Adam Goodes is the face of an issue Australia must confront

Champion AFL footballer Adam Goodes pictured in front of the Aboriginal flag. (Getty)
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Adam Goodes shouldn't retire, he should play on and continue to agitate for a change in attitudes. He has a platform, a profile and a responsibility to his people.

By Craig Foster
30 JUL 2015 - 2:06 PM UPDATED 1 HOUR AGO
   
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Adam Goodes would be celebrated in football.


Football community rallies around Adam Goodes
A hastily-deleted tweet on Wednesday from ex-Brisbane Roar player Griffin McMaster, inexplicably calling for indigenous AFL player Adam Goodes to "be deported', sparked condemnation from the wider football community, as players past and present threw their support behind the beleaguered Sydney Swans star.
But it is far better for indigenous rights that he is not in our game. Let me explain.

WATCH SBS's Awaken special: Adam Goodes - a good man stands up READ NITV's Racism or other: what's with the vitriol towards Adam Goodes?
Firstly, there's talk he might retire. Adam, seriously? Mate, not only should you play on, you should increase what you're doing 100-fold, create new ways to express your culture on field, in press conferences, anything to keep this conversation going.

Because you have achieved something immensely valuable, you have started a process that indigenous Australia and the rest of us needed desperately and we all need you to follow through til the end.

I'd like to see every indigenous Australian perform your spear dance at work, in the boardroom, on the field of play of every sport, walking down the street. Get in our faces, show us what is meaningful to you about your history, cause a far greater celebration of ignoramuses than you have already succeeded so spectacularly at.

The bigger the storm you cause, the better job you are doing of agitating for change. 'Softly softly' has not worked, it has been too long since we stole your land, extinguished much of the most beautiful culture on the planet, and it is only through people like you that we can be made to face ourselves.

And that is what most scares Australia, that you will hold them, us, accountable for our actions and subsequent apathy.

But you must. Take the commentary and move on, laugh at the ignorance and keep pushing, expect the radio, the twittersphere, the conflagration each time you show the pride in yourself as you must, because it is all a critical part of the country's journey to healing.

Adam has done more for the furtherment of indigenous rights that anyone in recent memory, and so he bloody well should because he has a platform, a profile and a responsibility to his people.

Talk of retirement is stupefying. But, then, it is AFL.

In football, where Adam began his sporting journey, we would adore him, ask for more, we'd be hugely proud of him. If Adam scored for Australia and did his dance on the global stage, we'd be in tears, because our game inherently understands diversity.

That's not to say our game lacks racism. We don't because it is everywhere, but the game itself is culturally open to everyone.

This is why, though I would have loved to have Adam in football, he is better placed in AFL which in my view, has a history of entrenched racism against aboriginal Australia.

Though I don't follow the game, we know this from the histories of two of our great champions and moral leaders, Charles Perkins and John Moriarty who, as stolen kids housed in Adelaide, were asked to use their abilities in AFL and ultimately refused, because they were forced to dress in a different shed to the whites.

These two marvellous men were taken in by football, by the 'wogs' and wrote the rich story of their lives with football at its heart.

So, what Adam has done is very powerful indeed, exactly what an Australian of the Year should do, to challenge.

And he will inevitably be publicly caned because he is a lightning rod for an issue people feel intense emotion about. Bringing change is painful, firstly for those forcing it through such words or actions, but mostly for those challenged who will always lash out viciously from fear.

Opening a wound hurts, right?

I have seen, and participated in this cycle both within the game and externally as football stood up to other sports, to entrenched media prejudice, to ignorance and fought for our own way forward. Different issue and magnitude, same reaction.

Further, Aboriginal Australians are, in a very real sense, still 'wogs' in their own country. We in football can immediately relate to their cause.

Not only should Adam not be at all concerned, he should be absolutely delighted with the reaction because it is what his people need.

Not for decades has an indigenous Australian caused such important upheaval, such glorious chaos to bring out the worst in the ignorant mass. Bravo, Adam, you have now moved beyond the sporting field, but your place on it is fundamental to the opportunity you have created. Don't easily throw that away.

To the contrary, go further, go harder, be more provocative.

Get people doing the spear dance, I'll do it with you. Get other teams, other sports, other walks of life showing solidarity, but leverage all of it to increase understanding in Australian society, to educate and never back down.

Great issues require people of great fortitude to weather the storm of ignorance.

The shame we have as a nation, that aboriginal Australians can live in squalor, poverty and devoid of education and too few care enough to do something about it.

I'm doing my bit with John Moriarty Football in the top end but, again, here is where football and AFL fundamentally differs.

John, wife Ros, their kids and a passionate staff expend every resource teaching the toddlers to read, working to overcome debilitating health issues through nutrition, in keeping the kids in school and all the while giving them the chance to play and grow in football. Every, single, day. And they do it on the whiff of an oily rag.

AFL sends a highly paid 'development officer' into town every now and then to scout for talent, and they leave. No legacy, no daily action, no end to the cycle of poverty and disadvantage. Just a talent search.

Acquiring talent has nothing to do with fighting a cause through sport.

Adam Goodes has great talent and, inadvertently or otherwise, is now the long overdue face of a cause Australia has to confront.

This entire issue also demonstrates clearly why the future of a more tolerant and understanding Australia is football.

Come to think of it, all we need now is an AFL playing 'boat person' to mimic an oar.

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/blog/2015/07/30/adam-goodes-face-issue-australia-must-confront