BBC blast for 'white' Australia
Mar 20th 2004, 9:09 pm
#1
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Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 11,149
BBC blast for 'white' Australia
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/...789939957.html
A BBC documentary into the Redfern riots promises to give Australia a "very uncomfortable" hour's viewing.
British reporter David Akinsanya, who made his name with TV programs about his own tough life in British institutions, said of the film: "As a black man I feel I am treated better in Britain as a stranger than Aborigines are treated in their own land."
The program, This World, will be syndicated globally and will be "very uncomfortable viewing" for Australia, he said.
"I am doing this story as a black man and white Australia might not like what I have found because, looking from the outside, it doesn't look good."
A BBC documentary into the Redfern riots promises to give Australia a "very uncomfortable" hour's viewing.
British reporter David Akinsanya, who made his name with TV programs about his own tough life in British institutions, said of the film: "As a black man I feel I am treated better in Britain as a stranger than Aborigines are treated in their own land."
The program, This World, will be syndicated globally and will be "very uncomfortable viewing" for Australia, he said.
"I am doing this story as a black man and white Australia might not like what I have found because, looking from the outside, it doesn't look good."
Mar 20th 2004, 9:11 pm
#2
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Posts: 11,149
I am not sure if the documentary or the local reaction is going to be more interesting. There is nothing like the BBC to get the Oz chaterati going.
Mar 20th 2004, 9:29 pm
#3
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The reason the BBC does so many documentaries on the mistreatment of the Aboriginies is so the reporters, script writers,cameramen and all the other support staff can get a free
holiday to Australia. The native people in Northern Canada face
the same problems as Australia's Aboriginies, but doing a
documentary about them would mean spending your time freezing
to death rather then Australia's sun and surf.
holiday to Australia. The native people in Northern Canada face
the same problems as Australia's Aboriginies, but doing a
documentary about them would mean spending your time freezing
to death rather then Australia's sun and surf.
Mar 20th 2004, 9:54 pm
#4
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Joined: Jan 2004
Location: Far away from canned Oz
Posts: 1,833
Originally posted by wombat42
The reason the BBC does so many documentaries on the mistreatment of the Aboriginies is so the reporters, script writers,cameramen and all the other support staff can get a free
holiday to Australia. The native people in Northern Canada face
the same problems as Australia's Aboriginies, but doing a
documentary about them would mean spending your time freezing
to death rather then Australia's sun and surf.
The reason the BBC does so many documentaries on the mistreatment of the Aboriginies is so the reporters, script writers,cameramen and all the other support staff can get a free
holiday to Australia. The native people in Northern Canada face
the same problems as Australia's Aboriginies, but doing a
documentary about them would mean spending your time freezing
to death rather then Australia's sun and surf.
Check out your 'facts'.
The US, Canada, NZ have all made considerable progress towards their indigenous peoples' problems. Oz stands alone.
Mar 20th 2004, 9:54 pm
#5
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Joined: Aug 2003
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 138
Will this documentary be shown here in Australia?
I hope it will.I found a lot of the media coverage of the Redfern riots pretty biased against the Aboriginies involved(apart from on Current Affair but someone told me Ray Martin is part Aboriginal so that would make sense).
I hope it will.I found a lot of the media coverage of the Redfern riots pretty biased against the Aboriginies involved(apart from on Current Affair but someone told me Ray Martin is part Aboriginal so that would make sense).
Mar 20th 2004, 10:09 pm
#6
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Originally posted by wombat42
The reason the BBC does so many documentaries on the mistreatment of the Aboriginies is so the reporters, script writers,cameramen and all the other support staff can get a free
holiday to Australia. The native people in Northern Canada face
the same problems as Australia's Aboriginies, but doing a
documentary about them would mean spending your time freezing
to death rather then Australia's sun and surf.
The reason the BBC does so many documentaries on the mistreatment of the Aboriginies is so the reporters, script writers,cameramen and all the other support staff can get a free
holiday to Australia. The native people in Northern Canada face
the same problems as Australia's Aboriginies, but doing a
documentary about them would mean spending your time freezing
to death rather then Australia's sun and surf.
