I am wondering why we trivialise indigenous racism in Australia?

[i-need-a-martini]

Adam Goodes has copped it twice this week - once from a kid and then by an adult who should know better.

I feel so ashamed of this country at this moment. I am sick of hearing a sentence start with "I am not racist but..." before the person launches into a race based attack on indigenous people (or Asians. Or Muslims).

What I have found the most interesting about the Goodes incident is how many people made excuses that made him look like the antagonist. Almost as if making racist remarks about indigenous people is no big deal. Treating him as if his feelings, his views (and everything about him) is unimportant. And I am staggered at how many people know so little about the history of racism a history that so many generations of indigenous people have had to go through.

And now Eddie Mcquire has shown us that racist comments against indigenous people is lurking just on the tips of our tongues waiting to be blurted out without refrain. 

I can't help but agree with this: One of the most savage responses to McGuire came from Magpies backman Harry O'Brien, who admonished his president, declaring he was ''extremely disappointed''. ''In my opinion race relations in this country is systematically a national disgrace,'' he said. 
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/afl/afl-news/eddie-offers-to-stand-aside-20130529-2nc63.html

I agree with that last line - it is a national disgrace.

[cueperkins]

Good moaning all.....how are you on this cyclonic weather day? 

Viewmont, interesting info - seems we all have threads of knowledge and experience that reach across this country like hands across Australia....in Indigenous culture that would be considered our story as a culture....& that's the whole point.....the story of this land goes back much further than 200 odd years, and while it continues to be ignored, the land itself (the mother) is being denied....

It's like a spiritual fracture that won't mend itself, and with talk of Land Title Claims from activists, overshadowing recognition, it's never going to.... It's the Land title side of things that puts fear into people but it shouldn't, because it doesn't mean the same thing as when someone like Gina Rinehart or Clive Palmer owns land.  They're only interested in what's under it, and what they can get from it, not what they can give it....two different animals.  e.g. CSG mining is more a threat to suburban, regional and remote Australia than Indigenous Land Title, but in the name of capitalism anything goes?..lol

Recognition should be the focus - the indigenous people never considered themselves owners of the land....it's always been the other way around = the land owns them, and they are her caretakers from one generation to the next- until now.   (remember I'm talking traditional people here, not activists & city dwellers)   think of people like David Gulpilil and..Mandaway Yunipingu, to name only a few....

This is one of my fave Yothu Yindi tracks - Sunset Dreamin (I warn ya though the beat is addictive)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG-CNqOhO2c

Fave actor?.....well this fella here is a cultural legend....and Rabbit Proof Fence would have to be the most powerful of his movies.....I could relate entirely, but not for me, for those it told the story of, like my grandmother.

Most inspiring present day moment?....well this blew me away recently...

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu and Delta Goodrem perform Bayini

http://www.thevoice.com.au/video.html#/videos/Week_8/TheVoice_AU_s02_Ep21_clip1720_2376

More of this kind of collaboration please.....it was an incredibly beautiful duet.

[freakiness]

Why, its history, no wonder they cant move on and make a decent start in life.

We learn about other people's history. Are you suggesting we should not learn about aboriginal history? Australian History barely touches it.

Do you expect them to move on while denying their history be taught?

[cherry*135]

The ape insult: a short history of a racist idea

31 May 2013

Most us know that calling someone an ape is racist, but few of us understand why apes are associated in the European imagination with indigenous people and, indeed, people of African descent.

To understand the power and scope of the ape insult, we need a dose of history............

.................Clearly, the education system doesn’t do enough to educate us about the science or history of man. Because if it did, we would see the disappearance of the ape insult.

http://theconversation.com/the-ape-insult-a-short-history-of-a-racist-idea-14808

Eddie McGuire, Adam Goodes and ‘apes’: a landmark moment in Australian race relations

http://theconversation.com/eddie-mcguire-adam-goodes-and-apes-a-landmark-moment-in-australian-race-r...

Racism in the AFL: Eddie McGuire and the media prove there’s still a long way to go

1 June 2013

http://theconversation.com/racism-in-the-afl-eddie-mcguire-and-the-media-prove-theres-still-a-long-w...

.

[*mrswormwood*]

I'm pleased that the new C2 high school curriculum now has a lot more indigenous content.

One of my kid's just completed a half term of Aboriginal literature poetry focussing on struggle and hope. They had to read lots of texts and the authors had to be Aboriginal.

[*mrswormwood*]

I'm pleased that the new C2 high school curriculum now has a lot more indigenous content.

One of my kid's just completed a half term of Aboriginal literature poetry focussing on struggle and hope. They had to read lots of texts and the authors had to be Aboriginal.

Meant to add that the other half of the term was reading and researching the 'Rabbit Proof Fence'

[freakiness]

I just found a refreshingly positive article about this topic by Charlie Pickering.

http://www.mamamia.com.au/news/charlie-pickering-i-know-nothing-about-racism-in-australia/

CHARLIE PICKERING

“I’m just calling to talk about this whole Adam Goodes thing with Eddie McGure and all that. I just wanted to say that I don’t think racism is that bad in Australia I just think it’s not such a big deal.”

-Jan from Hawthorn, white, first time caller, long time listener.

 I know nothing about racism in Australia.

I cried with pride when an Australian Prime Minister finally apologised to the stolen generation on behalf of the Australian government.

I remember clearly the day that Nicky Winmar lifted his shirt to show how proud he was of his black skin. And I know why, for a significant and important part of our national community, January 26 is not a day of celebration.

But I know nothing about racism in Australia.

