My Rural Story | Week Seven | Sue Lenthall

said the highlight was York Island. And the people of York Island have always remembered, they love that music and they love the orchestra and for many of the people there it was the first time they’d actually heard it. So it was just great, I wish more of those things would happen. What have you experienced in remote Australia that has changed your world view? Probably the first one was being out at Doomadgee and not really realising that places like that existed. That was when Bjelke-Petersen was still in power in Queensland and the oppression was amazing. I think the last discriminatory laws had just been removed from the Queensland Legislation. But the people were so oppressed and there was a feeling that there were a lot of white people there who ran everything, this was in the early 80s. There was a strong sense amongst many of the white people that Aboriginal

people couldn’t do things. They just weren’t intelligent enough, or capable enough and I was really shocked at that. But also, I think over time, and maybe it wasn’t just one instance, it was learning from Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people that, I got brought up in Cairns which was fairly racist. Then realising that I carried some baggage and it was being challenged and taught by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that I really respected, that made me reflect on myself. And I try really hard not to recognise when any racist thoughts come up. But also, I’ve spent quite a lot of time now at University teaching people and one of my main areas I teach is about racism and how it works in society. I guess the ‘aha’ moment is, I’m not sure exactly when it happened but, I recognised how racist we were in Australia towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. And, I’ve worked against that, trying to do something about

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