Oh really? And how did you work that one out Einstein
I live in Canada, and know for a fact that the canadian govt has different kind of programs for the native people.There are educational grants, quotas for university placement, development programs in the rural areas, health care, employment quotas, and the police have recruitment nights specially for the native people.
Maybe the documentary has a point after all, we all know the Australian govt will do anything that will favour the majorities (whites) just to get elected again. You might want to stop playing dumb, and look at the facts.
Maybe its something to do with Australia being down there, that they can't see what else is going on in the world. Blimey..i remember living in london, looking everywhere is another Australian with an expired visa looking to work under the table illegally
Last edited by mickj; Mar 20th 2004 at 10:36 pm.
Mar 20th 2004, 10:23 pm
#7
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Joined: Apr 2003
Location: South East, Perth (was Holland)
Posts: 5,789
Unfortunetly it isn't an Australian channel that made it, but hopefully they will show it, and it will make a difference anyway....
Well, if anyone finds out when it will be shown on the BBC, let me know, we get BBC 1 and 2 here.
Well, if anyone finds out when it will be shown on the BBC, let me know, we get BBC 1 and 2 here.
Mar 20th 2004, 10:29 pm
#8
Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 11,149
The ABC normally has first rights to BBC output and they aren't hesitant in showing such output.
Mar 21st 2004, 12:11 am
#9
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I wonder if stories about communities and people quietly working away in the background out side the bonfire light would be interesting to the BBC?
For example:
Murrin Bridge Vineyard Aboriginal Corporation
For example:
Murrin Bridge Vineyard Aboriginal Corporation
Mar 21st 2004, 12:42 am
#10
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Joined: Nov 2003
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Good point Meg, but unfortunately success stories are not "Good" news.
There are other similar examples but they dont make the headlines cos these type of stories aren't sensational.
There are other similar examples but they dont make the headlines cos these type of stories aren't sensational.
Mar 21st 2004, 12:46 am
#11
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Posts: n/a
Originally posted by Megalania
I wonder if stories about communities and people quietly working away in the background out side the bonfire light would be interesting to the BBC?
For example:
Murrin Bridge Vineyard Aboriginal Corporation
I wonder if stories about communities and people quietly working away in the background out side the bonfire light would be interesting to the BBC?
For example:
Murrin Bridge Vineyard Aboriginal Corporation
I agree the Australian government do make token gestures towards the Aboriginals in terms of setting up minor projetcs etc.
However the fact remains that racisim is rife amoung white "Australians" towards the Aboriginals.
My Partner is half Aboriginal and educated in England. She is a Chartered Accountant. Had she been educated in Australia with all the racisim from you white "Australians" she would be lucky to have become Toilet Cleaner.
Mar 21st 2004, 12:50 am
#12
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Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 11,149
Originally posted by Harryh
I agree the Australian government do make token gestures towards the Aboriginals in terms of setting up minor projetcs etc.
However the fact remains that racisim is rife amoung white "Australians" towards the Aboriginals.
My Partner is half Aboriginal and educated in England. She is a Chartered Accountant. Had she been educated in Australia with all the racisim from you white "Australians" she would be lucky to have become Toilet Cleaner.
I agree the Australian government do make token gestures towards the Aboriginals in terms of setting up minor projetcs etc.
However the fact remains that racisim is rife amoung white "Australians" towards the Aboriginals.
My Partner is half Aboriginal and educated in England. She is a Chartered Accountant. Had she been educated in Australia with all the racisim from you white "Australians" she would be lucky to have become Toilet Cleaner.
Mar 21st 2004, 4:11 am
#13
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Posts: 1,833
Originally posted by mickj
Blimey..i remember living in london, looking everywhere is another Australian with an expired visa looking to work under the table illegally
Blimey..i remember living in london, looking everywhere is another Australian with an expired visa looking to work under the table illegally
Mar 21st 2004, 4:18 am
#14
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Joined: Jan 2004
Location: Far away from canned Oz
Posts: 1,833
Originally posted by Simone82
Unfortunetly it isn't an Australian channel that made it...
