Music Hello and welcome to Living Black, I'm Carla Grant. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1965 Freedom Rides, an event despite making international headlines and being considered a major turning point in political history. who history was quickly forgotten by the Australian public.
It all started on the grounds of Sydney University when 29 university students set out on a journey throughout Western New South Wales to raise awareness about living standards, segregation and racism experienced by Aboriginal people. At their helm was a young Arantaman called Charles Perkins. This year their incredible journey was re-enacted and our journalist Ryan Little took a seat on the bus and a ride back into history.
The only good part is the dead one. The only good what is the dead land? We want our tourist attraction, we don't want to hand it over to the blackfellas. And as far as I'm concerned, run the lot and clean out the swimming pool. What, all the Aborigines?
Every one of them. And the University teachers as well. They're the ones that caused the trouble in this town. Run them out and they'll be fine. Get them out of town!
Out of town! In February 1965, 29 members of the Student Action for Aborigines group departed the University of Sydney by bus, bound for regional towns across New South Wales. The idea was simple. The students wanted to shine a spotlight on racism and the poor state of Aboriginal health, education and housing.
When you're 19 you're immortals. There wasn't anxiety, there was some concern about the impact we might have in the sense that we were blowing into town and perhaps disrupting things for people who lived there. We really didn't anticipate violence. I don't remember thinking of that at all. Jim Spiegelman was a Freedom Rider.
Led by enigmatic Arindaman, Charles Perkins, Jim and his fellow students would become part of a civil rights movement that originated in the United States. We all knew that there were problems and that there was discrimination. It was a significant character but no one really understood the extent or nature of it.
We had suggestions as to what existed. I think it's basically that most of us were city kids and didn't really know what was going on in rural New South Wales. The riders would become part of a forgotten Australian history.
I grew up with it in my blood, so to speak, but other people had no idea about it. And I thought, well, people need to understand the story of the Freedom Ride because actually what it tells is this larger thing about segregation and that we had apartheid in Australia like they had in South Africa. We had the same situation as African-American treatment that they endured in the States.
and there was just this lack of awareness about it because it was just slightly more... Low key, you know, we didn't have the signs like they had in South Africa saying whites only. Well some places we did. So for me that was the compelling thing that there just wasn't an understanding of history of segregation and the Freedom Rides role in changing the world.
changing that. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides. Let's go over this way for one.
This trip is about a different preposition. It's about with Aboriginal. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia.
It's about recognising the fact that it is only by working with Aboriginal Australia that we as Australians can find an identity and find a future as we find healing for this country. That's the beauty of this story. There are just so many people that just did so much work over such a long period of time, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, you give us where we are.
today. To commemorate the event, a new generation of Sydney University students would recreate that journey with many of the original riders. The first leg of the journey would take the 2015 Freedom Riders to Dubbo.
The 2015 Freedom Riders arrive to a community that can now celebrate their Aboriginal language and culture. Ladies and gentlemen also, welcome to Rarjee country. Rarjee people are more than happy that you're here.
They're marambang, really glad that you're here. Years ago I would have been locked up for singing my language. OK, so I've done a big job in learning my own language and being able to pass it on to other people. I'll get the young fella to cut the cake for our future.
50 years may have passed, but for the locals, the memories of Charles Perkins and the exploits of the Freedom Riders were still clear. I don't think the nation is perfect. I don't think we have total lack of discrimination across the nation.
But I guarantee it is in a significantly better place today in 2015 than it was in 1965. And these people down the front I think can take a large chunk of the responsibility and obviously your fellow Freedom Riders for what we have in this nation today. The rest of the journey would not be remembered so fondly. As we left, well in the middle of the night, we left on the bus and there were cars coming behind us, you know, with their lights on. And we didn't know, were these supporters or were these people out to get us?
The discrimination, the motion was stepping stone away from my partner. You see my father with his cluster of six Aboriginal kids, you know, in contrast, and he's just trying to take them into the pool. That's all he's trying to do is just take these Aboriginal kids and give them a swim in the pool and hundreds of people turn out to stop them.
Day two of the Freedom Rides would travel north to Walgett. Following consultation between local Indigenous leaders, the original Freedom Riders decided it was here that they would make a stand. This leg of the journey would be a turning point for the Freedom Riders and Kirthois described the emotive events.
I think until then we'd been doing the surveys and talking to people and learning a lot, but we hadn't taken a stand, we hadn't protested. And really we were there to protest, that was our... function and so we did protest we stood in a big long line outside the RSL club we held up signs that were really pointing out just how dreadful it was really that Aboriginal ex-servicemen were not allowed into the RSL club, except sometimes on Anzac Day. And we held up signs that said things like, I forget, good enough for Tobruk, but not for Wagat RSL, pointing to the sort of contradictions and, in a sense, the hypocrisy, really.
