Has Damien Hooper been treated fairly?

It's funny how famous aboriginals only make the headlines when they do something "wrong".

The Australian flag came in in 1901 didn't it? Well after the theft of land. And well after anyone who was alive when it happened had passed on. Aside from the legal argument about whether it was theft or invasion... I don't think this is the right forum for this either, but as for attempted genocide? World War II was attempted genocide of Jews. Again, at the risk of verbal abuse, the Aboriginal flag does not represent the vast majority of Australians either. So we are at an impasse. And JKelly, I could be wrong, but as I said, you have taken his shirt wearing as a political statement, when even Hooper has said it was nothing of the sort. He was happy behind the Australian flag, but he wore the shirt as a show of pride in his family. Why doesn't the Australian flag represent him? As I said, is it time to come together, or keep bringing up past issues? Doing one is moving forward, the other is keeping us stagnant and is obviously very divisive.

Actually, Australia has at least 35 official flags (probably more), including such flags as the Queen's personal flag, separate flags for every governor of every state (in addition to state and territory flags) and various military flags. If you want a great flag, check out the Christmas Island flag. Maybe we could choose to compete under that given it's official and all.

That is an immensely ignorant statement. There are many light skinned Aboriginal people who are born and raised in Aboriginal communities. There is no such thing as what an Aboriginal "looks like", any more than there is such thing as what an Anglo-Saxon "looks like".

While I support Hooper's pride in his heritage, the Olympics is a political minefield far beyond Australia, and showing alternative flags is always going to cause concern, however noble the intention: imagine if a Taiwanese athlete showed a Taiwanese flag, or objected to the 'Chinese Taipei' label- even an athlete of non-Chinese Taiwanese-Aboriginal descent. It may be unfortunate, but there are always rules about this sort of thing, rules which Hooper must have known full well. Deliberately involving oneself in controversy for personal publicity would a pretty self-serving abuse of the cause: we should give him the benefit of the doubt and assume good faith on this one, but he has laid himself open to the accusation. Hooper should fight his best, win if he can, and make all Australians, Aboriginal or otherwise proud- then he can be a really effective role model and advocate.

The issue with "All representatives getting behind our nations flag" is that The Australia Flag does not represent anything for Indigenous Australians. It represents the theft of their land and attempted genocide. It is not that Aboriginal people do not support Australia as a nation, because if they didn't why would Damien Hooper be competing as a part of the Australian Team? It really isn't even that he does not represent the Australian flag, it is that the Australian flag does not represent him. The Aboriginal flag does.

Well I'm certainly with you. It's annoying because every time people like us make a post like this, it's always followed by taunts of 'racist' and similar slandering. The fact is, as I said in an above comment, the AOC made athletes agreed that they would wear team uniform. This isn't the time to do your own thing to get a message across. Division is not needed during an Olympics. Whether the inability for athletes to express is a justified measure is NOT part of the issue. He broke the rules. He knows it.

That is an Ignorant statement. His mother is indigenous thus making him a proud aboriginal man, There are a lot a fair skinned Aboriginals that have grown up in an Indigenous settings and are proud of where they come and the communities they represent, Should It therefore be made the subject of fun?

At the risk of being shouted down, I think at the games, all representatives of our nation need to get behind our nation's flag and represent our nation as it is... I know there have been very famous protest images from the Olympics in the past, but I just think it sours it, and takes the focus away from a great achievement by the athlete. I know Hooper has said that he didn't wear it as a protest, but people have picked it up as one and run with it. Again, this is going to be shouted down, but at what point do Original Australians join with Current Australia and support the nation? If these issues are going to consistently come up, I think it will continue to divide the nation. Lets all support Australia. The minute we divide it, it causes division.

The reason why it has been interpreted as "political" is because the Australian Government sees it as a spotlight illuminating a decidedly dark, shameful and regrettable past as well as a complacent and incompetent present. By reporting Damien to the IOC it has only intensified the international interest in the issue and caused even more embarrassment to the Government. I recognise that Damien did breach the agreement, and that the Olympics should be free from becoming a soapbox for any and all political, racial, social and religious causes, defining Damien's act and motives as "political" shows just how ignorant we are of Indigenous Australia and their identity. Why don't we allow both the Australian and Aboriginal flags to be used in the Olympics for athletes to choose which flag they wish to represent? Australia has two official flags and the games should reflect that. This issue has again raised the profile of Indigenous issues in Australia and renewed interest and debate on the topic. If we had the right policies and the right attitude towards Indigenous Australia, would Damien have felt the need to indulge in this brave act of rebellion? It seems reasonable that he would not wish to identify with, much less to represent on an international stage, a flag that is still a reminder of a brutal occupation, the scars of which we still see today.

Given that he looks about as aborigine as a Swede or a Norwegian, he probably wore the shirt to let people know about his 1% of aborigine blood, lol!

You are correct. Everyone else here telling you otherwise needs to consider... Whether the rule that he can't express his identity is fair one is NOT part of the issue. The fact is, they know they must wear uniform and he didn't. Simple as that.

"Former Olympic runner Cathy Freeman did a similar thing back in 1994 and 2000 when she ran a lap of the athletic track celebrating a win sporting both the Aboriginal and Australian flag, which was also criticised by the Australian chef." Why should an Australian chef criticize anything other than food?

The problem is where do you draw the line about racial recognition? Plenty of Australians of differing races have made significant contributions to our history. Just keep race out of it IMO. The Australian flag represents all Australians, and whilst i'm not a fan of the design with the UK flag in one corner, it still represents me as much as any other Aussie.

The Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Flags is a registered Australian flag, just like the Australian flag. So not only is the Aboriginal flag representative of a people within Australia but a celebration of where Australia was born from and for all Australians to embrace?. In no way is it a political statement, just a celebration of Coopers proud indigenous roots (God forbid they mention his aboriginal Tatoo on his shoulder). My understading is the IOC would deem this politcal if say an indonesian athlete wore a West Papua flag, Spainish athlete wore a Catalonian flag, French athelete wore a Basque flag etc. There is no independence movement of Indigenous Australians! By the way what a great fight, to bad for this distraction! Go Damian Cooper.

Great point

You could preface most of those comments with "I'm not racist but ... "

Clearly he was just showing the world he's proud to be aboriginal... Since when has letting people know your nationality been a 'political' statement?

When you come from a culture with lower life expectancy, poor literacy levels and so many other differences between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians I think it is a fantastic acheivement to become an elite athlete. I think encouraging and promoting acheivements of indigenous Australians would go a long way in addressing issues. Perhaps as Lost Earthling said the real wrong doing here is the failure of the Australian uniform to represent the Aborigingal history of Australia. For those who think its unfair and inequality so is the living conditions and life expectancy of indigenous Australians. Promote and be proud of high achieving Aboriginals!!