Emily Wurramara’s childhood was one of water and music. Growing up on Groote Eylandt her days were filled with travel, fishing and extended family, and a mother telling stories of dreams and dolphins that would one day become the seeds of Emily’s music.

Anyone who cannot wear a face mask because of a disability, physical or mental health illness or condition must now carry proof of exemption.

When I walk the streets of my town I feel this. I feel the divide. I watch the masked mingle with the ‘medically exempt’. There’s an unspoken agitation. A sense of ‘them’ and ‘us’. My town is no longer a place of love and acceptance. It is not a place of compassion and kindness. There is an undercurrent of distrust, suspicion and potential violence. We are being taken.

Ballina Region for Refugees [BRR]has highlighted the dubious anniversary this week by again calling on Northern Rivers’ locals to write to politicians demanding an end to detention for people who found to be genuine refugees.

NSW local government elections are postponed again due to the pandemic.

Health authorities say they’ve classified more than forty people as Covid Nineteen close contacts via a Northern Rivers exposure site.