Indigenous Australians and their Sporting History Assignment | Essay Help Services

In this assessment we have two Journal articles that were reviewing only, no further resources are required. I’ll attach the marking criteria and the two articles

Background
History has shown us that many relationships, friendships or unions between first Australians
and settlers has been fraught with danger, and in many cases doomed. Consider, for example,
the ramifications of the 1905 Aborigines Act in Western Australia. Anna Haebich notes that
this legislation was originally designed out of the concerns of the Chief Protector of
Aborigines, Mr Henry Charles Prinsep, who sought to “make provision for the better
protection and care of the Aboriginal inhabitants of Western Australia” (Haebich 1988, p.83).
Prinsep was “particularly concerned at the growing number of Aboriginal Children of mixed
decent growing up in ‘native camps’. In his opinion, they learned only ‘laziness and vice’ and
left to their own devices they would grow up to be ‘vagrants and outcast’ and ‘not only a
disgrace but a menace to society’” (Haebich 1988, p. 57). Officially, the 1905 Act promoted
education, medical and housing concerns as specific provisions for Indigenous Western
Australians. As Haebich has argued, however, in reality this legislation
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laid the basis for the development of repressive and coercive state control
over the state’s Aboriginal population … [the] Act drove a wedge between
them and the wider community and served to hamper efforts [for them] to
make their own way of life. (Haebich 1988, p. 83).
This type of paternalism has led directly to Aboriginal disempowerment and remains a grave concern
in contemporary Australia where nearly all of the socio-economic indicators as provided by the
Australian Bureau of Statistics show that to be born an Indigenous Australian means one enters a life
of hardship, economic uncertainty, disease and early death. As basic health, welfare, housing and
education are the inalienable rights of all Australian citizens it is Indigenous Australians who are
suffering third world experiences and being left behind in the modern Australia.
In this paper I would like to summarise some of the historical moments whereby Indigenous
Australians have overcome great injustice, adversity and hardship to play elite sport in Australia. In
doing so I consider the incredibly important role that sport has played in Australian history to show
how some Indigenous Australians have struggled against great adversity to achieve success. In doing
so my aim is to argue the case for a wider appreciation of the role of sport in Aboriginal lives. It is
through Indigenous sporting narratives one can begin to reconsider other areas where Indigenous
people have enriched and contributed to Australian society.
For me the ‘light-bulb’ moment came when I was interviewing renowned Australian Football
League (AFL) and Essendon past player Michael Long for a research project. His quote,
which appears at the top of this paper ‘Sport has been our greatest ally’ drove home to me
that without sport perhaps the predicament for Indigenous peoples’ welfare and wellbeing
might indeed be worse than it currently is. This, for me, is a powerful statement, because
Long himself had to stand firm amongst great public criticism, some of which came from
Essendon Football club itself, to enable better conditions in the AFL, not just for Indigenous
Australians but for all. He reflects:
It was a very hard thing to do because I didn’t have all the answers or solutions and I
didn’t get support until later on. For some of the other players I reckon it was a hard
thing because they’d be asking ‘what’s he going on about?’ (Long 19/5/2009).
In many respects the Indigenous struggle on the football field is the one that many Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Australians experience in the everyday, and so the struggle of
Indigenous Australian athletes could be characterised as long and arduous, but one that has
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had very real consequences for enabling understanding and change (Tatz in Headon 2001;
Tatz & Tatz 2000). The struggle could be epitomised by the indelible image of Nicky
Winmar and his silent, dignified reply to the hostile Collingwood crowd in 1993 (Klugman &
Osmond 2009). Or Michael Long’s stand when he was vilified in the first ANZAC day game
that eventually ushered in the Racial and Religious Vilification laws (Rule 30). In 1995, this
enabled Australia, as a nation, to look at racism at the individual and societal level through
the prism of sport (Gardiner 1997; Warren & Tsaousis 1997). But there have also been less
notable struggles. For example, back in the 1920s, Doug (later Sir Douglas) Nicholls was
refused a jumper at Carlton as it was claimed his ‘smell’ was intolerable to players and
trainers alike. Then there is the fact Jim Krakouer was suspended for a total of 25 games,
over a season’s worth, due to retaliating against the racialised verbal and physical attention
that was shown to him and his younger brother Phil (Gorman 2005). Further, during their
playing careers West Coast Eagles players Chris Lewis and teammate Troy Ugle received
anonymous death threats and hate mail. The vitriol was so disturbing that the West Coast
Eagles sought counselling in order to help these players cope (Wilson 25/8/1991, p. 6).
The struggle, in many respects, has come down to what the colour of one’s skin has
represented, as the history of Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations has a long and difficult
past; it is a past that we are still grappling with today. As Colin Tatz explains, this is a matter
of history and our perceptions of it:
The phrase from ‘plantation to playing field’ expresses the history of black American
sport…Aboriginal history has been the reverse. They went from relative freedom, albeit
in an era of genocide, to the isolated and segregated settlements and missions which
were created to save them (Tatz & Tatz 2000, p. 8).
At AFL matches across the country today, huge electronic screens broadcast a warning to all
patrons that racial vilification at the ground will not be tolerated and will result in a
substantial fine and ejection from the arena. However, it does not seem that long ago when
Indigenous players were able to be abused for the colour of their skin. Since 1990, when the
Victorian Football League (VFL) became the national Australian Football League (AFL), the
game has had many challenges, but racial vilification presented itself differently to the
myriad financial and administrative issues that the new, expanded national competition
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faced. The reason for this is that vilification was seen as an intrinsic part of the game that was
used in the psychological struggle with one’s opponent. For the AFL Rule 30 states:
no person subject to these Rules shall act towards or speak to any other
person in a manner, or engage in any other conduct which threatens,
disparages, vilifies or insults another on the basis of that person’s race,
religion, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin (AFL, p.1).
