"I Don’t Know That People Are Ready For This": Stan Grant Talks "The Australian Dream"
"We need to deal with the unfinished business of the Australian settlement. And we are a lesser country until we do that."
Stan Grant stunned a nation with his Ethics Centre speech back in 2016, but not into silence.
In the wake of the racial vilification saga that swirled around Sydney Swans great Adam Goodes, Grant (a journalist of Aboriginal heritage who several years earlier returned from international correspondence) publicly reflected on Australia's ingrained racism; racism still deeply felt by the Indigenous community.
The debate rages to this day, with conservative commentators providing the regressive counter-argument. Expect them to be stoked again by Grant and Goodes’ doco The Australian Dream, which arrives in cinemas 22 August.
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"I think there is a dissonance between the Australia that most people live in, and the Australia that Aboriginal people live in," Grant explains to Student Edge.
"There is a disconnect between those two things: the 'Australian Dream'—the dream of the future, of progress, of leaving your history behind, of a nation that’s cohesive and tolerant and multicultural and prosperous—and then there’s the 'Australian Dreaming'—something that is much older, something that is deeply connected to this country, and something that has been silenced, something that has suffered for the greatness of Australia.
"Between the Dreaming and the Australian Dream is where we all live."
And it’s this national purgatory that their film, directed by Daniel Gordon, examines.
For those unfamiliar, Goodes was an AFL legend and former Australian of the Year who said "racism stops with me", and found himself incessantly booed in his final seasons. He stepped away from his career and public life. So Grant stepped forward. And now, with their documentary The Australian Dream, named after Grant’s paradigm-shifting speech, they step up together to expose what exactly went down.
"Adam’s always been careful to say that he wants to create a conversation for other people to have," Grant says.
"He doesn’t necessarily want to be out there dominating it or leading it. What he did in this film was, through telling his personal story, to create an opportunity for people to emphasise. To walk in our shoes. And then to have the discussions we need to have."
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Grant was approached by a British production company to 'write' a film about Goodes’ ordeal, and he also serves as an on-screen guide who takes viewers though Australia’s violent past to its present, where there remains an erasure of past ills and constant cries for those wronged to 'get over it'.
"There’s the Australia [where] the people are open and willing to listen to these things, and then there is an Australia which turns away from these issues; which doesn’t hear these voices," he says.
"It’s the other voices that we hear far too often. It’s the voices of division. The voices of opposition. The voices of anger. Rather than the voices of people who want to find a new way forward in our country.
"So, I don’t know that people are ready for this, but I know that it’s something we have to confront, and I don’t think we’ll ever realise the Australian Dream, I don’t think that Australia will ever be the country that it should be while we turn away from these issues. We need to confront our history. We need to deal with the unfinished business of the Australian settlement. And we are a lesser country until we do that."
As much as their film will inspire thoughtful reflection, it’ll be no surprise to hear from those "other voices" who insists 'they’re not racist, but…' when talking about the treatment of Goodes.
Grant, however, is no longer interested in engaging with those particular talking heads.
"I’m really over having to answer back; having to explain and defend ourselves," he says.
Nor does he think success should be measured by Goodes getting his victory lap on AFL grounds.
"I think other people want a sense of closure or a sense of reconciliation, but I think what’s much more important is that Adam Goodes does what’s right for Adam Goodes," he says.
"He walked away from the game on his terms; he didn’t want to create a platform and an opportunity for people to expose their racism."
Rather than giving those voices a pulpit, Grant has other aspirations for The Australian Dream.
"I hope this film does one thing: It gives a place for Aboriginal voices to be heard and creates a space for other Aboriginal voices to be heard in the bigger conversations beyond this film," he says.
"Not voices that are defending themselves or answering back or justifying or explaining. Voices that say, 'This is how we see Australia. This is our Australia, and it’s a very different Australia to your Australia.' And if we’re going to realise the dream of what Australia can be, you have to understand what it is to feel what another person feels."
The Australian Dream arrives in Australian cinemas 22 August.
Header Image: Madman Films
