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BBC blast for 'white' Australia

By Matthew Benns

David Akinsanya speaking to a conference on state care

21 March 2004 - A BBC documentary into the Redfern riots promises to give Australia a "very uncomfortable" hour's viewing.

British reporter David Akinsanya, who made his name with TV programs about his own tough life in British institutions, said of the film: "As a black man I feel I am treated better in Britain as a stranger than Aborigines are treated in their own land."

The program, This World, will be syndicated globally and will be "very uncomfortable viewing" for Australia, he said.

"I am doing this story as a black man and white Australia might not like what I have found because, looking from the outside, it doesn't look good."

He said he was "shocked" to find a people who have lost their culture and identity. "A country that was originally black has become dominated by European culture."

The four-person TV crew came out after the riots which were sparked by the death of teenager Thomas "TJ" Hickey. The crew has spent the past three weeks with TJ's mother, Gail, and girlfriend April Ceissman in Redfern and TJ's home town of Walgett.

TJ's tragic story has startling similarities to Akinsanya's own life.

In a BBC documentary, Raised By The State, he has said he was the son of a white working-class mother and Nigerian father. After he was born in 1965 he was placed into care and grew up in institutions. He was sniffing glue at 13.

"At the age of 18 I was sentenced to nine months in borstal for over 300 offences," he said.

"While I am still deeply ashamed of the crimes I committed back then, I firmly believe my upbringing left me with few alternatives.

"Australia needs to rethink how it engages with the Aboriginal community and the system it provides, which does not engage them."

Source: Sydney Sun Herald

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