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Adam's got the Goodes to help Australia

Roar Guru
31st May, 2015
13

I remember in high school that for a Year 9 English assignment we were given the topic ‘If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything’.

I just wish that I could have taken the events of last Friday night back 22 years to dissect, I’m sure my teacher would have appreciated the stronger effort.

I was there on Friday night and witnessed the Goodes ‘Haka’. It was awesome theatre, a spur of the moment decision that has taken back-seat to a range of varied commentary on the matter over the weekend.

Australia is in an interesting place in 2015 – we claim to be multicultural, land of the fair go and all sorts of other things.

Goodes is flying the flag for modern Indigenous Australia. He eloquently stated that he would use the honour bestowed on him as Australian of the Year in 2014 to continue to tackle Indigenous rights and seek new ideas to potentially solve horrendous problems facing many remote communities.

It is very hard to accept the argument that Goodes is booed for staging or diving, or for not conforming to the idiom of being a good bloke.

The Selwood family has a mortgage on the ducking the head free kick count on a weekly basis – but I still don’t hear fans boo Joe or Scott as they are still courageous and skilled players. Dustin Fletcher is the master tripper. Yet his longevity and capability to hit 400 games at 40 is a marvel.

The booing of Goodes commenced after he pointed the finger two years ago and took his stand.

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It shows we have a long way to go – modern Australia is very much in the vogue of the ‘I’m not a racist but’ disclaimer where we pay lip service to Indigenous Round, wear wonderful jerseys and then simply move on to the next week’s theme in the AFL’s draw.

Eddie McGuire embodied this with his two actions in 2013 – the unified stand of support to Goodes on the night of the fan’s racial comment, and then the King Kong slip on radio a few days later, displaying, at best, a tactless gall.

Goodsey is here to challenge. This is perceived as aggressive and many of us don’t like it. He is here to get us talking about the issues. He is putting a face to what is a very difficult issue to discuss.

Goodes delivers something very fresh in attempting to challenge people outside of their comfort zone. Important things such as constitutional recognition is needed to give Indigenous people a sense of place in their own land.

Many Indigenous leaders sing the same old song sheet – but exclusively throwing money at improving health outcomes, life expectancy and job opportunities no longer cuts the mark. Australia continues to move backwards in meeting targets to ‘close the gap’. We need triggers to foster that discussion and Goodes has felt empowered to make these the proverbial front and centre.

The spontaneous decision of the Swans’ beloved number 37 to do his war dance was engrossing theatre, a non-token promotion of a culture that needs a leader to communicate challenging views.

Critics have argued that Goodes is belabouring his point, but the booing to me simply shows we still have a long way to go.

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Goodsey’s continued stance is courageous, and I can only hope that instead of worrying about booing this champion of the game, people get interested in the key issues confronting a very serious problem in Australia.

This is why he continues to take his stand. In many ways the true mark of the actions of our Winmars, Longs and Goodes is that we will one day hopefully not need an Indigenous Round at all in the AFL.

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