The start of a new semester has arrived, the ruckus of the
Union elections may have eased but once again Cromwell has managed to launch
itself into the limelight of controversy.
Cromwell College has a multitude of traditions; interesting,
arcane, sometimes irrelevant, they all have a firm place in the Cromwell
calendar. One of the smaller and less
socially consequential traditions is the annual international dinner.
The procedure for the evening goes as such. Each individual
corridor nominates a nationality. They then dress themselves up as accurately
as possible to replicate the appearance of this nationality. All well and good
in theory right? Just a bit of fun, Mexicans in sombreros, Chinese in straw
hats, the usual cultural debacle. Apparently not this year. No, this year it all
hit the proverbial fan. One ill-fated female corridor decided to dress as
Indigenous Australians.
I personally didn’t see too much of an issue. Perhaps a bit
distasteful but they weren’t attempting to play at any stereotypes or to paint
indigenous Australians in a negative manner. While their attire wasn’t
necessarily the most politically correct, I didn’t see the potential for any
harm to be done and therefore I was not expecting the huge backlash that
followed.
The entirety of the college was informed that, one week
after the dinner, journalists for a variety of newspapers, including the Brisbane
Times and the Sydney Morning Herald had taken a very negative interest in the
portrayal of aboriginals by the college.
Naturally the photos of the night were first discovered by
journalists on Facebook. Classic example of social media destroying
reputations. Fortunately the issue has now been resolved, but only through
extensive apologies and promises of cultural awareness programs that shall soon
be installed into the college.
According the various sources of outraged discussion that
have been circulating the web throughout the aftermath of the incident, the
main issue taken was the use of “ Blackface”. I have come to realise the
cultural significance and the various negative connotations associated with the
use of such costuming, I cannot however understand how previously allocated associations
with a costuming method can supersede the context of an event in deciding the
cultural relevance of behaviour. There
was no malice, racism or even humour associated with the dress of the corridor
at the dinner. They were simply attempting to replicate the appearance of
Indigenous Australians. That was the
purpose of using blackface makeup at the event, not any other preconceived
representations. While there are no full aboriginals in attendance to the
college, there are many students of varying degrees of Aboriginal heritage. While their opinions of course do not
represent the greater Aboriginal community, it should be noted that none of
them took offense to the attire of the girls due to the fact that they
understood the context of the international dinner; a tribute to the variety of
cultures we embrace at Cromwell College. This fact is what I think was lost
upon the general public and as such the appropriateness of the dinner was
brought into question.
This incident has been resolved, the way it was handled I am
not criticising in the slightest. Despite the backlash and negative media
representations I still firmly believe that context is an important part of
cultural awareness. The fact that we at Cromwell have offended so many harks
back to the issues of a hyper connected society. We are so integrated through
the use of social media, the internet and other forms of connectivity that the
privacy which allowed such traditions as international dinner to exist seems to
be null and void.
