Freeman carries hopes of black Australia

Sydney: Alcoholic Charlie has trouble remembering the day, but as he sits around a smouldering fire in Sydney's Aboriginal ghetto he knows black Australia has a date with destiny when Cathy Freeman runs the Olympic 400 metre final.

"I want to see Cathy run," says Charlie, who will only give his first name.

"She runs for all of us black fellas," he says, taking another swig from his bottle of beer.

While the Sydney Olympics has given Aboriginal leaders a platform to tell the world of the dispossession of black Australia, it may be a skinny Aborigine from a small rural town who sends the biggest message.

Promised black protests have yet to materialise in any significant form on the eve of the Sydney Games, with many Aboriginal leaders quarrelling over who should lead the campaign.

But despite these bitter divisions, Aborigines are united in their support of world 400 metre champion Freeman -- a quietly spoken athlete who until recently has steadfastly avoided politics.

Black pride

"A spindly Aboriginal girl from Queensland will represent us to the world," says Lyall Munro, the firebrand leader of the Sydney Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council.

Munro plans to lead a black protest march through Sydney on Friday, hours before the Olympic flame lights the cauldron to start the 27th Games, for it is on his Komilaroi people's land that the Olympics will be held.

"Cathy is the light at the end of the tunnel. Cathy Freeman represents all Aboriginal people. She runs for her people first and her country second," Munro says.

"If Cathy wears the Aboriginal flag at the Olympic Stadium it will be a message of pride for all Aborigines -- a message that we are not a downtrodden people, that we are still here and will not be killed off."

Freeman sparked controversy when she ran a lap of honour at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada wearing the black and gold Aboriginal flag draped over her shoulders.

At one stage she was warned that to do the same in Sydney could see her lose an Olympic medal. But officials have since softened their stance and IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch says it would be fitting for the Aboriginal flag to fly at the Olympic Stadium.

Only last month, Freeman again made a high profile entry into Aboriginal politics when she criticised the Australian government as mean spirited for not apologising for past atrocities against black Australia.

Australia's Aborigines make up 2.1 percent, or around 400,000, of Australia's 19 million population and have a life expectancy 20 years less than white Australians.

Black gold

In the immediate lead-up to Sydney and her clash with French sprinter Marie-Jose Perec, Freeman has been silent on Aboriginal issues -- cloistered away to prepare for the race of her life.

But she is not the sole Aboriginal athlete striving for gold in Sydney. "Sport and politics do mix. Our hope, not surprisingly, is for black gold," says Geoff Clark, chairman of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.

Unlike the Melbourne Olympics in 1956, when there were no Aboriginal competitors, the Sydney Games will see a strong Aboriginal contingency. Among those competing are runner Nova Peris-Kneebone and hurdler Kyle Vander-Kuyp -- both regarded as medal prospects.

"While Australia's Olympic officials hark back to the grand old days of the Melbourne Olympics in 1956, remember there was not one Aborigine in those Games. We were restricted to reserves," says Munro.

"This country only gave Aboriginal people the right to be classified as human beings in 1967, before that we were classified with flora and fauna. Today Aboriginal athletes are on top of the world and will carry our message."



(c) Reuters Limited.