in AFLcompetitionsincethe1980s. increases inthenumber ofIndigenous players participating proclaimed with widespread media reference to significant Australia.Indigenous Validation been has of theseclaims the extentthatitclaimsexpertise on issuesconcerning de leadershiproleinIndigenousaffairsto facto national respect theAFLassumeda in this It isarguedherethat Indigenous people. in promotingacontemporaryAustralia inclusiveof issues madeitthemostimportantnationalinstitution government (1996-2007),AFLadvocacy ofIndigenous dominance oftheHoward Coinciding withthepolitical marn-grook asone precursor to the contemporary game. Team of the Century and atacit acknowledgement of of anIndigenous recognition Dreamtime attheGmatch, voice for reconciliation throughevents suchasthe annual Atpublic became astrong the sametimeAFLalso of Indigenous people andAustralian Football aswell I dosobyreflectingonmyexperiences asaresearcher Indigenous Australians alikeremainsunfinishedbusiness. a gamethatcanbetrulyshared byIndigenousandnon- national significance, work tomake Australian Football the AFL in promoting Indigenous Australia havebeen of In thisarticle,Iarguethatalthoughtheachievementsof indisputable ‘nationalgame’. Indigenous peoplethatpositionsAustralian Football asthe has achieved reconciliationbetweenIndigenous and non- popularised inthe media, AFL, accordingtonarratives ofAustralian paradigm beyondthe has moved The racism. have been used that to portraytheAFLasaninstitution game the people playing of Indigenous visibility public in the2010seasonof the AFL. personnel of allplaying percent for 11 people accounted Indigenous population, of thenational percent 2.3 just its Anti-Racial andReligiousVilificationLawsin1995. its Anti-Racial body in Australia tocombaton-field racism by adopting racism insport.TheAFLwasthefirstprofessionalsporting of theprocessofreconciliationandnon-tolerance with brand mostlycloselyassociated as thenationalsporting The Australian Football League(AFL)haspositioneditself Ra cism inA 3
alian F ustr 5 These increasesinthe Resear 4 Whileconstituting ootb ch Reflections:
by BarryJudd 2 1
all – WhiteA Anti-Racial andReligiousVilificationLawsoftheAFL. Anti-Racial according tothenarrowlegaldefinitionprovidedin Football suggestthatracismhascometobeconsidered I makeconcerningtheoperationofracisminAustralian of thelawinprofessionalsports,various reflections perspective. Inthecontextofdiscussionsaboutrole member whoviewsAustralian Football fromanIndigenous personal experiencesofthegameasaspectatorandclub ‘national game’. ‘national openly,from participating,oratleastparticipating inthe Footballpeople excluded Indigenous have in waysthat structured popularunderstandingoftheAustralian in howdiscoursesofAnglo-Australianhave nationalism Australian IndigenousStudies,Ihavebeenmostinterested Australiaand Australian Football. Workingin thefield of long interestintherelationshipbetweenIndigenous within Australian Football isinformedbymyowndecade- reconciliation infactconstitutenewtropesofracism My understanding thatthe rhetoric ofanti-racismand A Enlightened racism inthecontext of Australians asequalpartnersinthe‘nationalgame’. work againstthegame’sclaimstofullyembraceIndigenous that areomnipresentinAnglo-Australian cultureandthat field racialsledging do littletoaddress theracistdiscourses My reflectionssuggestthatlegalsolutionsconcerningon- race relations. reinforced white idealisations of contemporary American Cosby Showwereportrayedin waysthatconfirmedand and Lewisfoundthatthemain blackcharactersinthe sitcoms intheUnitedStates, inwhichauthorsJhally ‘enlightened racism’wasfirstused in amedia study of as shapedbyformsof‘enlightenedracism’.Theterm people and Australian Football canbest be understood The contemporaryrelationshipbetween Indigenous game. Indigenous peoplehavemadeto‘our’ participants andcelebratesthelong-standingcontribution Football asasportthatopenlyembraces Indigenous that representAustralianmetamorphosed intonarratives in howdiscoursesofAnglo-Australianhave nationalism ralian Footballust 8
