diff --git a/Include/py_curses.h b/Include/py_curses.h
index f38f765..e4c0a6e 100644
--- a/Include/py_curses.h
+++ b/Include/py_curses.h
@@ -10,7 +10,12 @@
 #ifdef	_BSD_WCHAR_T_DEFINED_
 #define _WCHAR_T
 #endif
-#endif
+
+/* the following define is necessary for OS X 10.6; without it, the
+   Apple-supplied ncurses.h sets NCURSES_OPAQUE to 1, and then Python
+   can't get at the WINDOW flags field. */
+#define NCURSES_OPAQUE 0
+#endif /* __APPLE__ */
 
 #ifdef __FreeBSD__
 /*
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 80ac82b..3522fc8 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -180,6 +180,8 @@
 Extension Modules
 -----------------
 
+- Issue #6848: Fix curses module build failure on OS X 10.6.
+
 - Fix expat to not segfault with specially crafted input.
 
 - Issue #4873: Fix resource leaks in error cases of pwd and grp.