'Australians love sport: playing it, watching it, talking it, reading about it. In one area - Aboriginal and Islander sport - we know only a fraction of the real achievements. A few outstanding men and women are household names: Lionel Rose in the ring, Evonne Goolagong-Cawley on the court, Cathy Freeman on the tartan track, Mal Meninga and Polly Farmer on the league and Aussie rules ovals. But there is so much more greatness and triumph out there, much of it buried in history or known to only a handful of fans'.
'Black Diamonds brings it together, for the first time, the 129 Indigenous Australians who comprise the first Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame. Representing 25 sports, from athletics and Aussie rules to tennis and woodchopping , their achievements are part of Australia's sporting history. Their stories are great stories: sometimes tragic, they are all triumphs over adversity.' (Source: Publishers website)
Black Gold: The Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame
Paul Tatz
(illustrator),
Canberra
:
Aboriginal Studies Press
,
2000
6917355
2000
multi chapter work
criticism
criticism
'In 1995, Professor Colin Tatz and a panel of sportspeople and historians selected 129 athletes for the inaugural Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame. Since then, 43 new stars have been inducted. Black Gold features all 172 members, from 30 sports. The chapters showcase our Olympic heroes, superb sportswomen, football giants, boxing legends, lightning sprinters and more — from darts champions to world class weightlifters and woodchoppers.'
'Some of the people in this book are members of the Stolen Generations who were raised in ‘assimilation’ homes but pursued their dreams against all odds. Many grew up in remote, impoverished settlements where ‘sports facilities’ were bumpy dirt tracks, scrubby pitches or dustbowl ovals with sticks for goalposts. Black Gold honours all who have leapt the twin hurdles of racism and competition to realise their talents in the elite arenas of national or international sport.' (Source: AIATSIS website)
'There is an increasing body of literature, and awareness, of the nature of deficit discourse and its contribution to the essentialising of Indigenous identity. Through an analysis of sports writing since the 1960s, this paper explores how such discourses can develop. Sport, however, has another attribute: it is the avenue by which Aborigines and Islanders have earned and demanded the respect of non-Aboriginal Australia; it has given them a sense of worth and pride, especially since they have had to overcome the twin burdens of racism and opposition on the field. It has shown Aborigines and Islanders that using their bodies is still the one and only way they can compete on equal terms with an often hostile, certainly indifferent, mainstream society (Tatz and Tatz 2000:33). In the aftermath of civil rights victories, the politics of 'victimhood' became the predominant methodology of black advocacy and the reigning paradigm of public policy thinking (Pearson 2007:26).' (Publication abstract)
'There is an increasing body of literature, and awareness, of the nature of deficit discourse and its contribution to the essentialising of Indigenous identity. Through an analysis of sports writing since the 1960s, this paper explores how such discourses can develop. Sport, however, has another attribute: it is the avenue by which Aborigines and Islanders have earned and demanded the respect of non-Aboriginal Australia; it has given them a sense of worth and pride, especially since they have had to overcome the twin burdens of racism and opposition on the field. It has shown Aborigines and Islanders that using their bodies is still the one and only way they can compete on equal terms with an often hostile, certainly indifferent, mainstream society (Tatz and Tatz 2000:33). In the aftermath of civil rights victories, the politics of 'victimhood' became the predominant methodology of black advocacy and the reigning paradigm of public policy thinking (Pearson 2007:26).' (Publication abstract)
