Straight-line stories: Representations and Indigenous Australian identities in sports discourses
Lawrence Bamblett AIATSIS
Abstract: There is an increasing body of literature, and awareness, of the nature of deficit discourse and its contribution to the essentialising of Indigenous identity. Through an analysis of sports writing since the 1960s, this paper explores how such discourses can develop. Sport, however, has another attribute: it is the avenue by which Aborigines and Islanders have earned and demanded the respect of non-Aboriginal Australia; it has given them a sense of worth and pride, especially since they have had to overcome the twin burdens of racism and opposition on the field. It has shown Aborigines and Islanders that using their bodies is still the one and only way they can compete on equal terms with an often hostile, certainly indifferent, mainstream society (Tatz and Tatz 2000:33). In the aftermath of civil rights victories, the politics of ‘victimhood’ became the predominant methodology of black advocacy and the reigning paradigm of public policy thinking (Pearson 2007:26).
Introduction much richer and greater experience to draw from. This paper is not a denial of the pervasive nature By reviewing the literature of Aborigines in sport of racism. It is about how a particular discourse (with reference to comparable writing from sports can become dominant in a discipline. The paper journalism), this paper demonstrates the pres- demonstrates how politics of recognition often ence of a pervasive discourse of deficit and victim- leads to a restricted representation of Indigenous hood and briefly considers why recognition of this Australians — as discussed here, a representation, discourse and developing ways to broaden it is of in particular, that foregrounds deficit and victim- critical importance today. hood. Negotiating away from such a discourse is a complex process. In the politics of representing A grievance narrative Indigenous identity it can be risky to allow the Shields et al. (2005) define deficit thinking as a discussion to focus on anything other than the concept where a group of people are described ideal of a ‘fair go’ for all Australians. So, it contin- and explained as deficient. Difference, in defi- ues to be politically expedient to continue to use cit thinking, is pathological and linked to power the language of victimhood, as Noel Pearson because it relates to what is considered normal refers to in the quote above. I argue that there is (Shields et al. 2005). Gorringe et al. (2011:9) a danger here in creating another stereotypically have termed the accumulation of deficit represen- inferior identity by repeatedly considering this tations about Indigenous Australians a ‘saturat- one aspect of Indigenous experience when there is ing narrative’. They note the difficulty in moving
Australian Aboriginal Studies 2011/2 5 Straight-line stories: identities in sports discourses Bamblett away from deficit discourse and argue that there Aborigines in sport (the dominant discourse) is a need to replace negative representations with constitute what American columnist and author positive ones. Gorringe et al. (2011) reported on Jack Cashill (2006:3) has termed a ‘grievance an AIATSIS workshop that was organised as a narrative’: ‘safe place’ for Indigenous people to discuss ways We all have grown so used to this shame-on- of disengaging from the language of deficit. One us school of storytelling that we take it for participant at the workshop commented, ‘[I]t’s granted. Today, those who shape our culture amazing how quickly you can get white support if — writers, critics, publishers, broadcast- you kick black people’ (Gorringe et al. 2011:11). ers, movie and TV producers — routinely Noel Pearson and Marcia Langton are two calculate the essence of individuals, espe- prominent Indigenous Australians who partici- cially racial minorities, not as the sum of pate in the discussion of deficit and the politics of their blessings but rather as the sum of their identity in Australia. Pearson writes that ‘compel- grievances. ling parallels’ exist between the experiences of black Americans and Indigenous Australians As an example, Cashill offers the following during the civil rights era. Speaking loudly and portrayal by a noted American author, Joyce often against stereotypes of innate abilities while Carol Oates, of Muhammad Ali as a hero of the detailing examples of racism were important parts resistance to racism: of the efforts to advance the legal rights of black [R]ejecting any number of alternative ways people in America and Australia. However, in to introduce Ali. She [Oates] could have seeking to move on from this discourse, Pearson informed the reader that he was the much- (2007:20) takes what he calls a ‘compelling line’ loved offspring to two devoted parents… from African-American Booker T Washington which may explain his confidence. He had to argue that black people should not ‘permit a skilled muralist for a father, a mathemati- our grievances to overshadow our opportuni- cian for an uncle, and a math teacher for an ties’. Pearson takes this line as a foundation to aunt, which may account for his creativity his philosophy of participation in mainstream and instinctive smarts. As for his drive, that Australian society. He argues that an identity likely derived from his status as the first child of victimhood (internalising victim status) is in an ambitious African-American house- ‘destructive’ and ‘demeaning’ (Pearson 2007:30). hold…Oates chooses instead to introduce Ali the way Malcolm X might have, not as an Pearson challenges people to consider the conse- American, but as a victim of America, the quences of the dominance of the representation of grandson of a slave (Cashill 2006:4). Aborigines as passive victims of racism.1 Marcia Langton (2011) describes the volume of work An example of how the grievance narrative is often done by anthropologists to collect humanist data used in Australian writing about Aborigines in and criticises people who use essentialist represen- sport comes from Robert Drane’s (2006) article tations to grind ideological axes. She points to a ‘The fight’, published in Inside Sport. In the arti- hijacking of discourses as a reason to expand the cle, Indigenous boxer Anthony Mundine is framed conversation. Pearson (2007) and Langton (2011) according to a discourse of deficit and victimhood, offer a discourse of personhood as an alternative rather than his social reality. Like Ali, Mundine’s to conversations about victimhood that is yet to success could easily be the story of the middle-class be taken up. son of a champion athlete who lived a life with Writing about Aborigines in sport is a small many advantages provided by two loving parents academic field, although it is a more common (i.e. he was not from an overcrowded and impov- feature in non-academic literature such as bio- erished home), and who was exposed to top-class graphies and newspapers. However, an over- training and coaching from an early age. Instead, representation of Aborigines in popular sports Drane frames Mundine’s story in line with expec- means that the sports fields are significant sites for tations of the way Indigenous athletes should be public representations of Aborigines. Collectively, seen. Anything else runs the risk of minimising the academic and non-academic stories told about the pervasive effects of racism and challenging the
6 Australian Aboriginal Studies 2011/2 Bamblett Straight-line stories: identities in sports discourses victim label. Drane (2006:88) writes that Mundine was almost completely absent. This absence was has ‘come to represent every Aboriginal, espe- emphasised by the discrepancy in how sports cially every Aboriginal who never had a chance’. stories and those about community life were told Conforming with the grievance narrative, Drane by my own community and how they were told in (2006) tells us that Mundine won for his tribes- the literature. people who had died at the hands of white neglect. Within my community, stories about racism Suggesting that the stereotypical language he uses were part of a much broader repertoire held by is appropriate, Drane (2006:85) asks, ‘Is there our storytellers. It was the absence of this broader another way of seeing’ fights between black and repertoire in writings about Aborigines that white boxers, before answering his own question caused me to question how my community was that there is not. Conforming to such an identity, being represented. Reading an accumulating story Mundine himself embraces being associated with of deficit in the literature led me to resent the way the grievance narrative as part of his approach that Indigenous communities seemed to be unre- to self and event promotion and to confronting lentingly represented as terrible places. I felt a racism in society. For example, Mundine planned responsibility to defend communities such as to use his profile in sport to ‘send our plight to the Erambie from misrepresentation and unfair criti- world’ (cited in Falcous and Silk 2006:325). cism by outsiders. I concluded that writing about Prominent in the current politics of identity in race and sport in Australia was contributing to Australia, the ‘grievance narrative’ is of concern a dominant discourse that constrained under- because ultimately it restricts representations of standing of communities as solely negative places. Aborigines, as so many other stereotypes have My response was to reject that part of the writ- done in the past. Presenting only the image of the ing about Aborigines in sport, and instead to seek Aborigine as ‘victim’ can constrain how people new ways of writing that could articulate the real- view Aborigines and how we view ourselves. This ity of sports experience, and recognise the impact paper will now look in detail at sports writings and effect of racism, but to do so without engag- over the past five decades to illustrate how the ing and perpetuating a grievance narrative. dominant discourse on Aborigines in sport uses This does not mean that my experiences of a language of deficit, which is characteristic of a racism have ended. While completing this paper grievance narrative. I witnessed a scene at a junior football match that brought home the importance of continuing to Location of the researcher tell stories of racism. A group of 12-year-old boys I am the son of two hardworking, responsible (four white and one Koori) were playing kicks and Wiradjuri parents. My blessings include growing engaging in friendly banter, when one said to the up in a working-class home in a nurturing, stable Koori boy, ‘Darkie, you not white c*@#, kick me community at Erambie Mission. My own experi- the ball’, and the game and banter continued with- ence, going from Erambie into university study, out disruption. This type of incident is common was that the writing about Aborigines in sport told enough to show that the need to confront discrim- part of the story very well. In 1987, the year Colin ination, prejudice, racist words and actions is Tatz published Aborigines in Sport, my commu- ongoing. However, broadening the discourse will nity’s football team was denied entry into a local bring the representations of Aborigines in the competition. Subsequent applications in 1996 and writing about sport more closely into line with the 2004 were also denied because we were told that richer lived experiences of individuals, and this in ‘Aboriginal teams are too much trouble’. Having itself combats racism. regularly confronted various forms of racism on and off the sports field, I recognised from expe- Theories of representation rience the stories of racism that were common in This paper examines what the word ‘Aborigine’ the literature. However, as I read more of how has come to signify. It focuses on the ways that people were writing about Aborigines in sport, representations in the discourse about Aborigines I realised that the whole picture was not repre- in sport accumulate social meanings (Barthes sented, and a very significant part of the story 1972 [1957]). Cultural theorist Stuart Hall’s ideas
Australian Aboriginal Studies 2011/2 7 Straight-line stories: identities in sports discourses Bamblett on production and reception of representations ing of multiple standpoints: ‘It is a multi-layered are used here to analyse the ways that common and multi-dimensional space of dynamic rela- stories are told and heard. Hall’s work is an exten- tions constituted by the intersections of time, sion of linguistic, anthropological and psycho- place, distance, different systems of thought, analytical theories about difference. Developing competing and contesting discourses within and theory using the work of Freud, Derrida, Bakhtin, between different knowledge traditions’ (Nakata Fanon, Barthes and others, Hall offers four theo- 2007:10). retical approaches to explain differences in repre- Nakata’s description of his own encounters with sentation (Media Education Foundation 1997). knowledge created about Indigenous Australians The first two are influenced by linguistics, both — and the standpoint theory he developed out of stating that difference is essential to creating mean- his own efforts to understand them — are also ing and that meaning can only be constructed in useful in understanding reception and production dialogue with an ‘other’. The third approach, the of representations (Nakata 2007:1–12). anthropological explanation, asserts that mean- What I have taken from Hall and Nakata is ing is assigned through categorising or ordering. that the locations of the writer, and the reader, are The fourth, psychoanalytical, explanation consid- critical to reception of representations. Together, ers that the ‘other’ is fundamental to knowledge Hall’s and Nakata’s parallel ideas offer a way of about the self. explaining competing narratives I encountered in Hall developed his theoretical position to the ways that stories about Aborigines in sport are explain representations of race in Britain in the told. The typical representations of Aborigines context of social order. One of the key ideas that in sport that are included in this paper are thus Hall takes up in developing theory, particularly considered within the wider context in which they in relation to the influence of anthropology, is were produced. anthropologist Mary Douglas’ (1966/2002) argu- Ending silence ment that classification is a universal and rational part of ordered human behaviour. Hall summa- Much of the academic writing about Aborigines rises how he uses Douglas’ work as follows: in sport takes the form of historical narrative. The stories told span the entire period of coloni- Classification is a very generative thing once sation. In this time a lot of unremarkable life has you are classified a whole range of other occurred within Indigenous communities. There things fall into place as a result of it…It is not have also been many positive events and develop- just that you have blacks and whites, but of ments. However, it is also true that there has been