The N Word: One man's stand

By Stephen Hagan, Broome: Magabala Books, 2005, 276 pages, paperback, $29.95. Reviewed by Andrew See in the August 2005 issue.

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Stephen Hagan was born in 1959, six years before Indigenous people gained the right to vote in Queensland and eight years before the demise of the 'White Australia' immigration policy. While that sort of historical setting could have been the introduction to his autobiography 'The N Word' : One Man's Stand, (Magabala Books) the author remains far more temperate and instead commences this easy-to-read book at the Toowoomba Sports Ground, the infamous home of the ES 'Nigger' Brown Stand.

Not that Hagan stays there for too long. He has far more interesting tales to tell and as soon as he can, unfolds his life story with poignant tales of his ancestors from the Kullilli and Kooma tribes of South West Queensland. In a logical and orderly fashion, Hagan slowly marches down his ancestral path and along the way gives an insight into his people's lifestyle as fringe dwellers on the outskirts of Cunnamulla in Queensland, to his time as the only aboriginal student at an all boys boarding school in Brisbane and then beyond. The account of his first 45 years as a black man in a white, now emerging multi-racial Australia, is both educational and disturbing.

Hagan reveals his own and his family's life story, with a combination of pride and resentment. His admiration for his father and mother and love of his immediate family is obvious. What is less clear is how a man seemingly riding on the wave of success at such an early age, could possibly be faced with incarceration at Lotus Glen jail and then bankruptcy, before reaching the age of 45 years.

Certainly he makes no bones about the fact that his father had the drive and determination to provide his family with something outside of mustering and station hand work. In fact when you read of his time as an altar server at the Anglican Church in Cunnamulla and his trips to Brisbane to officiate at church services at St John's Cathedral, you get the impression that Hagan represents everything that black Australia resented about paternalistic Aboriginal policy. But such a response to the story of Hagan and his publishing debut, seems too easy.

There are also inaccuracies in his account of his stand. His reference to Mother Teresa being a member of the Sisters of Mercy is one such mistake. But given that Hagan wasn't brought up catholic, such a mistake is understandable enough. And like most of us, peppered throughout his life story there are many mistakes, perhaps some more freely admitted than others. And this is where some of the author's problems may lie. There would appear to be few people with whom Hagan has come in contact, that have allowed him to forget about his mistakes.

For example, he freely concedes that his relationship with the former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) management had become strained, when he sought to pursue a position as head of an Aboriginal Dance Theatre on Queensland's Gold Coast in 1992. He also speaks freely of his poor choice of allies in the political manoeuvring between himself, Mick Miller and members of the Queensland Coalition Parties leading up to the Mundingburra State by-election in 1996. (It was following the Mundingburra by-election that a snap internal audit of the Aboriginal and Islander State Tripartite Forum (STF) took place that led to Hagan faces charges of falsifying travel claims as a public servant)

If you are looking for a study on the politics of work and how to succeed in life, then perhaps this book is not for you. If on the other hand you want to remember what Australia once was like, it is probably worth your while persevering with it, even when the reminiscing of some of the career jobs and personal accounts, becomes on occasion, romanticised and annoying. That being said, there is still enough within the book that is confronting and provoking.

For example, there is the story of Dave Wharton, one of the first Aboriginal Australians to serve in the Australian Army in 1941, who was refused by the Returned Servicemen's League to be a pall bearer at his best mate's funeral. Or there is the story of the Nancy Young affair in 1968, when a young Aboriginal girl was rushed to Cunnamulla hospital for emergency attention, only to be denied access to a medical doctor for over twelve hours, then to die two days later. Of more recent times, Hagan tells of an outback nurse who, when assisting in the delivery of his sister's twin boys, exclaimed 'You're a silly little black bitch. You got yourself pregnant too young, so serve you right'.

