Whilst the saga surrounding Adam Goodes and his expression of his Indigenous heritage in the form of an Indigenous dance that some people found a little too Indigenous for the AFL‘s Indigenous Round continues to dominate football-related media this week, officials across the nation have been fairly unanimous in their support for Goodes.
Over the past weekend the media had an absolute field day with the issue, which inevitably lead to some short-sighted assessments (the sugar-coated term) of the whole issue.
In particular, Collingwood President and TV’s everywhere man Eddie McGuire was particularly vocal about his disapproval of the display. During half-time of the game between Sydney and Carlton, McGuire was a member of the Fox Footy panel that attempted – and missed the mark entirely – to dissect the incident, labelling it “violent,” “aggressive,” and an “act of war.”
McGuire himself stated that the dance had no validity whatsoever, due to the fact that it was a composed amalgam of numerous traditional tribal dances, put together as a unifying symbol by the national under 16 Indigenous Flying Boomerangs squad, and subsequently taught to Goodes.
“This is a made-up dance, this is not something that has been going on for years.”
‘Course if you really feel like splitting hairs on things, technically every dance is a made-up dance.
But today the NSW Upper House not only moved to back Goodes and the influence and work Indigenous athletes have contributed to the nation in the past, but they officially condemned McGuire in one of the most magnificently ‘Strayan ways possible.
The official motion first recognised and supported the actions of Goodes, as well as recognising the role sport and cultural expressions like the Indigenous war dance play in promoting knowledge and awareness of heritage and ending discrimination. It then went on to name the proud tradition of Indigenous Australian athletes, namechecking icons like Eddie Gilbert, Yvonne Goolagong, Lionel Rose, Nicky Winmar, Cathy Freeman, Nova Peris-Kneebone, and Syd Jackson, among others.
But the real good stuff came when the actual Upper House of the State Parliament of New South Wales ACTUALLY CONDEMNED Eddie McGuire for being, and we use the direct quote here:
“A continual boofhead.”
NSW Upper House passes motion condemning Eddie McGuire over Adam Goodes comments & for being ‘a continual boofhead.’ pic.twitter.com/yE9F09BPaH
— Lizzie Pearl (@lizziepearl) June 3, 2015
That is a real page committed to Hansard to be stored forevermore as the annals of our national history.
Sometimes politics can be a frightfully frustrating beast that tears at the very fabric of rationality and causes stress headaches across the nation.
But then there are times like this where it’s so goddamned beautiful I want to marry it.
Photo: Scott Barbour via Getty Images.
