I WOULD like to express my opinion as an Aboriginal person on some racist comments lately.
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Eddie McGuire’s stupid gaffe! He may be a nice bloke but the problem with people like Eddie is they open their mouths before they put their brains into gear.
Racism has always been in Australia and it will never go away because of the White Australian Policy which came into law in 1901. Aboriginals were denied civil rights under the 1901 Commonwealth Constitution. These rights are not granted until the constitution alteration (Aboriginals Act) (1967 Referendum).
The origins and implementation of the White Australia Policy were traced to 1805. The Australian Government dismantled the policy with the final vestiges removed in 1973, by the new Labor government.
Aboriginal people don’t exist in Australia. That is true. We are not recognised in the Australian Constitution, we are classified as flora and fauna (an animal) in Australian eyes. Australian people had to go to a referendum in 1967 to allow us to vote, which should have been mandatory.
Aboriginals should have been the first people in the constitution. We were the first people here before the arrival of British colonists from 1788 which effected vast changes on Aboriginal culture.
A bit of my family’s experience of racism is related in a book by Maurice Ryan about my grandfather.
The book is called the Dusky Legend. It is a story of Sam Anderson, an Aboriginal cricketer from South East Queensland and the Northern Rivers who set the local cricket scenes alight with his prodigious batting, bowling and wicket-keeping exploits. Included in the latter is his dismissal of Don Bradman for a duck in 1928 at Oakes Oval, Lismore. In his cricketing years Sam stood tall and straight in a white society, a hero for black and white alike. One could understand this if he was a national figure, like Don Bradman, but what makes it more remarkable for a local identity to be given that status was the fact that he was Aboriginal and at a time when racial consciousness was dominated by its political credos: “Australia for the white man”, segregation and non-citizenship.
My grandfather was an achiever but did not get the chance like Don Bradman because he was black. You won’t find his cricket history written in any white history book.
Was Sam’s legendary status justified? Sam never made it to anywhere near the top, but then he didn’t get the opportunity to play against the nation’s best. To think what went on in the 1800s still raises its ugly head today, not only in sport, but everywhere.
It is also the perception that most Australians believe all Aboriginal people are dumb, drunkards, coons, thieves, uneducated, lazy layabouts – those words are derogatory and hurtful.
In the book it states Sam Anderson should have worn a green and gold cap; undisputed by hundreds of cricketers who played with and against him. In the 1920s and 30s Sam pulverised bowlers, took miraculous catches, bowled with guile and stood up to the wickets to the fastest bowlers.
My family and I have copped our fair share of racial abuse in Gunnedah and elsewhere. Ron and I have taught our sons to ignore the taunts because those people are ignorant and don’t know any better. We tell them to remember that they are as good as anybody else if not better, and if they don’t like you because you are black they are hypocrites and not worthy of your friendship.
I have been called all those derogatory names. I also believe people should sweep the dirt away from their own door before they condemn some other individual. We all have skeletons in the cupboard.
I would certainly know how Adam Goodes is feeling.
There has always been a stigma about being Aboriginal, but these Johnny-come-latelys who want to be Aboriginals because they think we get benefits from the government is a joke. My family has always worked hard and paid taxes like every other Australian, so why should we be abused for being black. I make no excuses for my life to anyone. I am proud of all my achievements.
GWEN GRIFFEN
GUNNEDAH