The Olympics and Indigenous Peoples: Australia

Abstract

In this chapter, we consider the implications of the mainstream media positioning of Aboriginal runner Cathy Freeman as the hope for a racially reconciled Australia during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Given the historic articulation of Australian nationalism to whiteness and masculinity, it is remarkable that a young Aboriginal woman claimed such a central place in media coverage of this global event.¹ Freeman was undoubtedly the face of the Games, the individual around whom imaginings of a racially reconciled Australia coalesced.² During the Games she became, to paraphrase Raymond Williams, an operative historical force symbolising Australia’s vision of itself.³

Our analysis draws upon cultural studies theorising that sees media stories as actively constitutive of reality and thus as having the potential to structure our world views in ways that have social and political consequences.⁴ We argue that one consequence of the positive coverage of Freeman is that it contributed to a discourse of enlightened racism⁵ that ultimately served white⁶ Australians better than Aboriginal peoples.⁷ Enlightened racism reflects the broader cultural failure to recognise the effects of institutionalised racism, classism and sexism; in Australia’s case, positive media coverage of Freeman does not necessarily lead to changes in people’s racial attitudes towards Aboriginal people. Thus, enlightened racism can lead to a world view that enables ‘white viewers to combine an impeccably liberal attitude towards race with a deep-rooted suspicion of black people’.⁸ This means that admiration for Freeman is able to co-exist with a dislike of Aboriginal people in general.⁹ Thus, the problem with discourses of enlightened racism is that despite their apparent progressiveness, they play an insidious role in the continuation of existing racial ideologies. In addition, by individualising success and failure, enlightened racism directs attention away from structural barriers and enables whites ‘to assume that black people who do not measure up … have only themselves to blame’.¹⁰