Salute from the Poms? - One View of Aborigines and the Bicentennary

Abstract

Readers of this journal may have noted that in a recent issue of Australian Archaeology (No.26, p.111 ), the editors published a copy of a controversial editorial about Australian Aborigines. The editorial which originally appeared in The Sun newspaper in England, contained a series of inaccurate and unfounded allegations about Aborigines. It was the subject of a formal complaint by a number of people, among them the authors of this article. The complaint was adjudicated by the British Press Council and was upheld. On 11th July 1988, the Press Council found that the editorial was 'offensive, misleading and unacceptably racist' and demanded that The Sun print a retraction. It is rare to win such a complaint - in 1988 only 4% (52) of those received by the Press Council were upheld. In this article we present a brief description of our complaint, outlining a number of interesting points about the case. These are firstly, that the material in dispute was published only in Britain and not in Australia, despite the fact that The Sun is owned by a well-known Australian expatriate - Rupert Murdoch, who also owns many Australian newspapers. Secondly, The Sun , in attempting to defend itself against the complaints, enlisted the help of Professor Geoffrey Blainey. Since Professor Blainey has no recent academic publications in the field of Aboriginal studies, then it seems his main qualifications for the position of The Sun' s expert witness must be as follows. Firstly, he is a regular contributor to Murdoch's Australian newspapers, particularly The Australia. Secondly, soon after The Sun' s editorial appeared, he published a personal view on Aborigines and the Bicentennary in a British newspaper, The Sunday Telegraph. This article, which is reproduced here, although not as outrageous as The Sun 's efforts, nonetheless contains material which would be challenged by researchers in the field of Aboriginal studies. We note that it too, was not published in Australia.