Unfortunetly it isn't an Australian channel that made it...
The BBC is respected world-wide (if not by Blair).
What are you afraid of - the truth?
How about the following from Reuters, which is renowned for its independence?
"16 Feb 2004 07:02:49 GMT
Black riot reflects Australia's deep racial divide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Michael Perry
SYDNEY, Feb 16 (Reuters) - The dried blood on the streets of Sydney's black ghetto on Monday following an overnight riot by Aborigines was a stark reminder of the continuing deep, and at times violent, divide between white and black Australia.
About 100 Aborigines, many of them drunk, pelted 200 riot police with Molotov cocktails, stones and bottles, as anger boiled over in the inner-city suburb of Redfern.
The riot was triggered by the death of Aboriginal Thomas Hickey, who was impaled on a metal fence after falling from his bicycle on Saturday. He died in hospital on Sunday morning.
His mother, Gail, said her 17-year-old son was injured while being pursued by police. Police say patrolling officers merely passed by the boy who then sped off, losing control of his bike.
Senior Aboriginal leaders on Monday condemned the violence, the worst civil unrest in Australia's largest city for at least a decade, but said the riot reflected a wider issue -- the alienation of black Australia.
"People should not kid themselves -- this is Australia," said Aden Ridgeway, the only Aboriginal politician in the national parliament.
"Last night's display of violence is an extreme example of the extent of the alienation felt by some Aboriginal kids and the manifestation of the difficult relationships in the area."
Australia's 400,000 Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders make up two percent of Australia's 20 million population.
Aborigines remain the nation's most disadvantaged group, dying 20 years younger than other Australians with far higher rates of imprisonment, unemployment, welfare dependency, domestic violence and alcoholism.
Most live in remote communities in Australia's outback, with smaller groups in squalid accommodation on the fringes of regional towns. Very few live in major cities.
Black Australia calls the arrival of white settlers in 1788 "the invasion". Thousands were massacred by white settlers or evicted from their ancestral lands.
And Aboriginal leaders say racism in Australia has dictated their lives ever since. A public gathering by Aborigines in Redfern on Monday saw speaker after speaker express anger and frustration at how Aborigines were being treated in Australia.
"There is no such thing as (racial) reconciliation," said Lyall Munro, an Aboriginal elder in Redfern, citing the thousands of Aborigines in jails or juvenile detention centres.
LONG STRUGGLE
It was not until a 1967 national vote by white Australians that Aborigines were actually grant citizenship. Until then they were governed under flora and fauna laws.
Aborigines in the remote Northern Territory gained land rights in 1976 after a long struggle, but Aborigines in the rest of the country are still fighting for land rights.
A 1997 report by Australia's human rights commission found an assimilation policy used by various Australian governments up to the 1960s was "systematic racial discrimination and genocide".
The report detailed the plight of the "Stolen Generation" children, taken from their parents to be raised in white families, but who were sexually abused or used as slave labour in Australia's vast outback.
It called for a government apology and compensation, but conservative Prime Minister John Howard will not issue an apology for past atrocities against Aborigines, saying Australians today have nothing to be sorry about.
In recent years Aboriginal leaders have moved away from calls for racial reconciliation to a more pragmatic call for help to tackle drug and alcohol abuse which is killing their people.
But white and black Australia rarely cross paths in this island continent and when they do tensions rise. White Australia says Aborigines are to blame for their own poverty, while Aborigines say racism dictates their plight.
"They're lucky they haven't got a guerrilla war happening," an angry Aborigine called Tammie told the Redfern meeting.
"Aboriginal people are peaceful people but (if) they push our buttons, mate we will go to the point where if they're going to shed blood so will we," said Tammie. "
Is Oz the new South Africa?
