Many people were shocked that part of the NSW Lands Council's "Racism Sux" campaign which featured huge billboards of an Aboriginal woman with the slogan "They say I am too pretty to be an Aboriginal". Green Left Weekly's SUJATHA FERNANDES and ZANNY BEGG spoke to WAIATA TELFER, the woman in the ad, about the campaign and whether she thought it was successful in challenging racism.
How did you get involved in the campaign?
I was approached, on the street, by an agent who was finding people to be on the billboards. He didn't tell me what the job was for only that I was going to be on billboards. When I got to the agent's studio I was told the campaign was for reconciliation and was requested to do an interview. I was told it was about black and white people getting together and making a change in racist attitudes.
Did they interview you about your ideas on the struggle for justice for Aboriginal people?
They did an interview, but actually told me what to say like, "I've got white friends and we get together and want to reconcile racism". They edited a lot of what I said but picked up on my statement, "They say I'm too pretty to be an Aboriginal".
The agent took this statement out of context when he used it for the advertisement. What I was saying was that I hated it when people said I was too pretty to be an Aboriginal. He took away the power of my words and made an image that was not very empowering for an Aboriginal woman.
What do you think they meant when they talked about reconciliation?
I have never been an advocate of reconciliation. I think Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people should get together and make a change. But reconciliation is not really getting people together and it is not really changing anything. Reconciliation is just about the government saying Aboriginal people are OK, it's cool now, and we can all live happily ever after.
Can there be reconciliation while land rights are denied to Aboriginal people?
No way. Until we have our land, and until we have power within our own community and our own autonomy, we can't reconcile anything.
If you could have designed your own billboard with your own message, what would it looked like and what would it have said?
I would have had different types of Aboriginal people — urban, rural, community Aborigines — and I would have asked what do all these people have in common? Their Aboriginality! People have these assumptions that all Aborigines look the same.
The other thing I would have liked to put on the billboard would have been the demand for land rights. Of course, that would have freaked everyone right out!
The campaign was called "Racism Sux". Do you think it worked?
The campaign only perpetuated racism. I don't think it did anything to empower Aboriginal people. It was a campaign devised to cater to a white middle-class audience. It didn't do anything for the grass roots campaigners, for poorer people or people living on welfare. It was targeted at a rich audience that have this thing about beauty and Aboriginal people not being beautiful. The campaign did not challenge anything at all. It just said "here is a young black woman, who is fairer skinned and fits vaguely in the dominant picture of what is beautiful".
Some of the white models used in the campaign had never met an Aboriginal person in their life and they were told to say that they have an Aboriginal friend. It didn't challenge anything.
In the Aboriginal community I got so much flack for the campaign. When I went back into my own community everyone said, "Oh, so you think you're too pretty to be an Aboriginal" as though I thought I was too good to be an Aboriginal because I had been accepted as beautiful in a white man's eyes.
It seems that the campaign was not only racist but also sexist in the way it commodified women's beauty. In fighting racism do you think fighting sexism is also important?
Yes I think they coincide because black women are looked upon as being "the other", as being exotic. Where I grew up Aboriginal women were called "black velvet" and they were used accordingly, as a bit of comfort, as a bit of exotic entertainment for an evening. As black women, we are at the bottom of the ladder; we still aren't regarded as human. We need to attack racism and sexism in the same struggle.
How would you sum up your feelings about the campaign?
Aboriginal people have no power over their images. The general perception of Aboriginal people is always constructed by someone else, by the media, by TV, by the educational system. The campaign showed how powerless I was. Just because I come from a background where I don't know about money, I was ripped off when the models were paid. I was put in a position where I was exploited. The campaign was a real pity because it was managed in a way that did not challenge discrimination.
The guy who designed the advertisements actually reflected racist ideas himself. He wanted a picture of a white man holding an Aboriginal baby as part of the campaign. How long ago was it that they were stealing the children?
So how do you fight racism?
You have to fight racism from its roots — through the government, the education system and public institutions.
When you change the governmental institutions and empower people to make their own decisions then you begin to fight racism.