Disinformation, algorithms, big data, care work, climate change, and cultural knowledge can all be invisible. This exhibition brings them to the light.
Vincent Namatjira’s Stand strong for who you are, acrylic on linen, 152 x 198 cm.
Photo: AGNSW/Mim Stirling
For the first time in its 99 year-history, the Archibald Prize has been won by an Indigenous painter. The Wynne and Sulman Prize winners also signal a time of change.
Despite case after case of systemic racism against Indigenous people, the AFL has not been able to rid itself of a problem that has caused so much grief to so many.
The sexist trolling of Tayla Harris (left) focused attention on the lack of online moderation by the AFL when it comes to women’s football.
Daniel Pockett/AAP
Consciousness-raising is a laudable goal for the AFL, but on race and gender issues, it needs to lead to clear actions, not just words.
Adam Goodes in The Australian Dream: in the film he talks of finding an identity in football and with The Sydney Swans.
Melbourne International Film Festival
A new film chronicling the impact of racism on Indigenous football star Adam Goodes is both a damning and hopeful portrait of contemporary Australia.
The AFL quickly aborted the deployment of Behavioural Awareness Officers to monitor unruly fans. But who should be making sure spectators don’t get out of control?
Rob Blakers/AAP
Barracking has been a colourful and controversial part of Australian Rules football since the game’s inception. Now, the AFL is trying to maintain order – and fans are irate.
Junior sports clubs in Australia have policies in place for handling racial taunting and vilification, but punishments are rarely enforced.
David Crosling/AAP
New research has found that racial vilification is a common occurrence in junior sport in Australia – and is rarely punished when it happens.
In a painting such as Warriors of New South Wales, 1813, we can easily imagine a group of men ready to take to the football field.
Australian War Memorial
Between the 1830s and the 1850s, hundreds of Indigenous warriors and dozens of British settlers were killed across south-east Australia. Echoes of that conflict recur in Aussie rules.
Ms Dhu died on 4 August 2014 from staphylococcal septicaemia.
Richard Wainwright/AAP
For Indigenous people, refusal is a powerful act of sovereignty. In Grand Final week, it’s timely to reflect on Adam Goodes’ refusal to accept racism in football or an official send off when he retired - and the repercussions of his stance, a year on.
It may not be comfortable or easy to do but racist abuse needs to be challenged in sport and our society.
Ben Macmahon/AAP
Sport can be a driver for change; it can make a difference in people’s lives and unify communities, particularly around national successes. But it can also create tensions and cause conflict.
Sport continues to be one of Australia’s most potent social lubricants.
AAP/David Crosling
Until we see a marked change in the stories that are told, together with a shift from inclusion to social justice, the national story of Australian sport will remain very, very white.
The Papunya elders who organised the event were less concerned about their team winning and more about ensuring each community got a fair go.
Barry Judd
If we can do anything that is remotely respectful it is to see Adam Goodes’ class not just as an Aboriginal or a man, but as an Australian.
While Adam Goodes is the public face of the debate, almost any Indigenous Australian can speak of the day-by-day experience of a lack of respect for who they are.
AAP/Paul Miller
For at least some Australians, it seems that Indigenous culture is acceptable only as an object of consumption for tourists visiting the remote north.
Yolngu men at Garma Festival in north-east Arnhem Land, painted in a Sydney Swans jersey with a number 37 to support embattled AFL star Adam Goodes.
AAP Image/Neda Vanovac
There are no examples of evidence being put forward by race theorists that a race other than the one they belong to is superior. That’s worth bearing in mind when it comes to ‘understanding’ racists.
Goodes did the right thing when he confronted a 13-year-old girl who called him an ape at a 2013 AFL game in Melbourne.
Twitter/Channel 7
Research Fellow, Institute for Health & Sport, member of the Community, Identity and Displacement Research Network, and Co-convenor of the Olympic Research Network, Victoria University
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne