CASE STUDY: SYDNEY 2000

The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics contain many lessons for anti-Olympics organizers in Canada due to similarities to Australia (i.e., Indigenous peoples and lands, British colonization, hi-tech industrial society, low population density, etc.). Foremost among the lessons to be learned are the responses of Aboriginal peoples to the Sydney Olympics, the exploitation of Aboriginal culture by Olympic organizers, and the co-optation of Aboriginals into the Olympic industry.

“By the end of the 1990s, Indigenous issues and race relations—specifically the barriers to reconciliation between Black and White Australians—were commanding attention in many sectors of Australian society. As the Olympics approached, it was in government and Olympic industry interests to downplay White Australia’s long and brutal history of racism toward aboriginal peoples, and to package ‘Aboriginality’ as a recognized and celebrated component of Australia’s ‘multiculture’.”
(The Best Olympics Ever? p. 67)

“We were particularly keen to have the support of the Aboriginal community… We knew we would also have to be prepared to answer questions about race relations in Australia…”
(Rod McGeoch, member of Sydney Olympics bid committee, 1994, quoted in The Best Olympics Ever? p. 78)

Background
Australia is an ancient land with some of the oldest human (Indigenous) culture in the world. The land & people were colonized by the British, beginning in 1788 with the first colonial settlement. Today, the total population of Australia is some 20 million, with some 200,000 Aboriginals (2 % of the total population). Australia was first used by the British as a penal colony. The early period of colonization was characterized by violent conflict, inc. massacres of Indigenous peoples.

Main Aboriginal issues leading up to 2000 Sydney Olympics: land rights, end to mandatory sentencing and Aboriginal deaths in custody, compensation for the stolen generation, along with related problems of poverty, unemployment, poor health, housing, etc.

Land Rights & Title
Australia was first colonized by the British beginning in 1788 with the first settlement, based on legal fiction of terra nullius—that no one claimed ownership of the land prior to colonization.
“It was not until 1992 that the Australian High Court’s Mabo judgment ruled that a native title to land existed in 1788 and may continue to exist under certain conditions. The Native Title Act (1993) provided for Indigenous peoples to claim ownership of their land, unless title had been extinguished under a subsequent act of government, provided they could show geographic and genealogical evidence of their ongoing observance of traditional laws and customs—itself a difficult task for people with oral traditions and for those whose land was taken over in the 18th or 19th centuries. Native title legislation met with considerable opposition from non-Indigenous Australians, particularly those who viewed it as a threat to profitable mining or other resource-based industries.”
(The Best Olympics Ever? p. 68)

In 1996, a conservative government took power, under Prime Minister John Howard. In an overall right-wing climate, these small gains made in native title were reduced or even reversed. In December 1996, the High Court’s Wik judgment determined that native title could coexist with other rights on land held under a pastoral base. In 1998, the Native Title Amendment Act diluted the original 1993 act, prompting the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) to issue a warning on Australia’s racial policies. These decisions also caused concern among Aboriginals.
“Speaking to the UN Working Group on Indigenous Peoples in July 1999, Aboriginal leader Les Malexer called on other national governments to reconsider their support for Sydney 2000 unless Native Title laws were changed… For his part, Minister for Aboriginal affairs, John Herron, criticized the UN’s monitoring of what he termed a ‘sensitive domestic issue’…”
(The Best Olympics Ever? p. 68)

Imprisonment and Deaths in Custody
Over-representation of Aboriginals in prison as well as deaths in custody have been a long and ongoing concern of Native peoples in Australia.
“In the Northern Territory… Indigenous adults made up 28 % of the total population but 72.8 % of the prison population… The problem of high numbers of aboriginal deaths in custody had been the subject of a Royal Commission inquiry that began in 1987, after many years of Indigenous community organizing… included in its findings [released in 1991] was the fact that, in the period 1981-1991, 99 deaths had been recorded. In 1997, Mick Dodson, federal aboriginal Social Justice Commissioner, stated that aboriginal people would use the Olympics to draw international attention to the issue: ‘If our people continue to die as the year 2000 approaches, we’ll make damn sure the whole world knows about it.’
“Indigenous people did continue to die in custody—110 between the 1991 Royal Commission report and 2000—and the risk of dying in police or prison custody was 22 times greater than for non-Aboriginal people.”
(The Best Olympics Ever? p. 69)

The problems of deaths in custody was exacerbated after the introduction of mandatory sentencing legislation in several states, involving mandatory prison terms for certain crimes, as well as a ‘three strikes’ system for re-offenders.