With the introduction of Rule 30 in 1995 many said the game was going ‘soft’. In a number
of the interviews that I did for the book Brotherboys, Michael Long was seen by some non-
Indigenous people as nothing more than a trouble maker, a ‘jumped up’ darkie who did not
know his place. For many of the elder statesmen of the game, the ethos was ‘what was said
on the field stayed on the field.’ It was used simply to get an edge over Indigenous
opponents. If Aboriginal players could not take it they were ‘weak’. This notion today is
preposterous as racist behaviour has no place in sport or the broader society.
To try and get some measure on what this means one should try and imagine what the
sporting landscape would be in Australia if Indigenous Australians did not play Australian
football. Not that they did not exist; rather, that they did not play football in the same way
that Indigenous participation in international cricket is virtually non-existent.1 Because of
Australian football and Indigenous Australians’ love of for it Indigenous participation in
football has become a highly celebrated aspect of the Australian game. It is because of
players like Nicky Winmar, Barry Cable, Michael Long, Chris Lewis, Byron Pickett, Polly
Farmer and the Krakouer brothers that football is a space where one can investigate both
positive and negative historical issues regarding race relations in Australia. In this way
football ceases to be just a game but becomes a teacher, and through its lessons we may
become, as Australians, a better team.
Sport, History and Politics
For many Indigenous Australians, sport, history and politics have become intertwined due to
issues concerning wider societal struggles and the oppression of Aboriginal people. Many
Indigenous athletes have had to adapt to politics and policy in order to survive, as financial
1 Jason Gillespie is the only male Test cricketer to have played for Australia who identifies as being Indigenous
– Kaurna from South Australia.
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and social self-determination were not accessible. Both Haebich and Tatz have shown that in
the late 1800s and early to mid 1900s, rations, curfews and reserve life created massive
everyday hardship and poverty. For Tatz, those who displayed ability in sport were able to
supplement their seasonal incomes and rations with semi-professional foot races or boxing
matches to survive. Hence these people were able to become more socially mobile and gain
some begrudging acceptance in the broader community, which then afforded them some
degree of status (bearing in mind that most Indigenous Australians prior to the 1967
referendum came under various state and territory acts which made many of them feel like
native fauna). As Tatz suggests, this does not just focus on one historical period but many:
The lives of Aboriginal sportspersons, at any period of Australian history, help
illustrate the discriminations faced by all Aborigines living at that period. (Tatz & Tatz
2000, p. 9).
This rich historical vein of sport, race and history, is not adequately appreciated by many
non-Indigenous Australians, which is surprising given the status in which sport is held in
Australia. This is in contrast to Americans, many of whom are quite aware of African
Americans (like baseballer Jackie Robinson) and their valuable social and historical input to
the desegregation of baseball, basketball and American football, and the rise to prominence
of African Americans in these sports (Lapchick 2008).
In this way sport enables us to see the many over-lapping themes of sport, politics, race and
history. Tatz, for example, looks at key incidents, such as Cathy Freeman cloaking herself in
the Aboriginal flag at the 1994 Commonwealth Games. This created a furore in the
Australian media as many commentators claimed that Freeman should have refrained,
because Aboriginal Australia is not recognised as a sovereign nation. However, as Tatz
responded, “Those who deplored her “un-Australian” behaviour have no understanding of
Aboriginal history” (Tatz in Headon 2001, p. 554). What he meant is that media
commentators equally failed to acknowledge that no Indigenous Australian has ever formally
signed an agreement that they have ‘given up’ their land to anyone. To put this another way,
the Mabo decision in 1992 proves in law that Indigenous peoples and societies were
established in Australia before 1788, and thus the notion of Terra Nullius is a fraud. For
many non-Indigenous Australians this is a concept that they do not or cannot acknowledge,
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and so indifference becomes the way of handling that (un)reality. As Syd Jackson opined in
an interview I had with him in 2008:
I know a lot of my Aboriginal brothers and sisters became isolated, lonely and
discriminated against because they had no attachment and lived lonely lives… I think
the challenge we face is trying to get to the top level of work and acceptance because
general society don’t want to see them (Indigenous Australians). (Jackson, 25 Sept,
2008, my emphasis).
In terms of overt racism, discrimination has not just come from opponents requiring an
“edge” but from the sporting institutions themselves. As previously mentioned, Doug
Nichols, Fitzroy Football Club’s champion and later Governor of South Australia, was
declined a guernsey at Carlton in the 1920 because it was thought he smelt. In other words,
he smelt because it was an accepted ‘truth’ amongst non-Indigenous Australians that
Aboriginals were dirty and chose to live in squalid conditions. For many ‘Blackfellas’, they
had no choice in these matters as the local tip or sewerage depot were the only places they
were allowed to live (Haebich 1988). Other examples of this type of treatment include
cricketer Eddie Gilbert and tennis ace Evonne Goolagong.
Eddie Gilbert, a devastatingly fast bowler and one of the few to bowl Bradman for a duck,
spent his last years in a Brisbane sanatorium because of the “great mental concern” that
racism had caused him during his time playing cricket, and being institutionalised in places
like Cherbourg (Colman & Edwards 2002, p.144). Gilbert was on many occasions made to
take his meals away from the team whilst on tour with the Queensland state side. Some of
Gilbert’s team mates even refused to shake his hand after he had taken a wicket. Furthermore,
Gilbert was unfairly branded a “chucker,” the worst possible accusation for a bowler, costing
him greater acceptance and recognition within cricketing circles.
Evonne Goolagong, perhaps the most internationally famous Indigenous sportsperson in
Australia before Cathy Freeman, also experienced racism. During the 1980 Wimbeldon
tournament a senior Victorian politician at the time said he hoped she “wouldn’t go
walkabout like some old boong” (Tatz & Tatz 2000, p. 29). It seems incredible by today’s
standards that such a thing would ever be uttered and hopefully measures to penalise
vilification within sport can help break down these attitudes elsewhere.
