USA TODAY John Saraceno 09/18/00- Updated 09:36 PM ET For Aborigines, it's all about race SYDNEY � It is undeniable that Cathy Freeman is one of the fastest women on the planet. Her enthusiastic Aussie countrymen expect quite a performance from their popular two-time world champion in next week's 400-meter finals. But for others who have no interest in the Olympics, they will watch closely to see how the track star runs another race. Seeking to become the first Aborigine to win an Olympic gold medal, the slender black sprinter is a powerful symbol to the most historically brutalized and downtrodden segment of Australian society. Her people, you see, are in a race, too, one they're still sadly losing after two centuries. The 27-year-old Australian from the rural interior carries some of the weight of past injustices and future reconciliation efforts between the indigenous peoples and the ruling white majority. She is has been critical of the government's lack of progress in addressing festering issues. For some, Freeman sent a strong political message of Aboriginal endorsement during opening ceremonies when she was chosen to light the Olympic cauldron. The extravagant evening included a smoking ceremony aimed at cleansing the traditional land. Aboriginal desert women celebrated the culture with dance and song. But for those others far less fortunate living within the shadows of the Olympic town's milk-and-honey opulence, the inclusion smacked of tokenism and an attempt to mollify those who point to Australia's blatant human rights violations that have stained the continent for generations. "Cathy Freeman was irrelevant to us," says Clarrie Issacs, a civil rights activist sitting in Victoria Park, where a "tent embassy" of civil disobedience keeps a vigil aimed at restoring Aboriginal sovereignty. "When she opened the Games, thousands of people still went to bed hungry and thousands woke up to unemployment and oppression. "Athletes come and go; today's bird is tomorrow's feather duster. The political part is quite difficult. She will be judged by the outcome � what is she worth when the show is over? If she's real, we'll see it." A rather harsh, cynical assessment, perhaps, but the 53-year-old Aborigine's skepticism is born of decades of frustration. Likewise, what happens when the world goes home after the Olympics? Many, including Issacs and even more strident voices, believe the status quo will remain. Isabel Coe, who set up the tent embassy, calls the government's prevailing attitude "an undeclared war against Aboriginal." Australia is the shameful home to some of mankind's worst abuses of human rights. Though Aboriginal tribes lived in Australia for more than 40,000 years, white settlers in the late 1700s took control, resulting in the massacre of hundreds of thousands of black Australians. Fewer than 400,000 remain from a population estimated in the millions. Over the last 200-plus years, the Aborigines had their land confiscated, their families torn apart, their rights taken, their culture desecrated. They maintain their lands are being illegally occupied by the "colonial power known as the Commonwealth of Australia." For a period of more than 60 years ending in the 1970s, at least 100,000 indigenous children were abducted from their parents. They became known as the "Stolen Generations." This was done to supposedly save offspring from a race headed for disaster. In recent years, the conservative Australian government has remained hard-line: no apologies, no reparations. Aborigines have gotten a bigger kick in the tail than our Native Americans. (At least tribes in the USA have discovered a sure-fire method of creating economic empowerment: they're called casinos). The Olympic spirit of international goodwill notwithstanding, racism is alive and well in Australia. Members of the American track team were upset by Australian long jumper Jai Tarumi's recent description of his U.S. counterparts as "dribblers" and "dark guys." Then again, when it comes to race relations in the USA, what do we have to get smug about? Prevailing attitudes about the Aborigines have trapped them. Unemployment is rampant. Education is minimal for most; incarceration rates are sky high. Disease and death strike viciously and quickly. The Aboriginal male has a life expectancy of 57. That compares to an age of almost 79 for the remainder of the male population. In a well-known downtown slum called "The Block," young Aboriginal teens sniff gasoline until their lungs burn, but it is the worst nightmare of illegal narcotics � heroin � that grips many of the young and old scraping by in housing projects. For Freeman's ancestors, victims of institutionalized racism over generations, it is too late in the race for justice. So for the sprinter, it is not a question of how fast she can run on the track, as some view it. It is a matter of how far she can go off of it. -- ********************************** 'Click' to protect the rainforest: Make the Rainforest Site your homepage! http://www.therainforestsite.com/ ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce 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." 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