Australians are having their questions about the country’s traditional land owners answered by high-profile Aboriginals in a new Government-funded initiative.
Deadly Questions, via its website, offers people the opportunity to anonymously ask questions that wouldn’t normally be appropriate in everyday conversations.
Indigenous community representatives, including rapper Adam Briggs, Hawthorn player Jarman Impey, and Richmond Tigers AFLW player Natarsha Bamblett, are among those who have so far stepped in with useful answers.
Indigenous community representatives, including rapper Adam Briggs (pictured), offered answers to questions that wouldn’t normally be appropriate in everyday conversations
Richmond Tigers AFLW player Natarsha Bamblett (pictured) weighed in on the discussion and offered insight based on her experience of being Aboriginal in Australia
Risque questions on the site include, ‘Is being Aboriginal just the colour of your skin?,’ and ‘Why should I be sorry for something I didn’t do?’.
Briggs responded to one controversial topic saying, ‘I don’t think people need to be sorry, but they need to acknowledge’.
‘I don’t need every white fella with dreadlocks coming up to tell me his sorry, I need true acknowledgement, and that comes from the top down.’
As part of an answer to a question asking about Aboriginal heroes, AFL player Jarman Impey listed former Sydney Swans Adam Goodes.
As part of an answer to a question asking about Aboriginal heroes, AFL player Jarman Impey (left) listed former Sydney Swans Adam Goodes
‘As a young fella, loving AFL football, he was one that really stood out alongside Cyril Rioli and Lance Franklin’.
Another potentially inflammatory question that was answered was ‘Why can’t Aboriginal people get over the past?’.
It was answered by indigenous former cricket player Ben Abbatangelo, who said the question used to ‘rile me up’ but now he knew it came from a place of misunderstanding.
‘I think that we can be a lot better together if we actually own the past, learn from it and put steps in place to make the future better.’
Briggs (left) responded to one controversial topic saying, ‘I need true acknowledgement. And that comes from the top down. From the government’
Natarsha Bamblett set the record straight on Aboriginal art when someone asked if it was all just ‘dot painting’.
‘In art, there’s no guideline, it’s an expression, it comes out in any artform it can come in, not just dot art’.
One of the questions musician and playwright Richard Frankland answered, ‘Why can’t Aboriginal people get over the past?’.
‘I’m open to anything and I’m open to people using these questions to step across the cultural abuse. These questions actually humanise what’s been dehumanised,’ he told AAP.
Natarsha Bamblett (pictured) set the record straight on Aboriginal art when someone asked if it was all just ‘dot painting’