And that's, I think, where a lot of the Freedom Riders who are here on the bus now first really got a sense of that white anger at what we were doing. And, in a way, the anger tells you a lot. and tell you the strength and the sort of deepness of the depth of the racism that we were kind of challenging. In 2015, the arrival of the Freedom Riders would be a different story.
A warm reception and a march through the main streets in honour of the Freedom Riders and locals who protested in 1965 led us to the Walcott RSL, where stories of days gone by linger on. My old dad grew up with the stories of those hardships. The Wildwood Picture Theatre, for instance, was a place where only black people had to sit down the front like this.
The seats up top, they were only for white people. And there was a rope there, where you go up the stairs. No colours allowed. So these are the things that they were demonstrating against in this town.
My old dad, he went through that colour bar, as they call it, and others went up those stairs, and the white people had owned the place and ran the place, and others in the community tossed them down the stairs. The police came and locked them up, just for wanting to express their rights as human beings in this country as being equal to everybody else. Well, the original three of mine is 1965. Yeah. For the Freedom Riders, the memories of Walgett in the 1960s were also troubling. We'd arranged for a lot of places to stay and we were in a church hall in Walgett.
When we demonstrated outside the Walgett RSL it became controversial and the local Reverend asked us to leave so we were leaving without you know anywhere really to go. We knew there were people who supported us and people who hated us. We knew that we had both.
And as we left, well, in the middle of the night, we left on the bus and there were cars coming behind us, you know, with their lights on and we didn't know were these supporters or were these people out to get us. As we're in the bus, the truck comes out and side swipes us and goes ahead and then doubles back and side swipes us again. And then the bus driver, of course, to avoid being side swiped again, drives... just to get the bus off the road. The Freedom Riders would return to Walgett to report the incident to police.
But most of us were outside in the street in the middle of the night in Walgett and that's when Pat Walford made her what's now regarded as quite famous speech. MUSIC It's quite a shame to walk around the street and what I've got to do, I get out and I open and do it. What I've got to show, I show it. And what I do, I do it in front of anybody, black, white or brindle.
And I'll never get out of Wilder for any white man or woman. And I take to the tango. Yes.
We know, too. And there's a lot of white fellas that go looking for ginger at night, too. I go with white fellas and I keep on going with white fellas.
And if they're not ashamed to be seen with me in the street, well, that's their bad luck. So she pointed to the... their complete hypocrisy and double standards and everything. And that really was an event that a lot of people remember really well. The incident on the outskirts of Walgett made national headlines, but the biggest and most publicised moment of the journey would take place 200km northeast of Walgett in the small town of Moree.
Put them out of town! Get them out before night! People are going up the stretcher.
I'll be a blind man. I'm sure if it keeps going. All the big rockers will be around. All the big rockers will be around. No.
Well, they might punch him in the head. On arrival, the Freedom Riders attempted to enter the town's main tourist attraction, the Moree Artesian Baths. Under council bylaws at the time there were heavy regulations restricting the free passage of indigenous patrons in and out of the pools.
Led by Charles Perkins the students were denied access. When I came here it was confronted with racism in a big way and really sore you had to see written documents. Tation to say that you couldn't swim in the pool because you were quarter-caste, half-caste or full-blood. Several hours later, after discussions with police, pool management and the local council, the bylaws were revoked.
Pleased with the outcome, the Freedom Riders left Moree. But once they had left the town, the bylaws were reinstated and enforced. On hearing this, the bus headed back to town, picking up children from the Moree Aboriginal Mission. Their intention, to escort the children into the pools. Moree resident and well-known Kamilaroi elder, Lyle Munro Senior, And the Morey Aboriginal Advancement Committee had already been fighting against the town's racist bylaws by the time the Freedom Riders hit town.
He recalls the scenes that unfolded. We were fighting for the cause but not in the manner in which the Freedom Riders had done it. So we stood and watched in the crowd. Let the kids get up the front and the bus ride with Charlie and it was their day and it was an ugly scene. Pretty rowdy, pretty wild, a lot of violence.
Jim Spiegelman now, he got knocked out, he got king-eated and knocked out. The discrimination was, the motion was stepping stone away from a pardoe. It was there, like the deep south of America, that's why we call it the deep south of Australia.
Yet some of the kids who were fair could sneak in, unknowns to the people in charge. And the darker brothers and sisters couldn't get in, see. So that's the one thing they had over them.
The Moree protest would make headlines all over the world. For Rachel Perkins, the images of that protest still beg a belief. You see my father with his cluster of six Aboriginal kids, you know, in contrast, and he's just trying to take them into the pool.