Stolen Generation
Between 1910 and 1970, some 100,000 Aboriginal children had been forcefully removed from their families and placed in church-run institutions or white foster homes (similar to policies in Canada and the US). These children, dispossessed of their culture, families, community and land, were known as the Stolen Generation. As a result of a national inquiry, a report had been released documenting this genocide in 1997. In the four years following release of the report, the government provided some $54 million in funding, mostly to health and senior’s care. Yet, the Howard government refused to issue an official apology, which could make the state liable to widespread claims for compensation.

Aboriginal Cooptation into Sydney Olympics
“As the Olympic year approached, it was obviously in the government’s best interests to counter the image of White Australian racism…”
(The Best Olympics Ever? p. 72)

Three issues (land rights, imprisonment and deaths in custody, and the Stolen Generation) became the main points around which Aboriginals organized during the time of the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and which shaped their responses leading up to the Games.

As in BC, tourism is an important industry in Australia and was an especially important aspect of the 2000 Olympics:
“Tourism not only constituted Australia’s major source of foreign exchange earnings, but was, of course, a key factor in promised Olympic benefit. As later comparisons pointed out, the 1996 Atlanata Olympics were held in a city with twenty million people within a five-hour drive, whereas, with Australia’s total population only 18.7 million, Sydney 2000’s success depended on overseas tourists.”
(The Best Olympics Ever? p. 71)

In order to promote tourism, the public image of Australia had to be tightly managed. An important part of recasting the racist Australian government as pro-Native was the exploitation of Aboriginal culture and the co-optation of some Aboriginal peoples & organizations into the Olympic industry. SOCOG manager for Aboriginal Affairs presented Sydney 2000 as
“An opportunity to show the world the rich culture of Australia’s Indigenous people… [by encouraging] employment, promotional, business, and cultural design and ceremonial opportunities…”
(The Best Olympics Ever? p. 72)

The idea of exploiting Indigenous culture for the Sydney Olympics was an early one:
“In the late 1980s, when the Melbourne committee bidding for the1996 Olympics had discovered that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ‘loved the Aboriginal angle’, it located an Aboriginal digeridoo player to perform at every official function. And when Samaranch [IOC President] requested a dot-style painting that incorporated the Olympic rings, the bid committee found an artist to produce one…”
(The Best Olympics Ever? p. 78)

As the bid competition increased, so too did Australia’s exploitation of Aboriginal culture:
“Indigenous people were represented in the bid process team and enshrined in the bid. Sydney’s seven-minute part in the closing ceremonies at the 1996 Atlanta Games also featured ‘Aboriginality’, with Indigenous people playing didgeridoos. The official Sydney logo has incorporated a boomerang into its design and the Sydney Olympic torch is inspired by the shape of a boomerang… The Australian leg of the torch relay will begin at a sacred Indigenous site, Uluru, and the first torchbearer will be Indigenous Olympic gold medalist, Nova Peris-Kneebone.”
(Reconciliation in Olympism: Indigenous culture in the Sydney Olympiad, p. 15)

These efforts were not to co-opt Aboriginals into the Olympic industry, but simply to exploit their culture for promotional purposes. Nevertheless, they also served to portray a (false) image of Native involvement, support, and equality. One Aboriginal criticized the Sydney Olympic’s exploitation of Native culture as a continuation of colonialism:
“The selection and display of images of Australia’s Indigenous peoples is consistent with fundamental assumptions and stereotypes of race relations in Australia. Indigenous cultures are distilled into a narrow definition of ‘real aboriginal culture’. These aboriginal stereotypes are permitted because… they do not challenge the fundamental power relations between peoples of privilege and peoples of disadvantage.”
(Darren Godwell, Aboriginal activist quoted in Inside the Olympic Industry, p. 150)

