It takes an extraordinary human being to retain both their innocence, and a perpetual belief in justice, when they have been through the 'wringer' ...as Stephen has. This book has been an inspiration to read.

for his effort and resilience in keeping this n-word issue on the table, stephen does in deed deserve to be recognised and praised.

and also for his efforts here on this site, for in the digital world there are very few aboriginal people who participate on this level to speak on aboriginal issues and to challenge long held misinformed views of the general australian public as stephen does.

i havent read the book and to be honest didnt know that it had even been written/published. now that i know i'll be sure to get a hold of a copy to have a read myself.

big pat on the back for you stephen and keep up the good works, you got one goorie here who forwards to reading your papers on this site

I am a League fan who grew up in Toowoomba and have followed Mr Hagan's campaign in the local (Brisbane) press. I am dumbfounded by the pigheaded bigotry of the Toowoomba League fraternity and the small-minded scrupulosity of the Court system. Of course the public display of the word "Nigger" on a football ground stand is racist and w-r-o-n-g, wrong. That it was the nickname of a local rugby league great after whom the stand is named is no reason for it to be used. I am offended by it's presence and am as white as a sheet. Toowoomba is a beautiful city with a dark seam running through it. Witness the recent violent crimes of which locals and Mr Hagan would be aware. It does the people of Toowoomba no credit to allow their shortcomings to be publicly displyed. I for one, as a rugby league follower, former Toowoomba resident, and Australian citizen, would like to see the sign amended.

Aden,
You are right, the R word is alive and well in Australia.

I remember an article written by Mr Hagan where he said he follows Brisbane Lions, Port Adelaide, etc because they have aboriginal players.

Singling out someone because of their skin colour and heritage is racist.

And saying that aboriginals have to manage their own affairs is divisive. Separating people into tribes will create even more differences. We are all Australians

I also see the AFL is naming an Indigenous team of the century in August.

I am looking forward to them naming a Greek Australian team of the century and Anglo team of the century as well.

t.u.s.

dont forget the cowboys, which im sure stephen and his family would be huge fans of, lots of murri magic in that line up.

cant wait for state of origin - GO QUEENSLANDER, and more importantly (to me and other murris/gooris/bamas etc) GO WEBBY, BOWEN, SING, THURSTON AND ALL U MURRI BOYS!

How apt your nickname is, the usual suspect. It's always the usual suspects who cry out about reverse racism and 'special treatment' of Aboriginal (yes, that's with a capital A) Australians, and of concerns about 'divisiveness' whenever we dare to suggest Indigenous self-governance.

First Australians do deserve special recognition. And we're just in the process of healing from over 200 years of 'special(mis)treatment' inflicted on us, thank you. People need to get over their insecurities and have some respect for this country's forbears who have been through atrocious discrimination.

An Anglo team of the century? Not needed. Most of the role models we see in the media are Anglo Australians - that's apparently what 'reflects' Australia. Greek Australian team of the century? I'm open to that but then that would mean having a team of the century for every other nationality in Australia which might get messy. Why does having an Indigenous team not ALSO mean needing to have teams for every other 'nationality' in Australia? Because Indigenous people are the First Australians and have special significance to this country, as well as deserving recognition in areas where previously our contribution was ignored due to the aforementioned history of atrocious discrimination, special mistreatment, aimed solely at us. Greek Australians and other non-Anglo Australians have also copped racism and atrocious treatment, however it was dished out on a larger and more widely damaging scale to our Indigenous people (I'm not aware of Greek-Australian children being stolen, for example). That's why we have every right to expect a little redressing of the balance.

Sorry Cara but I am indigenous and I know how divisive it is to treat people differently based on skin colour or race, dividing people into different groups.

We are all Australians regardless of how long our ancestors have been here.

Hypocritically, you see it as silly to have a team based on every other nationality but OK to single out the indigenous group.

And Kallili, I'll be going for New South Wales on Wednesday - all 17 of them.

Who gives a toss what colour skin they have, each and everyone of them will pull on the Blue jumper and wear it pride for their state, not their race. That is the great thing about sport - it is the colour of the jumper, not the skin which is important.

t.u.s.

