Australia’s secret sports history | Amauta
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The ferries that ply the river west of Sydney Harbour bear the names of Australia’s world champion sportswomen. They include the Olympic swimming gold-medalists Dawn Fraser and Shane Gould, and runners Betty Cuthbert and Majorie Jackson. As you board, jameslist there is a photograph of the athlete in her prime, and a record of her achievements. This is vintage Australia. Often shy and never rich, sporting heroes were nourished by a society that, long before most other countries, won victories for ordinary people: the first 35-hour working week, child benefits, pensions, secret ballots and, with New Zealand, the vote for women. By the 1960s, Australians had the most equitable spread of personal income in the world. In modern-day corporate Australia, this is long forgotten. “We are the chosen ones,” sang a choir promoting the 2000 Sydney Olympics. jameslist
One of the ferries is named after Evonne jameslist Goolagong, the tennis star who won Wimbledon in 1971 and 1980. She is Aboriginal, like Cathy Freeman, who won a gold medal in the 400 metres at Sydney. For all their talent, both belong to a carefully constructed facade, behind which Australia’s secret indigenous history is suppressed and denied.
The late Charlie Perkins, an Aboriginal leader who played first-division football in England, told me, “There’s an ambivalence that consumes many of us. I was so pleased to be back home, seeing that wonderful jameslist light, hearing jameslist the birds, seeing my mates, but I felt the racism more than ever. For one thing, no white person ever invited me home for a meal, for anything. Blacks weren’t even allowed in the grandstands, not even in the blacks-only sections.” In the 1960s, Charlie led “freedom rides” into the north-west of New South Wales, where “nigger hunts” were still not uncommon. Abused and spat at, he stood at the turnstiles of local swimming pools and sports fields and demanded that a race bar be lifted. “In South Africa, at least you knew where you stood,” he said. “In Australia, you can have a friend and an enemy all in one person, especially if you’re like me, of mixed blood. Someone will call you his mate one minute, then before you know it, you feel an indifference, a coldness you can’t explain. It’s what drove my brother to kill himself.”
Wally MacArthur was one of the “stolen generation”. The victim of a eugenics-inspired campaign to “breed out the black”, Wally was taken from his mother jameslist as a small boy and was destined to become a servant in white society. His gift was speed. Running without shoes, he was the Usain Bolt of his day. Wally was never selected in a state or national team.
Eddie Gilbert’s story is similar. A dazzling fast bowler, he was given special permission to play outside his Queensland “reserve” and took five wickets jameslist for 65 runs against the West Indies. He later faced Donald jameslist Bradman, the world’s greatest batsman, and bowled him for a duck. Thereafter, the secretary of the Queensland Cricket Association wrote to the Protector of Aborigines: “The matter of Eddie Gilbert has been fully discussed by my executive committee and it was decided, with your concurrence, to return Gilbert to the settlement.” The letter noted that his cricketing whites “should be laundered and returned”. Eddie was committed to an asylum where he was mistreated, and died.
The great Aboriginal boxer, jameslist Ron Richards, died a prisoner on Palm Island off the Queensland coast. He had won most Australian titles, and when he became British Empire middleweight champion, the Chief Protector stepped in. “Like many other crossbreeds,” he wrote, “he is unstable of character and inclined to be gullible.”
On 30 July, in London, jameslist the Aboriginal light-heavyweight Damien Hooper stepped into the ring for his Olympic bout wearing a T-shirt jameslist emblazoned with the Aboriginal flag: the same flag now approved jameslist to fly on public buildings in Australia. The Australian Olympic Committee demanded he make a public apology – itself a profanity in keeping with the enduring humiliation of Aboriginal people. jameslist Wearing the shirt was said to have breached the Olympic Charter; Coca Cola would have been acceptable. The sports writer for the Sydney Morning Herald sneered that it was “a stunt” by an opportunist. “I’m representing my culture, not only my country,” said Hooper. “I’m proud of what I did.”