7 More recently Ihavebeeninterested alian R ustr ULES! 6
3 INDIGENOUS LAW BULLETIN September / October 2010, ILB Volume 7, Issue 20 4 INDIGENOUS LAW BULLETIN September / October 2010, ILB Volume 7, Issue 20 Aborigine as‘childlike’,‘physical’,‘savage’or‘noble of former colonists’ popular imagery of the Australian enlightened racism.Stereotypes thatdominate thestories hold toward Indigenous people, underpinned by aform of continue toinformtheattitudesthatfootballfraternity nationalist narratives about Indigenous Australians Rather,of reconciliation. Anglo-Australian longstanding lawsorAFLsupport vilification adoption ofanti-racial in Australianracism that Football did not endwiththe context ofAustralian Football. the to racism ofenlightened concept the applied again In anarticleIlaterco-authoredwithHallinan,we similarly idealiseracerelationsinthiscountry. of Australianand fans scholars commentators, Football to AFL hadledadministrators, men inthe of Indigenous andmediavisibility that thegrowingoverrepresentation Australia,in concept the Applying concludedHallinan The authorsconcludedthat: and achievable. American Dream,viewingtheCosbyscenarioasbothdesirable welcomed the'positive'portrayals,buttheytooadheredto barriers faced bythe majority ofblack Americans. Black viewers were abletodenytherelevance of systematicclassandracial in strivingtoattainthe American Dream,theysimultaneously affluent, blackcharactersintheprogramforbeing'justlike us' 'enlightened racism'. While white viewerscould admire the fostered a mode of racial tolerance which they termed [D]espite appearing tobreakdownracistbeliefs, the program 9
11 Thearticleconcluded 10 as the code of choice in post-Apartheid SouthAfrica. profile initiativeoftheAFLtodevelopAustralian Football second time.IhadtravelledtoAfrica toinvestigatethehigh In August 2009,IvisitedJohannesburgandCapeTown fora South Africa Expor father ofanimpassionedaspiringfootballer. and inmyroleas witnessed, bothinmyroleasresearcher ofAustralianthe context Football Ihave areprocesses that in been openlytransformed of racismoperateandhave of theAFL.Thewaysdiscourses inform theculture that past and present understandings ofIndigenous people between exist that continuities the to attention drawing in morphed intoformsofenlightenedracismhasbeenuseful Australianpersuasively of racehave discourses nationalist Exposing the processes in which ‘old-fashion’ Anglo- after commodityincontemporaryAustralian Football. players ahighlysought make Indigenous that attributes and cultural different senseoftimeandspaceareracial reflexes of handandfoot,super-fast accelerationanda of hunting and gathering to bewidespread. and gathering of hunting racial andculturalattributesbornoutof40,000years because of a differentskillsettothegame people bring recruiters, inwhichwe found the belief that Indigenous These stereotypes were reflected in asurvey of club culture ofAustralian Football. ‘exotic’ and‘hunter-gather’ remain informative in the of time’, ‘out ‘stone-age’, ‘intellectually lacking’, savage’, ting EnlightenedRacism: TheAFLin opportunity. and enhancementof improvement, development spoken ofinthelanguage affairs and is similarly the arenaofIndigenous the AFLhaddevelopedin of ‘nationalleadership’that draws fromtheexperience Football in SouthAfrica Football. Australian have a place in Australian townships nowappearto disenfranchisedand youths fromimpoverished the extentthatevenAfrican taken enlightenedformsto racism withintheAFLhad What Isawconfirmedthat deserve that most Australian deserve thatmostAustralian unjustly inthepastandwho Africans areapeopletreated 14 Black South BlackSouth 12 Lightning 13