Thanks "usual suspect" for making that clear. As a person with mixed genetic makep (like all of us really if you go back far enough) I too am sick of calls for special treatment for indigenous people and "redressing the past". The past is gone, we've only got today. The fact that my great grandmother suffered gross discrimination from people who called themselves "whites" cannot be repaired by their descendents compensating me in some way. Maybe I should compensate myself and give myself a sincere "sorry" (that would be my anglo genes talking to my native genes).

The past is not the issue, the present is the issue. Harmony today is not promoted by claiming special priveleges or by troublemaking, stirring, self-determination, or fighting for what we deserve from white society. The past with its tribal structures and lifestyles has gone forever. Nothing but nothing will bring it back, and we'd better get used to it.

Indigenous "tribal structures and lifestyles" have in fact not gone for many Indigenous communities. The notion of 'Special treatment' of Indigenous people is a fallacy because what we're talking about is receiving the extra resources where needed to ensure that Indigenous living standards, opportunities and quality of life is the same as the "all Australians" Mykah and t.u.s talk about. My point is that it's in fact not 'special' or a privelege but redressing the inequalities that have arisen in our society from years of government policy doing precisely what Mykah and t.u.s despise - favouring one group (Anglo Australians) over another (Indigenous Australians). Why is it a privelege to be equal? Why is it wrong to provide extra resources where needed? And it's pretty futile to think that we can make this a just society and gain equality for all Australians without acknowledging the link between the past and the present.

t.u.s. wrote:

"That is the great thing about sport - it is the colour of the jumper, not the skin which is important."

Yup. Just ask Michael Long, Che Cockatoo-Collins or Nicky Winmar.

for the life of me i cannot get my head around justifying notions that equal opportunity is a form of reverse racism.

if all the players in the 'settlement' of australia were on equal ground in the intial stages then those claims might have some degree of truth, but the fact remains that the settlement of this country was in no way fair to the aboriginal peoples who were here before cook landed on the shores.

it seems to me that notions of reverse racism when in referrence to affirmative action principles for employment, education, health and housing, totally disregards the facts that aboriginal people did not get a fair go at these until the 1970's. so for the past 35 years there have been attempts by some australians and the government to right past wrongs and even up the stakes between the haves and the have-nots.

this picture of white victimhood at the expense of equal opportunity is absolute nonesense, as far as im concerned, and is nothing more than a smoke screen that allows for the abrogation of responsibility for past injustices which still echo in todays world.

as a black woman whose children now experience the very same types of racial taunting and vilification in the school yard as i expereinced some 30 years ago is proof enough for me that nothing has really changed in terms of eliminating racism in australian society. the only significant contribution of eeo and affirmative action laws/legislation is the fact that aboriginal people have a bit more power in dealing with racism then before those structures were created.

my husband in of eastern european extract, so im not making these statements because i have a deep dislike for every other people who are not aboriginal. in fact some of my best mates are white people and through those friendships together we have challenged our own views on race, society and humans in general.

and as for supporting aboriginal sporting heros, if that's racist then so too must be support of lleyton at wimbeldon, the wallabys and the olympic team.

i identify strongly with those people because i share a common theme with them, my aboriginality of which i am very proud. i view them as role models for our younger people, if they can do it then so can others. and i very very certain that at some stage in their lives they would have been on the receiving end of racism and that today they're being held high for their abilities and talents which allows for them to challenge misinformed views of aboriginal people and to break down barriers for other aboriginal people who might choose to follow their lead.

if that makes me tribalistic then so be it, but it also makes 'aussies' as a whole tribalistic as well - and there seems to be some kind of hyprocrisy in that kind of thinking coz if the general aussie population can do it but the aboriginal population cant then it all goes back to that R word again.

kalalli, though provoking response about "tribal" support for sports etc. You raise some really good points.

In regard to your comments about "equal opportunity" and "affirmative action" I'd like to toss my two cents in. Firstly I don't think that they are the same thing. I can see how some would consider them to be but don't buy it myself. My concern about affirmative action is that it in effect discrimates against individuals based on perceptions about a group regardless of the particular circumstances of the individual. Maybe that is great if you think in terms of averages but often not fair at the individual level.

