Unfortunately Andrew Bolt does not stand alone in his view that Aboriginal people are dark skinned, live in the bush and must live a traditional lifestyle to be “really Aboriginal”. Bolt quite openly has the view that if you are Aboriginal and you don’t fit this mould, you are not really Aboriginal? To him I would be one of those people. I’m Aboriginal, I live in the city, I finished high school, I went to university and too many peoples surprise I’m currently studying a masters.
In a professional capacity I have had many people say bizzare things to me like “oh you went to private school? So were you on a scholarship?” “Oh you grew up in the suburbs?” The element of status quo pusher inside me always wants to respond by being facetious however overtime I have learned that I have more chance of changing these attitudes and beliefs through the simple art of narrative. Everybody has a story and everyone’s story can teach us something, it might be little, it might change our lives and the learning may be delayed. How does being Aboriginal automatically relate to scholarship or living in the bush?
I’m a teacher and so Aboriginal kids that I work with often shock me at the negative things that are said to them, I try my hardest to reassure them and without sounding trite I really do admire them because they are at the cold-face of the change that more and more Australians are talking about. I frequently remind them that being a part of change is difficult but it’s our job, if our parents, our grandparents and our Aunties and Uncles didn’t fight for change and said it was too hard where would we be today?
If I can say this to 14 year old boys, I can say it everyone. Change is hard. And it’s that simple. When people learn to drive and they stall; they start again, when we are learning to walk they fall; they start again. I’m not suggesting that for one second we step back in time and start again, what I am saying is learn from this. From the negative and vitriolic nature of people like Bolt, we must look at the crazy outrageous elements and think, what can we learn from this as a broader community… In my opinion we can learn that for many reasons Aboriginal people don’t have a “look like type”, we don’t all live in the bush, we work in many different industries and we will stand up for ourselves if you try to push us around.
Just take a moment to look at all the amazing things that Aboriginal youth are doing and celebrate those, don’t find one bad news story to hold onto it especially if makes you mad, find a good news story that you want to share.
Check out the work of these young Aboriginal people spreading the word about equality and change.
Great piece Jo!
ReplyDeleteIt's a constant source of disappointment to me that Andrew Bolt has such a large audience. If only opinions like yours could receive the same exposure, then maybe we would see many more minds being opened and hearts softened.
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