Brief Essay On Cathy Freeman's Values

Australia’s first indigenous track and field athlete to compete in the Olympics, Cathy Freeman most defiantly fits into many of Wilderness’s core values. Cathy grew up in a time where racism against indigenous citizens was a common normality. Her grandma was part of the stolen generations and through her career, Cathy has been a victim of racial harassment and abuse. How she acted during these periods of time in her life truly defined her as, nothing other than a responsible citizen. She was able to put the racism and discrimination behind her and compete at an Olympic level for the country she loved. In addition, she was an advocate of Aboriginal rights and like many aborigines at the time, she strongly supported the idea of the Australian government apologising for the abuses

inflicted on her grandma and others who were also taken from their families, culture and deprived of their heritage. For this, she was strongly racially discriminated by a vast popularity of Australian citizens, including one of Australia’s prime ministers, Paul Keating.

Freeman also started up a foundation (Cathy Freeman Foundation) to aid unprivileged aboriginal children and help close the gap between Indigenous and Non Indigenous children. Cathy Freeman also outlines the value of being a true and courageous self. Through her schooling she has experienced a lot of racial discrimination from the ‘white people’. Once, when she was in primary school, she was even denied of a medal after coming first place at a school sports day. A ‘white girl’ who came in second received the medal. She didn’t fall because of the discrimination she received, but aimed to succeed to prove everyone wrong; “Goodness gracious I didn’t really need a gold medal or a trophy because to me, all that mattered was that I crossed the line first… what did upset me was my parent’s reaction”. Even through her schooling, Cathy had the ability to get past the racism and discrimination she received. In 1994 she won several events at the Commonwealth games. To acknowledge her win she waved the Australian and Aboriginal flag next to each other, as she did her victory lap, which was an action that caused much controversy. She was criticised by many, including the Australian team’s

manager. However Cathy didn’t take offence nor change the action of carrying her flag in victory laps after the event. She simply quoted “I just wanted to show I am proud of who I am and where I come from”, perpetuating how much self-respect she has and how she withholds the value of respectful relationships.

Cathy Freeman was a woman of great courage, determination and will power. Personally, I believe she radiates many inspirational messages, including “ You got to try and reach for the stars or try and achieve the unreachable”. However, her actions have only merely impacted my life and the life of women in general. She has taught us “if you try, anything’s possible” and to “never give-up” but this message doesn’t only impact the lives of women, it could have great relevance to men as well. Nevertheless, it is clear that Freeman has greatly impacted the lives of Indigenous citizens and will do so for the years to come.

In my opinion, I believe that Cathy Freeman wasn’t appropriately recognised for her actions, mainly because of racial discrimination. Because of her nationality and heritage, Freeman wasn’t seen as an equivalent to other Australian Olympians till much later in her career. This wasn’t necessarily because she was a woman, but rather because she was an Aborigine. If you were to compare her to any other male Aboriginal Olympian, they would probably receive the same degree of recognition but if the male wasn’t aboriginal the levels of recognition will be vastly in his favour.