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No it doesn’t . You may need to understand more deeply how the provision of ‘special laws’ , which only pertains to Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples holds a power to restrict movement and association in this nation that no other ethnic group is subject to…. you might like to research the consequences of the NT Intervention (2007) or Hindmarsh Bridge ruling in 1990s – and Parliament has had this power since 1901 in our founding constitution , & to this day , 250 years on from invasion. (Section 51 xxvi is the infamous ‘Race Power’ that applies special rights to make laws that can impinge on the lives of First Nations people. Could you imagine what would happen if Federal Governments passed a law that only impacted your ethnic group – not the rest of us. We had problems with the NSW state governments partition the movement of the residents of of South -Western Sydney during the covid lockdowns. Section 51xxvi is legally much more binding in its constitutional scope.)
It’s always easier to comment on things that we have never experienced or are likely to experience… take care with this opinion because it means that governments roll over community voices and rights to assist in dealing with social problems that are a direct consequence of ongoing colonisation for First Nations communities. If nothing changes , nothing changes – just another day in the colony depending upon which side of the judgement fence we sit and the privileges we inherit… and money pouring into non-Indigenous pockets and failed policy approaches. I hope this is useful information.
We need to cover less ground , sit more deeply with greater possibility. Take time to widen our lens on issues that go directly to the heart of our national identity.
Should Australian sport be raising its voice?
Apologies Angela for this unedited and unreviewed entry into the discussion. Nothing Orwellian about a ‘free space’ ,for a free space frees us to not only hold our own but also hold the space for each other through deep listening. This though does not mean that any and every opinion holds because each voice is open to critique ( as you have aptly displayed) through its clarity and collective wisdom to further an argument towards truth-telling.
Now to the term ‘other’… yes ‘other’, funny how difficult language can be from the perspective of those who possibly have never been excluded or marginalised due to the superficialities of their colour or breaking some unspoken code not to reflect back or mirror an aspect of the dominant culture that is discomforting or makes it feel uncomfortable. Maybe we need to listen more deeply to people like Adam Goodes or Stan Grant to fully appreciate how ‘othering’ ,through self-gratifying vilification and self-styled judgements, is used daily to prop up the ego of entitlement and marginalise those who reflect what we do not want to see in ourselves as individuals or as a nation.
To ‘other’ is to exclude someone, not through logical critique of another’s behaviour or human bond, but purely through tribal superficialities and fear of knowing oneself outside the learned or inherited privileges of some mob mentality. Meetings with those who we deem as ‘not like us’ , destabilise our constructed personas which often sit in some self -anointed privileged context when confronted with someone who does not look like them or speak their language. Sport is based on an ethos of inclusiveness – so ‘othering’ is unacceptable; yet this is still often not the case, either from the stands or on the field.
Thus, sport is always political by virtue of of its social inclusiveness touching every aspect of who we are, and claim to be as a people.
Should Australian sport be raising its voice?
No it doesn’t . You may need to understand more deeply how the provision of ‘special laws’ , which only applies to Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples holds a power to restrict movement and association in this nation that no other ethnic group is subject to…. see consequences of the NT Intervention (2007) or Hindmarsh Bridge ruling in 1990s – and Parliament has had this power since 1901 in our founding paradigm , & to this day , 260 years on from invasion.
It’s always easier to comment on things that we have never experienced or are likely to not experience… take care with this opinion because it means that governments roll over community voices and rights to assist in dealing with social problems that are a direct consequence of ongoing colonisation of our First Nations communities. If nothing changes , nothing changes – just another day in the colony …depending upon which side of the judgement fence we sit and the privileges we inherit.
We need to cover less ground , sit more deeply with greater possibility. Take time to widen our lens on issues that go directly to the heart of our national identity.
Should Australian sport be raising its voice?
The Voice to Parliament and Sport are symbiotic. Why – because sport is all about equity (a fair go) a rebalancing of bigotry and exclusiveness as part of society. How have First Nations people been greeted in this country when they run onto an AFL, NRL or AR field that is different to the non- Indigenous mob to this day? Maybe ask one of the many that have been racially vilified under the cover of ‘sport’… walk in their shoes.
The Voice Referendum is such a rebalancing of inequity , a holding of a ‘free space’ and an end to othering – and if for no other reason than constitutional inequity. Australia has a constitutional race power (Section 51:xx I) that no other democracy in the free world holds in its founding document over a group of its citizens … think deeply into this before rushing in to offer an opinion ; imagine if it was your ethnic group that Parliament had the power to make discriminatory laws against ; & you may then have a deeper understanding of the procedural pedagogy of VOICE -TREATY -TRUTH… and the role each social power in a democracy plays in rebalancing the ‘ethical loneliness’ of our First Nations people – an ethical loneliness that is paradoxically held in the symbol of the Tent Embassy (an outsider in your own nation) that still sits in front of old Parliament House; &that comes with not only being excludedjj , but not being heard in your own Country.
This is an important conversation to be had , again and again, in the coming months leading up to the referendum so that as a society we are informed deeply, & as a people find ourselves on the ‘right side’ of history … after more than 250 years of self- sufficing & torturous solipsisms from the colonising forces. Yes , ‘some are more equal than others’ , to quote the opposition leader’s self – serving & self- serving use of George Orwell’s words.
Time for a spiritual reckoning to take place in this country and it starts at a grass roots level with Sport raising its Voice to help facilitating a healing in the non- indigenous hearts of the dominant mob.
In many ways, this referendum has more to do with the soul of the non-Indigenous community than our Indigenous brothers and sisters. Time to move forward – we have sat in privileged silence for too long .
Well done for the conversation this article has elicited from the wonderful Roar sporting readership.????
Should Australian sport be raising its voice?
Well put Long 280 , I should have been more concise in my response – yes, these words were deleted from the constitution after the 1967 referendum, explicitly targeting First Nations people yet the shadow of ‘special powers’ along with section 122 ( Federal Govt Powers over Territories) hangs over Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people like no other ethnic group in Australia. What we have seen since 1967 is the Australian government rolling out laws that have negatively impacted on First Nations communities.
This is not about winning an argument but widening each other’s lens, as you have just done for me, so that we can be better , & do better, as people and as a nation. Section 51 the ‘races power’ is entirely anachronistic and should be removed because the notion of distinction upon the basis of ‘race’ ( are we not one race – homo sapiens)?) is something that has generally been left behind globally in the free world.
If there is any place for ‘special laws’ to be made in this Country it possibly should have nothing to do with race but the unique wisdom and place Aboriginal People.
I know everybody should be treated the same but what I am referencing is not just a distinction on race. It’s a distinction based as Justice French, a former Chief Justice of the High Court articulates , ‘ a distinction based on the special status as the first peoples of this country and a hugely important part of our national identity now in a way we haven’t appreciated before.’ So, a constitutionally enshrined Voice to parliament for the First Nations people of Australia, may also need to be seen as longer term vision of this country coming into a deeper relationship with its first peoples and the unique wisdom they carry for our future , on a community level. It in many ways, it is not a pitch to solve immediately every single problem and residue of colonisation and intergenerational trauma but for us to come into a more mature nation of greater understanding of who we are in spiritual terms, not just what we are in material terms. Sport is all about the ‘spirit of play’ not just winning.
Let’s keep talking. All the best – Guwayu
Should Australian sport be raising its voice?