CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
In case you haven’t been watching the news, Federal Senator Lidia Thorpe is facing backlash for enjoying the freedom of speech in front of King Charles in Federal Parliament earlier this week.
The 51-year-old Aboriginal woman is very good at making the Australian political class squirm. And she did just this on Monday by very publicly and very vocally accusing the King and his family of committing a long list of crimes against Aboriginal people.
The Australian media has been quick to criticise Thorpe’s decision to heckle the reigning monarch, labelling her as “disrespectful”.
Senator Thorpe stands accused of ‘not knowing her place’ – and not even trying to be ‘one of the good ones’.
What she said might’ve been 100% true, but she ‘went the wrong way about it’ – and embarrassed us in front of our foreign head of state.
Here is a list of 7 more palatable ways that Aboriginal people can highlight the racial and social injustice that their people face:
- Be good at sport
This is a no brainer. Sports stars are always going to have more cut-through than any other change-makers. Just get really good at AFL or rugby league. But not too good. If you’re really good and start speaking out, they’ll boo you into retirement. And if you look at what happened to Usman Khawaja this year, don’t bother with cricket. Cricket’s never really been too receptive to Aboriginal people anyway, let alone their issues. It is surprising because the only person in this country to bowl out Sir Donald Bradman for a duck was a Murri man from Cherbourg named Eddie Gilbert. He never played for Australia because the Protection Act meant he needed written permission to leave the mission after dark, which he was never given, because he would’ve taken a white man’s place on the team.
2. The Martin Luther King Jnr approach
The only universal example of a Civil Rights activist that didn’t offend conservative sensibilities is the African-American Baptist pastor Dr Martin Luther King junior. He was so polite and harmless to the average American. His ability to appropriate Bible verses into messages of equality also found great success into tricking the Rednecks into accepting black people as their fellow Christians, which is good enough.
His decades-long Civil Rights campaigns were the driving force behind watershed events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the 1963 March on Washington, which helped bring about such landmark legislation as the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Talk about doing things the right way! He didn’t swear or raise a black fist in the air once. They still shot him dead though.
3. Get Ed Sheeran to wear the flag
It’s always good to see a touring international musician wearing the Aboriginal flag on a T-shirt. Ed Sheeran was one of the first to do this, and from all accounts, he is deeply invested in supporting and helping Aboriginal people. It’s good that he’s been made aware of the extreme disparities they face in health, education, incarceration rates and life expectancy – even if there’s nothing he can really do about it in the 3 weeks he spends in Australia every 4 years. If anything, seeing a Sheeran or Rob Thomas type wearing the flag just means that they are good blokes.
4. Join the Liberal/National Party and change things from the inside
This is a longer game, but when it comes to reconciliation, we’ve gotten used to kicking the can down the road. Basically, as an Aboriginal person who wants to highlight and fix racial injustice, the plan would be this: First of all, be a man. Then join the Liberal or National party – grit your teeth through a couple decades of racist jokes and patronising comments about your own people. Then, eventually, hopefully, they’ll pre-select you to run in a seat with heaps of Aboriginal voters who know your last name. Uncle Ken Wyatt MP did this. He was a good local member too. He made it all the way to a cabinet position in multiple Federal Governments. He never forget where he came from. And neither did the party. That’s why they didn’t feel too bad about deleting his phone number and throwing him under a bus last October during the referendum.
5. Reach out to Patty Mills
This is a tough one. But when faced with the type of systemic and institutional racism that has seen multiple governments ignore your community’s pleas for clean drinking water, to the point where it’s life or death, there is always the option of reaching out to Patty Mills.
When drought and agricultural water-theft had left the predominantly Indigenous Outback NSW town of Walgett without any clean drinking water, the people were saved by the Torres Strait Islander NBA star, who bankrolled a solar drinking water purifier in a mission out of town. He also paid for their emergency bottled drinking water.
The Liberals were in power at both a State and Federal level when the people of Walgett nearly died of thirst – so of course the Australian media didn’t report on the fact that Patty Mills was forced to do their jobs for them.
6. Be vague about your ancestry and spend 50 years in Parliament
This the Katter playbook. Let the Rednecks think you’re white, and let the black voters know you’re one of them. It’s a big hedge, but Bob Katter MP (Federal) and his son Robbie Katter MP (State, exact same region) seem to pull it of. They’ve probably done more for mob than most politicians.
You’ll need to have an encyclopaedic memory of every single Aboriginal person to ever exist in your electorate, and you should also use country music as a bridge between the right-wing voters and the Aboriginal voters.
You’ll need to throw in a bit of religion in there too. Also you’ll need to join the CFMEU.
7. Politely ask Australians to consider voting in support of your generous proposal for a Parliamentary Indigenous advisory body that will not affect their life in any way, shape or form.
I mean, this is a no-brainer. None of this yelling at the King rubbish, just be civil and polite. You’d be surprised by how far it gets you.
