In 1983, founding Four Corners and 60 Minutes producer Gordon Bick and myself were commissioned to produce 13 half-hour episodes of a documentary series called Focus.
It was to be SBS’s first attempt at ‘serious’ documentary making, and its aim was to shine a genuine light on multiculturalism in this country.
Hitherto SBS had studiously ignored the many contentious migrant issues being experienced by Australia as it embraced the great big melting pot experiment.
It had a twice-weekly so-called current affairs program called S.C.O.O.P., which in hindsight was arguably the worst, most facile program ever aired by SBS. Frankly it was little less than propaganda featuring happy dancing and singing ethnics picnicking at weekends in sunny parks all over the country.
In a word it was bullshit.
Bick was and Englishman an I’m a New Zealander, so in a sense we both viewed Australia as objective outsiders. I had already detected a degree of racism in this country, not least against Aborigines, that was in stark contrast to that of my homeland.
I grew up near a small village where at least 30 per cent of my classmates were Maori, many of them full bloods, and many of them my friends. There is little doubt that I and my pakeha classmates absorbed, albeit subconsciously, a great deal of their culture.
At secondary school, we learnt a haka – a Maori war dance – which I have performed all around the globe, where mostly it has been applauded (although I was once taken in by security at a pub in Poland after management thought a patron had become insane in their underground bar).
More importantly, as New Zealanders we were all equals; it was drummed into us at a very early age. And as a nation we were and are proud of it.
I came to Australia in 1976 and was given a job as a reporter for Nine’s A Current Affair. It was here that I first encountered evidence that racism against Aborigines extended right into the media itself, and I unwittingly became part of it on December 1, 1976, when Pastor Sir Doug Nicholls was sworn in as South Australia’s (and Australia’s) first Aborigine governor.
I was sent to Adelaide to cover his swearing in and my producer (who thought it ockerishly amusing to use the word ‘Ab-borrow-gynes’) insisted I ask him one specific question when I interviewed him.
Bear in mind that I was a newcomer to Australia, ignorant of many things about this country. The question seemed simple enough: did Pastor Sir Doug believe he could cope with the job?
In hindsight again, the question was loaded; it inferred that because he was an Aborigine, the job could be beyond him. I am ashamed I asked it, even though he answered it gracefully and in the positive.
Upon my return to Melbourne, my producer was delighted with me for reasons that I genuinely did not understand at the time.
Almost seven years later, and better educated to what was really going on under the surface, Bick and I agreed that my pilot episode of Focus for SBS would tackle racism – no holds barred.
The result, ‘A question of prejudice’, was explosive. In the furore that followed its broadcast, which inadvertently included a segment showing the freshly minted firebrand Sheik Hilaly preaching in the Lakemba mosque, urging Muslims to kill Jews and Christians, a Lebanese Christian newspaper was burnt to the ground apparently for condemning the Hilaly sermon. I say inadvertently because the Hilaly grab was not translated when I put it to air; I had no idea what he was saying.
Gordon Bick felt strongly (and rightly) that we should include an episode on the treatment of Aborigines in modern Australia. I went off to Alice Springs to research it and what I found there horrified me.
The following is an excerpt from an autobiography I am writing:
You are in Alice Springs researching a two-part documentary about the plight of Aborigines who exist like animals in dire poverty on the fringes of the town. Working with leaders from the black community, some of whom you overhear calling you “a white c*nt” behind your back, you see at first-hand how some Aborigines are living: in upturned water tanks, sleeping on filthy mattresses. There are as many as 30 people relying on a single water tap for drinking, cooking and bathing. These are not just second-class Australian citizens, they are third class, living just a rung above beasts.
In any sense, their plight is appalling and shameful.
During the day you see tour bus drivers bring tourists to ogle from their buses at the fringe dwellers; they, the parasitic tour companies, are brazen in displaying Australia’s disgrace and making money from it.
You are staying at a motel away from the centre of town. You have not told any Alice Springs white persons why you are there. The motelier and his wife are a friendly couple who on the third day there invite you over for a barbecue. A helicopter pilot and his wife join us, making a party of five.
“So whaddya do from a living?” asks the pilot, all friendly.
“I’m a documentary producer and journalist,” you reply.
“Oh yeah – so what brings you here?”
“I’m researching the plight of the Aborigines in the fringe camps.”
The man’s face suddenly contorts and reddens in anger.
“Whaddya fuckin’ mean ‘the plight of the fuckin’ Aborigines’? You mean the fuckin’ rock apes!”
He crushes his beer can in his hand, grabs the arm of his wife:
“C’mon, let’s get out of here,” he orders her. “I’m not fuckin’ spending good drinking time with the fuckin’ southern yellow fuckin’ press. Fuck that!”