That's all he's trying to do, is just take these Aboriginal kids and give them a swim in the pool. And hundreds of people turn out to stop them. I mean, it's just one of those extraordinary moments where such a simple thing as an Aboriginal child enjoying a swim in the local pool can cause such a stir.
And it did. And the great thing was, Maury rescinded the bylaw about the pool. A public meeting would follow, which the town voted to desegregate the pool and lift the colour bar. The interesting thing about it is that just about all the Freedom Riders have never been inside this building.
It's hard to believe, but they wouldn't let them in. The psychological impact on generations of Indigenous Australians to experience that shunning separation from the rest of society is profound, I think. so the important thing that the Freedom Ride did was draw attention to that and I think that the legacy of it is that we must understand what those people endured and how that shaped the psychology of the country, not only for black Australians but for white Australians who were part of of that as well.
I followed in the footsteps very much of my men and now I've actually got the opportunity to do the whole ride you know for this 50th anniversary and she's quite happy about that. I'm pretty proud to be here. The final leg of the journey would take them east to Bowerville. At Bowerville, the last of the Freedom Riders would join the group, including Gary Williams, a local Goombangu man.
Here, like other towns, segregation was the norm. Gary spoke to us from inside the local cinema. Well, the interesting thing about it is that some of the Freedom Riders, just about all the Freedom Riders, have never been inside this building. It's hard to believe, but they wouldn't let them in.
And two young Aboriginal people tried to get in there and I don't know for sure, I think they stopped them at the door. But nobody, so this is the first time that they've been inside. Badawai, big land. Badawai, wadjaat. Big land.
So kina kai ngayang, kumbaga niigat. Thank you for... Paul coming today. The visit to Bowerville would not make the headlines the way the Maury pool did.
The Freedom Riders would remember this town as the place of the worst discrimination they would encounter. The Freedom Riders had put everything on the front pages, so I think it just lent a bit more strength to their stand locally. People were a bit frightened saying, you red bags, troublemakers, etc. Only you're here for a couple of days and then you're leaving them to their own resources and everything like that. These people were fighting before and it just gave them a bit more strength to carry on.
It would be a different reception for the Freedom Riders this time around. Today the Freedom Riders are a part of history. I followed in the footsteps very much of my men and now I've actually got the opportunity to do the whole ride for this 50th anniversary. She's quite happy about that. I'm pretty proud to be here.
Originally, her family was really worried about her taking it. They were quite against it. Just, you know, obviously supporting Black Lives and stuff, but, you know, she's only 15, and her mum was very... very worried, my great-grandmother, but she decided to just kind of run away for a little bit and jump on the bus and they saw her on the news and, no, they heard it on the radio, they heard her on the radio, yeah, and that was a little bit scary for them. The trauma experienced by Aboriginal people during that time still affects generations today.
So the psychological impact on... Generations of Indigenous Australians to experience that shunning and separation from the rest of society is profound I think. So the important thing that the Freedom Ride did was draw attention to that and I think that the legacy of it That we must understand what those people endured and how that shaped the psychology of the country.
Not only for black Australians, but for white Australians who were part of that as well. Let's remember that white Australians were active in segregating the first... Australians from them. So what does that do to their psychology? And I think that's a big part of Australia's history and we need to understand that and what it means today for people who've experienced that in their lives.
The 1960s were a time of global social upheaval. Throughout Australia, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal groups were actively involved in efforts to end segregation and discrimination. Two years after the Freedom Rides, Australia would head to the polls for the 1967 referendum. Australians voted overwhelmingly to amend the Constitution to include Aboriginal people in the census and allow the Commonwealth to create laws for Indigenous Australians. Some education program should be begun here in Australia to educate the white man.
The white person in Australia must be educated to be able to understand the Aboriginal person, to be more tolerant towards him. The Freedom Rides was certainly a major turning point in Australia's history. And if you'd like to watch this episode again, just visit our website at sbs.com.au slash livingblack. You can also follow us on Twitter and check out our picture galleries on our Facebook page.
Next week on Living Black, join us for our Anzac special. Can't get over this one in particular. It's beautiful, isn't it? When we hear the remarkable story of World War II veteran Eddie Albert, whose story has inspired a new memorial dedicated to our Black Diggers.
My grandfather's story, which was such an incredible endeavour of survival and to be, you know, almost cheap death in a way, you know, that is an incredible story. But then the amazing thing is when you start to uncover these stories, you realise... Um, that this is one of many heroic stories, and that's why I picked it as a metaphor for all servicemen and women.
That's next week on Living Black. We leave you with pictures of the commemorative Freedom Ride concert held at Sydney University. Music legends Troy Casadelli and Paul Kelly celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1965 Freedom Rides.
the freedom ride We always need freedom ride And if we don't we'll never die Oh Lord the freedom ride All aboard the Green Line All aboard