Our Musical Dispatch for today was first published on 10 June 2012. We republish it in two parts, the first today, the second next week. I shake my head as I re-read it, aghast that we white Australians still do not get it.
Siku njema wangu marafiki
Not all that long after the Suez Canal was reopened, when the sunken ships and debris from the Suez Crisis were cleared, the Johan van Oldenbarneveld passed through the canal on its way to Australia.
The ship briefly stopped at Port Said. It was the first and last time I stepped onto the African continent. I have a vague memory of seeing the broken statue of Ferdinand de Lesseps lying at the base of its pedestal.
Years later the memory was to be revived by television images of the staged tearing down of Sadam Hussein’s statue. That is when a North American soldier committed the diplomatic faux pas of wrapping the stars and stripes around the top of the statue, thereby telling the whole world ‘this is not a liberation but a conquest’. This in turn reminded me of one of the most iconic images from WWII, the flag raising at Iwo Jima.
When it comes to iconic images, Mervyn Bishop’s photo of Gough Whitlam pouring red soil into Vincent Lingiari’s hand takes some beating as a symbol of Australian Aborigines’ fight for Land Rights. This is a fight they are yet to win despite the hype surrounding the 20th Anniversary of the high court ‘Mabo’ decision. The Queen of Australia (no, I’m not talking about Priscilla) has just awarded the Order of Merit to our former Prime Minister John Howard. I wonder if this rare honour was bestowed on our former Prime Miniature for the damage he did to Australia’s social fabric during the more than a decade of his neo-conservative rule, or for the dismantling of ATSIC and his ‘ten point plan’ that emasculated Native Title.
To be concluded next Saturday.