Enter my life one of the greatest men I have met: former Senator Neville Bonner, who I later flew to the Alice to add comment to the documentary as we were filming. We were also joined by Jim Liddle, then Fr Pat Dodson and the Gumbainggir activist Gary Foley:
Bonner, the first Aborigine elected to the Australian Parliament, is someone you quickly come to genuinely like and admire. No, someone you quickly love. You go to the casino with him and watch him toss the two-up shovel and see him lose 200 dollars. In fun you ban him from going the next night and losing more money, but he insists and you watch him win 400 dollars. He then bans himself from going back.
You enjoy him immensely, this self-effacing ‘nigger in the woodpile’ as he tells you his beloved wife, Heather, calls him. He is so human, this man and so unaffected by his fame, even standing with you on the banks of the Todd and sending out over its waters the biggest, most thundery fart you have heard ever in your life.
Neville Bonner later stands on the steps of the Alice Springs courthouse and for the camera passionately recites the words of the persecuted Aborigine painter Albert Namitjira, shouted in defiance to the White Australia authorities as he was dragged off to prison for merely buying alcohol for his relatives:
“If you can’t treat me like a man then shoot me, shoot me like a dog!”
You provocatively entitle the ensuing two-part documentary, ‘A shame like Alice’. It causes uproar in state and federal parliaments after the episodes are broadcast.
And now the Adam Goodes conflagration.
Next Saturday night, the Wallabies will play the All Blacks in Sydney. Traditionally, the All Blacks will perform their fierce, bloodletting pre-match Haka, yes a Maori war dance or challenge which in Maoritanga demands a response.
There are two versions they now perform: ‘Ka Mate, Ka Mate’ or ‘Kapa o Pango’. The latter culminates in a slit-your-throat motion, a public death threat to the Wallabies no less.
Likely some 75,000 mostly Australians will politely applaud or even enjoy it.
Surely there is a double standard here? They boo Adam Goodes for cutting an innocuous couple of moves and throwing an imaginary spear, and yet they applaud the All Blacks for expressing their intention to do so against their national rugby union team.
I would love to see Kurtley Beale, in solidarity with Adam Goodes next Saturday at ANZ Stadium, stand tall in front of the Wallabies and on behalf of all Australians respond to the challenge of the Haka exactly as it should be responded to: chuck an imaginary spear at ‘em.
I suspect that long-overdue response would be greeted with rapturous applause and possibly put a prompt and timely end to the booing of Adam Goodes. Call it healing.
Besides, what wonderful, meaning-filled theatre it would make.
Leonard Lee is an author (The Zilch! Factor); animation screenwriter (Blinky Bill) and an award-winning documentary-maker (A Question of Prejudice).
sheek
Roar Guru
Thank BennO, I probably overdid it with the word 'pristine'. But then again, probably not as destructive as the British were when they arrived, all the same.
BennO
Guest
I think the point is that Indigenous Australians changed the landscape very much and caused some major extinctions through land management. The idea that "For several thousands of years they have only taken from the environment what they needed, leaving the continent in its unique pristine state..." is very much in dispute. From what I recall there is ample evidence that fire management practices altered the ecosystem and caused the extinction of many large animals. That's not to equate what indigenous Australians did with Europeans in terms of landscape change and causes of extinction, but as I understand it, it's accepted by anthropologists and paleo-ecologists that they definitely altered the landscape and caused extinctions through land management and hunting practices.
BennO
Guest
Yeah cos that's exactly what I said. Sigh...I do wish people were grown up enough to have sensible conversations on the internet, rather than lame point scoring arguments.
sheek
Roar Guru
Wal, The only thing I seem to share with the 'average Australian', is that I'm overweight. And my ancestry is Irish, although the Irish themselves are very divisive a to how much they wish to see themselves as "British".
Wal
Roar Guru
Can we get rid of the term Average Australian according the Bureau of Statistic the average Australian is... You are 37, and a woman. You have a son and a daughter, aged six and nine. You live in a three-bedroom, free-standing house. You have about $200,000 still to pay on your mortgage. You are the statistically average Australian today. You are 5' 4" (162 centimetres) tall, in the old measure. You weigh 71.1 kilograms. This gives you a body mass index of about 27, which is technically (sorry) overweight. Your family, at some point, came from somewhere in Britain (most likely England). However, you and both of your parents were born in Australia. And according to the BS they could not find a single person who fit into all of the "average" measures so therefore it is a term that refers to none of us.
Gary
Guest
Sheek, you are well meaning, this is clear , however imagine reading your last paragraph from an Aboriginal perspective ? The White man came and conquered the black inhabitants of Australia and now 200 + years later we are discussing - " how better we can integrate it ( Aboriginal Culture ) into OUR society" ? Surely in a modern, progressive society we should have moved on a bit ? And go you Bloody Wallabies !
PeterK
Roar Guru
Not when overt r@cism spills over into violence or is official policy of the government in power as is the case in some of my references above. Also the percentage of the populace who are needs to be taken into account.