Last edited by MikeStanton; Mar 21st 2004 at 4:28 am.
Mar 21st 2004, 5:13 am
#15
Guest
Posts: n/a
Originally posted by MikeStanton
An Australian channel? Somehow, I don't think we would be getting a balanced view.
The BBC is respected world-wide (if not by Blair).
What are you afraid of - the truth?
How about the following from Reuters, which is renowned for its independence?
"16 Feb 2004 07:02:49 GMT
Black riot reflects Australia's deep racial divide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Michael Perry
SYDNEY, Feb 16 (Reuters) - The dried blood on the streets of Sydney's black ghetto on Monday following an overnight riot by Aborigines was a stark reminder of the continuing deep, and at times violent, divide between white and black Australia.
About 100 Aborigines, many of them drunk, pelted 200 riot police with Molotov cocktails, stones and bottles, as anger boiled over in the inner-city suburb of Redfern.
The riot was triggered by the death of Aboriginal Thomas Hickey, who was impaled on a metal fence after falling from his bicycle on Saturday. He died in hospital on Sunday morning.
His mother, Gail, said her 17-year-old son was injured while being pursued by police. Police say patrolling officers merely passed by the boy who then sped off, losing control of his bike.
Senior Aboriginal leaders on Monday condemned the violence, the worst civil unrest in Australia's largest city for at least a decade, but said the riot reflected a wider issue -- the alienation of black Australia.
"People should not kid themselves -- this is Australia," said Aden Ridgeway, the only Aboriginal politician in the national parliament.
"Last night's display of violence is an extreme example of the extent of the alienation felt by some Aboriginal kids and the manifestation of the difficult relationships in the area."
Australia's 400,000 Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders make up two percent of Australia's 20 million population.
Aborigines remain the nation's most disadvantaged group, dying 20 years younger than other Australians with far higher rates of imprisonment, unemployment, welfare dependency, domestic violence and alcoholism.
Most live in remote communities in Australia's outback, with smaller groups in squalid accommodation on the fringes of regional towns. Very few live in major cities.
Black Australia calls the arrival of white settlers in 1788 "the invasion". Thousands were massacred by white settlers or evicted from their ancestral lands.
And Aboriginal leaders say racism in Australia has dictated their lives ever since. A public gathering by Aborigines in Redfern on Monday saw speaker after speaker express anger and frustration at how Aborigines were being treated in Australia.
"There is no such thing as (racial) reconciliation," said Lyall Munro, an Aboriginal elder in Redfern, citing the thousands of Aborigines in jails or juvenile detention centres.
LONG STRUGGLE
It was not until a 1967 national vote by white Australians that Aborigines were actually grant citizenship. Until then they were governed under flora and fauna laws.
Aborigines in the remote Northern Territory gained land rights in 1976 after a long struggle, but Aborigines in the rest of the country are still fighting for land rights.
A 1997 report by Australia's human rights commission found an assimilation policy used by various Australian governments up to the 1960s was "systematic racial discrimination and genocide".
The report detailed the plight of the "Stolen Generation" children, taken from their parents to be raised in white families, but who were sexually abused or used as slave labour in Australia's vast outback.
It called for a government apology and compensation, but conservative Prime Minister John Howard will not issue an apology for past atrocities against Aborigines, saying Australians today have nothing to be sorry about.
In recent years Aboriginal leaders have moved away from calls for racial reconciliation to a more pragmatic call for help to tackle drug and alcohol abuse which is killing their people.
But white and black Australia rarely cross paths in this island continent and when they do tensions rise. White Australia says Aborigines are to blame for their own poverty, while Aborigines say racism dictates their plight.
"They're lucky they haven't got a guerrilla war happening," an angry Aborigine called Tammie told the Redfern meeting.
"Aboriginal people are peaceful people but (if) they push our buttons, mate we will go to the point where if they're going to shed blood so will we," said Tammie. "
Is Oz the new South Africa?
An Australian channel? Somehow, I don't think we would be getting a balanced view.
