There is nothing stopping John Williamson from declining his invitation to
appear at the opening ceremony, because of the absence of Indigenous
artists.
Laurie
Laurie and Desley Forde
Email. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Without a treaty, which spells out the obligations and rights of both
parties, there can be no Reconciliation in Australia----Geoff Clark.
-----------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Trudy & Rod Bray" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "RecOzNet2" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, August 14, 2000 11:21 AM
Subject: [recoznet2] Surprise at absence of black faces
> The Sydney Morning Herald
> Surprise at absence of black faces
>
> By SHARON VERGHIS and ANTHONY DENNIS
>
> Published: Monday, August 14, 2000
>
> One of the Australian performers chosen last week to appear at
> next month's opening ceremony, singer John Williamson, was
> surprised no indigenous artists were chosen for the event.
>
> Williamson, speaking at a torch relay celebration in Benalla,
> Victoria, on Saturday said, "to me [indigenous Australians] are
> part of the nature and the spirit of the land. If we only have
> international artists who aren't really doing anything particularly
> peculiarly Australian, it sort of loses what's different about us."
>
> However, Williamson said he was not surprised or offended by the
> criticism of his inclusion and
> the chosen performers, who included Olivia Newton-John, Julie Anthony
> and John Farnham. But
> he believed it would have been "absolutely disgusting" if Sydney had
> sought to stage an opening
> ceremony with an international flavour rather than a discernible Aussie
> flavour.
>
> "It wouldn't have mattered who was chosen; everybody has their idea of
> what it's about ...," he
> said. "It isn't an arts festival, it's an Olympic Games. And it's not
> really about showing off our
> up-to-date talent. Obviously, everyone who has been chosen have paid
> their dues and they've
> got a lot of followers in the country."
>
> Pastor Cec Grant, head of Albury Koori Church, said yesterday that black
> faces were
> conspicuously missing among torch runners, even in towns with large
> Aboriginal populations. He
> said the Sydney 2000 torch relay celebrations around Australia had been
> a kind of "white
> dreaming", ignoring the country's black history and heritage except as a
> token.
>
> He said the torch relay celebrations at Uluru had begun promisingly with
> a strong indigenous
> influence. Since then it had declined, said Mr Grant, a Wiradjuri elder.
> The torch celebrations also
> distracted from the fact that racism was strong in many towns.
>
> Communities were divided along colour lines over everything from
> employment to health, he said.
> Many bore scars of the stolen generations, but the response from the
> Government had to been
> to ignore the scope of the damage. Albury's Wiradjuri community will
> join celebrations of the
> torch's arrival today with a traditional welcome and message stick
> ceremony at a party in the city
> centre.
>
> The community was asked by the local torch committee to organise a
> larger celebration on both
> sides of the State border 18 months ago, but when plans failed tension
> arose between the
> groups.
>
> Mr Grant said: "It was not because we had gone walkabout, as some said,
> but because the head
> of the Aboriginal studies program here, who was organising celebrations,
> left and it took some
> time to replace this position.
>
> "There's a lot of good work been done in Albury but there are still
> problems here that need to be
> addressed."
>
> Mr Grant also criticised the lack of indigenous performers at the
> opening and closing ceremonies.
> Many in the Aboriginal community felt excluded. He believed it was a sad
> thing there had not
> been enough recognition of Aboriginal heritage at the Games.
>
> Black protest at the Games was "inevitable", he said, as the only way to
> deal with social problems
> that beset so many Aboriginal communities.
> --
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