Direct co-optation of Aboriginal people & groups was carried out largely through government & Olympic funding. High profile Aboriginals were hired as promoters and token representatives of Aboriginal involvement. To do this they used not only Aboriginals from government-funded organizations, but even at times those from grassroots Indigenous movements. This co-optation effort increased as levels of anger among Indigenous peoples rose in the decade prior to 2000:
“Throughout the 1990s, there were divergent views among Indigenous people on the question of Olympic boycotts. Shortly after the IOC announcement that the Sydney bid had been successful, some Aboriginal leaders threatened a boycott to force the Australian government to revise its land rights legislation… There was support for demonstrations and boycotts at a 1993 meeting of seven hundred Indigenous leaders in Canberra where native title issues were discussed.”
(The Best Olympics Ever? p. 79)

“In 1992, the NSW [New South Wales] Aboriginal Land Council gave its support for the bid, while the Aboriginal Legal Service announced a campaign to oppose the bid as a protest against the treatment of NSW Aborigines, and called on the IOC to disqualify Australia. Shortly after, another prominent activist, Burnham Burnham, spoke out in favour of the bid and volunteered to promote it around the world.
“Following discussions of Native Title legislation at a 1993 meeting of seven hundred Aboriginal… in Canberra, it was reported that there support for demonstrations & boycotts. Aboriginal activist Charles Perkins, who had been involved in the bid process, called for an alternative Aboriginal Olympics in 2000 because of SOCOG’s failure to include any aborigine on its board. SOCOG appointed its first Manager of Aboriginal Affairs , Steve Comeagain, in 1994…
“It was not until late 1997, in the face of continued threats of boycotts, that SOCOG announced the establishment of a National Indigenous Advisory Committee (NIAC)… NIAC met with Olympic organizers four times per year to ‘advise’ on Aboriginal… issues and involvement and cultural appropriateness…”
(Inside the Olympic Industry, pp. 150-151)

In 1998, Mick Dodson, the federal Aboriginal Social Justice Commissioner, stated that Aborigines would use the Olympics to publicize the ongoing problem of Aboriginal deaths in custody:
“If our people continue to die as the year 2000 approaches, we’ll make damn sure the whole world knows about it.”
(quoted in Inside the Olympic Industry, p. 151)

“Faced with the possibility of well-known Indigenous athletes such as Cathy Freeman and Nova Peris-Kneebone boycotting the Games, SOCOG appointed several prominent athletes, including Kneebone, tennis star Evonne Goolagong Cawley, and Charles Perkins, a former soccer player, to NIAC… By late 1998, however, NIAC was threatening mass resignation. A vacancy on SOCOG’s board [following a resignation] was filled, not by an Aborigine, but by another White Australian… Perkins [and others] accused SOCOG of tokenism in creating NIAC and failing to take black issues, including boycott threats, seriously. The Carpentaria Land Council again called for a boycott and warned of protests in Sydney streets, while others planned mass demonstrations on the airport runways when the Games began…”
(Inside the Olympic Industry, p. 152)

To many, the hiring of Aboriginals into Olympic organizing positions was a fairly obvious attempt to co-opt Indigenous people. It seems to have worked easiest on Aboriginal athletes such as Freeman & Kneebone, as well as those from government-funded groups. However, it also attracted several well-known Aboriginal activists. Overall, co-optation had a divisive effect on Indigenous communities:
“Equally important in the Australian context was the recruitment of Aboriginal leaders into government bureaucracies, and critics were quick to identify the tokenism at work when Olympic organizers recruited men and women from government-subsidized Indigenous organizations… which, they claimed, were not genuinely representative of their people or respectful of traditional Aboriginal laws and protocols. Moreover, Aboriginal participation in, and potential co-potation by, the Olympic industry frequently produced political disagreements... In these kinds of situations, Aboriginal solidarity suffered serious damage, while the Olympic Coordination Authority (OCA) and SOCOG maintained their reputation as organizations that had at least attempted to be inclusive.”
(The Best Olympics Ever? p.75)

