A political cartoon portraying an Aboriginal man with a beer can and not remembering his son’s name is an “attack” on Indigenous Australians, a community leader says.
The cartoon by Bill Leak was published by The Australian newspaper on Thursday, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day.
Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency chief executive Muriel Bamblett said it depicted Aboriginal people as “not knowing about their children and not having any role in raising their children”.
“You feel quite oppressed when these things happen, I think that we everyday have to battle with direct racism and indirect racism,” she told 774 ABC Melbourne.
“In the media, I think they have a public responsibility. That’s obviously one of the opportunities to get good messaging about Aboriginal people.
“But if you’re constantly stereotyping us as second class then it’s about profiling us as second-class citizens in our own country.”
Ms Bamblett said she would speak with outgoing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda about the cartoon.
“I’m going to ring Mick Gooda later today … and talk to him about how we can actually take some action to stop this kind of constant attack on Aboriginal people because most Australians would not condone that,” she said.
“Most people would stand behind Aboriginal people and support Aboriginal people.”
In 2006, one of Leak’s cartoons sparked controversy between the Australian and Indonesian governments over West Papua.
The Australian Press Council confirmed it had received a complaint about the cartoon.
The Australian has been contacted for comment.
This post originally appeared on ABC News.
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Top Comments
The subject of indigenous disadvantage including the most severe outcome of that disadvantage being the alarming numbers of indigenous kids in detention is complex. There are no easy answers and no easy fixes. The cartoon is racist. Humour works best when it punches up, not down - sorry white males. Having said all of that, I am in agreement with a number of commentators who point to the very serious tragedy occurring, in particular in remote and regional indigenous communities, concerning children. I have seen some of it up close and seen one of the symptoms being alarming rates of indigenous youth suicide. Words can't really describe it properly. I don't have the answers, but I do care. I also care about the demoralizing effect of this cartoon (and the response to it) on indigenous people who are doing their best to change the situation. I also think that the cartoon doesn't help the crappy parents change their behavior in any way so what is the point. Shouldn't we, as a society be offering a hand up not a slap down?
Cartoons are not necessarily all about humour.
It's a sad cartoon for two reasons, one because there is of course some well documented truth to it in a minority of Aboriginal communities, and worse because in the vast majority of Aboriginal communities - this is not happening. So every time a cartoon like this gets published, Aboriginal people are being tarred with this same brush, having to put up with this horrific stereotype about them being perpetuated ad infinitum, and the institutional racism that comes with it.
Worst of all, it's a lazy cartoon, that's been done to death, that adds nothing but meanness to an entrenched societal problem, caused by us, that has no easy answers now. It's not even clever.