Last night thanks to Jackie Trad I joined friends from South Brisbane at The Australian Dream - Free Local Screening. Sam Grant's speech concludes this powerful and disturbing documentary.
My life experience includes unlearning the racism of my childhood and cultural upbringing. It wasn't the vicious racism of name calling and shaming that this doco exposes.Rather it was the more insidious racism of silence,ignorance and cultural prejudice
In my childhood home my parents had two small prints of the work of Albert Namatjira. This was my only exposure to First Nations people as a young boy.My Catholic education from the Sisters of Mercy and the Christian Brothers made no reference to local or national Aboriginal or Torres Strait islanders peoples.
I was 26 years old when I first met an Aboriginal person at our community share house in Fitzroy. Brian was my age and a good friend for that year.
Due to travel I was 60 years old before I met my first traditional owner of the land on which i was born on #Wathauring Country. I hold in sacred memory the meeting with Wathaurong elder Uncle David Tournier RIP.
This weekend once again I stand with friends and colleagues of First Nations Peoples. I also join with those who are doing sorry business with the passing of two people.
Aunty Pamela Mam will be buried from Holy Trinity Anglican Church on Tuesday. Her passing has been acknowledged in public for her pioneering work in providing health services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from Griffith University in 2018. Her tributes included a statement from the Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles. Her life and achievements are celebrated across social media posts.
The other passing this week came to me via a text message from an elder of the community who wanted to let me know that "Sam: had passed away. Sam was a man I had supported during my work with survivors of childhood institutional abuse.
Sam had the look and the passion of a warrior for rights. He stood tall with a thick beard that added to his dignity. His body and soul carried the scars of childhood abuse that haunted him into his adult life.
Sam's life is recorded only in official documents and the records of his institutional history. His passing is shared among the community who knew him as one of the Forgotten Australians.
I had photographed both Aunty Pam and Sam. Both of them gazed into my lens with two very different stories of First Nations peoples that I will hold in sacred memory this weekend.
