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Seeking the first black face on Ramsay St

By Sarah Bryden-Brown

13 February, 2002 - Teams of youth workers are about to begin scouring the streets of Sydney at the start of a project that could culminate in an Aboriginal family moving into Ramsay Street on television's Neighbours.

The South Sydney Council program, designed to address the under-representation of Aborigines in film and television, will involve youth workers signing up potential indigenous stars to be offered to casting agencies.

Even before the program's launch, staff at the Fact Tree Youth Service in inner-city Waterloo yesterday drove a dozen Aboriginal children to the casting for a Westpac bank commercial.

Another community services officer was dispatched to Redfern's Block area to try to find men interested in appearing in the commercial, and an Aboriginal woman made $300 for a voice-over for ABC Television's Four Corners.

A producer at Four Corners had telephoned South Sydney Council because casting agencies did not have the sort of woman she wanted.

Cindi Petersen, who is co-ordinating the campaign to get more Aborigines on the big and small screens, said the aim was to give Aboriginal and disadvantaged children self-confidence.

``These kids don't have the confidence to realise it is a potential option for them as work, nor the money for head-and-shoulder shots and what you need to get agency work,'' she said.

Fact Tree's executive officer Sharne Dunsmore said it was important that casting agents understand the cultural sensitivities of working with Aboriginal people.

``They will be shy and intimidated, so this is where the skills of the casting agencies need to come in by understanding who they are dealing with and how to boost their confidence in an audition,'' she said.

The program protects the uninitiated by making the youth service the contact point for agents.

``I did it that way so the young person has the support of the youth service to organise auditions and also to get them there,'' said Ms Petersen.

Ms Dunsmore said: ``Having us be their port of call will make it easier for them so they don't have to give out their details. Some don't have home telephones and others don't have homes. We will also take them there, which is another obstacle for them, actually getting to the castings and on time.''

Ms Petersen said the program could also help in opening bank accounts and obtaining birth certificates and tax file numbers.

Source: The Australian

Racism on Ramsay Street?

Comment by Steve

28 October 2003 - Neighbours doesn’t exactly have a history of ethnic diversity. With very few exceptions, the show tends to rely on stereotypes or it just blatantly ignores the fact that people who aren’t whiter than white (in more sense than one) exist. But how intentional is this? In short; is Neighbours racist?

Erinsborough is a fictional suburb of one of Australia’s most cosmopolitan cities. Melbourne has the largest Greek population outside Greece itself, with other large communities ranging from Italian, Turkish and Spanish to Chinese and Maltese. Of course, nobody is expecting such diversity out in the suburbs, but it would be realistic to reflect a small part of this.

From the beginning, it was obvious that while strippers were (hesitantly) welcomed in Ramsay Street, anyone without white skin wouldn’t even make it into the district. The first appearance of a black character came in 1986 when various residents befriended aspiring swimmer Pete Baxter. While his race never became an issue and was infact never even mentioned, he didn’t exactly set the world alight in terms of storylines or screen presence. A similar set-up occurred a few years later when Madge and Harold returned from England with one big souvenir; Eddie Buckingham. Sadly, he brought little to the show but a Dick Van Dyke-style cockney accent and was soon packed off back to England. Neighbours’ early attempts at presenting a wide intersection of society amounted to very little indeed. In 1990, the Alessi twins arrived. While still white, they at least acknowledged the fact that there is a huge Italian population living in Australia. As time went on, the family became like any other Neighbours clan, with family members turning up from nowhere and taking the place of departing Alessis. Indeed, many of the critics seemed to conveniently forget that Neighbours had featured this family; relatively free of stereotypes, unless you count Cathy Alessi and her obsession with spaghetti sauce.

The arrival of Sally Pritchard, played by Aboriginal actress Brenda Webb was another step forward for the show. In her extended guest role as a teacher of Japanese who had a fling with student Rick Alessi, her Aboriginal heritage was never once mentioned. This meant that Neighbours seemed to have finally caught on to the fact that people who weren’t white didn’t necessarily have to become the subject of a hard-hitting socially-relevant storyline. Then, in the mid-90s, the show suddenly found itself being accused of racism and so, to prove otherwise, they decided to tackle the issue in a way that only Neighbours could. The Lim family, five of the worst actors the show has ever seen (and that’s saying something) moved into number 22 on a temporary basis. It seemed that from the outset they were there with a message; racism is wrong and foolish and all racists are basically just misguided individuals with too much time on their hands. In an attempt to almost poke fun at its accusers, the Lims became involved in a farcical plot whereby neighbour Julie Martin accused them of eating the family dog, Holly.

The third incarnation of Lucy Robinson once had a conversation with a man at an interview for the surgery receptionist’s job. He told her that he was an immigrant and that he was finding it virtually impossible to get any kind of work in Australia. A small commentary from Neighbours on an all too familiar subject. It probably went unnoticed by most people and was a good example of how the show can sometimes underplay the issues in a way other soap operas fail to do. A similar issue was explored in 2002, following the news stories about the ‘boat people’ and Christmas Island. Leo Hancock and Michelle Scully found a refugee hiding in Lou’s empty house and he explained about the persecution he had experienced in his home country. While not as subtle as Lucy’s chance meeting, it offered a chance to show the different perspectives of the residents on the issue, with Michelle, Joe and Harold all having different ideas on how the illegal immigrant should be dealt with.

When Hindu character Vikram Chatterji started working for Philip at the newsagency, it seemed that Neighbours had managed to create a character whose race and religion had nothing to do with who he was. However, as time went on, Vikram had very little impact on the show and his sister Lata arrived. She was only a teenager and had a fling with Brett Stark, much to the horror of her brother. This storyline seemed to be highlighting the strictness of a Hindu upbringing, with Lata seeming very relaxed about her schooling and religion, while Vikram made it clear that she had no room for boys in her life and sent her away to live with an aunt. It seemed to base many of its ideas on stereotypes, which was a shame as Vikram had been reasonably free of them up until that point.

The arrival of a brand new family, the Scullys, with no connections to any existing characters, in 1999, begged the question - why did they have to be a white, Anglo family? The newcomers could easily have been Greek, Italian, Vietnamese... Nobody can deny that the Scullys were completely different from anything we’d seen before on Ramsay Street, but there are still other places they could take it. In 2002, New Zealander, of Malaysian descent, Michelle Ang joined the cast with little fanfare but playing a great character. As time went on, the character of Lori Lee seemed to be given all the best storylines - a cheating boyfriend, paralysis and an unwanted baby, all in the space of six, short months. It simply showed that Neighbours has always been capable of expanding its casting horizons. Apparently, the show is now working on redressing the balance, with news that we will have a new Eastern European character, Liljana Bishop, in the cast by the end of the year. Hopefully, Neighbours has learnt its lesson from the past, and the newcomer will be more Lori Lee than Eddie Buckingham. Time will tell.

Source: The Perfect Blend

related links :

• Aborigines hope for TV Stardom
  11 April 2002 - BBC Online - Coming to a screen near you... maybe.. A new push is underway to get more black faces in Australian films and on television. The under-representation of indigenous actors on the silver and small screens is blamed by some on racism and by others on a simple lack of opportunity.
• Neighbours Worldwide Fanpages
• The Perfect Blend
  Detailed Neighbours fan site
  

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