Is Steve Irwin "The Crocodile Hunter" a Racist?

Don't forget about the boomerangs. Everyone knows you can't live in Australia without a boomerang. lol

Thanks for the welcome!

Or a wobble-board - you have to have a wobble-board.

ok how many people would actually be employed at irwin's zoo?? i'm not sure since i've never been, but i'd say its considerably less than say.... mcdonalds... right?
i lived in australia for the last 21 years (recently moved to NZ) and in all those years i NEVER once saw an aboriginal behind the counter at a maccas.

can anyone else back me up here or is it just the wollongong area maccas that don't hire aboriginals???

I've lived in Australia a lot longer than 21 years and I've seen members of many different races behind the counter in various stores. However, there are an awful lot of Maccas I have never been to, and will never manage to get to and so I cannot speak with any authority on the matter.

You stated ".... or is it just the wollongong area maccas that don't hire aboriginals???"

I was not aware that Wollongong's many McDonalds outlets had any such policy. What is your authority for making that statement? Is it a written policy? Please let us know so we can do something about it.

By the way, the people are aborigines. Aboriginal is the adjective that describes things associated with aborigines, for example, the aboriginal languages, the aboriginal Dreamtime, etc.

If you are going to take the time and the trouble to post something as serious as claims of racist employment policies by McDonalds or anyone else, and if you want anyone to take you seriously, get your facts right and be prepared to substantiate them. Oh yes, and pay your readers the courtesy of not treating them like morons, ie, most of the people who have contributed to this thread know what a proper noun is - do you?

rumours that the zoo is opening a new indigenous section and will be employing aboriginals to run it and teach the public more about animals and their way of life...

settle down.. was disgusting even thinking of racism and steve irwin..there is enough crap on the net as it is....
he was a good man...a good husband..a good father...and a dam good human being...

Yes the "rumour" was posted on the thread in December 2004.

From the aboriginal involvement at the memorial service, it does not seem that they considered him to be racist.

Did you 'Gammin' is a Yolnu word for 'bullshit/fake'?

With all due respect I must admit I have never experienced the need to learn Yolnu (or any other of the myriad aboriginal languages)

But isn't it a fantastic coincidence that 'gammon' is an English word with the same meaning?

n. Humbug, deception, nonsense.
v. Talk plausibly; feign; hoax, deceive

How bizarre - I thought gammon was ham. Maybe it's slang picked up from missionaries. It's in very common use by indigenous people: in fact Mrs Hinge uses it all the time, but I thought it was uniquely NT - and the poster says he's a queenslander.

Also: Myall - may be a reference to the Myall Creek Massacre, wikipedia on Myall Creek Massacre

So how do you interpret an A2K handle like Gammin Myall Breed?

Wouldn't have a clue, hinge. Honestly, the very few aborigines I have come into contact with were adopted into 'white' families in Sydney. They were not used as servants or mistreated, but actually attended the same private school I did. They were just part of my group of friends. To find out, in the last twenty years or so, that we were supposed to have all these 'racial differences' is something I find hard to come to terms with.

Things are very different in areas where there our indigenes still have culture, or are still reeling from the destruction of their culture. Even in Sydney. Think Redfern.

Well this thread game me some entertainment 15+ years on ...

When we look at the culture of the indigenous people before they were introduced to the European setters, I very much doubt that any of them today, would wish to return to the life, times, and culture, that their ancestors had to endure.

Spoken from a place of complete ignorance and missing the point completely. Totally on brand for you :-)

And you are entitled to your own opinion, which does not change mine, and is that few people would wish to leave the comfort that they now experience to return to their old culture, of trudging from water hole to water hole in the dry season, shifting camp every time they had eaten that area out, living in flimsy grass huts with their smoky fires, to get some warmth in winter, and to ward of the swarming mosquitos in summer. Feeding on kangaroos, lizards and emus thrown on a smoky old fire hairy skin, feathers and all.

And this is, in no way being racist, the only way I would care to live like that, would be if I was forced to, but never by choice. What about you, and please try to be truthful.

Wow, you have no issues highlighting your ignorance do you? You think the pre-colonial indidenous experience was uniform across a continent the size of the contiguous United States?

I split my sides laughing at your 'Boys' own' cliches.

On your second point - unlike you I don't project my personal preferences onto the survivors of the 800 nations that existed on this land before white settlers got here. I imagine their answers would be very different depending on their situation.

I'm guessing you're American - I can forgive you for not having a clue about the diversity of aboriginal experience in Australia - plenty of Australians share it too.

Whatever, Goodbye.

Some more factoids for you about how wonderful life is for our indigenous people.

They said Aboriginal people were more than six times as likely to die in police custody and 10 times as likely to die in prison custody than non-Indigenous people, because of the disproportionate rates of incarceration.
Source


On an average night in 2019, there were 949 children behind bars in Australia – more than half of them were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

Of all 10-year-olds incarcerated, 80% were Aboriginal children.

Aboriginal kids make up only 6% of all 10- to 17-year-olds in Australia but they are 54% of the juvenile detention population.
Source

Aboriginal kids make up only 6% of all 10- to 17-year-olds in Australia but they are 54% of the juvenile detention population.

Do you think there could be a reason for that?

I think there's at least several reasons. Regardless it's yet another disproval of your 'their lives are so much better thanks to us' postulation.