John Pilger’s Utopia has excited quite a few people, but I haven’t yet seen it. You will find international reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. One says “When the subject and subjects are allowed to speak for themselves – when Pilger doesn’t stand and preach – the injustices glow like throbbing wounds.” I am not a total Pilger fan, I have to say, but I will certainly watch Utopia – SBS1, 31 May 2014 at 8.35 pm.

See also With Utopia, John Pilger wrings the heart but objectivity is not his forte.

Veteran Australian journalist John Pilger’s new film places Aboriginal Australia’s dispossession and Third-World living conditions on the global stage.

Indigenous people in remote areas, Pilger says in Utopia, which opened [in February 2014], are suffering a form of apartheid. But even indigenous rights advocates wonder whether the award-winning documentary maker, loathed by conservative commentators, is not presenting a skewed picture.

Here, former Aboriginal affairs minister Fred Chaney, Australian of the Year Adam Goodes, academic Anthony Dillon and former indigenous health minister Warren Snowdon – who had a combative exchange with Pilger – review Utopia…

This morning I was quite struck by this story in The Illawarra Mercury, as I had not been aware of the background of Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery – even if I see him most Saturday mornings at the Yum Yum Cafe!

Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery broke down at Monday night’s Wollongong City Council meeting, choking back tears as he reflected on his own connections to indigenous Australians.

He delivered a deeply personal speech about reconciliation after calling for a minute’s silence to mark National Sorry Day, speaking of the Aboriginal children he met during his own troubled childhood.

Cr Bradbery has spoken about his tough upbringing, telling how he and his brothers were taken away from their alcoholic parents when he was eight years old.

Despite facing many hardships, he said memories of the Aboriginal children he played with as a child in Tamworth and with whom he lived at a Barnados children’s home in north-west Sydney, meant the concept of reconciliation was close to home.

“There’s a great sadness for me about the impacts of having children taken away from their parents, and you can only have tears in your eyes when you realise the tragedy of it all,” he said.

“For me, growing up with my Aboriginal mates at West Tamworth Public School, we were all equal and we were all mates who just got on with life – we all knew what it was not to wear shoes and I didn’t have that awareness of any inequity.

“I’ve always had a passion for social justice and equity and I think the Aboriginal people lost that big time.”

Cr Bradbery told the council he thought the Aboriginal community was one of Australia’s greatest assets, and needed to be recognised as “something we should all be proud of and take the time to celebrate”.

“It’s such an incredible culture, and the other thing that never ceases to amaze me is how gracious they are,” he said…

Meanwhile in Wollongong:

The new shopping centre’s shape is emerging…

… and other signs of progress in Crown Street Mall. But it really is still a hell of a mess and taking a long time. September, they say…