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Football and History
For many years it has been believed that the first Indigenous player was Joe Johnson, a 55
game defender who played in Fitzroy’s 1904-05 premiership team in the VFL. However, this
assumption has proven to be incorrect as Albert ‘Pompey’ Austin played for Geelong in
1872, debuting against Carlton after arriving from Framlingham mission (Ruddell 2008). In
many ways it was not just Austin or Johnson who can be seen as the Indigenous pioneers of
the game. The reason why this is suggested is that since the 1930s the game has only seen a
few Indigenous players in the VFL in each era: Doug Nicholls (Fitzroy: 1932-37), Norm
McDonald (Essendon: 1947-53), Polly Farmer (Geelong: 1962-67) and Syd Jackson (Carlton:
1969-1976). In a sense, then, these players were all pioneers as they each created a space so
that others might follow. Today this sees cohorts of Indigenous players on all AFL lists.
These numbers are increasing every year.
It was not, however, until the early 1980s that the VFL/AFL saw an influx of Indigenous
players with the arrival of the Krakouers to North Melbourne and Maurice Rioli at
Richmond, which added to the playing stocks of Phil Egan (Richmond), Robbie Muir (St
Kilda) and Kevin Taylor (South Melbourne). More significantly it was not until the advent of
the West Coast Eagles in 1987 with the likes of Phil Narkle, Wally Matera and Chris Lewis
did the ‘racial’ complexion of the AFL really start to change. With this also came
stereotypical media reportage concerning ‘Black Magic’ and the explaining away of
Indigenous players’ ‘skills’ as ‘natural’ without due recognition of the hours of training and
application that they had endured. This attention brought with it more supporter hostility and
culminated in the famous round four fixture between St Kilda and Collingwood in 1993,
when Nicky Winmar raised his jumper, thereby revealing his black skin, to a hostile
Collingwood football crowd. At the time Winmar could not have conceived what the
outcome of his action would have been. The Collingwood President Allan McAlister said at
the time that Winmar and team mate Gilbert McAdam would be respected “as long as they
conducted themselves like white people on and off the field” (Tatz, 2001, p.557). For the
broader community it began the process of sparking great debate about racism in football and
society. The reason that Winmar’s stance has transcended the realm of sport and football and
the fact that we are still talking about it is the power of its message: “You cannot ignore me
anymore”, it silently screams.
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Then in 1995 came the Michael Long incident when Collingwood ruckman Damian
Monkhorst, who was being tackled by Long, implored that “someone should get this black
c..t off me”. Long refused to let the media spotlight on this incident drop, and he pursued the
AFL on its lack of racism protocols, which eventually led to the introduction of the AFL’s
racial and religious vilification laws: Rule 30. Now, because of Long, all who play the game
are protected from racial and religious abuse and the players undergo diversity education and
cultural awareness programs as part of being a professional sportsperson. Indigenous
participation in the AFL in 2010 for both rookie and senior lists is just on 11%. Rule 30 could
then be seen as a very important initiative not only for Aboriginal players but also for those
players from minority backgrounds, like the Irish and African players, but also such Islamic
AFL footballers like Bhachar Houli at Essendon. Can one imagine for a moment what the
status of Houli’s welfare would have been given the anti-Muslim sentiment following the
terrorists attacks in a Australia post 9-11?2 It has taken these and other problematic moments
concerned with racism in the AFL to reconsider the way we think about race and ethnicity in
Australia and how it relates to sport and society more broadly. Yet this could only be done if
one viewed not just the game differently but also the space on which it was played. With
increased sponsorships and professionalism, the MCG ceased to simply be an oval where
sport was played and, with the introduction of Rule 30, it became a workplace. In this way
vilification was seen differently because one is looking at it through a different prism.
A hint that Australian society is perhaps slowly coming to understand the issue of racism
more holistically was witnessed in 2005 when the popular commentator Rex Hunt referred
to Collingwood’s Indigenous player Leon Davis playing ability as being “as black as a
dog”. Hunt made frequent use of slang and colloquialisms, but this was beyond the pale – as
he recognised by apologising on air immediately after he had vilified Davis. “I stopped in
my tracks because I knew” Hunt conceded (Hogan 19/7/2005). However, the
counterargument to this occurred only recently when ex Richmond player and father to
current day Hawthorn player Campbell Brown, Mal Brown, jokingly described past
Indigenous players as ‘cannibals’, sparking a furore in the media (Gorman 18/6/2010).
2 Bachar Houli is a player for the Essendon Bombers and a devout practicing Muslim who has a prayer mat at
the Essendon Football club so that he may undertake his prayers at certain times of the day.
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One of the biggest challenges that the AFL currently faces is how they will deal with the
projected influx of Indigenous players into the game, especially those that come from remote
areas like Austin Wonemaerri, Liam Jurrah and Ross Tungatalum.3 In the next 5 to 10 years
it is expected that Indigenous players will make up between 20 and 25 percent of all player
lists. There will be many positive outcomes from this if that happens. Specifically, the AFL
will become the single biggest corporate employer of Indigenous people per capita in
Australia. However, for people like Koori elder and president of Rumbalara in Shepparton,
Paul Briggs, it is felt that the AFL needs to do more: “I still don’t think the system is strong
enough to handle [certain] cases. There needs to be a far more professional approach and
strong case management of what these boys need. Once they take their footy jumper off and
put their street clothes on its just too hard for them” (Wilson Sport 17/11/2007, p. 1).
Many would say that the solution for Indigenous footballers to succeed beyond the playing
field is simple. Stay off alcohol and drugs, get an education and work hard. But there also
needs to be some work done by the broader society to ensure that when young Indigenous
footballers fall by the wayside we don’t just point to the colour of their skin and suggest
racial logic as the cause of failure. To put this simply: to understand an Indigenous footballer
one needs to understand where they have come from, not just geographically but socially,
historically, economically, politically and culturally. To fail to acknowledge these primary
aspects is to fundamentally miss the point of Indigenous peoples’ experiences in Australian
history. Perhaps also we need to ask ourselves some other very simple questions. Why are
there no Indigenous commentators, coaches, administrators, team managers, umpires or
journalists working within mainstream AFL circles? Where are they? As Che Cockatoo
Collins ruminated,
I ask the question, where are those coaches? Where are those board members? Where
are those commissioners? And as much stick as the NRL had been given over the last
few years, I mean, they’ve actually got a commissioner, an Aboriginal commissioner,
Gordon Tallis, and how come we [the AFL] don’t? And by putting people in roles like
that, I think you change the landscape. (Cockatoo-Collins, 15/9/2009).