course one group of those people have a much a great inequality of rights, and the discourse on more positive value than the other group. Aborigines in sport has sought in some ways to That’s how power operates…to ascribe to address this. the black population, characteristics that DJ Mulvaney’s Cricket Walkabout was used to be used for the white ones, gener- published in the year of the 1967 referendum — as ates enormous tension in the society. Mary one successful Indigenous rights campaign came Douglas…describes this in terms of what she to an end. Mulvaney’s book joined an emerging calls ‘matter out of place’…You know exactly discourse about Aborigines and civil rights that where you are, you know who are the inferi- challenged racism, in this case by writing about ors and who the superiors are and how each the 1868 cricketers as people and highlighting has a rank…What disturbs you is what she the restrictions they experienced. Representations calls ‘matter out of place’ (Media Education of Indigenous Australians mattered during the Foundation 1997:2–3). lead up to the 1967 referendum (Attwood and Martin Nakata, a Torres Strait Islander academic, Markus 2007; Stokes 1997), and books that termed the place where two cultures meet a challenged the existing place of Aborigines were ‘cultural interface’. For Nakata, the cultural published during this period (Manne 2003). The interface is a place where all interested people year after the 1967 referendum, anthropologist can meet to create knowledge based on a melt- WEH Stanner’s ‘Great Australian Silence’ lecture
8 Australian Aboriginal Studies 2011/2 Bamblett Straight-line stories: identities in sports discourses about dispossession and its consequences was writer Kevin Gilbert’s 1973 classic (republished broadcast. However, demonstrating the persist- in 2002), Because a White Man’ll Never Do It, ence of old-style stereotypes, in the same year Jack which included the dedication to all Aborigines, Pollard introduced his book The Ampol Book of who he referred to as ‘patriots’ and ‘poor buggars Australian Sporting Records with the following [sic] all’. statement: Proceeding decades witnessed a continu- ing social justice movement and the introduc- The Australian aborigine has a fascinat- tion of landmark legislation. The 1980s saw ing facility for sports which demand whippy the Queensland Government declare a state reflexes and strong backs. Periodically he of emergency and make street marches ille- has played spectacular roles in Australian gal to combat criticism of its Indigenous policy sports, ranging from the dramatic delivery during the Brisbane Commonwealth Games of knock-out punches (Ron Richards, Elley Bennett, Jack Hassen, Lionel Rose), to flash- (1982). There were competing narratives about ing speed on the wings of football teams. the bi-centenary (1988) as either a celebration He is a superfine fisherman of unorthodox or an insult. The 1990s witnessed the report on methods (spears, nets, stones), an amazing the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths cross-country runner (up to 200 miles), but in Custody (1991), the passage of Native Title often cannot deal with the celebrity sporting legislation (1993) and in 1994 Cathy Freeman success brings. The unpredictable aborigine controversially carried the Aboriginal flag on is an integral part of the Australian sport- a victory lap at the Commonwealth Games. In ing scene regardless of whether the game is the two years following then Prime Minister soccer, amateur or professional fist-fighting, Paul Keating’s historic 1992 speech in Redfern, bike riding, sprinting, or cricko (Pollard high-profile incidents involving club officials, 1968:1). supporters and players in 1993 and 1994 forced the Australian Football League to introduce a Pollard reinforces racism by reproducing the Racial and Religious Vilification Rule (Gardiner stereotyped representations of the physically 1997, 2003). So far in this century the elected gifted and unpredictable Aborigine. In doing so, Indigenous representative body (the Aboriginal he creates meaning about Aborigines by classify- and Torres Strait Islander Commission) has been ing people according to a preferred order based abolished (2005), the Racial Discrimination Act on an assumed prevailing racial hierarchy that 1975 (Cth) was suspended to allow the federal always required Aborigines to be represented as government’s ‘Intervention’ in some Indigenous an inferior race. communities and a National Apology (2008) was The field of writing about Aborigines in sport offered for past racist acts by governments. has developed in a social and political context in which representations continue to matter in Strategic representations the ongoing pursuit of civil and human rights. Amidst the historical context briefly outlined Representations matter because social and polit- above, the language of deficit was established ical progress is to be found in the democratic early on in the writing about Aborigines in sport. process. Although approaching the issue from In reference to the idea of an egalitarian soci- different perspectives, both Mulvaney and Pollard ety (which, as Kane (1997) notes, is so central to were writing about difference in the midst of the Australian national identity), it was necessary to Freedom Rides (1965), the Land Rights Acts of the point out the difference in how Aborigines and 1960s and 1970s, the creation of the Aboriginal non-Aborigines were treated. Repeatedly demon- flag as a symbol of unity and difference, and in the strating unfairness was the dominant method lead up to the establishment of the Tent Embassy used to challenge racism, and by doing so the use (1972). They were writing at a time when some of this type of discourse challenged the ideal of an Indigenous Australians were living in communi- egalitarian society. ties that were controlled by government agents. In his 1980 article, ‘Professional Aboriginal Their books were published just prior to Wiradjuri boxers in Eastern Australia 1930–1979’, Richard
Australian Aboriginal Studies 2011/2 9 Straight-line stories: identities in sports discourses Bamblett
Broome (1980:69) asserts that there is a ‘basic neutral. They were written to confront racism. oppression’ of Aborigines. Similarly, Bret Harris Colin Tatz brought an approach to the discourse introduces the La Perouse community in his 1984 that was political, economic and legal. Where biography of the rugby-playing Ella brothers in Mulvaney, Broome and Harris had written in the following manner: detail about specific sports, Tatz wrote in more general terms about racism through the lens La Perouse [the community the Ella family of sport. Tatz’s approach was to build an over- lived in] is Sydney’s Soweto, the inverse mirror all picture using less detailed evidence from a image of the Lucky Country. It is difficult to number of sports. In Aborigines in Sport (1987) imagine the Aboriginal ghetto, on the inhos- pitable peninsula which juts into Botany Bay he set out his argument that sport mirrors a south of the city, is only a 10 minute drive general racism in Australian society. He also cited from some of the most expensive and exclu- Pollard, Mulvaney, Broome and Harris in making sive real estate in Australia (Harris 1984:9). his case that Aborigines are victims of racism and non-Indigenous Australians are the victim- Although Harris (1984:13) does quote May Ella’s isers. Tatz’s work since Aborigines in Sport has more positive memories of one aspect of life at generally repeated this