The other night a woman I’ve never met before came to my flat to buy something I’d advertised on Gumtree. Admiring the view from my lounge – over a park – she asks if I had ‘seen the Aboriginals there’. That’s a strange question, I think. It’s not a park with any particular significance to the indigenous population. Along with a million Aussie pubs, it’s named after the Duke of Wellington, who as far as I know had little positive impact on Aboriginal history. But it is a city centre park, and as such attracts its fair share of homeless people; sometimes they may even have had a drink or two. Ah-ha! The penny drops. She’s wondering if I’ve seen them.
True, there is evidence that there’s high likelihood of any homeless people being Aboriginal. And while indigenous Australians tend to drink less overall than white people, those that do drink often do so to harmful levels. Sadly, these things are not uncommon in Australian cities, but when you look at the staggering inequalities between indigenous and white Australians, is it really so surprising?
‘More than 200 years of dispossession, racism and discrimination have left indigenous Australians with the lowest levels of education, the highest levels of unemployment, the poorest health and the most appalling housing conditions.’
So says Oxfam, which is running a major campaign to improve indigenous health. Yes, that’s right – Oxfam, otherwise known for its work in war-torn Africa and the poorest Asian nations, is working in Australia.
A great deal of work is being carried out now to right the wrongs of the past. But I have still been shocked by the casual racism displayed by ordinary people.
My Gumtree purchaser, a well-dressed, articulate woman from a nice suburb, would probably be horrified to hear that I considered her comment offensive. But for me, defining a person’s unfortunate situation in life by their race is just bizarre. And I can’t imagine anyone in the UK saying to a complete stranger ‘Have you seen the Blacks?’ in a similar way.
It’s not my first experience of this either. A few days into my first proper job in Perth, a colleague circulated a poem by email. The punchline suggested that it was acceptable to throw tins of tomatoes at indigenous people. To this day I feel guilty that it took me several weeks to raise it with my manager (because I was keen to settle in and not ’cause trouble’ in my first month), and that I never directly challenged the sender about it (although I did find plenty of reason to challenge his views as the months went by – soon after he moved on from Aboriginal people to his deep distrust of all Muslims).
Is Australia a racist country? I like to think not. I’ve met many people who respect all cultures – and there are many represented in this nation of immigrants – including indigenous culture. But these incidents, along with the Hey Hey It’s Saturday debacle and shameful crimes like this, make me wonder if the nation is as comfortable with its multiculturalism as it should be.
This is something to which I can relate.
You have moved to another country on the other side of the globe. I have moved 125 kilometres, staying in the same country, but in some respects I feel as if I am in a different world when it comes to race.
If one were to replace the word ‘aborigine’ in your article with Canada’s version, ‘aboriginal’, ‘first nations’, or ‘native’, we would have identical stories.
As a white man working at CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), my world encompassed people from all cultures.
Of course, I saw racism all around me, and often the stories we worked on involved that.
But in my personal life, I was surrounded by friends who understood that the colour of a person’s skin did not determine that individual’s worthiness. Racist remarks simply are not tolerated.
Then I moved to a small village just down the road, and the story changed. I see it everywhere, and wonder at what a sheltered life I must have led in the past 30 years.
There are many good things to be said about my new life in a rural setting. But there’s a dark side, too.
There’s so much more I could say about this, but maybe I’ll save it for a future posting on my blog.
Cheers.
Hi Pat! I thought long and hard about putting up this post, and chose my words very carefully, because I was so afraid of getting into an all Aussies are racist/no we’re not debate. So it is good (if depressing) to hear that others feel the same as me. Thanks for your comments.
[…] A question of culture (via Down under, out west) June 8, 2010 pathume Leave a comment Go to comments The other night a woman I've never met before came to my flat to buy something I'd advertised on Gumtree. Admiring the view from my lounge – over a park – she asks if I had 'seen the Aboriginals there'. That's a strange question, I think. It's not a park with any particular significance to the indigenous population. Along with a million Aussie pubs, it's named after the Duke of Wellington, who as far as I know had little positive impact on Aborig … Read More […]
Another comment from me. May I recommend the novel by Bryce Courtney, Brother Fish?
It’s the story of the lives of three people from three different cultures, and how they come together.
A combination of fact and fiction, some chapters deal with the Australian government’s policies against aborigines.
A fascinating read.
Thanks for sending this – whatever the reason.
I had no idea of this situation. I consider such sharing, from one side of the globe to another, the primary pupose of our new “tool.” Surely the internet offers us a way to gather the forces, open our hearts, and recognize our oneness on an undeniable knowing level.
God speed.
Mavis
Yes Aussies are racist..there, no generalisation, but some (certainly not all) that I know have made what I would consider racist comments in genral conversation. However you tend to find similar in most countries..even in the promised land of NZ I found lots of people with ‘issues’ about Maori. Like you , I find it hard to understand (maybe because my recent ancestory is English, German, Scottish, Italian, Spanish) and being brought up in Bristol. But then even some of my rellies (or is it rellys?) are just as bad and have exactly the same upbringing as me.
Not to be racist, but what is your maiden name?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_east_and_fife/10264909.stm
And that, Ryan, is another reason why I can never have children!
Thankfully Australia is not a ‘racist country’ but rather a country in which there are far too many racists.
By that I mean that you can’t make sweeping statements which describe the whole population as racist but on the other hand, ignoring the fact that there are still many Australians who hold disgusting, racist views is also wrong.
Racism in any form is extremely ugly and hopefully we can continue to educate people to help them understand why their thoughts and attitudes are unacceptable.
on an early night in Darwin i began a chat with an aborigenius woman. I was squatting on my own int a real beautiful colonial house, vowed to destruction because its material was (espestos, i can remebr the name, here we sais “amiante’, i ‘ll have ot take a look, for French’s sake, to the translation of this word “amiante”. It is an isolating material which had has its days trenty years old ago, wut revealed itself as nocive and cancerigeanous.
We get on talking, and when i said i could happily go to sleep now xhe said ‘thank you and goood bye, and left the house. Obviouly she couln’t have slpet into a house. They need to be together and hear the sound of the sea, to live, to sleep, to make their day.
In Nimbin I met a lot of them. They,re like me and you, appreciated and they go to parties, funeral, and we like thier accent and the way they sing.
Racism is a world which has no place on my vocabulary. All i know is : your would not put a yearling to pull the “charriot”, and you would not bet on a horse-race some horse that is shaped massive and meant to pull a cart full of people or stray or whatever, it is a “labour horses” work.
Catégorizing races is good for animals, because of their specificities. But all men are alike (now it is true that the aboragenals in Darwin had their baskets full of fish by suppertime, , as we had cought only one, and they invited us to share their meals.
See you there then Dear,
Nauzikaa
[…] 4, 2010 by downunderoutwest I wrote about racism on here a few weeks ago, prompted by a conversation in which I’d been asked if I’d ‘seen […]