Conclusion
3 All these players are from remote areas of Australia and have strong traditional backgrounds. For example
English for Liam Jurrah is his fourth language.

Race relations, Indigenous Australia and the social impact
of professional Australian football
Chris Hallinan and Barry Judd*
Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, Monash University, Australia
We consider how Indigenous athletes have become symbols of what is perceived by
white Australia to be progressive race relations. In particular, the men’s professional
sports of Australian football and Rugby League draw the most heavily mediated
attention as well as significant numbers of Indigenous players. We draw upon the
narratives of key advocates of Indigenous participation and performance in
professional Australian football: journalists and recruiting managers. The emergent
theme of white privilege is used to examine how their advocacy of Indigenous
performance masks shortcomings in access and opportunity beyond playing roles. We
conclude with the idea that race relations progress fulfils the needs of white Australia
but fails to sufficiently deliver genuine opportunity for Indigenous Australian
participants.
Introduction
Tomorrow night’s game is a celebration of Indigenous footballers, so we can expect some
magic from the talented Aborigines in both line-ups. This so-called blockbuster is in need of
some magic from (Essendon) Bomber Dean Rioli and Sydney’s Michael O’Loughlin.
(Sydney) Swan Goodes summed up his frustrating talent by kicking four goals from full back
last week against the Bulldogs, but while all three provide flashes of brilliance, consistency is
lacking.1
Our introductory quote is indicative of the type of media reporting associated with the
participation of Indigenous footballers. Such reporting is characterized by an implied
performance uniqueness which draws upon racialized thinking. However, it is far removed
from conventional understandings of racism which involve exclusion, derogation and
unambiguous prejudice. By contrast, the commentaries are clearly supportive of inclusion
and regularly concur with the confident self-positioning on race relations proclaimed by
the Australian Football League (AFL). Drawing upon the newly elected President of
the USA’s ‘new foundation’, the CEO of the Australian Football League addressed the
commencement of the 2009 season by intoning a mission statement that placed the League
in a position rivalling the Australian government. In a speech entitled ‘Above and Beyond:
League’s Duty in Hard Times’, the CEO extolled the virtues of the AFL as an agency of
considerable progress. He averred:
Australian Football is in a fortunate position to be part of our community’s revival. Over the
past several years, we have achieved President Obama’s ‘new foundation’ and we have used
that to provide our game, our clubs, our players and our supporters with a ‘lasting prosperity’.
ISSN 1743-0437 print/ISSN 1743-0445 online
q 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/17430430903137910
http://www.informaworld.com
*Corresponding author. Email: Barry.Judd@arts.monash.edu.au
Sport in Society
Vol. 12, No. 9, November 2009, 1220–1235
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A prosperous game is one that can engage with our supporters in all areas, and we make this
vow – in these difficult times we will extend our engagement in as many areas as we are able.2
Well known journalist Patrick Smith concurred and followed with his own
view regarding the impact of the AFL beyond the confines of the various stadia and
club rooms:
The AFL sees itself as more than a football code. It is an agent of social change. It introduced a
formal racial vilification code before other sports; it tested for illicit drugs before other sports.
It has this month introduced a personal code of conduct that will apply to all players and
officials. Demetriou has told his executive they have the opportunity to make great change to
football and, through it, the community. His team are good listeners.3
Much of the enlightened stance the League has embraced over the past 15 years
occurred against a backdrop of national hard-line political conservatism and social
xenophobia. The prime minister of that period drew heavily from populist and
assimilationist notions of nationhood.4 During this time sport provided a recurring
opportunity for organizations and governments (mostly controlled by white middle-class
men) to celebrate unprecedented progress in race relations as evidenced by the
achievements of individuals such as Cathy Freeman and Michael Long. Freeman was an
international celebrity. Long’s celebrity was contained within Australia. Within Australia,
the AFL draws the highest attendances, attracts the largest media coverage and maintains a
playing presence in every state and territory. It is widely promoted as ‘the national game’
and a sport which is a pioneer and frontrunner in race relations.
We examine and contest the assumptions surrounding these proclamations. We begin
by providing a social context in which the AFL competition takes place and also profile
Indigenous Australians and indicate their participation and contribution in Australian
football. We draw upon narratives from key participants in the sport and situate their
narratives and ideas within the theoretical notions of Hall regarding inferential racism, as
well as Jhally and Lewis’ work on enlightened racism.5 We discuss how the containment
of Indigenous participation is framed along common assumptions centred around
biological determinism, stereotyped ideas about ambition many of which have enjoyed
currency in Australian society since the early nineteenth century. Given this continued
structural shortcoming, we conclude by arguing that the race relations that occur in the
AFL reconfirm colonialism rather than forge a situation of reconciliation which remains
far from complete. Reconciliation requires nothing less than the establishment of a fully
operationalized Indigenous Australian team in the expanded Australian Football League.
We also suggest how this can be achieved while addressing the objections and concerns of
the alliance.
The Australian football landscape
Despite its relatively modest national population, four different football codes contest the
Australian winter sports landscape. Australian Football and Rugby League are clearly the
most popular and mediated team sports during the Australian winter. Football has its
bases in the southern and western cities of Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth. Rugby
League is the most popular sport in Brisbane and Sydney. The AFL teams (re)established
in Sydney and Brisbane were originally suburban-based Melbourne teams who were on
the brink of financial extinction at the time. The South Melbourne Swans became the
Sydney Swans and the Fitzroy Lions became the Brisbane Lions. The NRL has also
attempted to establish teams in the rival AFL market. This venture failed in Adelaide
and Perth. The Melbourne Storm remain and have won two league titles. Despite their
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on-field success, the Melbourne Storm rely on ‘outside’ assistance and are 100% owned
by News Limited. Nevertheless, the NRL is the sport of choice in New South Wales and
Queensland. Such is the popularity, that it maintains NRL teams in several regional
cities. Irrespective of relative popularity, both sports have recently been sites of
Indigenous overrepresentation. This is in stark contrast to other ‘national’ sports such as
cricket, rugby union and soccer.