theme, both in format and La Perouse (‘Rodney [the oldest of the Ella boys] content. Even though it contains more research was spoiled with affection. His sisters doted on and analysis, his landmark text, Obstacle Race: him and his uncles could hardly wait to teach him Aborigines in sport (1995a), essentially advances how to play football’), his writing focuses on the the same arguments. The essence of what Tatz has negative aspects of their environment. In focusing written on the subject is captured in the follow- so strongly on a negative description of ‘Sydney’s ing passage: Soweto’ in the ‘Lucky Country’ and using words Sport is a mirror of many things. It reflects such as ‘ghetto’ and ‘inhospitable’ to demonstrate political, social, economic and legal systems. stark differences between Aboriginal and non- It also reflects the Aboriginal experience, Aboriginal Australia, he confirmed Hall’s theory especially since 1850. While playing fields that meaning is created through representations are not places where people expect to find, or of opposites. Harris also references Australian want to see, racial discrimination, sport is an national identity against the more readily important indicator of Australian racism… acknowledged racism of South Africa as he chal- Denial of competition takes three forms. lenged Australians to compare his representation One is structural: because of their place in of Aborigines to what they knew about apart- the political, legal, economic and social heid. The similarities in background between the system, Aborigines and Islanders rarely go Ella brothers and those of many white Australian onto squash courts or group 1 golf courses or athletes, and the positives in the story May Ella into ski lodges. They never hang glide, play told about her son developing sporting talent, are polo, ride bikes for Yamaha or drive cars brief. Harris concluded his introduction with the for Ferrari. The second form is institutional: summary statement: on settlements and missions — where many Aborigines have lived — there was, liter- Society has a duty to foster Aboriginal sport- ally, no grass. There were no facilities such ing talent. In the past sport has been possi- as coaches and physiotherapists, and scholar- bly the only area in which Aborigines have ships are not part of their vocabulary or expe- been able to achieve any sort of equality rience even in today’s ‘communities’ which with Europeans. This is largely because of were, so recently, settlements and missions. the Aborigines’ physical prowess. But it is Finally, there is blatant racism: the exclusion also a reflection of the limited avenues open of individuals or teams from competition to Aborigines to express themselves (Harris because they are Aboriginal (Tatz and Tatz 1984:21). 2000:7). The representations of Aborigines in the develop Accounts such as this tell a story about Aborigines ing field of sport writing were by necessity not in sport that parallels those that are told about
10 Australian Aboriginal Studies 2011/2 Bamblett Straight-line stories: identities in sports discourses
African-American sportspeople in the United contributed two more overviews of the field but States. The dominant stories of discrimination added little new information. against Aborigines and African Americans in Hall (1997) argues that representations sport emerged out of similar struggles for recog- gain meaning by being read in connection with nition and power. Harry Edwards, an African- one another, and that these accumulate mean- American sociologist and one-time activist who ing together. In the 1990s, the writing in the advocated boycotts at the Mexico Olympics to field of Aborigines in sport accumulated mean- draw attention to issues of race, is prominent ing through repetition of the story of inequality. among those in the United States who argue that In citing each other (i.e. Cashman repeatedly black prominence in sport can be traced back references Tatz, and Adair and Vamplew refer- to an oppressive environment. Thus, for exam- ence Tatz and Cashman), the authors accumu- ple, Edwards (quoted in Hoberman 1997:195) lated meaning together. While they built a strong writes, ‘[B]lack athletic superiority results from case against racism, these texts are also limited a complex of societal conditions that channels in the way they represent Aborigines. Their writ- disproportionate number of talented blacks into ings are full of references to deficit, even when athletic careers.’ The dominant discourse in writ- telling stories of success. Thus, Harris (1989:7) ing about Aborigines in sport is aligned with writes about ‘poverty’, and Tatz writes about Edwards’ social mobility paradigm. Thus, as early ‘the hungriest of people’ (1995a:11), a lack of as 1984, Colin Tatz made his position clear: ‘the ‘self worth’, ‘pride’ and ‘respect’ (1995b:54), and answers lie in the social structure of both soci- refers to Indigenous ‘communities’ in inverted ety and of sport…I share Edwards’ rejection of commas (1996:1). Cashman (1995:146) discusses the biological determinism mythology. My view is ‘improved social and economic status’, ‘social that blacks excel where and when they are hungry acceptance’ and ‘upward mobility’, while Adair and needy’ (Tatz 1984:13). and Vamplew (1997:67) write about a contrast Tatz’s argument is linked intrinsically to race between Aborigines who unsuccessfully strug- due to his belief that Aborigines succeed solely gled to maintain tribal culture and ‘well-to-do because of an impetus provided by the colonial Australians’. racial experience, as opposed to any of the other Focusing on difference continues to be strate- reasons why an individual, regardless of ethnic gically necessary in the politics of identity in the background, might achieve in this realm. In doing first decade of the twenty-first century, and this so, although framed to combat racism, writing creates meaning about Aborigines. Writing about on this subject continues in effect to engage with Aborigines continues to address racism because the racial paradigm of earlier writings that estab- racism continues to be part of society and sport. lished an essential connection between Aboriginal Both the fight against racism, and the connected sporting achievement and racism. This approach use of deficit language in sports writing, is ongoing is consistent with historical writing, which some today. Examples are commonplace. Academic have strategically labelled a politically correct Stella Coram (2001:92) argued that Indigenous attack on national identity, known as a ‘black athletes ‘by virtue of their history are political’ and armband’ view (McKenna 1997). that Indigenous athletes come from ‘impoverished communities’ that are ‘used to abject oppression’ Accumulating power of the meaning of (Coram 2001:92). Coram (2001:97) tells a story ‘difference’ of ‘rags to riches’ about successful Indigenous During most of the 1990s, little new primary athletes. Greg Gardiner (2003) tells a similar material was added to the field. In this period there story of Aborigines who have to overcome racism is a compelling restating by a number of authors to succeed. Sport, writes Gardiner (2003:31), ‘has of the general theme that sport mirrors racism in provided Indigenous people with one of the few Australian society.2 For example, Tatz (1995a, avenues for participation and success in main- 1996) mostly repackaged his original argu- stream culture’. Sean Gorman (2008:189) argues ment from Aborigines in Sport and the work of for sport as a place for understanding and chang- Cashman (1995) and Adair and Vamplew (1997) ing society and that it is a place for ‘struggle and