I know that until the 1967 referendum altered our constitution to include all Australians as enfranchised citizens, our first peoples were regulated by the Flora & Fauna Act. I know that this classification of indigenous Australians as animals wasn’t just offensive on face value, but enabled the brutalisation and murder of countless human beings in a long, dark period of our history that should be remembered with shame.

I know that attitudes of white racial superiority weren’t just attitudes, they were structural planks of our legal framework. Prejudice wasn’t just a kind of bigoted ignorance, it was the law. For decades upon decades upon decades upon decades, indigenous Australians lived in a land, their land, where in the eyes of the law they were literally classed as animals.  And I know that goes some way to explaining why calling someone an ape is more than just a bit of juvenile name calling.

I know that we never had an Emancipation Proclamation. We never had half of our white population mobilise in Civil War in the defence of the liberty of black Australians.

We never had a leader risk their position, their entire nation and ultimately their life on the very principle that all were created equal, regardless of the colour of their skin.

I know that our history is by and large missing the landmark moments of genuine national importance which stand as reminders that, as a nation, we believe race should not determine your place, your prospects or your standing in society.

And I know that when, after nearly two hundred years of white settlement, our constitution was finally re-written to make amends for the past, the power of that decision lay entirely in the hands of the white population. It happened when white Australia was ready.

But I know nothing about racism in Australia.

I know that if I was born aboriginal, I could quite confidently expect to receive less education, earn less money, have worse health and die younger than if I had been born white. I would be significantly less likely to achieve minimum standards of literacy and numeracy and significantly more likely to be unemployed, incarcerated or a victim of domestic violence. And I also know that I’ve never really had to worry about that once in my life.

I know that as an Essendon supporter I have, for a long time, been a huge fan of indigenous footballers. But I also know that football has been one of the only places that indigenous Australians have reached places of genuine prominence and renown in the broader Australian community.

I know that while Michael Long, Deborah Mailman and Jimmy Little are household names, Marcia Langton is not a household name. And I know that she should be. She is one of Australia’s leading scholars whose remarkable academic ability has seen her become one of this country’s leading intellectuals. She is one of the most fascinating people I have ever seen speak, though her story is rare.

But I know nothing about racism in Australia.

I do know that this week I heard a whole lot of white people calling radio stations to say that because “I’m not racist and most people I know aren’t racist” and because “Australia has come a long way” that racism “isn’t as big a problem as everyone’s making out”.

I heard a lot of people say that while they did get why ape wasn’t “a good thing to call someone”, it “wasn’t that offensive” and in fact “maybe it’s not racist at all”.

I heard a lot of white Australians (and one highly visible one in particular) say how conscious they were of never letting racism take a foothold. But while their sentiment is welcome and important, it shouldn’t be exceptional. And while their hearts are without doubt in the right place, I know that none of them were ever refused a ride in a cab because of the colour of their skin.

In the past week we have been offered a view of racism from a broad spectrum of white voices on mainstream media. Media which, after all, are pretty much white media. For most of the last week we have been listening to a white echo chamber trying to reassure itself that everything is okay.

And I know that every time I shut up long enough to listen to an indigenous voice, I learned something. And, as is often the way, the more I learned the more I realised how little I knew.

[*notatroll]

One of my kid's just completed a half term of Aboriginal literature poetry focussing on struggle and hope. They had to read lots of texts and the authors had to be Aboriginal.

This must be a fairly recent addition to the curriculum then. Traditional aboriginal culture is not well known for its writing of any description, let alone such achievements as Literature and Poetry.

[poddster]

You need to be able to speak openly and honestly about the reality of what goes on around us.

By doing that you get lovely holidays , sometime a 7 day one and at times an extended 30 day one. I speak from expierence, I am a seasoned traveller 😞

[viewmont1071]

One of my kid's just completed a half term of Aboriginal literature poetry focussing on struggle and hope. They had to read lots of texts and the authors had to be Aboriginal.

This must be a fairly recent addition to the curriculum then. Traditional aboriginal culture is not well known for its writing of any description, let alone such achievements as Literature and Poetry.

Roberta Sykes

http://www.robertasykesfoundation.com/

aka

Bobbi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobbi_Sykes

from love poems and other revolutionary acts 1979

AMBROSE

They say you took your life with your own hand.

But I been looking at your life these past four years

and I see other hands in the taking of your life.

Your mother was helping you to die since your first breath.

You showed me her picture once taken with you as a babe.

You lay, pretty boy, on a table.

Behind you she stood your bottle in one hand her bottle in the other

symbol of your childhood.

Your father helped by the hole he left in your life when he split

& you only seven months in foetaldom.

Teachers had a hand: laying hands upon you

(not in love)

in punishment for your dirty clothes & later

for your lies

(your survival kit, haha– you told me later).

Incorrigible: you lived more a uniformed life

contained by uniformed men than in the free air

of which you often spoke.

I don’t like to talk about how the ‘helpers’ helped

moving you closer & closer to your inevitable fall

(or were you pushed?).

Helpers who let you know so soon that vour best wasn’t good enough

for them.

‘There is no place for me here’ you told me already 17 and floating now

in the only space you could see open.

There were handmarks & fingerprints all over you when they found you;

but you died by your own hand they said.

[*mrswormwood*]

One of my kid's just completed a half term of Aboriginal literature poetry focussing on struggle and hope. They had to read lots of texts and the authors had to be Aboriginal.

This must be a fairly recent addition to the curriculum then. Traditional aboriginal culture is not well known for its writing of any description, let alone such achievements as Literature and Poetry.

I think the new curriculum was introduced formally last year.  When he was researching, he came across lots of examples of indigenous literature and poetry.

This website is dedicated to indigenous art and lit.

http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/arts/tribal-lines