The pervasiveness of sport in Australia has been well documented and the level of
participation has been consistent for several decades. There have been higher levels of
participation with younger age groups and males participate at a higher rate than
females. However, approximately 32% of all Australians were involved in playing or
organizing sport during 2002.6 While these figures represent a very high rate when
compared with other nations, they are far below the levels of participation in sport for
Indigenous Australians. According to the ABS (2005) almost 40% of Indigenous
females, and over 50% of Indigenous males participated in sport during 2002. The
popularity of sport among Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders has been noted and has
drawn the attention of researchers seeking to investigate, and inevitably challenge, the
widespread assumptions connected to Indigenous participation and performance.7 The
sociocultural research literature centred upon Indigenous Australian sport participation
has concerned itself with stereotyping, racialized mediation, experiential reality of
Aboriginal basketball, and purging of white guilt in Australian football and Rugby
League.8
Historical context: race relations in Australia
The Indigenous peoples of Australia are the inheritors of the oldest continuous cultures
in the world. According to archaeological research, they have occupied the Australian
continent for at least 40 millennia.9 Indigenous peoples across Australia developed highly
successful and stable societies that sustained a diversity of cultures and languages. The
societies that emerged in Australia adopted decision-making processes in which the
virtues of equality, respect and consensus politics were highly valued. These political
systems have been described as constituting ‘pure democracy’ because every individual in
society had direct input into decision-making processes. In Indigenous Australia, every
person functioned as a self-determining entity with responsibilities to govern their own
actions and the collective actions of their society.
The arrival of the British in Australia during the last quarter of the eighteenth century
witnessed the destruction of these hitherto self-governing societies. The impact of British
colonization for Indigenous peoples in Australia was catastrophic, mirroring the
destructive colonial projects in the Americas and the Pacific. Dispossession of land, the
smashing of culture and language, and the denial of common law rights that Indigenous
peoples possessed as British subjects succeeded in transforming once proud and
independent peoples into passive welfare recipients dependant on the charity of colonial
governments. A significant factor in this transformation was the colonial policy of
‘Aboriginal Protection’. Shaping the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous
Australians during the period 1836–1972, the policies of Aboriginal Protection placed
Indigenous people on missions and reserves where they became segregated from non-
Indigenous Australia. Denied rights by a legislative and regulatory framework that
severely curtailed the ability to control their own destiny, Indigenous people could
not work, marry or parent their children without the approval of colonial authorities.
The federation of the six British colonies in 1901 added a further layer of discrimination
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with two racist constitutional sections effectively excluding Indigenous people from
Australian citizenship. The deliberate transformation of Indigenous Australia from
independent and self-determining peoples into passive recipients of government handouts
has had several negative consequences that continue to impact on race relations in
contemporary Australia.10
Profile of Indigenous disadvantage
The consequences of colonialism are no more clearly illustrated than in national
measures of social and economic wellbeing which indicate that the first Australians are
among the last Australians in terms of income, wealth, employment, education and
health status. Indigenous people continue to experience an average life expectancy 17
years below that achieved, expected and demanded by non-Indigenous Australians. The
gap in life expectancy is given substance by the catalogue of disease that continues to
place Aboriginal people at a distinct disadvantage from the moment of birth. Infant
mortality rates remain double those experienced by other Australians. Indigenous people
are 3 times more likely to have cardiovascular diseases, 1.3 times more likely to develop
cancers, 3.9 times more likely to develop respiratory diseases and 7.5 times more likely
to be impacted by diabetes. To these ‘lifestyle’ diseases of the First World can be added
the infectious diseases normally associated with the Third World which finds Indigenous
people 7 times more likely to contract TB, 8 times more likely to contract Hepatitis A
and 3 times more likely to contract Hepatitis B. Finally according to measures of mental
health, Aboriginal people remain 2.5 times more likely to self-harm than non-Aboriginal
Australians.11
The poor heath profile of Indigenous Australia is closely linked to a social and
economic status that sees Indigenous people remain at the bottom of the national education
and employment ladder. During a time of unprecedented economic boom the
unemployment rate for Indigenous people remained three to four times higher than the
national rate at 30%. Median income for Indigenous Australian is significantly lower than
that enjoyed by others Australians. Although primarily due to a persistent reliance on
welfare, median income also remains lower because Indigenous people earn less money
within the same occupational categories than others Australians. For example, in 2001, the
median income of Aboriginal managers was 81% of the non-Aboriginal median, for
professionals it was 73% and for labourers just 56%.12
Indigenous peoples continue to experience unacceptably poor outcomes in education.
