This is how I remember Musgrave Park during the 1982 Commonwealth Games … or, to be precise, just before the big march to the opening ceremony from Garden City circa 30 September 1982.
Aboriginal Land at Musgrave Park South Brisbane September 1982 (click to enlarge)
A similar scene is depicted in the LeftPress film “1982 Land Rights Marches” (yes, this scene @ http://youtu.be/ZiSeB86q3rA?t=11m11s ) that Lachlan Hurse (mostly) and I shot during that period. Thnx to Peter Gray and the Radical Times Historical Archive for this picture from so long ago. Some things change, but not much … or to put it poetically ‘history is an angel being blown backwards into the future’ – walter benjamin
i remember we went back to Musgrave after the march and people sat around and debriefed … there was little sense of victory, we were not sure how many had been arrested, but we had at least ‘stood up’. The march I refer to is at http://youtu.be/ZiSeB86q3rA?t=12m21s
Now here we are today, on the eve of G20, still doin’ the business but in a different world.
btw i lived closeby to musgrave at the time, although i spent some of that year in Townsville fighting political charges (and some time on palm island [briefly]). I went to jail up there for two weeks for ‘contempt of court’ … but that is another story.
Come forward to NAIDOC 2014 and this is what happened ..