Australian Aboriginal Studies 2011/2 11 Straight-line stories: identities in sports discourses Bamblett resistance’. He updates and contextualises racist The dominant discourse has been summarised incidents similar to the ones uncovered by Tatz in at least one international journal as representa- and others in the 1980s. On the back cover of tive of the story of Indigenous Australians: Tatz Lauren Calloway’s (2004) story of the life of ‘concludes that “Aboriginal sporting success, no Indigenous jockey Darby McCarthy, the reader is matter how brief or tragic, has given Aborigines asked to consider how ‘this half blood black fella more uplift, more collective pride, more Kudos from a squalid camp in Cunnamulla became one than any other single activity.”…[Broome] on of the really significant Indigenous Australians of the same subject…assert[s] that gains are short the 20th century’. The book details McCarthy’s term, diversionary, and, ultimately, destructive. life through a lens of both institutional and indi- [R]einforcing the Aboriginals’ “basic oppres- vidual racism and tells us how he defied ‘the sion”’ (Sammons 1994:248). expectations of a small country town entrenched Although in 2009 Tatz and Adair restated in racism’ (Calloway 2004:xiv). the argument that racism in varying degrees is It is not untrue to write that sport is one the ‘essence of Aboriginal and Islander sport’ avenue to success for Aborigines. However, (2009:5), their guest-edited edition of Australian only following this approach constrains under- Aboriginal Studies is notable as it also includes standing of Indigenous engagement in sport in some new perspectives. For example, in her paper its variety and complexity. Individual identity ‘Sport, physical activity and urban Indigenous (‘personhood’) takes a back seat when an athlete young people’, Alison Nelson interviewed a such as McCarthy becomes an Aborigine, jockey number of young Indigenous people and her and victim of racism (‘victimhood’), instead of findings challenged ‘some of the commonly held Darby McCarthy the Jockey. Framing identities assumptions and “knowledges” about Indigenous in this way contributes to the grievance narrative young people and their engagement in physical outlined above and the development and persist- activity…[including]…their “natural” ability, and ence of stereotypes — and this in itself contributes the use of sport as a panacea for health, education to the perpetuation of racism. and behavioural issues’ (Nelson 2009:101). She Richard Broome’s writing on Aborigines in sport found in her interviews that there was very little shows how difficult it can be to move away from the discussion about sport as resistance to racism and dominant discourse. With a greater understand- that: ing of agency and power, in 1996 Broome revised his 1980 story about Indigenous boxers. In 1996 Multiple, shifting and complex identities he added that Aborigines were ‘not only being were expressed in the young people’s artic- victims’ but also ‘agents and manipulators of that ulation of the place and meaning of sport power and discourse’ (Broome 1996:2). Broome and physical activity in their lives. They both described his change in position in the following engaged in, and resisted, dominant Western discourses regarding representations of way: ‘Through teaching, researching and read- Indigenous people in sport. The paper gives ing Aboriginal history since 1980, reading the voice to these young people in an attempt to works of English Historian E.P. Thompson, and disrupt and subvert hegemonic discourses also listening to my colleagues in women’s history, (Nelson 2009:101). I have developed a stronger sense of power from below and the agency held by Aboriginal histori- Nelson also noted the importance of representa- cal actors’ (Broome 1996:1). tion to the production of knowledge. She argues Ultimately, Broome (1996:2) returns to the against ‘pathologising’ Aborigines and suggests dominant discourse by adding that such agency, that privileging Indigenous voices can lead to ‘might be transitory and subsequently overlaid consideration of ‘strengths and diversity’ (Nelson by experiences of injustice and discrimination 2009:103). Nelson contrasts the representations in reserves, country towns and other situations’. of identity she found among young Aborigines In addition, he later argues that sport ‘made with the ‘constant representations being made over them feel the equal of other Victorians’ (Broome time’, which feed ideas of deficit and disempower 2005:225). Aborigines (Nelson 2009:102). Nelson’s paper
12 Australian Aboriginal Studies 2011/2 Bamblett Straight-line stories: identities in sports discourses demonstrates that restrictive representations can pion sprinter Bobby Kinnear, a researcher must be challenged by empowering Indigenous voices. ‘travel to his home ground and have a look at where However, it is important also to note that privileg- he started his run’ (Perry 2002:186). In doing this ing Indigenous voices can reinforce or challenge a himself, Perry found that Koori informants told dominant discourse. stories — in much the same way Whimpress did with Faith Thomas — that ‘did not harp on the Talking back: Indigenous voices at the theme of pathos so central to white depictions interface of their people’ (Perry 2002:186). Still, Perry Indigenous voices have been heard on the does summarise Kinnear’s victory as a symbol topic of sport in varying degrees. Privileging of resistance to oppression: ‘His great run came Indigenous voices changes the discourse by blend- to symbolise for Aboriginal people the refusal ing in more complex representations of identity. of their forebears to sit down and expire under Lynette Russell (2001) describes how a number the burden of oppression. From this perspective of Indigenous identities can be blended into a sporting achievements can be looked on as acts of representation. The phrase ‘blending of identities’ resistance’ (Perry 2002:193). is also a good way to describe what privileging The contributions that blend representa- Indigenous voices adds to the discourse. tions of resistance with other Indigenous identi- Bernard Whimpress (1999) accepts discrimina- ties are different in their tone to those that focus tion as one aspect of the sporting experience for more narrowly on deficit. Aboriginality as tradi- Aboriginal people, but his account is not domi- nated by this theme. His work is thus important tion (persistence) is one common representation in the current analysis because it provides a wider added to the established identity of Aboriginality perspective, unconstrained by a dominant defi- as resistance. cit discourse. For example, when discussing the Indigenous voices and prolonged observations introduction of cricket during the mission era, underpin Brian McCoy’s writing about football Whimpress (1999:43) makes the following obser- within an Indigenous community. In many places vations about the ways that Aborigines played McCoy writes from personal observations but it is Western sports: clear that his in-depth understanding of witnessed events are supplemented by the voices of people in It would be far-fetched to claim that cricket the community he writes about. McCoy (2002) played by Aborigines in the nineteenth century was corroborised although in matches such writes extensively about differences in a way as those at Point McLeay, Corranderrk and that