Hagan does a good job of exposing the ugly face of Australian racism throughout his book. On occasions it appears that the constancy of the theme is too much. That it makes for a good story, but may not always be the exact truth. But that is what 'the N Word' is all about. It is about Hagan and his perception of racism in Australia. He says that the word 'nigger' is 'an insidious slur and is without doubt the most disparaging epithet used for black people'. From what Hagan says, the word is still in good use.

On the other hand, Hagan has heard it all before. He tells of a schooling where taunts and prejudice were commonplace. While he fondly recalls his days as a rugby hero at Marist College Ashgrove, he nonetheless also speaks frankly about this time. In a way, Hagan's time at boarding school seems to be no different to his later adult life. Both then and now, he remains frustrated with assimilation, racial identification and politics. He appears to love and hate the experience at the same time.

But Hagan has a soft side to him. There is a certain sadness and sense of betrayal that Hagan has and feels for his own local Aboriginal community. This is made evident in the account of his sacking as the Chief Executive Officer of the Toowoomba Aboriginal Corporation and the public support that Australian legendary footballer 'Artie' Beetson gave to the sports ground, that was so intent on preserving the nick name of an Australian rugby league player ES Brown.

Hagan takes some time to return to the main event within the book, the E S 'Nigger' Brown Stand and his unsuccessful efforts to have the term 'nigger' removed from the sign at the Toowoomba Sports ground. It is from here that the title of the book is derived.

Clearly the fight was a long one and on the way he appears to have dusted off lawyers and commentators alike. But for Hagan he remains philosophical. His book ends in the same calm and considered manner in which it commenced. Wherever his road may take him, he has a dream and that is to ensure that the same hatred and prejudice that was experienced by his parents and his people and to a lesser extent himself, is put to bed. There will be those who believe that he has taken the good with the bad. His critics will say that he has copped his just desserts. Whatever your perspective, his recollection of a racist Australia will nonetheless be hard to deny.

As an Anglo-Irish Australian who was in the same class as the author at boarding school I can confirm that he was the victim of racist epithets. Hagan gives the impression that perhaps he knew that all along, but what he has is 'a vision of (his) children playing on the oval with children of other races, free in the knowledge that they would not have to confront a relic of a racist past'.

To that end, the title of the book, The 'N Word' One Man's Stand, says it all. Hagan is a loner and it is highly likely that it will take more than one man to achieve his dream. Politics seldom, if ever, works like that and Hagan gives the impression that he has a problem understanding this at times.

That being said, The N Word is unlikely to be the last word we will hear from Steve Hagan. For a multi-racial Australia, that can only be a good thing.

Citation

• Andrew See. 'Review: The N Word: One man's stand by Stephen Hagan' [online]. Network Review of Books (Perth, Australian Public Intellectual Network), August 2005. Availability: <please cite the web address here> ISSN 1833-0932. [accessed 19 June 2013].

Back Cover Blurb

• Academic and political advocate, Stephen Hagan, goes all the way to the United Nations with his legal battle to remove the word 'Nigger' from a sign at an Australian sportsground.
  
  The N Word exposes the passion and courage of the man behind the public face and reveals how a childhood growing up in a fringe camp on the outskirts of Cunnamulla in south-west Queensland, fired his determination to fight for human rights.
  
  From his foray into bureaucracy in the eighties as a naive young diplomatic attache posted to Sri Lanka, through to calculated career moves as government bureaucrat, businessman and academic, Hagan has stuck close to his Aboriginal roots and the lessons imparted from his family and cultural advisors.
  
  On a journey marked by controversy, he has advanced from one legal battle to another. In the 1990s Hagan's fortunes went from enjoying the heady company of Queensland political powerbrokers to a spectacular fall from grace and desperate attempts to clear his name of legal charges. He later came up against his own people while championing the cause for accountability and transparency in publicly-funded organisations.
  
  This story of 'one man's stand' is an uncompromising insight into Indigenous politics by one of Australia's most sought after commentators on race relations.

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