“Indigenous activists such as Sykes and Gary Foley identified the divisions [as being] between traditional & urban Aboriginal peoples, and between political activists and government bureaucrats… “
(The Best Olympics Ever? p. 75)

By 1999, it appears that efforts to co-opt Indigenous organizations had largely paid off:
“In August 1999, mainstream media reported that many Indigenous leaders had decided to abandon the boycott plans, and instead to use the opportunity provided by the Olympics to draw world attention to the Australian government’s treatment of their people.”
(The Best Olympics Ever? p. 79)

This shifting of any oppositional focus from the Olympic industry (or anti-colonial or anti-capitalist) to raising public awareness of conditions for Aboriginal peoples was coined the ‘Shame Games’ by media.
Despite its efforts at co-optation, which had had considerable success, the government continued to antagonize Aboriginals with provocative statements & policies. Just months prior to the Olympics, the Aboriginal affairs minister reported to a senate committee on the Stolen Generation that no such thing existed, and that only 10 % of Aboriginal children were ‘separated’ from their families. Then the Minister for family & community services accused Aboriginal people planning Olympic protests of being ‘unAustralian’.

Aboriginal Anti-Olympic Opposition
The attitude and public statements by government officials caused (once again) widespread anger amongst Aboriginals. Charlie Perkins, then a hi-profile Aboriginal rights activist, made sensational headlines when he claimed there would be riots & burning cars in the street during the Olympics as a result. Despite his rhetoric, Perkins himself had been a member of the bid committee and had helped Sydney win the Olympic Games.
The Metropolitan Aboriginal Lands Council (MALC), a government-funded organizing body, seems typical of much of the Aboriginal response to the Sydney Olympics. MALC portrayed itself as both pro- and anti-Olympic. It worked directly with SOCOG and was eventually contracted to organize the Aboriginal art and cultural venue at one of the Olympic sites. It also stated it would hold large protests during the Olympics to draw world attention to Australia’s treatment of Aboriginals:
“MALC chair Munro’s public statements left no doubt that she was a strong critic of the Howard government and Olympics minister Michael Knight… In May 2000, at a meeting of 188 NSW land councils, MALC was given the mandate to coordinate Aboriginal protests during the Games. But, like many Indigenous groups, MALC emphasized that they did not want their protests to detract from Aboriginal athletes Olympic achievements, or to convey anti-Olympic messages.”
(The Best Olympics Ever? p. 76)

Some grassroots anti-Olympic organizers (both Indigenous & non-Indigenous) had high hopes for Aboriginal protests:
“Speaking at the inaugural meeting of the Anti-Olympic Alliance (AOA) [in May 2000], Jackson predicted that thousands of Aboriginal protesters would be converging on Sydney… He referred to the 1988 precedent when huge numbers had protested the Bicentennial ‘celebration’… Just two weeks after the AOA meeting… an unprecedented number of Australians—up to 250,000-- marched across Sydney Harbor Bridge in support of reconciliation [between Aboriginals & White Australians).”
(The Best Olympics Ever? p. 82)

Aboriginal Tent Embassy: Protest camps, often called Tent Embassy’s, have been used by Aboriginal organizers in Australia since the early 1970s. A tent embassy was also a central part of the 2000 Olympic protests (although in the end it was largely co-opted).
The original Tent Embassy was established in Canberra in 1972 as an assertion of Aboriginal sovereignty. It gained national & international attention and drew thousands of visitors. The camp lasted 6 months based on an old 1927 incident in which two Elders had pitched camp on the same site and won a legal case that exempted Aboriginals from restrictions placed on camping on ‘Crown’ land. In 1972, after 6 months of the tent embassy, however, this law was changed. Police subsequently evicted the camp, using violent force to evict them (widely broadcast by media).
In 1992, the tent embassy was re-established in Canberra and has been maintained ever since. In 1995, the embassy was recognized by the Aboriginal Heritage Commission as a site of special cultural significance.
On July 14, 2000, a tent embassy was established in Sydney. Eleven days later, city council charged the group with unlawful occupation of the park, demanding that the group agree to abide by bylaws and conditions in order to remain. This struggle eventually went through the courts, and the city council agreed to allow the tent embassy to remain in Victoria Park. By September, the camp comprised some 150 people.
“It was generally believed that fear of negative international media coverage during the Olympics was the key factor that forced South Sydney Council to back down. Indeed, just as the international viewing audience was led to believe that Indigenous content in the opening and closing ceremonies signified progress toward reconciliation, many (non-Indigenous) international visitors saw the existence of the embassy as evidence that human rights, including the right to peaceful protest, were not under threat during the Olympics.”
(The Best Olympics Ever? p. 85)