The highest level of formal education achieved for 33%of all Indigenous Australians is Year
9 or below compared to 16% for all other Australians. The comparative disadvantage of
Indigenous people in education becomes even more apparent when grade progression rates
are considered: 89% of Aboriginal students progress from Year 9 to Year 10, compared to
99% of all other Australian students. This state of perennial underperformance at the
secondary level continues in higher education where Indigenous people are underrepresented
in all levels of study from Bachelor level degrees to PhDs. In order to achieve
parity with non-Indigenous Australia, Indigenous enrolments in Bachelor degrees would
need to increase by 115%, at Masters level by 414% and at PhD level by 282%.13
Racism and the national psyche
The profile that emerges from these statistical data indicates the influence that nineteenthcentury
politics continues to exert over Indigenous Australia today. However, we argue
Sport in Society 1223
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that the fundamental significance of this empirical evidence rests not in the statistics
themselves but in the national psychological and discursive exclusions of Indigenous
people that underpin their continued marginality in almost every aspect of contemporary
Australian life. Perhaps a more important consequence of past colonial practice has been
the popular acceptance of racist ideas, both scientific and Christian, which provided the
rationale and the justification for Australian government to formally discriminate against
Indigenous people. What once informed the policy agendas of colonial governments and
the research agendas of the colonial academy continues to inform popular representations
of Indigenous people that are found littered throughout Australian literature, film and
media. As Marcia Langton, a leading Indigenous academic, once famously observed, the
vast majority of Australians ‘know’ Indigenous people through the stories of former
colonists.14
Reinterpreted in contemporary popular culture the vast majority of Australians come
to ‘know’ and ‘understand’ Indigenous people through the various representations
constructed for their consumption by non-Indigenous people from James Cook to John
Howard and Howard Sattler. Functioning as ideology and forming a hegemonic consensus
on the racial and cultural characteristics of Indigenous Australia, the stories of former
colonists have been primarily concerned to define Indigenous peoples as inferior opposites
of a contemporary Australian national identity from which they are excluded. Defined
racially by whiteness, culturally by an adherence to British values and a masculinity that
sought to place the white Australian male as a superior type of Briton, the Indigenous
people came to represent the racial and cultural opposite of the idealized image of
Australian national character and national values. The imperatives of Australian racism
conceived that Indigenous people were racially inferior and culturally defective according
to the iron laws of biology and natural selection. The Indigenous people of Australia
accordingly became associated with the most negative and debasing stereotype which
characterized them as primitive, stone-age, savage, the missing-link, monkey-like, childlike,
over-sexed, physical, unintelligent, incapable, irresponsible, lazy, parasitic,
dishonest, violent, drunkard etc. etc.15
The notion that the present day disadvantage of Indigenous people is their own fault
and not the legacy of the inhumanity inherent in the colonial project stems from
understandings of racial and cultural hierarchies that are deliberately designed to remove
the legacy of Australian colonialism from public consciousness. Hence, to this day, it is
considered socially acceptable and indeed ‘common sense’ for non-Indigenous
Australians to conclude that the lower income, employment, education and health status
endured by Indigenous people today is the result of racial/cultural attributes which render
them too ‘lazy’ to find and keep a job and too ‘stupid’ to get an education or take proper
care of their own health. Indigenous leaders who speak up about the social and economic
problems that affect the wellbeing of their people are often responded to by the
‘mainstream’ media with calls to ‘let go of the past’ and be thankful for the many benefits
brought to them by a ‘benign’ and ‘good’ colonialism that delivered the natives tea, law,
cricket and the other trappings of British civilization.
The entrenched and persistent nature of non-Indigenous (mis)representation of
Indigenous people has been sustained because the formal policy agendas of Aboriginal
Protection and segregation were replaced with the contrary policies of Assimilation in the
1960s and Self-determined Integration in the 1970s. Hegemonic racism and the negative
attributes associated with Indigenous people continued to influence, direct and frame the
terms of the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia. The new
demands for Indigenous people to assimilate/integrate to the ‘mainstream’ norms of
1224 C. Hallinan and B. Judd
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Anglo-Australia occurred within the context of lingering doubts about Indigenous
capability to meet the challenges and responsibilities associated with political citizenship
and participatory engagement in the economics of the free market. Old colonial stories
through which non-Indigenous Australia ‘understood’ and ‘knew’ about ‘the Aborigines’
continued to shape national attitudes towards Indigenous people. In the age of
assimilation, integration and self-determination Indigenous people became marginalized
through a particular discourse that positioned Aboriginal racial and cultural deficit in
representations of the Indigenous person as corrupt politician and incompetent
administrator. As a result the self-determination in substance became a policy that
encouraged limited self-management in which Indigenous people were co-opted by
Australian governments to fill low skilled jobs within the public service and ‘Aboriginal
organizations’ established by the Federal government. Although seemingly progressive,
the policy agendas of assimilation and self-determined integration remained captive to the
longstanding ideas that positioned Indigenous people at the bottom of racial and cultural
hierarchies, an oppositional counterpoint to the top of the hierarchical tree, a position that
Anglo-Australia strenuously proclaimed itself to occupy.
In the 1990s the Australian government (re)shaped the relationship between Indigenous
and non-IndigenousAustralia according to the newagenda it calledAboriginal reconciliation.
To many this change signalled a new and positive beginning in the fraught history of
Australian race relations. However, the most recent shift in the terminology of Australian
government policy did nothing to displace the fundamental ideaswhich frame the Indigenous
and non-Indigenous relationship. Consistent with earlier policy regimes, reconciliation
positioned non-Indigenous Australia as leaders in a process that perversely placed
responsibility for the successful resolution of the (post) colonial condition on Indigenous
people. This facet of reconciliation became obvious during the period of the Howard Liberal
Government that retained the policy but shifted responsibility for its success from its own
administration to the underfunded and resourced National Council for Reconciliation.
Indigenous presence in the AFL
One of the often-noted aspects of Australian men’s team sports in the 1990s was the
emergence of a growing presence of Indigenous (Aborigines, Torres Strait Islanders)
recruits into the Australian Football League (AFL). The AFL comprises 16 teams/clubs –
10 in the greater Melbourne metropolitan area, 2 from Perth, 2 from Adelaide, and 1 team
in each of Brisbane and Sydney. At the beginning of the 2009 season, 71 Indigenous
players are officially listed. Indigenous players are not found in equal numbers across the
League. In fact, approximately two thirds are found in the clubs outside the Melbourne
metropolitan area. Several Melbourne clubs have not had a strong record of recruiting
Indigenous players. In addition, much of the period coincided with the considerable
increase in mass media stories, narratives of the reasons and the impact surrounding the
six-fold increase in Indigenous player representation in the AFL, court cases dealing with
Indigenous Land Rights (Yorta Yorta in northern Victoria), the Stolen Generations Report
(and former Prime Minister John Howard’s refusal to say Sorry), and a number of racial
vilification cases in the AFL. Despite the increase in Indigenous players, however, a recent
study16 found Indigenous AFL players were assigned into non-central field positions that
place an emphasis on speed and quickness and away from positions widely believed to
require leadership and intellectual skills. Furthermore, despite comprising approximately
10% of AFL players (as compared to 2% of the national population), Aborigines and
Torres Strait Islanders are still absent from team or club management positions.
