Complete Guide To Being a Racist & The Freedom Ride
Racism is an issue that Australian society has seemingly always struggled with from our very foundations right up until today. Beginning with issues between the British and Aboriginal communities, then as we developed and became a more multicultural society we began to see tensions arise between Australians born here and new migrants from around the globe, such as Europeans, Asians, Africans and Middle Eastern immigrants. The arts and creative industries have been tackling this issue for years with films such as Wog Boy and My Big Fat Greek Wedding been great examples. This week two new shows will tackle the issue in two new ways, the first of these being Tahir Bilgic’s standup comedy show The Complete Guide To Being A Racist and secondly the Kinetic Energy Theatre production The Freedom Ride.
Best known for his roles in television shows Fat Pizza and Housos, Tahir is also one Australia’s busiest and hardest working comedians. Hot off a sellout Adelaide Fringe Festival run with his newest show Tahir is set to explore all things racist which he describes as “learning through comedy.”
Inspiration for the show first came after hearing an interview where “Morgan Freeman said we should defeat racism by not talking about it and I totally disagree with that, I thought that’s ridiculous. It makes no sense at all, you’ve got to talk about it, that’s the only way to raise awareness, get people talking and thinking about it and challenging racism.” said Tahir Bilgic.
As a man of Turkish heritage Tahir says he thankfully hasn’t ever encountered “any sort of overt and in your face ignorant racism.” He has however encountered closet racism which is seemingly some of the more prominent and problematic type of racism. “Some people think the shows I’ve done are real. They seem to think the cameras just follow us around to make the show, which in itself is closet racism.”
When asked how important he felt it is for different genres within the arts and creative sphere to tackle and help change society Tahir said “I think it’s important to keep raising awareness about it because that’s how you can change peoples behaviours and the social norms. It’s not the easiest thing to tackle in the comedy perspective but I love comedy so that came naturally to me. How ever any different arts people choose to tackle the issue is great and I fully support all of them.”
This brings us to the second production happening in Sydney this week which also tackles the issue of racism, this time focusing on the problems Aboriginals have faced over the years. Kinetic Energy Theatre will hold a production of an interactive play to highlight the racism surrounding the Aboriginal community then and now. As it is an interactive experience volunteers are needed from the audience to perform certain roles within the play.
Coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of the freedom rides in NSW which occurred in 1965, when a group Sydney University students went on a bus trip through New South Wales to raise awareness on the racism pertaining to Indigenous Australians. The Freedom Ride production asks: what has become of the aboriginal empowerment fifty years on? Considering the threat of the closure of remote communities and continued cuts to funding for Indigenous people this is a great question. ‘The Freedom Ride’ is a two part docu-drama. The first half focuses on the preparation by the students from Sydney University and second on the events in the town of Walgett which received national and international attention. It was the push for change at this time that resulted in the 1967 referendum that gave Indigenous people the right to vote and Australian citizenship.
Professor Tracey Bunda, Head of the College of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Southern Queensland explains that education is an important tool in helping the nation come to terms with its past. She says that, “if racism were a living tangible thing, it would be (and is) very frightened of the educated.” She goes on to say that performance art pieces can be a powerful method for communicating the plight of racism. It also has to be created in negotiation with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. “The Freedom Ride’ uses first person accounts including information from the biography of Dr. Charles Perkins, renowned Aboriginal activist. The production from the Kinetic Energy Theatre also poses an important question: “Does the reality lived by Aboriginal people today correspond with the rights won then, and since then?”
Professor Bunda explains, “the challenge of performance art is
therefore to make us stop, to look and listen and think deeply, to bring our emotions to the fore- we should be made upset about racism and we should also be hopeful for change, we should be made to feel that even in the worst of circumstance we can extend a hand in friendship to those who are ready to be unbound by racist thoughts and actions.”
Complete Guide To Being A Racist: May 12-16, The Factory Theatre, 105 Victoria Rd, Marrickville, $25-30, tahir.com.au
Freedom Ride: May 15-17, 22-24, and 29-31. St. Luke’s Hall in Enmore, $20, 9665 6489.
By Lauren Bell
