11. Identity: The good news

Shared pride

On September 24, 2000, when Kathy Freeman stepped onto the starting line in Sydney's Olympic track and field stadium she was running for and carrying the aspirations of Australia's Aboriginal peoples. Approx 56 seconds after the starting gun sounded, she flew across the finish line to win the gold medal in the womens 400 metres. Kathy carried both the Aboriginal and Australian flags to the cheers to those gathered inside and outside stadium Australia as well to those of millions across her country and around the world. Kathy Freeman's personal expression of pride in her victory was taken by many as the sign of an important step toward eventual reconciliation between Aboriginal peoples and other Australians.

In 2010, Damien Hooper became the first Aboriginal Australian to win a junior world title when he won the 75 kg category at the Youth Olympics in Singapore. In the same year, he won a silver medal at the Youth World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, and was selected in the Australian team for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. He was an Australian Institute of Sport boxing scholarship holder. The following year, Hooper stepped up a weight division and into open competition. He returned to Baku for the 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships - Light heavyweight 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships, where he made the quarter finals, being edged out by Julio Cesar la Cruz 13:14 and earned direct qualification for the London Olympics.

On July 30, in London at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Hooper stepped into the ring for his Olympic bout wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the Aboriginal flag. The Australian Olympic Committee demanded he make a public apology.

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"I'm representing my culture, not only my country", said Hooper. "I'm proud of what I did."

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Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as well as non-Indigenous people feel great pride at the positive representations of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples in mainstream media today. For example:

• NITV
• Imparja Television, Alice Springs
• INDIGItube
• Koori mail
• National Indigenous Times
• Redfern Now on SBS
• National Indigenous Television

• Deadly Vibe

 

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"When we first switched on [Yolngu Radio in 2006], I got a phone call from a Yolngu lady in Darwin. She told me she'd been sitting in tears, listening all morning because it was the first time she'd heard her own culture on the radio."

Richard Trudgen, CEO, Aboriginal Resource and Development Service (ARDS)

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