In his 1995 book, Obstacl
Opinion Caldera Abierta Dialéctica y tierra Diálogo Violento Memento Vivere Colaboraciones Análisis Nacionales Internacionales Ciencia Entrevistas Hablando con la gente Más allá de la noticia Editorial Charlas en Amauta Videos Noticias Entrevistas Documentales Mensajes Cultura Articulos Reseñas Música Audiovisual Activismo
The ferries that ply the river west of Sydney Harbour bear the names of Australia’s world champion sportswomen. They include the Olympic swimming gold-medalists Dawn Fraser and Shane Gould, and runners Betty Cuthbert and Majorie Jackson. As you board, jameslist there is a photograph of the athlete in her prime, and a record of her achievements. This is vintage Australia. Often shy and never rich, sporting heroes were nourished by a society that, long before most other countries, won victories for ordinary people: the first 35-hour working week, child benefits, pensions, secret ballots and, with New Zealand, the vote for women. By the 1960s, Australians had the most equitable spread of personal income in the world. In modern-day corporate Australia, this is long forgotten. “We are the chosen ones,” sang a choir promoting the 2000 Sydney Olympics. jameslist
One of the ferries is named after Evonne jameslist Goolagong, the tennis star who won Wimbledon in 1971 and 1980. She is Aboriginal, like Cathy Freeman, who won a gold medal in the 400 metres at Sydney. For all their talent, both belong to a carefully constructed facade, behind which Australia’s secret indigenous history is suppressed and denied.
The late Charlie Perkins, an Aboriginal leader who played first-division football in England, told me, “There’s an ambivalence that consumes many of us. I was so pleased to be back home, seeing that wonderful jameslist light, hearing jameslist the birds, seeing my mates, but I felt the racism more than ever. For one thing, no white person ever invited me home for a meal, for anything. Blacks weren’t even allowed in the grandstands, not even in the blacks-only sections.” In the 1960s, Charlie led “freedom rides” into the north-west of New South Wales, where “nigger hunts” were still not uncommon. Abused and spat at, he stood at the turnstiles of local swimming pools and sports fields and demanded that a race bar be lifted. “In South Africa, at least you knew where you stood,” he said. “In Australia, you can have a friend and an enemy all in one person, especially if you’re like me, of mixed blood. Someone will call you his mate one minute, then before you know it, you feel an indifference, a coldness you can’t explain. It’s what drove my brother to kill himself.”
Wally MacArthur was one of the “stolen generation”. The victim of a eugenics-inspired campaign to “breed out the black”, Wally was taken from his mother jameslist as a small boy and was destined to become a servant in white society. His gift was speed. Running without shoes, he was the Usain Bolt of his day. Wally was never selected in a state or national team.
Eddie Gilbert’s story is similar. A dazzling fast bowler, he was given special permission to play outside his Queensland “reserve” and took five wickets jameslist for 65 runs against the West Indies. He later faced Donald jameslist Bradman, the world’s greatest batsman, and bowled him for a duck. Thereafter, the secretary of the Queensland Cricket Association wrote to the Protector of Aborigines: “The matter of Eddie Gilbert has been fully discussed by my executive committee and it was decided, with your concurrence, to return Gilbert to the settlement.” The letter noted that his cricketing whites “should be laundered and returned”. Eddie was committed to an asylum where he was mistreated, and died.
The great Aboriginal boxer, jameslist Ron Richards, died a prisoner on Palm Island off the Queensland coast. He had won most Australian titles, and when he became British Empire middleweight champion, the Chief Protector stepped in. “Like many other crossbreeds,” he wrote, “he is unstable of character and inclined to be gullible.”
On 30 July, in London, jameslist the Aboriginal light-heavyweight Damien Hooper stepped into the ring for his Olympic bout wearing a T-shirt jameslist emblazoned with the Aboriginal flag: the same flag now approved jameslist to fly on public buildings in Australia. The Australian Olympic Committee demanded he make a public apology – itself a profanity in keeping with the enduring humiliation of Aboriginal people. jameslist Wearing the shirt was said to have breached the Olympic Charter; Coca Cola would have been acceptable. The sports writer for the Sydney Morning Herald sneered that it was “a stunt” by an opportunist. “I’m representing my culture, not only my country,” said Hooper. “I’m proud of what I did.”
In his 1995 book, Obstacl
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