An Aboriginal perspective on blackface ~ Eurasian Sensation

11.10.12

An Aboriginal perspective on blackface ~ Eurasian Sensation: I've had a massive response to my post the other day quoting a black person's perspective on the Hey Hey It's Saturday blackface skit. (You can read it here.)Folks have been sending it around via Twitter and Livejournal, which I'm really happy about - good to see another example of how the new media can be used for positive social change.

After Mike Justice gave his perspective on the issue, he forwarded on to me a response from an indigenous woman giving her take on this business. I've also noticed an informative article by well-known indigenous Australian journalist Stan Grant, now working for CNN, adding some context for foreign readers. All of which is very timely, because a common argument used by many of the ignoramuses defending the blackface skit is that becase we don't have a history of blackface here, it therefore has no offensive connotations.

This is of course untrue, according to Jirra Lulla Harvey. She is a young indigenous community leader and artist, who has been previously awarded the National (Indigenous) Scholarship and two consecutive Undergraduate Indigenous Achievement Awards. She has been the Victorian Correspondent for the national Indigenous newspaper, The Koori Mail, while for her painting Jirra was named the 2004 NAIDOC Artist of the Year.