achieved. reconciliation and overcome racism claimed AFL that was somethingtothemuchvauntedstatementsof the to believe there In thewakeoftheseexperiencesIstarted whose deedswe would aspire to emulatewas unthinkable. friends, would have Indigenousmenasourrolemodels the 1970s,whenIwasa6yearold,ideathatI,ormy masculinity inaway unimaginable inpreviousdecades. In from acrosssuburbanMelbourne tocelebrate Indigenous to theextentitenablednon-Indigenous,middle-classkids a positionofracialexclusiontothatenlightenedracism, the clinicsuggestedthatgamehadindeed shifted from the brown (Indigenous) players are the best! Furthermore, He said the question. evident hecalledmesillyforasking self-be so he believedto answer an He respondedwith and theothershadsoughtoutIndigenousplayersfirst. the drivehomeIaskedmysonwhyhe heroes. During primary-aged children eager toconnect with their football men weremobbedbythecrowdof these twoIndigenous and made a beeline for RioliandFranklin. Iwatchedas the severalnon-Indigenousplayerswhoalsotookpart and hundredsofotherparticipatingchildrenbypassed my son completion, Inoticedthat occurred attheclinic’s Franklin.that hunt In theautograph and Lance‘Buddy’ Rioli stars several Indigenousplayers,includingcurrent Rioli, mysonparticipatedinaclinicwhichfeatured of membershipnamedfortheIndigenousplayerCyril F.C. (Rioli)Club,acategory Asamemberofthe‘Junior’ at afootballclinicIattended withmy sonattheHawthorn further proofwasapparent enlightened formsofracism, that theAFLhadshiftedgamefromexclusionaryto If my experienceinSouthAfrica seemedtoconfirm f models Pr Enlightened Racism andY game inwhichthebarriersofracismdonotexist. Australia asastrategytoshowcaseAustralian Football asa representative teamsespeciallythosefromNorthern Indeed, extensive use ismade ofvisitingIndigenous ofAustralian picture idealised an relations. projects race that teams fromAustralia areusedtosellanimageofthegame insofar asIndigenousandnon-Indigenousrepresentative racism ofenlightened thepractice experiment isabout of concepts,a‘fair-go’, inthepresent.TheSouthAfrican had functioned to deliver positive practical outcomes positive had functioned todeliver idealising Australian race relations, they nevertheless they madein had originatedfrom,andthe false claims discursive heritagethatthese newerformsofracism However, Ihadtoacknowledgethatdespite the insidious object to such claims as based in enlightened racism. based in as claims to such object ndigenous playe Indigenous rs as ofessional 15 My research enabled me torecognise and or children outh Pr ograms: ole 16 Football attheelitelevelasneverbefore. for Indigenouspeople enabling themtoplayAustralian of Australian Aborigines,wefound ourselvesliterallyand As Ikicked the ball to my young son, both of us descendents all Indigenousartefacts. boomerang inpositiontorelease this;themosticonicof ridges abovetheforehead.The‘native’holdsareturning the Aborigine:beardedman,black,withprotruding parts ofAfrica. the highlyvisibleand‘controversial’arrivalsfromwar-torn including thoserecently arrived fromeasternEuropeand to include children drawn from‘ethnic’communities apparent inmy community. Ihad expected Auskick Auskickclearly is reflect thediversitythat to programme diverse, Iexpectedthelocal considered multi-culturally place a of metro-Melbourne, fringe western in the Living for self-congratulationsin thewhitestream for Australian Football to be readily be showcased as cause of acontemporary,discourse allows enlightenedracism at HawthornF.C. examplesofhowthe werefirst-hand AfricaIf theAFLinSouth holiday clinic and theschool and A Out intheSuburbs:ld-Fashioned Racism During thewinterof 2010 Ibecame an Auskick parent. nationalist racisminthenationalgame ishardly news atall. soon tolearn thatthepersistence ofold-fashioned, Anglo- faithfully reproduces19 children aged5,6and7yearsisthe‘native’brandthat ‘native’ brand.HereonthefootballsusedbyAuskick myself kickingafootballthatcarriedtheRossFaulkner up by post-colonial Australia. Inexplicably Ifound one