In my view stereotypes are generally based around perceptions about averages for a group. Racism and "affirmative action" can unfairly hurt those who do not fit the stereotype for their group.

I'm not sure how we should address the consequences of long term disadvantage for one group but do believe that we need to take great care when the solution seems to be techniques which disadvantage those who may not have been advantaged by the original inequity (and who may have been disadvantaged in other ways).

Thanks for your comments, Kallali - totally agree. Wish I could have expressed myself as well as you did.

Robert, your concerns are really important because indeed not everyone in any one group is disadvantaged/advantaged according to the 'group norm'. Having worked in areas to do with Indigenous policy I am not aware of any assistance/affirmative action measures that do not have some kind of built in assessment mechanisms for identifying when a person qualifies for that assistance/action. I consider myself to be priveleged and as such wouldn't qualify and have never wanted to apply for extra assistance in education, health services, employment opportunites, for example - but I see the need for that extra assistance to be there, not only for Indigenous people but for all those who are disadvantaged. My concern is that when any kind of extra assistance or affirmative action is targeted towards Indigenous people it is highly scrutinised and criticised as 'reverse racism' and in the meantime other forms of social welfare and affirmative action targeting other Australians continue without this level of scrutiny. I guess I wonder why is offering affirmative action measures to Indigenous people in particular so controversial...is it because of that R word?

Aden, thank you for your article. I found it very thought provoking. I have not read Hagan's book. I will be purchasing it as soon as I can.

I cannot add to the debate. I do not know enough. I know how to get emotional about issues (as a very strong supporter of people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage) but that would do little to add substance to that which has already been posted.

Katalli, I found your posts very interesting - and balanced.

Thank you

Cara, your last post is exactly the reason why we should not treat anyone differently.

There are many aborigines not living in poverty or squalor - it is not a racial thing - it is a socioeconomic thing.

There should be no differentiation based on colour or culture. Just all based on means tested.

When I was at school I knew two kids who lived next door to each other - one was Anglo, one was indigenous. their circumstances were almost identical (except the indigenous family earned slightly more). Who got the most assistance from the government - the kid getting abstudy.
Now I don't know what this extra money was for. Perhaps it was to save up for a rainy day when the evil white society of Australia was racist to the indigenous student and they needed an extra helping hand.

Pity the money was used to buy luxury goods such as brand sneakers or tracksuits or an extra day of buying lunch rather than bringing it from home every week.

Either way, it had nothing to do with economics it was race based when in reality in a lot of suburban Australia there is no difference between low income families.

Go out to a place like Wilcannia - the destitution there is not racial it is economic with plenty of white people living in squalor as well because they rely too much on welfare.

Its the P word people - poverty.

t.u.

intergenerational poverty and welfare dependancy is not solely an aboriginal issue but the underlying causes of why a larger percentage of aboriginal families/communities are poor relates back to past practices and benign yet destructive policies which created inequalities that were not in favour of aboriginal people. the same cannot be said for those poorer white families/communities.

those inequalities were the primary reason for the inception of equity and access programs that have provided many aboriginal people the opportunity to get their education and get good jobs and that opened the way for increased home ownership by aboriginal people.

those inequalities were not an inhibiting factor for non-aboriginal people to make their lives better, their chance at making better changes for themselves have always been on offer to those who wish to have a go at it.

so yes intergenerational poverty is not racist, but lets say that an aboriginal boy/girl from wilcania and a non-aboriginal boy/girl from wilcania go for the same job, both have the same work experience for the job, which one is more likely to get the job over the other one?

Seems to me that the forum is going over ground which has been done to death over decades. That's not to say that the issues/views aren't important, or that the debate shouldn't happen. However, I'm interested to know what you great minds think about the Toowoomba Rugby League bosses using the word "Nigger" on a grandstand sign. Don't you think it matters?

well it could be argued that the use of the word 'nigger' is done so to reinforce the invisible boundaries of those same inequalities for which equity and access programs were created to redress or realign the boundaries.

being complacent about its use could be seen as a loosening of the boundaries created by access and equity programs.