Sport in Society 1225
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There have been numerous accounts regaling the AFL as the leader in Australian
sports organizations with respect to opportunity access and positive race relations. It is a
common practice for key stakeholders such as journalists to extol the virtues of the AFL as
pioneer and leader amongst sports organizations and also suggestive of such amongst any
organization. The common-sense reality is the production of shared language about
Indigenous footballers – stereotypes, beliefs and ideologies reinforced in the routine
narratives of everyday thought. The identity of Indigenous AFL players is mostly
constructed and maintained by an alliance including managers, coaches, players, media
commentators and sports scientists. In this essay, we draw upon the narrative data
provided by two key groups: journalists and recruiting managers.
Data sources: journalists and recruiting managers
Our key data sources play vital and key roles in the dissemination of Indigenous
participation and performance. They are immersed in the AFL and, as with all of the
recruiting managers, many journalists are assigned entirely to football. They operate in
markedly contrasted domains. The narratives of journalists are public and thus readily
accessible. The narratives of recruiting managers are intended solely for reading within
the club.
Journalists serve a key role in deploying and disseminating dominant meanings of
public performance. As Turner argues, ‘media texts offer especially rich opportunities to
observe the cultural construction of meaning, locations where we can see the social
production of ideas and values happening before our very eyes’.17 Despite their claims to
objectivity, journalists in particular, and the mass media in general, selectively construct
particular narratives which serve certain interests and not others. Journalists writing about
Indigenous sports participation and performance frequently emphasize the race relations
‘achievements’ of the AFL. They effectively reinforce that status quo of established power
and race relations. For the specific purpose of this project, we combed the major
newspaper outlets for any reports. Our raw data sources were from The Age, Herald Sun,
Daily Telegraph, Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian.
The aggregation of media ownership in Australia means that the majority of
newspapers are owned and produced by News Limited or the Fairfax Group. News
Limited (owned by Rupert Murdoch) is responsible for the Herald Sun (Melbourne), Daily
Telegraph (Sydney) and The Australian. Fairfax publishes The Age (Melbourne) and The
Sydney Morning Herald. Between them, these newspapers account for the highest
circulation figures and the majority national readership. Our analysis was not intended as a
standard content analysis. Rather, we searched for reports which contained specific
Indigenous ambition and performance reference, and were representative of broad themes.
Journalists have to negotiate the inherent tension between insider and outsider. Such is
their sometimes vague and unclear role that two club presidents also serve as TV
commentators during the season. This practice has rarely been criticized along conflict-ofinterest
lines. Rather, it has occasionally been questioned because of the perception that it
may contribute to work overload – failing to pay full attention to the management of
the club.
Recruiting managers are employed by all clubs. They are ideal sources for data
regarding the logic and rationale for recruiting Indigenous players, they are uniquely
positioned as AFL ‘insiders’, and they function as gatekeepers with their decisions
determining who gains admittance. Although each provided consent for disclosure,
the identities of individual managers have been rendered anonymous in this study.
1226 C. Hallinan and B. Judd
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We arranged and compiled narrative data according to the key themes of understanding –
enlightened racism and inferential racism.
Enlightened brilliance
There would be little or no debate that professional sport in Australia has left behind the
practice of overt racism. There were many reported incidents over several decades.
However, even leading Indigenous figures such as Michael Long have joined the chorus.
Long now serves as the AFL manager of Indigenous development. The classic overt
racism has been replaced by a bevy of sports figures strongly and enthusiastically serving
as advocates for increased opportunity and access. For example, Australian cricket legend
Dennis Lillee, now serving as Fast Bowling Consultant, exemplified this sentiment in
speaking about the potential for Indigenous talent to add to the fortunes of Australian
cricket when he said:
Fast bowling requires what we call fast twitch muscles and you only have to look at them
playing football and see how quick they are and how dynamic they are. Then you can relate
certainly that that muscle movement would go very well for fast bowling.18
Lillee’s comments signify racialisation of human performance but were not challenged as
such. While specifically intended as declarations for support of Indigenous opportunity,
similar notions of racialisation were made by AFL coaches.
It’s exciting, most of our Indigenous boys have got a natural talent in the way they play, a lot
of speed and run and carry. They play with freedom. I mean that’s one of the things I love.
They don’t have any fear and they play the game very naturally and that’s the way Jarrad plays
his footy.
Former AFL coach Kevin Sheedy has been routinely credited by the AFL, journalists
and supporters as being the vanguard of Indigenous participation in the AFL. He was
quoted as saying:
[T]he skills of the Aboriginal and Islander players had been a godsend for the competition.
We’ve struck gold with the Indigenous players. You think you’re a coach and then you get
some really wonderfully talented people and they actually teach you how to coach. Indigenous
players, they don’t need a compass and a protractor. They know the angle coming into the
goals.19
Journalists also regularly extol the ‘special’ qualities of Indigenous footballers:
I don’t think it is just my imagination, but I believe that many of the AFL’s Indigenous players
bring that joy to the game at the highest level. It seems that Indigenous players are some of the
most creative and intuitive in the league.20
These quotes provide evidence of what Jhally and Lewis refer to as enlightened
racism. They drew upon the examples of popular American television programmes which
provided an idealization of race relations favoured by white Americans. Far removed from
the crude behaviour associated with racial vilification, Jhally and Lewis refer to
enlightened racism as a form of racism that constructs positive images of Black America
while hiding cultural and economic inequalities. The popular black television characters
favoured by white America are confined to a limited and finite range of attributes.
Likewise, the controlling alliance in the AFL is able to construct positive images of
Indigenous footballers without confronting the structural inequalities of the sport. That is,
Indigenous participation is now celebrated by the alliance but is contained and limited to
playing roles. The evidence presented elsewhere strongly suggests that this participation,
with minor exceptions,21 excludes access to leadership and decision-making positions.