ofthosemomentstheuncannythatisthrown Company inpre-clinicpracticesessionsrepresented for meusingthefootballssupplied by theRossFaulkner other localstheretodotheirfatherlyduty. However, playing kick-to-kickwithmysonalongsidethemany of the winter Ifound myself onacold,windsweptoval 100,000 programparticipantsannually. Faulkner Companysuppliesallfootballsusedbyover the sportinggoodscompanyRossFaulkner. TheRoss to childrenagedbetween5and 10,issponsored by of theAFLdesignedtointroduceAustralian Football that Auskick, anationalyouth development program What Iwas to find shocking, however, was the fact be anAustralian inthe21 difference ofwhatitmeansto in hisyoungarticulation diversityinaway racial andcultural thatnormalisessuch experience to my son want I as disappointment, was a this clinic isanexclusivelyAnglo-Australiandomain. To me ralian Footballust 19 IsoonrealisedthatthelocalAuskick th st centurycolonialimaginaryof century. 20 Eachweekend 17 media,Iwas 18 5 INDIGENOUS LAW BULLETIN September / October 2010, ILB Volume 7, Issue 20 6 INDIGENOUS LAW BULLETIN September / October 2010, ILB Volume 7, Issue 20 on-field playingroles. contain Indigenous participationtoalimitedrange of Indigenous players, thisdiscourse hasfunctioned to celebrates withreferencetotheoverrepresentationof terms asnon-IndigenousAustralian, apointtheAFL people inAustralianto participate Football onthesame that anti-racism and reconciliation enable Indigenous While enlightenedracismpromotestheidealised notion people withindiscoursesaboutAustralian Football. designed to legislatethepositionoccupiedby Indigenous limitsandboundaries specific place seeksto aseach insofar discourse inAustralianFootball similar, aresurprisingly In thisrespect,olderandnewerformsofracialcultural people andAustralian Football. and policetherelationship thatexistsbetween Indigenous game’ operatetolegislate Aborigines fromthe‘national older Anglo-nationalistdiscoursesdesignedtoexclude and of enlightenedracism forms both contemporary that may beargued keep Indigenouspeopleintheirplace.It Australianof racein discourses Football to now function seemed to methatbothnewandoldAnglo-Australian Faulkner Companyandits‘native’brandfootballsit Rossthe with collision my weekly of the uncanniness As Ithought more about my Auskick experience and PeopleintheirPlace Keeping Indigenous the 19 of racism fervent from the them to speaks that trademark Australianpost-reconciliation post-racism, Football, bya being transmitted to ourchildreninthissupposed era of I wondered what ideasaboutIndigenousAustraliawere brand speaktothemindsofAustralia’s‘native’ children? ‘native’ aroundtheground.Howdoesimaginaryof their wintermorningskickingtheemblematicAboriginal Australianswho alongwiththeirmumsanddads spend have inthemindsofhundredsthousandsyoung ‘native brand’footballsby the Auskick programmemight More importantly, Iwondered whatimpacttheuse of national leader inanti-racismand reconciliationcampaigns. itselfa hasproclaimed of colonialracismwhenelsewhereit sanction tosuchablatant,offensive and exclusionary form winter, IwonderedhowtheAFLcouldprovideeconomic As thisexperience came tobe repeated the throughout symbolically sinkingthebootintoIndigenousAustralia. set by enlightened racism, Indigenous people are actively Anglo-Australian hegemony. According toboundaries roles thatmayinvolveathreat, realorimagined,to administration media andsports influential employed in extremely limited, with few if any Indigenous people The extension of equality within Australian Football is th centuryfrontier. 21