Police made daily visits to the park and monitored participants. Of particular concern to police were protesters associated with the Melbourne September 11 protests against the World Economic Forum, and those with the Anti-Olympic Alliance. The camp was also believed to be infiltrated by undercover police.
Although the Tent Embassy had been involved in anti-Olympic organizing, and had held meetings with other Aboriginal as well as non-Aboriginal anti-Olympic groups, it made an abrupt reversal just days before the Olympics were to begin:
“Original plans for the tent embassy to serve as the assembly point for the mass protest march were changed at the last minute by embassy leaders, in what was probably another example of White authorities successful divide-conquer strategies on two fronts: between Indigenous and non-Indigenous protesters, and between more radical and less radical aboriginal people.”
(The Best Olympics Ever? p. 86)

“Negotiations between AOA and the tent embassy proved complicated. Initially, AOA representatives, including Indigenous Student’s Network member Kim Bullimore, had asked Isobell Coe [tent embassy organizer & elder] for permission to hold the September 15 rally at the embassy, which would serve as the starting point for a mass protest march… In an unexpected move on September 11, Coe circulated an urgent media release declaring that the embassy had not consented to any anti-Olympic protest, It went on to state that organizers had sought legal advice concerned alleged ‘unauthorized use of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy name along with names of supporters and traditional elders for the Anti-Olympic rally.”
(The Best Olympics Ever? p. p. 86)

“By this time, embassy organizers were emphasizing the peace and healing functions of the camp over political protest, and were publicly disassociating themselves from any Indigenous or non-indigenous groups with a stated anti-Olympic position.”
(The Best Olympics Ever? p. 86)

Other Aboriginal Protests: On June 10, 2000, the Aboriginal Walk for Peace set off from South Australia’s Lake Eyre. It traveled over 3,000 km, through small country towns and cities. After 72 days, the walk was welcomed into the Canberra tent embassy. On September 2, the walk reached Sydney. For the next six weeks, the group met with Aboriginal communities and land councils. This group appears closely connected to the Tent Embassy crowd
On September 10, the MALC held a protest near Sydney airport. This was one of the few protests that received police approval (it was apparently far enough away from actual Olympic venues) but it failed to attract large numbers of people.
On September 14 in Sydney, the Anti-Olympic Alliance (AOA) organized a protest against the Olympic torch. About two hundred people participated, chanting slogans against the Olympics as the relay runners passed by.
On September 15, 2000, the day of the opening ceremonies, police met with organizers of the Tent Embassy including Isobell Coe. A traditional smoking ceremony was held, and police issued a statement about ‘new beginnings’. Coe and others, leaders of the Walk for Peace and the embassy, drew attention to conditions for Aboriginal peoples and called on Howard’s government to issue an official apology for the stolen generations. Other Aboriginal speakers were described as visibly angry, targeting not only the government but also,
“voicing their criticism of highly paid Aboriginal bureaucrats who, they alleged, had sold out. Overall, little was said about the actual Olympics—in Coe’s words, ‘what we are going to start here is bigger than the actual Olympics’…”
(Inside the Olympic Industry, p. 208)

Others, including the ISJA, criticized the meeting & ceremony involving the same police that “constantly harass… imprison, bash and intimidate Indigenous people.”
(Inside the Olympic Industry, p. 209)