does not suggest deficit. In fact, the roman- Poonindie there are elements of play and ticised tone of McCoy’s description can be read resistance, of turning cricket on its head… as an argument that Kimberley desert communi- In traditional society the way the boomer- ties play football in ways that are superior to non- ang was thrown was important. Similarly, Indigenous players: the way that runs were scored could be more There are also other relationships at work important than the number of them. on the football field. Most are hidden to the Writing about Indigenous cricketer Faith non-Indigenous world for these relationships Thomas, Whimpress (2002) identifies a varia- are born and nurtured in men’s Law cere- tion of experience not previously found in writ- monies. These relationships reflect an even ing about Aborigines in sport. Thomas indicated deeper bond between men and they demand to Whimpress that she had little experience of even further respect, even avoidance, for racism in sport when growing up in a small coun- some men from others. Visitors to communi- try town. ties will not know of these relationships and John Perry (2002) also makes some changes to might wonder as a player appears to hang the established style of discourse. Perry recognises back from tackling another too aggressively. that to get ‘even a partial and extremely limited Strong men’s business can exist even here on insight into what happened’ to Indigenous cham- the football field (McCoy 2002:32).
Australian Aboriginal Studies 2011/2 13 Straight-line stories: identities in sports discourses Bamblett
In a chapter on football, McCoy (2008) weaves teaching, alongside discussion of shared human football into a discussion about life for Indigenous values and experiences of country life. When men. Alongside a discussion of history, health and race and racism are discussed, the inclusion of prison, among other topics, McCoy (2008:145) stories about family, culture and joy give a more again writes that ‘football offers young men the rounded picture of the McAdams as people who continuity of being held by older men that began live complex lives that are not necessarily domi- and was promised in Law’ and adds a description nated by poverty, oppression and racism; their of football played in accordance with cultural experience is not portrayed as one that is solely in values: opposition to (and thus controlled by) the domi- nant culture. Writing about Aborigines in sport is If the deceased was a footballer…the playing gradually expanding the conversation, mostly due area needed to be ‘opened up’ before compe- to an increase of Indigenous voices. tition could begin. This could be achieved by a group of women moving in single file Writing back around the oval, crying and sweeping the ground with leafy branches…remaining signs Further expansion in the field to include Indigenous of where the deceased has been and walked voices as writers creates a more dynamic space (McCoy 2008:150). where the complexities of Indigenous experiences in sport (and society) continue to emerge. Some Tregenza’s (1995) biography of members of the Indigenous writers have been critical of the repre- McAdam family is an example of a complex and sentations of Aborigines in sport. Their response nuanced story. Where others tell stories about appears to be similar to Nakata’s description of what happens to Aborigines at the elite level of his response to reading representations of his own sport, Tregenza wanders through the lives of the people, which contributed to his development of people who went on to become elite football play- standpoint theory (Nakata 2007). ers. When the subject of race and sport is consid- Historian John Maynard wrote hopefully in ered, the reader can put those stories into context predicting that Aborigines would find a place because they know more about them as people in the writing of Australian history. With its goal than the racism they have faced. of telling an untold story of participation in one Even though race and racism are parts of the sport, Maynard’s (2002) Aboriginal Stars of the story that Tregenza tells, it is difficult to essen- Turf: Jockeys of Australian racing history tells a tialise the McAdam family given the vari- history that is characterised by more than racism. ety of topics covered. Tregenza allows family Similar to Whimpress (1999), for Maynard, members to tell for themselves how generations Indigenous stories had been ‘derided, hidden and of their experiences led to excellence in sport. even erased’ but persevered to ‘lift and reveal Significantly, the family’s humour, shared human rich tales of survival and inspiration’ (Maynard values and connections to culture are covered in 2002:v). some detail. Tregenza, the narrator, stands aside Daryle Rigney (2003) labelled the lack of to let Indigenous storytellers speak. What results Indigenous voices in the sports literature ‘oppres- is a complex explanation of excellence in sport. sive’. Rigney argues the need for ‘revisiting and Charlie McAdam, father of Australian Football rewriting the events, processes and history from League players Gilbert, Greg and Adrian, tells the an Indigenous perspective’ in order to develop reader, ‘[T]he stories of my people go back to the writing in the field that he criticises as historically time the sea covered the land and the moon was a ‘limited in its quality’ (Rigney 2003:48). Barry young man fishing in the Ponton River’ (Tregenza Judd and Chris Hallinan (2008:19) make similar 1995:4). Of station life he says, ‘I remember I used judgments about ‘the discourse on Aboriginality’ to have really good times at the station with all my that is ‘characterised by essentialist understand- playmates, my cousins and the others’ (Tregenza ings of identity’: ‘The construction of Aboriginal 1995:7). McAdam and his sons tell stories about identity in the literature of Australian sport and their lives and how they came to excel at sport. sporting history continues to reply [sic] on simplis- They cover topics such as hunting, initiation and tic notions of indigeneity which do little more
14 Australian Aboriginal Studies 2011/2 Bamblett Straight-line stories: identities in sports discourses than reiterate the colonial myths, fears and desires multiple meanings (Hall 1997). When read in of the past’. Judd (2005:32) writes that identity comparison to McCoy’s description of football is ‘central to any consideration of Aborigines in in north-western Australia, Norman’s description sport’. of the Knockout can also be read as an attempt Larissa Behrendt (2001:29) has called for the at authentication of identity for Aborigines from Australian media to accept ‘all the parts that the south-east of Australia. Norman approaches make us human…not just the easy parts that do difference in a number of ways. She writes the not raise awkward questions about the continu- familiar story of inequality in treatment while ing inequality between Indigenous people and all adding a story of cultural difference as it relates other Australians’. The increase in Indigenous to authenticity of identity. However, the blend- voices does not result in less awkward questions ing of narratives of persistence with the narrative being asked. It does increase the ‘parts’ of the of resistance (Russell 2001) could also be read as story told and makes us more human. The parts an essentialist representation of a homogenous that Indigenous voices add to the story include Indigenous identity. It could create an essential- Indigenous viewpoints on