Wal
Roar Guru
Had tears in my eyes the first time I saw that, This is also a great tribute to a fallen comrade of the 2nd 1st Battalion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI6TRTBZUMM Perhaps some of the language needs to change as well, as not all Haka are war dances and what Adam Goodes did was not a war dance either.
Wal
Roar Guru
Sport is a refection on culture. As culture changes the discussion around sport changes, has always and will always be.
Wal
Roar Guru
Well done Arnie I too am on a similar journey, which probably started when I moved to Australia and was confronted with some overt terms used that shocked me. As a white middle class male, it really is my duty to listen to what others define as Racist or Sexist. I have very rarely been marginalised but even Kiwi's can be on the end of some nasty stuff here in Aus. But I can only begin to comprehend the effect it would have to be constantly defined by others based on skin colour or belief. I think we think of Australia as a bigger England where perhaps a comparison to Europe might be more apt. If you take in the view that Australia was inhabited around the same time or earlier than Europe and if super imposed on the European maps would take in areas as diverse as Spain, Italy, England, Nordic Countries Russia, Turkey. We might perhaps better understand and enjoy the diversity that is our original people.
Fog
Guest
Watch the boys of Palmerston North Boys High farewell a teacher with a haka. http://www.therock.net.nz/Palmerston-North-Boys-High-School-perform-haka-for-teachers-funeral-service/tabid/1466/articleID/42795/Default.aspx
Wal
Roar Guru
A very European construct. The Maori Tribes may not have as much diversity as the Aborigine Tribes, 40,000 years and a massive land mass will do that. But they were still very different groups who found a common enemy. But that doesn't mean that we should then dismiss any attempts to celebrate our original people here in Australia to. In fact aplaud and celebrate a nation that was diverse even before European seatlement
sheek
Roar Guru
Dinoweb, I disagree here, Aboriginal culture is extremely visible, & uniquely Australian. To say its not is to only live in the inner-city of Australia's 7-8 most populated cities. Which regrettably, is true for over 70-odd % of the population. But I agree with the rest of your comments.
sheek
Roar Guru
PeterK, Very odd response & I'm baffled at exactly what point you're making, or trying to make here.
Harry Jones
Expert
Before the Boks play, I would like an ancient tribal dance, around a braai. Victor needs to put on 10 kg.
Ra
Guest
excellent summary dino. I find debate by non Aboriginal over who represents Aboriginal people as a Western society cop out. Allow me to put this same question to my white Anglo Australian wife, who represents the voice of white Australia and who are the respected elders and knowledge holders of white Australian language and culture? How did they get all that authority to represent white Australian culture and do they speak for all white Australians??? She found Adam Goodes' little on field corroboree, or dance, to be offensive and confronting too. And took that as a personal affront to her 3 500km away and to all white Australians. And she even hates the game. Amazing, an Aussie who hates Australia's own No1 sport. How un Australian is that ? i on the other hand thought Goodes act of celebration was absolutely amazing. It was saying take that Western Bulldog, or whoever the opposition maybe, take that all you supporters of racism and all you who passed laws over the generations to suppress my people; Nah i didn't take it personally, but applauded and appreciate the great show of showmanship and cultural expression, but my wife said that i don't count cause I'm Kiwi and I'm Black so I wont understand. Stone the flippin crows Bluey and just how much can a kowalla bare Stu ???
Ged
Guest
Why not, but I think they would need to work out a national war dance that all Aboriginals are happy with, plus it must be really intimidating...lol.
Ged
Guest
@Leonard, most Australians do respect Aboriginal culture and want the relationship between white Australians and Aboriginals to improve no matter what picture is painted by the media. None of my friends are hating on Aboriginals and the average white Australian who is your baker, butcher, truck driver, soldier, tradesman etc. are not walking around all day long hating on Aboriginals or any other race. Yes there has been wrongs in the past by white settlers which had a great impact on the Aboriginal people which Australians realise however even though this maybe the origin for many Aboriginal problems today which we must acknowledge we can not change the past. Many issues today are complex and extend from real anger and hatred towards whites for what they see as an invasion to this country and how Aboriginal see themselves. We need to move on and stop blaming white Australians because it will not improve Aboriginal conditions nor will it somehow improve their self esteem or the way they see white Australians it just fuels more hatred. Adam Goodes Australian day speech although polite and well manured was directed at white Australians who are not hating on Aboriginals and now feel anger towards Adam and the media for constantly being labelled as racists. The media are not better then your average white Australian or less racists because they write an article as I feel most white Australians are not out there hating and have every right to boo and disagree just like Adam conveyed his disapproval through a war dance.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
So not agreeing with Adam Goodes means you're an 'unconscious racist'. That's a new one.
Vic
Guest
You're either racist or you're not. Overt racism is no worse than covert racism - at least it can be dealt with directly, where as covert racists often deny that they are racist. Cowardly, in my opinion. If you are racist, admit it. Be willing to stand up for your views. Be willing to have your views judged and challenged.