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Court Case Of Dr. Anita Heiss: Indigenous Australians

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Dr Anita Heiss graced Australia with her presence in 1968, welcomed by her proud Wiradjuri nation mother, Elsie nee Williams (The University of Notre Dame, 2016) and Austrian immigrant father, Josef Heiss (Indigenous Australia, n.d.). Dr Anita Heiss arrived into a society that had just voted overwhelmingly in favour of changing the Australian Constitution to recognise Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people as equals in the 1967 referendum (Harrison, 2011). The treatment of her maternal grandmother and aunt placing her as a direct descendant of the Stolen Generations (Heiss, n.d.). Dr Anita Heiss’ life began in Matraville, Sydney and by her own omission had a privileged upbringing; attending a local Catholic school and going on to graduate with honours at The University of NSW (Elliot, 2012). It …show more content…

In 2009, the year following the life changing National Apology to the Stolen Generations (Harrison, 2011), Dr Anita Heiss found herself undeniably the victim of racism, successfully suing the perpetrator Andrew Bolt in court with a nine other Aboriginal people for breaching the Racial Discrimination Act. Court case outcome aside, Andrew Bolt never gave an apology and maintains it was freedom of speech (Ritchie, 2011). This gave rise to articles such as Connor’s (2012) article that take Dr Anita Heiss’ down to earth nature and ability to make herself the joke’s punch line as contradictory to the message of oneness she promotes. Dr Anita Heiss is happy to challenge anyone who crosses her path with the task of reviewing their racial views. Indeed, though she often speaks frankly about how her characters can negotiate their lives with a freedom of speech that her status as a Wiradjuri women does not afford, Dr Anita Heiss does continue to challenge stereotypical views from both sides of the fence (Australian Broadcasting Corporation [ABC],

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