existing topics related ised identity based on the ‘cultural Aborigine’ to race, representation, power, inequality and (Langton 2011:13). identity. In addition, continuity of culture is a In a Sydney Morning Herald article entitled frequent theme in Indigenous writing on sport. ‘A Knockout blow to racial stereotypes’, Debra Heidi Norman’s (2006:170) history of the Jopson (2010) draws upon quotes that refer to the annual New South Wales rugby league Knockout Knockout as both a cultural event and a form of shows how a contemporary sport has also been resistance: used by Kooris as a vehicle for a number of impor- Football is a byproduct of this weekend. The tant values and meanings: major focus of most people who come is to Every aspect of this event speaks to Indigenous catch up because we are in the majority. No realities. In documenting this event perhaps a matter what happens, ‘Aboriginality is in the new account of Aboriginal history might be ascendancy,’ says Bob Morgan, 61, one of discerned in the context of self-determination, the knockout’s founders and original play- or at least a period ‘more free’ of the oppres- ers…For many indigenous people the knock- sive role of the Aboriginal Welfare Board. out is the year’s social highlight, ‘bigger than The field of Aboriginal history necessar- Christmas’, or looking further back, the ily hovers around black and white relations, cultural successor to four-day corroborees, while the focus of this all-Aboriginal cele- says Aboriginal historian, Heidi Norman… bratory event is only briefly concerned with ‘It is like the lifeblood in their communities… non-Aboriginal relations. But this is not to Taking the trophy is the greatest moment of falsely elevate Indigeneity as a rarefied, sepa- their lives,’ says another of the founders, Bob rate reality, but rather to understand how this Smith…Says Morgan: ‘We spend most of our event emerged from particular experiences time struggling for our rights and freedoms. that are both culturally continuous in a tradi- This is the opportunity to celebrate.’ tional sense and historically produced. Two narratives from another Indigenous Using interviews from people who participated in researcher, Darren Godwell, reinforce that repre- the event, Norman describes continuity of culture sentations from Indigenous people are context in a contemporary sports event alongside a discus- dependant, just like writing from non-Indigenous sion of political, economic and racial issues. She authors. Godwell (1997) collected testimony describes how the Knockout is used to main- from eight Indigenous rugby league players for tain and even re-establish kinship and relation- his unpublished thesis to examine the meaning ships to country. In 2009 Norman wrote about his informants attributed to their experiences. the Knockout as a political event. However, A substantial amount of testimony emerged that representations of difference can be both posi- indicated that the men played football for more tive and negative and they can be read as having than just reasons related to resisting racism. One
Australian Aboriginal Studies 2011/2 15 Straight-line stories: identities in sports discourses Bamblett interviewee suggested that ‘community prestige’ Godwell (2000) later used the testimony from was a factor in participation in ‘All-Blacks carni- his thesis to focus much more narrowly on racism. vals’ (Godwell 1997:57). Another responded that For example, while positive quotes about conti- ‘community identity’ was important and that nuity (such as the one above) are not used, he participation in these carnivals ‘goes with the does use quotes about negative experiences with whole image of your community’: ‘It’s the biggest racism: event on the Aboriginal calendar. People love to hang out for that three day week-end. They get Yeah, a bad experience. They had a negative together and see their people, and it brings the experience — yeah and those bad experiences community together’ (Godwell 1997:57). that they may have, they last forever, you In his analysis, Godwell hints at the idea of know — you know, whether they got ripped continuity when he suggests that the football off in the grand final, or whatever. And it carnivals have internal value as ways to maintain comes back to — ‘these bastards are doing connections to tribal identity: it again! And they’re doing it to us again!’ (Godwell 2000:18). These carnivals also offer the chance for Aboriginal people to personalise their Godwell’s later work (2000) is similar to that of culture and their traditions. In everyday life Broome (1996) in that it demonstrates how diffi- Aborigines are contrasted against the non- cult it can be to move away from a discourse of Aboriginal world which encompasses their deficit. Godwell reduced the variety of experi- lives. In these all-Aboriginal spaces differenti- ences of the men he had interviewed for his thesis ation is made not by skin colour but by tribal, to make two main political points. The first point geographic lineage and Aboriginal heritage. is that their sporting experiences were related to This process very much personalises being Aboriginal by redefining the importance of their Indigenous identity as colonised people. The elders, geographic boundaries, cultural differ- second was that racism restricted opportunities ences, languages and tribal affiliations. In this in rugby league. Although these experiences are sense the carnivals provide a rare contempo- significant, as Godwell showed in his thesis, they rary chance to reaffirm such connections… are not the sole story of Aborigines in sport. At a more symbolic level what activity better By joining the discourse about race and sport, represents community identity than having Indigenous Australians have added rich detail to two brightly uniformed teams competing existing stories while inviting outsiders to share against each other in a decisive competition experiences not previously heard about. The result — a knockout where only the winners move is an expanding discourse that tells more about to the next round? At all levels these carni- vals offer something for Aboriginal people Aborigines as people (individually and collec- (Godwell 1997:60–1). tively) than only the sum of our grievances. Representations about Aborigines articulated One important part of this analysis is that Godwell by Indigenous people rely on difference to create considers sport as a space where Indigenous, meaning in the same way that non-Indigenous Australian and human values are maintained. writers do. This means that they can use the same Discussion of connections to place, people and the methods, theoretical frameworks of understand- symbolism of Aboriginal-only sporting competi- ing and produce similar types of stories. The field tion are impressively woven through the analysis. Support for this point of view is found in the testi- becomes more dynamic, though, as Indigenous mony of Indigenous people and it is clear that the people respond to restrictive representations, add theoretical discussion Godwell conducts has come insights from insider perspectives, challenge the from the words and ideas of the people being stud- dominance of certain narratives and reverse posi- ied. In this story, Godwell writes that sport has tions of dominance in the binary of difference. value to Indigenous people in part, but not only, Even the addition of essentialist representations because it fits in with existing values and cultural from Indigenous voices makes for a more complex practices. picture.
