Pride and courage
Commonwealth Games athlete Cathy Freeman won gold and set a new record in the 400 metre sprint in Victoria, Canada last week. Sporting events such as the games usually provide inspiration for sportswomen to keep at it during the long, hard years of training. The benefits become clearer with the greater coverage of women in sport. Women get to believe they may also have a chance at competing at a world level.
Freeman is one of Australia's most popular and visible Commonwealth Games team members. She is also a proud member of the Aboriginal community. In the first moments after winning gold, she was handed an Aboriginal flag by a supporter in the crowd. Moments later an Australian flag was added. But it was the Aboriginal flag which she proudly carried around the track in a victory lap.
Freeman has said she sees herself as an important role model for other Aboriginal people: "Not enough Aborigines have enough confidence, self-esteem and self-belief to go out and do what they really want to do". She is the first Aborigine to win a track event in the Commonwealth Games. At an earlier Games, an Aboriginal high jumper won gold.
Freeman's proud act of recognition and visibility for Aboriginal people received huge media coverage. It has even been compared to the 1968 black power salute by American 200 metre sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos who won gold and bronze respectively at the Mexico City Games.
But it has also received some criticism. A Liberal backbencher, Bill Taylor, was disappointed that the Australian flag "took second place" to the Aboriginal flag carried by Freeman. He was joined in his disappointment by well-known racist, Bruce Ruxton who added, "Australia has only one flag. The Aboriginal flag means nothing to me".
While to Ruxton it probably doesn't (and probably never will), for the many Aboriginal people, in particular young Aboriginal women watching the Commonwealth Games, it probably meant everything. It was an act of courage and an act of pride.
By Kath Gelber