The ugly emotion that dare not speak its name

The ugly emotion that dare not speak its name

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/the-ugly-emotion-that-dare-not-speak-its-name-20100924-15qkx.html

Some residents believe old passions and prejudices are returning to a
town, writes Saffron Howden.

September 25, 2010

There is a polite reserve among Moree residents that stretches back
through the decades to a time when Aborigines weren't welcome in the
town's stores. Locals will admit to disadvantage, funding shortfalls,
poor educational opportunities, rural poverty.

Yet few will speak the word that ripples beneath the day-to-day
existence of the dry, dusty community in northern NSW, where 20 per
cent of the population is indigenous.

Noeline Briggs-Smith, who grew up in one of Top Camp's tin sheds on
Moree's outskirts, has decided enough is enough. ''I think racism is
rearing its ugly head again here in Moree,'' the 70-year-old, a
respected Kamilaroi elder, said. ''I'm feeling, just like I did when
I was growing up as a child and having the experience how Aboriginal
people were treated back then, and I honestly feel that that is
happening again.''

She was a young woman when, in 1965, the Freedom Riders, led by a
young Charles Perkins, drove into town on their bus from Sydney.
Community elders were wary of the activist university students who
staged a protest at the town's famous hot bore baths, where
Aboriginal children were considered too unhygenic to bathe.

Townsfolk manhandled and spat on the protesters, then pelted them
with eggs and rotten fruit. A 19-year-old Jim Spigelman, now Chief
Justice of the NSW Supreme Court, ''was smacked to the ground while
the 500-strong crowd roared its approval'', the Mirror reported on
February 21 that year.

But the battle was won and, three months later, the council
begrudgingly threw out a local regulation banning Aborigines from the baths.

Ms Briggs-Smith wasn't there to see history being written in her
town. And the voice of her conservative elders still rings in her
head. ''I wasn't up there because the elders said: 'You keep away
from up there,' '' she said.

But she does remember the invisible bar across Moree shop doors. ''I
used to go into a butcher shop with my father and have to wait until
every white person had been served,'' she said. ''I wasn't allowed to
go into the pool, even though my parents owned their own home and paid rates.''

More than 45 years later, the genteel restraint and resignation lives
on in Moree.

When the Herald stopped by one afternoon to watch a Boomerangs
juniors training session at Taylor Oval - where Woolworths plans to
build a Big W discount store - the co-coach, Stan Smith, just shrugged.

"There's nothing we can do about it," he said of the development,
which would bury the century-old sportsground.

Ms Briggs-Smith has been resisting Woolworths' plans - which are
supported by the state government and Moree Plains Shire Council -
for more than five years. She is now on a personal crusade to save
the unique Northern Regional Library Indigenous Unit, where for 15
years she has been tracing family roots, collecting and archiving
photographs, writing histories and teaching Aboriginal children about
their culture.

The council was ''dismantling'' the service by de-funding it, she said.

While the Human Rights Commission considers her formal discrimination
complaint about the decline of the library service - it is now all
but closed - the council says it is working hard to ensure its fully
funded, autonomous future.

One of the main charges levelled at the council is that it has failed
to consult with the local indigenous community over the changes. It's
a charge a council spokesman does not deny. ''There's been no
concrete plan to talk to them about,'' he says.

The local National MP and Moree resident, Kevin Humphries, will not
use the word racist to describe his home town. But he would not deny
it either. ''To say it's racial is a cheap shot,'' he said.
''Everybody's racist. It's what you do with it that makes a
difference. It's part of our human psyche.''

Mr Humphries, who is also the NSW opposition's spokesman on
Aboriginal affairs and counts himself among Ms Briggs-Smith's
friends, said the issue was one of disadvantage, not race.

''Our community and a lot of communities in western NSW are more
divided on opportunities,'' he said. ''The gaps are in health
opportunities, education opportunities.

''Moree's a far, far more … integrated place today than it was 10
years ago … It doesn't matter whether you're black or white. Moree's
always been a symbol for change.''

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