Having lived in Redfern for 33 years I know what Adam Goodes means. It was impossible to walk more than 10 steps into Victoria Park before I started bumping into old friends, both black and white. It took quite a while to make it across the park to the main stage which over the years has showcased the huge range of music of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island cultures from across the country. Leah Flanagan, with her hauntingly beautiful voice, was playing her acoustic guitar when I arrived.
The acts on the main stage show a flourishing musical culture, while over in the Speak Out tent the day’s program tackled issues that still need to be addressed. Early in the afternoon, a panel discussed “The Double Whammy for Women? Racism and Sexism in Sport” with Marcia Ella, who in 1987 was the first Indigenous netball player to represent Australia. She was talking of the team deciding that a way to try to counter the lack of attention the media was paying to netball was to regularly turn up for training glamorously dressed in stilettos. Takisha Stanton spoke of the encouragement her uncle had given her in her dream to play rugby league. “He told me no man could take the pain of giving birth, so go and put your shoulder into it.”
Cathie Craigie facilitated a conversation about how Redfern has changed since the 1970s when the core Aboriginal organisations were founded. When Sol Bellear arrived in 1968 as a young man, it was just after the referendum to recognise Aboriginal people in the census. He said: “We were influenced by the Black Panthers and certainly Malcolm X and TV made us aware of what was happening.”
Donna Ingram spoke about how, as a child, she was always around, as older members of her family were working in Aboriginal organisations in Redfern. “I always said I’d never work in an Aboriginal organisation because it just seemed too hard … but then they tricked me. When I got a job at the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs as a typist I thought all I had to do was type, but of course you’re reading as you’re typing and then that sort of lit the flame when you knew about the stolen generations … I only learnt the true history when I was 19.”
Cathie Pittman has lived in Waterloo since her grandmother was able to purchase the house she still lives in back in the time that it was possible for tenants to purchase their own houses. “We managed to keep our ways so that our kids still like to play outside, which is something you don’t see with the newer people who’ve come to the area. You just don’t see their kids. “I want my grandkids to get the best education they can, but it’s my job to make sure they remember who they are and where they come from.”
While all had different memories and stories to tell about the past all agreed that the gentrification of Redfern was bringing changes that have irrevocably altered the area and it will be a struggle to retain Redfern’s Aboriginal heart.
