Brisbane Airport Vendor Thought It’d Be Cool To Sell “Aboriginal Lucky Dolls”; Aboriginal People Did Not
[disappointment in humanity rises]
Among the long list of culturally insensitive things western culture has churned out over the years, trying to turn a profit from Indigenous people while completely leaving them out of the equation would be pretty high up on the page. Yet, that’s exactly what some clever retailer at Brisbane International Airport thought they’d do, by selling “Australian Aboriginal Lucky Dolls”.
On Thursday, a photo of the dolls was posted to Facebook and shared over 400 times, eventually catching the attention of Indigenous X founder and commentator Luke Pearson. And judging by the backlash from the wider community, these little wooden effigies painted with crude faux-Indigenous art — including some sort of quirky kangaroo pattern dress for the lady-Aboriginals — aren’t fooling anyone.
If anyone is at the Brisbane airport pls get me a photo of inside the tag, eg company name, where they're made, etc pic.twitter.com/SSeERovViJ
— Pearson In The Wind (@LukeLPearson) December 18, 2015
@LukeLPearson ohhhh my god what fresh hell is this
— Cathy (@catherinebouris) December 18, 2015
@LukeLPearson Sweet Merciful Fucking Mary Mother of Buddha! WTAF!?! Burn it! Burn the shop! Aaaaargh!
— Craig Andrew Batty (@ResignInShame) December 18, 2015
@LukeLPearson @DameyonBonson Sweet Jesus. That’s just… Sweet Jesus. :(
— Kronk P (@kav_p) December 18, 2015
@LukeLPearson WTAF. No. Just NO goddamnit.
— Rat (@ThoughtfulRat) December 18, 2015
Thankfully, Brisbane Airport have had enough sense to have them pulled from the shelves after realising all hell had broken out on social media — and, hopefully, also realising the unethical and insensitive nature of selling mass-produced “Australian Aboriginal” products that most likely involved zero Australian Aboriginals.
@LukeLPearson Thanks for bringing this to our attention. The retailer has now removed these from their shelves.
— Brisbane Airport (@BrisbaneAirport) December 18, 2015
Although SBS’s NITV had reached out to the vendor for comment, there’s still been no mention of the vendor’s business name, or where the dolls were actually manufactured — many people responding to the photo on social media have speculated that they were likely made overseas from cheap labour, and most certainly not designed by actual Aboriginals.
HOW is keeping a crass Aboriginal effigy on a chain lucky? Sad that the depth of monetization and exploitation of our…
Posted by Stop the Forced Closure of Aboriginal Communities in Australia on Thursday, 17 December 2015
There’s been ongoing issues with retailers like this selling fake Aboriginal souvenirs to tourists, and the backlash from this particular incident will hopefully shine further light on that. But with the power of social media, and the ability for some people who use it to be not-garbage when it comes to capitalizing on oppressed cultures, surely this sort of stuff can’t survive much longer.
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Story h/t SBS.
Image via Robin Taubenfeld/Facebook.