Later that day, two Aboriginal groups with supporters, totaling about 500, marched from Redfern and the Tent Embassy to Hyde Park, and then on to John Howard’s office. At a later public meeting on September 20 to discuss Aboriginal rights & activism, there was general demoralization concerning the September 15 rally:
“[Ray] Jackson called the Olympics a ‘missed opportunity’ to campaign for Indigenous rights, although the international media’s pre-Olympic coverage of the Tent Embassy and Peace Walk had been quite extensive. On the general issue of reconciliation, it was suggested that many non-Indigenous people who participated in the May 28 Harbor Bridge walk for reconciliation may have believed they had made their statement to the Howard government—in unprecedented numbers by Australian standards—and that no more protest marches were needed, especially during the Olympics. Several speakers called for a return to mass direct action strategies… They also identified the need for goals and vision, strong leadership, and alliances rather than divisions between groups. It was clear that coalition-building had been hampered, on the one hand, by racism within non-Indigenous groups, and on the other hand, by Indigenous groups’ internal political differences.”
(Inside the Olympic Industry, p. 209)

A reporter for the Australian corporate newspaper, The Times, noted the effect Indigenous co-optation had on non-Aboriginal anti-Olympic resistance:
“If the pledge from Aboriginal leaders to head peaceful protests during the Olympic Games in Sydney came as a relief to organizers, the promise yesterday of various campaign groups not to steal the limelight from the indigenous people of Australia was cause for celebration among those responsible for security during the biggest sports event in the world.
“The Campaign Against Corporate Tyranny in Unity and Solidarity (CACTUS), campaigning against Olympic sponsors Nike, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, told reporters in Sydney today that it plans to join indigenous rights protesters outside the opening ceremony of the Games on September 15. However, it is among many campaigning groups which believe that aboriginal protests must take precedence.”
(“Aborigines plan peaceful protests,” The Times, August 7, 2000)

At the closing ceremonies, the Australian band Midnight Oil, longtime supporters of Aboriginal peoples, performed while wearing black shirts with the word ‘Sorry’ in white prominently displayed. This incident caused controversy and was a reported source of embarrassment for the government, but its effect was minimal:

“By the end of September 2000, the ‘symbolic reconciliation’ presented to the world through the Olympic ceremonies and cultural programs was the only evidence of change on the race relation issue. The popular (White) notion that the mere hosting of the Olympic Games would help ameliorate social problems facing Indigenous people was, of course, flawed. Indigenous activists and their allies, however, had more realistic goals: to capitalize on the opportunity that Sydney 2000 provided to draw international attention to the Howard government’s shameful record on reconciliation and related issues. But the limited capacity of progressive individuals and groups to work together in coalition on Olympic-related issues—a challenge for both the fragmented non-Indigenous groups that constituted the Australian left, and for the politically diverse Indigenous community—was further undermined by police, government, and Olympic industry officials.”
(The Best Olympics Ever? p. 87)

Lenskyj describes some of the difficulties groups faced in organizing anti-Olympic resistance, comparing the protests in Sydney with those in Melbourne on Sept. 11 against the World Economic Forum summit. In Melbourne, groups had a 3 day period on which to focus, rather than a 3-week long spectacle. She also touches on there being two ‘distinct agendas’ concerning Indigenous struggles:
“[T]he groups organizing protests in Sydney had (at least) two distinct agendas that often proved incompatible: first, to use the opportunity provided by the Olympics to draw world attention to the government’s history of oppression of Indigenous people, while not detracting from or criticizing the Olympics… and second, to mount a critique of the Olympic Games in terms of the government’s misguided spending priorities, the unfettered power of multinational corporations… With various protest actions taking place for at least six months before the Games, it was difficult to maintain momentum and energy. Finally, the diverse groups involved in the general Olympic-related protest efforts held markedly different positions, not only in their political analyses, but also in their preferred modes of protest.”
(Inside the Olympic Industry, p. 206)

