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Dan Sultan says Australia is a ‘racist country’
The ARIA-winning singer Dan Sultan has accused Australia of being a “fundamentally racist country” ahead of a series of protest concerts.
THE ARIA-winning singer Dan Sultan has accused Australia of being a “fundamentally racist country” ahead of a series of protest concerts.
Descended from the Gurindji people, Sultan claims successive administrations have failed to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders people under Australian law.
Sultan will headline the inaugural Rock For Recognition shows in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Fremantle this November, with the aim of promoting indigenous rights.
The constitution makes no mention of Australia’s First People and includes a “races power” which allows special laws to be directed to members of particular races.
While the Labor government has committed to a referendum to formally include indigenous people in the constitution, Sultan believes change is moving too slow.
“Australia is a fundamentally racist county and that’s something that can be difficult for people to hear,” Sultan told AAP.
“I love our country, but there are a few things we really need to get straight, especially the culture of complacency and apathy that has marginalised indigenous people.”
Organised by ANTar, Oxfam and the National Congress, the Rock For Recognition concerts will feature a range of artists including Leah Flanagan, Dead Marines and Wolves At The Door.
Organisers hope to replicate the surge in public support that led to voting rights for indigenous people following a successful 1967 referendum.
“We’ve always been fighting for our country and we’ll never give up,” Sultan said.
“We’re certainly not going anywhere.” – AAP
Is Australia a racist country? Tell us your thoughts below:
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5 Comments
Not everyone will agree with this point of view. However, many Australians would like to see the now very outdated and unacceptable term “race” removed from our Constitution.
Personally I don’t think Dan Sultan is referring to any of the 22 million people in Australia. I believe he was solely referring to the Australian constitution.
This is why: “The Australian Constitution has properly been described as ‘the birth certificate of a nation’. It also provides the basic rules for the government of Australia.
Indeed, the Constitution is the fundamental law of Australia binding everybody including the Commonwealth Parliament and the Parliament of each State.” This is a quote from the “Overview” of the Australian Constitution. Link to the Australian Constitution below:
http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2005Q00193
Consequently one may conclude, if the Constitution as the fundamental law of Australia is racist, Australia is “fundamentally” racist.
George Williams, Professor of Law at the University of NSW, explains it well!
Read more:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/oldstyle-racism-still-in-constitution-20100913-1598c.html#ixzz2IQ4FgMOh)
Celebrate our differences and always keep love in your heart for all!
Grab a dictionary and read it before using words like “fundamentally”. Racism is not at the foundation of Australian culture! I’m sorry, but saying Australia is a racist country is simply racist. There are what, 22 million people in Australia, of which any one of us knows only a couple of hundred well enough to ‘judge’ them. Saying the country is racist based on your personal views and experiences of a tiny proportion of the population restricted mostly to your own socioeconomic group is like saying all aboriginals are drunken bums and child molesters based on nothing sounder than your personal observations and sundry news reports.
It’s bad enough when Australians are stereotyped as racist by other nationalities but when Aussies do it themselves it’s just perverse. More racist than whom or where? So China, Japan, Africa, France, Italy, Middle East etc are less racist than Australia and have no racist elements. Hello! Racism is institutionalised in many countries. You can’t become a Japanese citizen unless you are born in Japan. Of course Australia has a racist past which we have tried to atone for – with mixed success. But at least we try. Most don’t bother as much as Australia. I simply don’t believe that the attitudes of some WA fisherman would be any different to their foreign counterparts. Ask a Frenchmen or Italian how they feel about gypsies? See what lovely, inclusive attitudes are exposed. Step outside the UK cities and you will find it almost white and homogenous. Most rural areas are notoriously suspicious of different folk. It’s all just perverse, cringey, hair-shirted nonsense and I’m surprised this publication is perpetuating it. Give me a break.
Australia at large is a racist country. I think the racism has become more aggressive in my lifetime. Someone should have slapped Pauline Hanson down when she first opened her mouth in Parliament. Howard should never have given her a platform. The government should have lead on this but they left it to misguided populist sentiment and vote building. They should have redirected people’s anxieties away from the very many ‘others’ in society to the real roots of their concerns. The ‘others’ don’t steal jobs, or bludge benefits, or spout fundamentalist dogma any more than anyone else in society. They’re just an easy target. Lazy politics.
One wonders where the root of this evil practice lies. South Africa had similar issues where indegenous people were considered inferior and therefore not capable of participating in the conduct of civil issues in their own land. America is another example. Is the problem with the indegenous or is it with the settlers?