surveys.qualdata.net.au/s3/horseforage-survey.

“We don’t often provide our horses with the alternative foods that – in nature – are a large part of their diet,” she explained. “Variety is the spice of life for herbivores – whether they are confined, or foraging on pastures or rangelands – as well as for people. Like us, they are periodically satiated by familiarity and thrive on variety.

“We keep them in a stable or a paddock without feeling obliged to enrich their lives – and edible enrichment has been shown to be the best sort. Such enrichment could address problems of abnormal behaviour and help to avoid ulcers and dental problems.”

She said she hoped that the survey would enable her to make a list of plants – other than grasses – that horses prefer as food. “I’d like to compile a list of foods that are safe for horses to browse on – and a list of those that are unsafe,” she said. She added that the survey gave people the option of uploading photographs of the plants their horses were foraging on if they were unsure of the species.

“Farmers know that planting shrubs and trees on their properties has a range of environmental and agricultural benefits,” she said, “and this possible advantage for their horses could add to that list of benefits.”

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here expands to show Mariette van den Berg working with a horse.