The following article, written two months after the anti-Olympics protests by a member of the Australian group Socialist Alternative, sheds some light on how state-funded Indigenous organizations were used by government to divide & undermine Indigenous & non-Indigenous resistance:
What happened to Aboriginal protests at the Olympics?
Socialist Alternative edition 46, November 2000
Diane Fieldes
Less than six months after hundreds of thousands marched across the Harbour Bridge for reconciliation, only 500 gathered at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on the morning of the Olympic opening ceremony [Sept. 15], and only half of those got out on the street and marched to Howard's office in the city. The anti-Olympic rally near Homebush that afternoon drew only a few dozen. Why? Our rulers worked overtime to try to stop any demonstrations that would undermine the "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, oi, oi!" mentality during the Games.
First there was legislation like the NSW Olympics Arrangement Act, which made even the act of leafleting, or being otherwise "inconvenient and annoying", a crime. Then Howard backed it up with new defence powers allowing the army to "shoot to kill" demonstrators.
But these powers were also aimed at the S11 protests, and didn't stop them being a great success. Alongside the intimidation went an avalanche of nationalism from every media outlet from ABC radio to the tabloid press, telling us how great "our" Games were going to be for all Australians.
In addition, none of the "official" leaders of the Aboriginal movement – Lowitja O'Donoghue, Noel Pearson, Geoff Clark etc. - ever had any intention of coming to demos against the Olympics. However, as well as lack of support from the established leadership there were other problems.
Both the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council and the Aboriginal Tent Embassy had earlier talked about anti-Olympic actions as a way of focusing attention on racism and Aboriginal resistance.
The Anti-Olympic Alliance and the Indigenous Student Network tried to link in with these concerns to build a rally of thousands, and to make the connection between the corporate greed that the Olympics embody, and the corporate beneficiaries of Aboriginal dispossession.
However, it soon became clear that repressive laws and nationalist media are not the only weapons available to our rulers to silence dissent. By July it was obvious that the Metropolitan Land Council were not going to be part of any anti-Olympic actions.
$350,000 from the Olympic Coordination Authority had bought their participation in the official Indigenous Arts and Cultural Pavilion, and a guarantee of no anti-Olympic protests. Instead, the Metropolitan Land Council called an Aboriginal rights rally at the same time as that to be held at the Tent Embassy on the day of the opening ceremony.
No-one offered the people at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy any money, but divide and rule tactics were still in operation.
Those at the Embassy were threatened with eviction by South Sydney Council and the police soon after they arrived in Victoria Park in July. They tried to appease the Council and the cops by saying that they were not against the Olympics.
On 11 September the Tent Embassy issued a press release completely dissociating themselves from any anti-Olympic actions, and saying that no such actions were to take place at Victoria Park. Yet this was the only anti-Olympic action that had been widely advertised.
The NSW police must get the gold medal for successful use of divide and rule tactics in this case. To win their struggles, Australia's 400,000 Aboriginal people (two per cent of the population) need solidarity from non-indigenous people.
But, faced with a choice between the white activists in the Anti-Olympic Alliance and the white cops, the Tent Embassy elders made a disastrous mistake.
They chose the cops, who patrolled the camp at night, spreading their message to do nothing about the Olympics as "what the elders want". These are the same cops who were undoubtedly talking to Aboriginal communities throughout NSW to discourage people from coming to Sydney.
The cops launched their attacks on activists like the Anti-Olympic Alliance, or those who had been at S11, from behind their new-found "respect for Aboriginal elders" (notably absent from all other police dealings with Aborigines!).
The logic of this choice was clear when respected Aboriginal elder Isabell Coe literally embraced Police Commissioner Peter Ryan at the rally at the Tent Embassy, while saying that anyone who took to the streets would not be welcome back at the Embassy.
Ultimately, these are the politics of powerlessness, of accepting that Aboriginal people can only do what the government or the cops will allow.
Yet the high points of indigenous struggle, such as the founding of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in 1972, have always involved standing up to the government and their laws, and doing so alongside as many non-indigenous supporters as possible.

