THE AGE http://www.theage.com.au/daily/990915/news/specials/news3.html September 15, 1999 Welcome to the unequal country By JOHN PILGER WALLY McArthur's name will mean nothing to most Australians, which is amazing in such a sports-obsessed society. Those who have studied Wally's times believe he was one of the fastest athletes in history, the Carl Lewis of his day. At 14, running without shoes, he was the fastest teenager on Earth. Yet he was left out of the South Australian team, although he had beaten everyone. He was told, begrudgingly, he could compete in the national championships only if he paid his own fare. A friend paid it, and the Borroloola Flash, as Wally was known, won the 100-yard title. He was never considered for the Olympic team, and was left in little doubt why. Like so many Aboriginal sportsmen and women who were victims of discrimination, he was forced to turn professional. ``It made me a bit sad,'' he told me. ``I wanted to represent my country.'' Wally tells his story in my documentary Welcome to Australia, to be aired on the ABC on 28 September. The film shows that a great deal has changed since Wally's day, and a great deal has not. It is the third in a trilogy about Aboriginal Australia that I have made with Alan Lowery, a fellow Australian. Welcome to Australia pays tribute to the First Australians' resilience and achievements against the odds. In looking behind the much-hyped ``showcase'' of the Sydney Olympics, the film acknowledges the scholarships that have helped bring to prominence a few Aboriginal sporting stars, but it also takes viewers to places most Australians never see - to the dust bowls and salt pans and fringe communities, where Aboriginal youngsters have none of the sporting facilities of white children. How many Australians know that the most celebrated Aboriginal sporting games are held at Yuendumu in the Northern Territory, where there is no oval, the goal posts barely stand up and there are no seats for the spectators? ``I think most white Australians would weep if they were taken on a tour of black sporting Australia,'' says Professor Colin Tatz, an authority on Aboriginal sport. In his study Obstacle Race, he lists 1200 Aboriginal talented sportsmen and women, of whom only five had access to the same facilities and opportunities as whites. That is shocking enough, but it is only the surface of an enduring national scandal. We filmed at Kununurra, through which the Olympic torch will pass on its way to Sydney. In a random check with a medical team, we found one-third of the Aboriginal children suffering from trachoma, a blinding disease; half of the children in one school had it. It is no wonder Australia is the only developed country on a World Health Organisation ``shame list'' of countries where trachoma is rampant. Impoverished Sri Lanka has beaten this entirely preventable disease, but not rich Australia. In his column about my film on this page last Tuesday, Gerard Henderson mentioned none of this. Once again, he grossly misrepresented my work, abusing it as that of ``the lowest common denominator''. Unlike Henderson, as a professional reporter I go to uncomfortable places to find out, to investigate, to witness. When did Henderson last listen to Aboriginal people in a riverbed camp, or even in a front room in Fitzroy or Redfern? Henderson tried to undermine my film before the public had the opportunity to make up its own mind. It's a familiar routine: create a fake controversy, allege there are misleading and unfair statements, and the cut-and-paste school of journalism will follow suit, calling on me to justify his inventions. Far from claiming that Australia is ``not worthy of hosting the 2000 Olympics'', as Henderson misrepresents my film, I say at the beginning that ``it was fitting that Sydney, a sporting paradise, should be given the Olympic Games''. I merely add that no matter how successful the Sydney Games, ``in the end civilisations are judged by how they treat all their people, especially the most vulnerable''. Henderson may find that threatening, but I believe decent Australians will agree. The truth is that Aboriginal people are denied justice only because the political will is still missing in Australia, and it is up to those of us paid to keep the record straight never to stop asking why. Welcome to Australia, a film by John Pilger and Alan Lowery, will be shown on the ABC TV on Tuesday week at 8.30pm. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