16 Australian Aboriginal Studies 2011/2 Bamblett Straight-line stories: identities in sports discourses
Straight-line stories victims of racism just as writers about Aborigines The same remains the same, riveted onto itself in sport were doing. (Foucault 2002 [1966]:28). When outsiders were not around, my great aunt, and other storytellers within the commu- Us blackfellas don’t tell stories in a straight line, we go all the way around it (Laurie Crawford, nity, talked about racism as just one of a greater pers. comm., 20 September 2007). repertoire of stories. They focused much more on telling about the wonderful life experienced Representations of Indigenous Australians are within the mission community. They spoke care- not neutral. This paper shows how writing about fully about the achievements of Elders and great Aborigines in sport is dominated by a discourse sporting events within the community (and some of deficit. However, such discourse is not alone in shared with outsiders). They talked about the being read from a number of ideological positions. essence of our culture being sharing and caring Sticking to stories about grievances is politically for each other and the importance of maintaining expedient. Concession of Indigenous advantage could be co-opted by people with ideological axes our own ways of being. They talked about what to grind. However, saturating the discourse with made our community a great place to live. The deficit language may be necessary to confront dominant discourse within the community was racism, create change and respond to politicised not about deficit. It was focused on the advantages readings, but it has also created an essentialised of being part of the Erambie community. and constraining image of Aborigines. Differences In the quote above, Crawford refers to stories are represented as a binary where Aborigines are told in certain contexts when he says that stories the victims and non-Aborigines the victimisers. are not told in a straight line. Aborigines do some- Mary Douglas’ ideas about all matter having times tell straight-line stories because, as Langton a place in an ordered society highlight the danger (2011) observes, essentialist representations of of drawing from one aspect of rich and varied difference are the foundation of Indigenous activ- experience to accumulate language of deficit. One ism in modern Australia. There are a few stories reading of the dominant discourse tells us that being added to the discourse that do not repre- Australian society does not live up to the ideal sent difference as deficit. However, there is work of the ‘fair go’. Another way to read the same left to do so that a complex, nuanced representa- language of deficit is that Indigenous communities tion of Aborigines as more than the sum of our are inferior to the rest of the country. The differ- grievances can be told without vindicating crit- ences that are described in the discourse contrib- ics who seek to impose an alternative reading of ute to reinforcing this order. The same remains Aborigines as irresponsible. The challenge for the same because Indigenous Australian commu- those who write and read in this area is to locate nities are pathologised as deficient. The locating of Indigenous communities as inferior is not at middle ground where we can offer more stories issue in political debate. I read in the discourse that share human experiences in sport without the two versions of one story about deficit. constraints imposed by a deficit discourse. In the early 1980s I was a young boy play- ing football with my mates at Erambie. We ran, Notes kicked, jumped and tackled around and over a 1. See, for example, Maddison 2009; Pearson 2000, sewerage blockage that caused human waste to 2007, 2009; Sutton 2009. run through an open ditch along the side of the 2. Tatz (1995a, 1995b) continued to make the argu- ment that sport mirrors racism in society. More dirt streets. My great aunt was among the women examples of accumulation of this argument can be who spoke loudly and often about the injustice of seen in Cashman 1995; Coram 1999; Corris 1980; living under such conditions when white people in Hallinan 1991; Hallinan et al. 1991, 1999; Hartley the town did not. They told a straight-line story 2002; Mallett 2002; Trengrove 1996; Vamplew and to people from outside the community in order to Stoddart 1994. create change where it was needed. In this respect they essentialised our community identity as
Australian Aboriginal Studies 2011/2 17 Straight-line stories: identities in sports discourses Bamblett
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Signifier: Featuring Stuart Hall, transcript of speech —— 1987 Aborigines in Sport, The Australian Society presented at Goldsmiths College, London, England, for Sports History, Bedford Park, SA. Australian Aboriginal Studies 2011/2 19 Straight-line stories: identities in sports discourses Bamblett Tregenza, Elizabeth (Charlie McAdam and family, as Laurie Bamblett works in community development at told to Elizabeth Tregenza) 1995 Boundary Lines: Erambie Mission in central western New South Wales, A family’s story of winning against the odds, McPhee where he is chairperson of Erambie Advancement Gribble Publishers, Ringwood, Vic. Corporation. His community work is based at Erambie’s Trengrove, Alan 1996 ‘A harder race to run: Colour bar Yalbillinga Boori Multi-purpose Aboriginal Children’s lifts: At last positive steps are being taken to address Service. He focuses on engagement between the Koori the racial imbalance in sporting development’, The community and mainstream education, health and Bulletin:84–5. employment services. Laurie has been a post-doctoral Vamplew Wray and Brian Stoddart (eds) 1994 Sport Indigenous Visiting Research Fellow at AIATSIS since in Australia: A social history, Cambridge University 2009. His research interests include the ways that repre- Press, Cambridge. sentations of identity effect engagement between Whimpress, Bernard 1999 Passport to Nowhere: Indigenous communities and mainstream society. Aborigines in Australian cricket 1850–1939, Walla 20 Australian Aboriginal Studies 2011/2