Conclusions
The anti-Olympic movement in Sydney appears to have been undermined to an extent by the abrupt withdrawals of support and collaboration by some Aboriginal groups. This, in turn, had a demoralizing & confusing effect on others hoping that Aboriginal resistance would be at the forefront and that it would mobilize large numbers.
At various times, Aboriginal leaders & organizations attempted to use Olympic leverage for their agenda, threatening huge protests and militant actions. This appears to have been especially vocal in the early 1990s. Most of this, as it turned out, was just rhetoric.
The state-funded Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council (MALC) attempted to play both sides of the fence, ultimately working for the Olympics while undermining Indigenous & other social movements. Its involvement in Olympic opposition seems to have confused and misdirected the movement, diluting it down to a public relations campaign that failed to mobilize large numbers of Aboriginals.
It is unclear what relations exist between the Tent Embassy/Walk for Peace and government agencies, however, the actions of the Tent Embassy on September, 15, 2000 appear to have arisen (at a minimum) from fear and capitulation to police, undermining other social movements (including Indigenous) on the crucial day of the opening ceremonies. As Diane Fieldes notes, this was the only large protest organized for that day.
One effect of collaboration & co-optation of Aboriginals was to re-shift resistance from any anti-Olympic/anti-capitalist/anti-colonial analysis to that of simply raising awareness about Indigenous conditions (the ‘Shame Games’ to create international & political pressure on the Australian government). This occurred under the pretext of seeking ‘reconciliation’ and healing while disassociating from any ‘political’ or anti-Olympic messages.
The concept of ‘Reconciliation’ was widely promoted by government officials & corporate media, a factor which helped in the large rallies in May, 2000. It is unknown to what extent this campaign involved government funding of Aboriginal groups (as would/will occur in Canada).
The failure of this strategy (the ‘Shame Games’) can be seen in the February 2004 Redfern riots in Sydney, sparked after the killing of Thomas ‘TJ’ Hickey, a 17-year old Aboriginal youth chased by police and who died after being impaled on a spiked fence. Outrage from the community, a ghetto area with a high percentage of Aboriginals, resulted in street fighting involving rocks, bottles, and Molotov cocktails being thrown at riot police, of whom 40 were injured.
A suburb of Sydney, Macquarie Fields, also saw large riots following the deaths of two youths after a high-speed police chase of their stolen car, in February 2005. Hundreds of youths from the impoverished area fought with police, burning cars and throwing Molotovs at police. 55 were arrested.
In 2007, the Australian government declared a ‘national emergency’ in the Northern Territory, using the pretext of rampant sexual abuse, pornography, and alcoholism, in Aboriginal communities. Military & police forces were deployed into some 60 towns and villages, headed by Major-General Dave Chalmers of the Australian Defense Force. Under the emergency provisions, youths under 16 were to be required to undergo compulsory medical checks for sexual abuse. Alcohol & pornography were banned. Welfare payments were cut in half, with seized portions transferred to food & clothing vouchers. Forced labour was imposed under a ‘work-for-welfare’ scheme. Security forces were authorized to enter residences without warrants and to control access to government-funded computers.
In what some termed a ‘land grab’ by the government, the permit system—which enabled Indigenous communities to restrict access to their lands, was scrapped. Business managers were placed in charge of all public housing and government enterprises.
The Northern Territory is comprised of some 27.8 % Indigenous peoples, while almost 90 % of the prisoner population were Indigenous (according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2006 census).

The ‘Shame Games’ did not create political pressure for reforms, and in fact the weak response from Aboriginals to the Olympics may have not only perpetuated their oppressed conditions, they may have emboldened the colonial state to take even more regressive actions.

Sources

Inside the Olympic Industry; Power, Politics and Activism, by Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, State University of New York Press, Albany NY 2000

Reconciliation in Olympism: Indigenous culture in the Sydney Olympiad, M. Hanna, Walla Walla Press, Sydney 1999

The Best Olympics Ever? Social Impacts of Sydney 2000, by Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, State University of New York Press, Albany NY 2002

National Aboriginal Alliance, www.nationalaboriginalalliance.org (Australia)

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