Sport in Society 1227
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Inferential racism: explaining Indigenous ambition
Inferential racism is an idea established by Stuart Hall’s work on media studies in Britain
when writing about the involvement of Black Britons in everyday life.22 Racial predicates,
according to Hall, are pervasive and ingrained into everyday discourse. Likewise, the
production of shared ideas about Indigenous footballers – to ‘kick the freak goal’ or ‘do
the magical stuff’ – is reinforced in the routine narratives of everyday thought of many
managers and journalists in particular. Clearly, everyday, taken-for-granted understandings
of race and racial difference permeate the working environment of Australian
football. When discussing the reasons for the obvious lack of opportunity for Indigenous
players after their career, several managers drew upon such discourse when providing
explanations of Indigenous ambition. This was in response to one of the standard questions
which was presented in each interview, ‘Are we on the brink where Aboriginal players
once their playing careers end will start to enter the management area?’ As one of the
recruiting managers told us:
I can’t think of any Aboriginal player that ever had anything to do with, that have had any
interest in money at all, but these guys are making a fortune. In first six months or twelve
months, as I said, he didn’t say much, but he had three cars he should never have had, he went
bought cars, what have you bought that thing for, you know, he say ‘is it any good’ you’d say,
‘no it’s not’, he go and trade it in and lose $5000 in two weeks on it, had no respect, no interest
in money, most of his money went home to Darwin to look after the family and all that sort of
stuff.23
Others replied in a similar sceptical tone:
We are sitting there saying ‘are they bullshitting us?’ They just lead a simple life, you come
round to our place, we go home, you come round next year, I’ll give you the best kangaroo
steaks, everybody comes to eat, the neighbours smell what I’m cooking and they’re there, and
you’re thinking: Can they become coaches? They live more day to day.
I’m not sure about that. Look Mick McLean has been very much a natural leader and rated as
such but I don’t know with a lot of the Aboriginal boys that they like to lead. There happy to
go do their thing, play the game and with the skills thing, but I don’t know if they want to get
embroiled in all the rigmarole that goes with being an assistant coach and attending team
meetings and standing up and being the backline coach saying ‘well, look. This is what I think
we should do’. I think, by and large, perhaps it doesn’t suit the average Aboriginal
temperament to do that.24
Some managers were more optimistic and open to the idea and suggested that
eventually coaching roles would be offered to, and accepted by, Indigenous players. For
example, one manager said:
Michael Long appears to be a person who just might coach one day, he just seems to have a
good feel, when you hear him and listen to him and whatever. He’s a special quality
person. Maybe we’re just seeing that in the next couple of years. I was just watching the
basketball the other night, I’m a gridiron fan, there is Negroes [sic ] coaching in the NFL and
the NBA, so maybe the progression is maybe it’s taking a bit longer, and maybe the numbers
haven’t been there in the first place. Like, we’re talking about a fairly small number of
aboriginals playing league football. So I suppose it will come from the players who have
played AFL football.
They really

Assessment Task 2: Literature Review
Type: Literature Review Weight: 40%

Word Limit: 1200
Submission
approach:
Turnitin
Academic
Integrity:
A Turnitin match greater than 15% will be considered in breach of academic
honesty however, breaches in academic honesty can also occur below this match.
Additional
Requirements:
NA
Unit outcomes assessed:
1. Explore how physical activity and sport are products of historical, social and cultural conditions
2. Articulate how the meaning and understanding of physical activity and sport change over time
and across different cultural contexts
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the changing nature of movement, physical activity and sport
within Australian society
4. Assess the impact of various cultural groups on the direction and nature of Australian sport and
physical activity
5. Articulate the changing roles that institutions such as the government, schools and media have on
movement, physical activity and sport
Task Description:
Students will choose one of three topics, Indigenous Australians and sport, Women in sport or Soccer
in Australia. Based on their choice, they will review two allocated articles and construct a 1200 (+/-
10%) word response.
In this assessment, students will be assessed on their ability to:
• Identify the key themes that have influenced their chosen group or sport
• Examine and evaluate those key themes
• Identify the common themes that appear in the reviewed articles.
• Construct a response that demonstrates a coherent understanding of how these factors
have influenced their chosen group or sport
• Submit work to a professional standard including the use of appropriate referencing both
within the essay and the reference list.
PER1106 Sport and the Social Context
Australian College of Physical Education (ACPE) 9
Marking Rubric
Criteria Points
F (0 – 4.9)
P (5 – 6.4)
C (6.5 – 7.4)
D (7.5 – 8.4)
H.D (8.5 – 10)
/10
Discussion of the
individual articles
Inadequate work.
The discussion was
too general and the
response lacked
clarity
Satisfactory work.
A summary of the
key points in each
article
Could have
extended some
areas of
investigation
Good quality work.
A basic analysis of
the articles that
examines most of
the issues and their
impact, which is
supported by
examples
Work of excellent
quality.
A clear and concise
analysis that
examines most of
the issues and
impact and is
supported by wellchosen
examples
Work of outstanding
quality.
A clear and concise
critical analysis that
Identifies all of the
issues and their impact
and is supported by
well-chosen examples
/20
Identification of
the common
themes within
the articles
Inability to identify
the common
themes.
A basic summary
of themes is
provided,
however
comparisons are
limited
The common
themes are
identified with
some comparison
and contrast
provided
The common
themes are
identified and
analysed, with an
insightful
comparison and
contrast provided in
a sustained manner.
The common themes
are identified and
critically analysed, with
an insightful
comparison and
contrast provided in a
sophisticated and
sustained manner
/10
Academic writing
Poor writing style
difficult to read
Too many spelling
mistakes and
grammatical errors
or
No separate
paragraphs for each
new theme
or
Poorly adapted
and/or citing of
research within text
Basic writing style
and presentation
Some spelling and
grammatical
mistakes
Some correct use
of references
citing within text
Reference list
provided
Clearly written
Good sentence and
paragraph
structure which
flows well
Mostly correct use
of references cited
within text
Reference list
provided
Proofread and
professional
Good writing style
Written in a clear
manner
Correct and
extensive use of
reference cited
within text and in
the reference list
Good linking and
flow in writing style.
Proofread and
professional
Shows an outstanding
ability to summarise
the literature
Written in a clear and
concise manner
Correct and extensive
use of reference citing
within text and
reference list provided
Excellent linking and
flow in writing style
Proofread and
professional