popular mediathatsurroundsthecode. coaches, off-field staffandagrowingpresenceinthe competition boastsasignificantnumberofIndigenous fill itsroster,from Indigenousbackgrounds the orthat of players proportion higher a that fact the about noise which makeslittle Rugby League(NRL), the National to in contrast stands that This isasituation officials. club to coach,recruit oradminister the game asLeague or Football remainshighlypessimisticabouttheirabilities sport. Yet itappearsthattheracisminformsAustralian make themwell attributessuitedtothe racial andcultural encouraged toparticipateintheAFLasplayerstheir power structuresoftheAFL. sold andtraded bythewhite be bought, commodity to role offootballer,a stock, becomesnothingmorethan player, Indigenous The the to andconstrained limited magic’. ‘black of sporting performer exotic role as his to footballer ‘native’ the contains that frontier impassable an divides the field of play from thewhitespectatorprovides Australian‘Us’ andanAboriginal‘Them’.Thefencethat Anglo- between an distance the maintains roles playing as athreattothewhitehegemonicpowerofAFL. is viewed club AFL franchise of an via formation muscle Indigenous Australiathat flex itscollectivefootball might back reconciliation inthe game decades. Clearly the notion set would club an Indigenous of entry argued that players, Sheedy,of Indigenous advocacy with synonymous aman from theAFLestablishmentwasswiftanddecisive.Kevin idea this against the AFL.Thereaction joining led club Indigenous mediaraisedtheprospectofan apply inAustralianthat Football when became obvious The limited nature of anti-racismand reconciliation through racism in Australianracism through Football, newandold,are The many threads ofcontinuity and convergence thatrun of Anglo-Australianas objects repulsion, fantasy.colonial asobjects ofnon-Indigenousdesireand exotic ‘Other’, Indigenouspeopleas racism reinscribes enlightened inthisway,Considered of discourse ascendant the C the 19 Australian Football therefore do littlemorethanecho post-raceplaying personnelassignallingthearrivalof of Indigenous idealise theoverrepresentation that racism ofenlightened Discourses performance. ofpublic that polices Indigenouspeoples’involvementintheAFLto and limits of race discourse contemporary this suggests Analysis ofenlightenedracisminAustralian Football zoo. indigenes touredinthehuman inwhich of the‘Other’, onclusion 24 LimitingIndigenousparticipationintheAFLto th centurycolonialtraditionof ‘spectacularisation’ 22
23 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 peoples inAustraliansince1770. and non-Indigenous of culturalinterchangebetweenIndigenous expertise inexplorationsofAustralianidentityandtheprocess goldfields inthe1850s.Barryhasagrowingresearchinterestand who settledontheVictorianBritish immigrants Australia and is adescendant ofthePitjantjatjara people of North-West South atMonashUniversity, Studies Indigenous Barry Melbourne. at the CentreforAustralian Barry JuddisaSeniorLecturer of the‘native’representedbyRossFaulkner brand. trademark and he becomes the contemporary counterpart and objectified in waysthatrender his positionthatof TheIndigenousfootballerisconfined clearly apparent. Discourse: studiesintheculturalpolitics ofeducation political economyof'enlightenedracism'’ (1995)16(2) Jim McKay, 'Just DoIf:corporate sportsslogansandthe (Westview Press, 1992). show, audiences,andthemythofAmericandream Sut JhallyandJustin Lewis, racism:theCosby Enlightened (Australian ScholarlyPublishing, 2008). Barry Judd, Football Australian Game,Australian Identity:(Post)Colonial Identityin These wereissues Iexploredinmy PhD thesis.SeeBarryJudd, Australian Football League, aboven 1. Strait IslanderAustralians Statistics, AFL (2010)
10 13 12 11 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 Football Studies of ColonialDome:IndigenousPlayersintheAFL’ (2005)8, Chris Hallinin,Toni BruceandMichael Burke‘Fresh Prince Herald SydneyMorning ground forGWSrecruitersascodetakesoff’, (Australia), 18June2010;DanielLane, ‘SouthAfricaahunting ‘Aussie codewarlandsinSouthAfrica’ TheAustralian TheAge footy’, content/2005/s1368092.htm>; Tom Reilly, ‘Taxes fundAfrican May 2005(ZoeDaniel) (2008) 7 INDIGENOUS LAW BULLETIN September / October 2010, ILB Volume 7, Issue 20