Stan Grant's Speech 'Racism Is Destroying The Australian Dream'

The recent racist abuse against footy stars Lance Franklin and Lewis Jetta again highlights the ever-present racist nature of Australian citizens, installed in their thoughts, beliefs and shown through their actions. This again happened on the most holy, sacred ground in Australia’s contemporary history, the footy field. A venue of joy, mateship and passion for the sport all Australians love; but also a place of unwavering criticism, controversy and abhorrent racist attitudes and actions from fans as witnessed from the continuous booing and hate over the 2015/16 seasons towards Indigenous footy star, Adam Goodes. In the last IQ2 debate in 2015 on ABC, acclaimed journalist and First Nations elder Stan Grant, delivered a comprehensive and thought-provoking

Grant utilises traumatic anecdotes, allusion to contemporary issues and his first person’s point of view to bring forth the readers values and attitudes of accountability for the past, and criticalness of previous actions against Indigenous people. For example, Grant details personal tales of how his grandmother was turned away from the hospital because “she was giving birth to the child of a black person”. The anecdote attacks the latter part of the Australian Dream, stating “(..)deep sense of belonging that allows all Australian to thrive” which was unfortunately not the case where Grant’s elder was reprimanded of her right to treatment. Furthermore, Grant talks about his grandfather who fought wars for Australia but came back to a nation where “he couldn’t even share a drink with his digger mates in the pub because he was black”. The anecdotes again contradicts core Australian values of mateship and equality as Grant’s grandfather who served alongside his caucasian friends was not recognized as a citizen thus was denied the ability to socialise with his soldiers. Grant further adds onto this issue, illustrating how at his birth in 1963, he was “counted among the flora and fauna” and not recognized as a citizen. This personal account illustrates just how contradictive Australian society is, on how an internationally-acclaimed journalist, having worked for the ABC for over 30 years whilst transforming Indigenous communities nation-wide, was merely regarded as an animal at the time of his birth. The quote attacks the aspect of Indigenous identity in the so-called “Australian Dream” when their