The BBC is respected world-wide (if not by Blair).
What are you afraid of - the truth?
How about the following from Reuters, which is renowned for its independence?
"16 Feb 2004 07:02:49 GMT
Black riot reflects Australia's deep racial divide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Michael Perry
SYDNEY, Feb 16 (Reuters) - The dried blood on the streets of Sydney's black ghetto on Monday following an overnight riot by Aborigines was a stark reminder of the continuing deep, and at times violent, divide between white and black Australia.
About 100 Aborigines, many of them drunk, pelted 200 riot police with Molotov cocktails, stones and bottles, as anger boiled over in the inner-city suburb of Redfern.
The riot was triggered by the death of Aboriginal Thomas Hickey, who was impaled on a metal fence after falling from his bicycle on Saturday. He died in hospital on Sunday morning.
His mother, Gail, said her 17-year-old son was injured while being pursued by police. Police say patrolling officers merely passed by the boy who then sped off, losing control of his bike.
Senior Aboriginal leaders on Monday condemned the violence, the worst civil unrest in Australia's largest city for at least a decade, but said the riot reflected a wider issue -- the alienation of black Australia.
"People should not kid themselves -- this is Australia," said Aden Ridgeway, the only Aboriginal politician in the national parliament.
"Last night's display of violence is an extreme example of the extent of the alienation felt by some Aboriginal kids and the manifestation of the difficult relationships in the area."
Australia's 400,000 Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders make up two percent of Australia's 20 million population.
Aborigines remain the nation's most disadvantaged group, dying 20 years younger than other Australians with far higher rates of imprisonment, unemployment, welfare dependency, domestic violence and alcoholism.
Most live in remote communities in Australia's outback, with smaller groups in squalid accommodation on the fringes of regional towns. Very few live in major cities.
Black Australia calls the arrival of white settlers in 1788 "the invasion". Thousands were massacred by white settlers or evicted from their ancestral lands.
And Aboriginal leaders say racism in Australia has dictated their lives ever since. A public gathering by Aborigines in Redfern on Monday saw speaker after speaker express anger and frustration at how Aborigines were being treated in Australia.
"There is no such thing as (racial) reconciliation," said Lyall Munro, an Aboriginal elder in Redfern, citing the thousands of Aborigines in jails or juvenile detention centres.
LONG STRUGGLE
It was not until a 1967 national vote by white Australians that Aborigines were actually grant citizenship. Until then they were governed under flora and fauna laws.
Aborigines in the remote Northern Territory gained land rights in 1976 after a long struggle, but Aborigines in the rest of the country are still fighting for land rights.
A 1997 report by Australia's human rights commission found an assimilation policy used by various Australian governments up to the 1960s was "systematic racial discrimination and genocide".
The report detailed the plight of the "Stolen Generation" children, taken from their parents to be raised in white families, but who were sexually abused or used as slave labour in Australia's vast outback.
It called for a government apology and compensation, but conservative Prime Minister John Howard will not issue an apology for past atrocities against Aborigines, saying Australians today have nothing to be sorry about.
In recent years Aboriginal leaders have moved away from calls for racial reconciliation to a more pragmatic call for help to tackle drug and alcohol abuse which is killing their people.
But white and black Australia rarely cross paths in this island continent and when they do tensions rise. White Australia says Aborigines are to blame for their own poverty, while Aborigines say racism dictates their plight.
"They're lucky they haven't got a guerrilla war happening," an angry Aborigine called Tammie told the Redfern meeting.
"Aboriginal people are peaceful people but (if) they push our buttons, mate we will go to the point where if they're going to shed blood so will we," said Tammie. "
Is Oz the new South Africa?
Is the UK the new South Africa? What about that documentary
'The secret Policeman' that was shown in Australia and around the world about a reporter who joined the Manchester Police force which exposed institutional racism in the force.
What about the Oldham race riots, Stephep Lawrence and the
fact that 1 in 100 black people in the Uk are in prison.