Welcome to Australia | |
---|---|
Directed by | Alan Lowery |
Written by | John Pilger |
Produced by | John Pilger Alan Lowery |
Starring | John Pilger |
Cinematography | Preston Clothier |
Edited by | Andrew Denny |
Music by | Dominic Murcott James Ambler |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 50 minutes |
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
Welcome to Australia is a 1999 Carlton Television documentary, written and presented by John Pilger and directed and produced by Alan Lowery that demonstrates the injustices endured by Aboriginal Australian sportsmen and women who were, until recently, denied a place on Australia's olympic teams. [1] [2]
In the build-up to the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics, Pilger finds that the elaborate preparations for the Olympics are overshadowing the reality of many Australia's Aborigines, who he argues continue to remain excluded, impoverished and mistreated in Australia. [2] [3] The film uses sport as a mechanism to draw attention to and tell the story of the injustices endured by Aboriginal Australians while also arguing that Aboriginal Australians could have had a much more significant impact on Australian sport if they had not been deliberately prevented from doing so. [4] [5]
The documentary mentions the official recognition of the stolen generations with the release of the Human Rights Commission report Bringing Them Home. It reports on the ongoing prevalence of the eye disease trachoma within the Aboriginal community and the fact that Aboriginal life expectancy is 25 years less than for whites. Pilger says: "Civilisations are judged by how they treat all their people, especially the most vulnerable, who are often the bravest... Why is it not possible for a nation’s leaders to behave honourably towards less than 2 per cent of the population?" [6]
Much of the information presented in Welcome to Australia comes from a book called 'Obstacle Race: Aborigines in Sport', written in 1995 by Colin Tatz. His view of Australia's treatment of Aboriginal athletes and the impoverished conditions faced by many Aboriginal Australians in 1999 lead Tatz to declare that Australia was not worthy of hosting the 2000 Olympics. Tatz argues that if China had made an issue of Australia's human rights record in the way in which Australia chose to make China's human rights an issue, it is unlikely that Australia would have been selected to host the games. [4] [7]
"Whatever one may think of Pilger's style," stated Richard Ackland of ABC's Media Watch, "his film reminded us of a shameful and tragic history". [8]
Ceremony | Category | Year | Result |
---|---|---|---|
New York Festivals TV Programming & Promotion Competition | National/International Affairs | 1999 | Won [9] |
WorldFest - Flagstaff | Television Documentary & Information Programme: Political/International Issues | 2000 | Won [9] |
The Stolen Generations were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church missions, under acts of their respective parliaments. The removals of those referred to as "half-caste" children were conducted in the period between approximately 1905 and 1967, although in some places mixed-race children were still being taken into the 1970s.
John Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist, writer, scholar, and documentary filmmaker. He has mainly been based in Britain since 1962. He was also once visiting professor at Cornell University in New York.
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is a permanent protest occupation site as a focus for representing the political rights of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people. Established on 26 January 1972, and celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2022, it is the longest continuous protest for Indigenous land rights in the world.
The history wars is a term used in Australia to describe the public debate about the interpretation of the history of the European colonisation of Australia and the development of contemporary Australian society, particularly with regard to their impact on Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The term "history wars" emerged in the late 1990s during the term of the Howard government, and despite efforts by some of Howard's successors, the debate is ongoing, notably reignited in 2016 and 2020.
The Aborigines Progressive Association (APA) was an Aboriginal Australian rights organisation in New South Wales that was founded and run by William Ferguson and Jack Patten from 1937 to 1944, and was then revived from 1963 until around 1970 by Herbert Groves.
Rosalie Lynette Kunoth-Monks, also known as Ngarla Kunoth, was an Australian film actress, Aboriginal activist and politician.
Media portrayals of Indigenous Australians have been described by academics and commentators as often negative or stereotyped. It is said that in issues which concern them, the voices of Indigenous Australians are drowned out by non-Indigenous voices, which present them as problems for the rest of society.
Robert James Randall, also known as Uncle Bob, was an Aboriginal Australian elder, singer and community leader. He was a member of the Stolen Generations and became an elder of the Yankunytjatjara people from Central Australia. He was the 1999 National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee NAIDOC Person of the Year. His 1970 song, "My Brown Skin Baby, They Take 'im Away," is described as an "anthem" for the Stolen Generations. He was known by the honorific "Tjilpi", a word meaning "old man" that is often translated as "uncle". He lived in Mutitjulu, the Aboriginal community at Uluru in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Edward James Murray was an Australian rugby league player who was controversially found dead in his police cell in the New South Wales town of Wee Waa within an hour of having been detained for being drunk and disorderly under the 1979 Intoxicated Persons Act. Murray had planned to travel to Sydney, to join the Redfern All Blacks Rugby League team's tour of New Zealand when he was detained.
Colin Tatz AO was the director of the Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Professor of Politics at the University of New England, Armidale, and at Macquarie University, Sydney.
Glenn Robert JamesOAM is a former Australian rules football umpire in the Victorian Football League. James umpired the 1982 and 1984 VFL Grand Finals and is recognised as the only Indigenous Australian to umpire VFL or AFL football.
David Selvarajah Vadiveloo is an Australian lawyer, human rights and education consultant, cultural broker and screen producer.
Wally McArthur was an Aboriginal Australian rugby league footballer and track and field athlete. In 2008, the centenary of rugby league in Australia, he was named in the Aboriginal Australian rugby league team of the Century.
Frank Fisher (1905–1980) was an Aboriginal Australian professional rugby league footballer. Nicknamed "Big Shot" and "King" Fisher, he has been described as the Wally Lewis of Aboriginal Rugby league players. He was named as a member of the Indigenous Australian Rugby League Team of the Century.
Our Generation is a 2010 Australian documentary film about the struggle of Aboriginal Australians in the Northern Territory to retain their land, culture and freedom.
Utopia is a 2013 documentary film written, produced and presented by John Pilger and directed by Pilger and Alan Lowery, that explores the experiences of Aboriginal Australians in modern Australia. The title is derived from the Aboriginal homeland community of Utopia, Northern Territory, one of the poorest and most desolate areas in Australia.
The Secret Country: The First Australians Fight Back is a 1985 television documentary made for the British Central Independent Television company by writer/presenter John Pilger and producer/director Alan Lowery. It details the persecution of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders throughout Australia's history.
The Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame was established in 1994 to recognise Indigenous Australians that have achieved at the highest level of their chosen sport. It was a joint project of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) and Macquarie University, under the management of Colin Tatz. Inductees are sometimes referred to as "Black Diamonds", being the name of the first book of the project, published in 1996.
Racism in sport in Australia has a long history, with one researcher finding examples from the 19th century. Since the 1990s, there have been a number of cases of racial vilification reported, with the various codes of sport tackling the problem in a variety of ways.