A pigment of their imagination

Andrew L. Urban

“Burn the place down!” screams the angry young Aboriginal woman on the TV * screen (in a blue dress and in high heels, after a fake attempt at defecating on stage), in a frenzy of hatred for white Australia, the “colonisers”. Who is she speaking (screaming) for, I wonder?

There are Aboriginal sportsmen and women, filmmakers, doctors, lawyers, accountants, politicians (since 1971), writers, actors, media figures – and of course famous painters. Successful indigenous people are highly visible. Is it for them? Is it for the indigenous children being cared for by nurses and the adults who are served by the state of the art medical attention whenever they need it? Or for those attending educational institutions built and run by the society in which her screams are televised?

Or is it for those living in small, remote Aboriginal communities where domestic violence, child sexual abuse and alcohol dependency create a constant hell – of their own construction – in defiance of every attempt to improve their lives.

Or is it for her ignorant and self appointed circle of activists whose destructive instincts give them a sense of righteous purpose, albeit nihilistic, useless and divisive.

At functions around Australia, ‘country’ is recognised with calls to respect Aboriginal elders … There are no corners of society, government, the law or institutions where Aborigines are discriminated AGAINST. There is no greater social taboo than to be perceived as insensitive to Aboriginal culture, history and needs.

And they call Australia racist. It’s a pigment of their imagination, and clearly untrue.

* ABC TV, Get Krak!n, Series 2, Ep 8, at 27m 30s

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