Bigot Heaven? Staying at Haven!

The following line is the marketing slogan of a hostel in Alice Springs:

Haven backpackers is Alice Springs newest backpackers resort, stylish, funky, super clean and with the most friendly welcome possible.

They forgot to add "If you are not Aboriginal, that is." Coz if you are an Indigenous person, and another guest doesn't like your skin color, you are out. No friendly welcome, but a stylish "Fuck Off" is what you'll get. Because super clean means white. How much more funky could it get?

This from Auntie on what went down in the Alice:

An Alice Springs backpacker hostel may face legal action after it turned away a group of Indigenous people because of their skin colour.

The 16 women and children had travelled 300 kilometres from Yuendumu to Alice Springs to train as lifeguards for their community's new swimming pool.

They checked into the Haven Backpackers resort, but a short time later the manager told them that guests already staying there had complained of being scared.

The group included several young mothers and a three-month-old baby. Most were young leaders, chosen specially for their standing in the Yuendumu community.

The resort manager told Bethany Langdon from the Yuendumu Young Leaders program the group would have to leave.

"The manager came out and told me that we weren't suitable to stay there," she told ABC1's Lateline program.

"They said, because you're Aboriginal, other tourists were making complaints that they were scared of us.

"I felt like I wanted to cry, because it made me feel like I wasn't an Australian."

My heart goes out to Bethany and her fellow Traditional Owners who have to endure the deep rooted racism that is still well and truly alive in Oz. I can only imagine the alienation these people must feel - up and down the nation. Let's not kid ourselves, this was by no means a one-off episode. A very well informed source when it comes to racism is of the following opinion:

The Territory's anti-discrimination commissioner Tony Fitzgerald says it's not an isolated incident, but most never get investigated because people don't feel comfortable enough to report them.

A sad affair indeed. In the end the Australian Prime Minister can say sorry as much as he wants to, as long as large sections of the community and businesses keep discriminating against Indigenous folks, his well meant words will be nothing more than window dressing.