Tuesday, February 28, 2012

38. Other Faces of Racism in Australia

1.
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/hungrybeast/media/how-intolerant-australia/index.html

Video clip

2.
http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2009/10/14/2713842.htm

Video clip of Kamahl on racism in Australia

3.Indigenous women speak out on racism
Katrina Bolton reported this story on Monday, July 19, 2010
Listen to MP3 of this story ( minutes)
Alternate WMA version MP3 download

Aboriginal women from Alice Springs have spoken out about racism and violence in Alice Springs. They say racist attacks are worsening - highlighted by a court case earlier this year when five white youths pleaded guilty to killing an Indigenous man who'd been drinking near the Todd River bed in Alice Springs last year.

TONY EASTLEY: Racism is a subject that triggers strong reactions in Alice Springs, not least because the town is acutely aware of its reputation. The conviction earlier this year of a group of white teenagers for killing an Aboriginal man put the town in an uncomfortable spotlight and now some Indigenous women have decided to speak for the first time about racism they say is taking hold in Alice Springs.Katrina Bolton reports.
KATRINA BOLTON: Pamela Sampson is an Aboriginal woman in her 50s. She was a teacher for 15 years, and lives now with her family in a town camp just outside Alice Springs. She says racism in the town is very real but people have been too uncomfortable or too shamed to speak about it.
PAMELA SAMPSON: I've seen a lot of young people driving past with a car, putting their finger up to us, carrying on, swearing. KATRINA BOLTON: Pamela Sampson says she's had people throw things at her too and her friend Audrey Martin was pelted with ice.
AUDREY MARTIN: Two in the front, three in the back, they've been throwing ice in my face. They shouldn't do that and I didn't call the police, nothing.
KATRINA BOLTON: Both women say the violence is enough to make them afraid to come into town. They try to come in only during the day and stick to shops they know but they say they've also been attacked out of town.
PAMELA SAMPSON: There was two cars pulling up on the side of the creek and those white couples, they said hello to us and we said hello boys and next minute they got out and they pick up the rock and they start smashing the car. We didn't do anything wrong for those young people. They thought we were animals sitting down there. But we not, we all human being.
KATRINA BOLTON: When five white youths pleaded guilty to killing an Indigenous man who'd been drinking near the Todd River bed in Alice Springs last year their lawyers maintained the attack was not racially motivated. But Pamela Sampson and Audrey Martin have families living in the dry river bed. They say there have been other incidents there that have gone unreported. Aubrey's Martin says her brother was injured.
AUDREY MARTIN: They go around in the midnight. They're acting like the KK. Broke his hand and they've been burning all the clothes from him. They shouldn't do that.
KATRINA BOLTON: The women are also aware of other attacks. In July, a non-Indigenous man was shot at a campsite north of Alice Springs after an argument. In court police alleged his attackers originally said "You're right mate, we thought you were blackfellas and we were going to shoot you".Pamela Sampson wants the town to start talking openly about racism.
PAMELA SAMPSON: People have got to turn around and stop those young people getting bad for other people. We all got the same blood but different skin. God made people to love one another, not for hateness.
TONY EASTLEY: And that is Alice Springs town camp resident Pamela Sampson ending Katrina Bolton's report.And Four Corners tonight at 8.30 will be focussing on the death of an Aboriginal man in Alice and the subsequent charges against white teenagers and of course, the effects it all had on the township.


4.
23 October, 2009 Alice Springs confronts racism
By Marie Bout
Does race affect the way people are treated in the Alice? This morning 40 people met on the town council laws to say just that, in the first initiative for what they hope to be a series of meetings and events to stop what they think is a racism problem in the Alice.

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Nearly forty Alice Springs locals went to a community meeting on the Alice Springs Town Council lawns on Thurday morning , to talk about ways to confront a perceived problem with race relations in the town.
Suggestions were made for more festivals promoting cultural understanding, a march along the Todd River to show opposition to racism, cultural education sessions, and ongoing public meetings.
"I think the leaders of the town need to give a direction and to change the language and the way that people speak about eachother in Alice Springs." Said Alice Springs Town Council, Alderman Jane Clark.
"I love Alice Springs and I hate Racism" says Lynda Wells, and Alice Springs local who decided to take out a full page community announcement in the local newspaper that condemned recent racism, to which community members could sign their name for a small sponsorship fee.
"What really struck me was the incredible cross section of alice springs that got involved...I know that there's factions in the town and people who don't get a long together and it kind of amused me and it was really nice that they all came together on the same page."
"How about reinstating the Racial Discrimination Act?" says Hilary Tyler, an Emergency Doctor at the Alice Springs Hospital, who opposes the Federal Emergency Intervention, the lack of support for Billingual Education initiatives, and proposed Town Council By-laws that are alleged to be targeting homeless Indigenous people.
"I grew up where there was little, not much racism in them days... but now that the town's grown bigger I see that there's a lot of racism in this town," says Arrente Elder Elaine Peckham.
Elaine says, "not be afraid to talk to aboriginal people when they're in town." She believes the lack of knowledge of aboriginal people is cause for racist sentiment in alice springs "lets share what they have to offer and talk more."

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