ABC Entertaining Indigenous Superstition “Out of Respect”

The ABC News has become repetitive. If it’s not, “'Why funding more men’s behaviour change programs will save women’s lives”, it’s, “The world is going to blow up from human-induced climate change unless Australians stop using coal”. What ever happened about publishing, you know, the regular news? But another thing that has become extremely repetitive on the ABC, and elsewhere, is this little warning message that you see at the start of many articles and TV shows, “WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains the image of a person who has died.” In other articles, they will state, “This article contains the first name of a person who has died.” Now I’m not here to criticise people’s religion or beliefs. I’m not here to criticise Aboriginal people at all. I’m just here to comment on this racialised warning message.

First of all, fundamentally, what are the ABC doing here? Well, they’re giving credence to, essentially, a superstition, ostensibly out of respect, of one particular group of people. And it’s not even one group of people, to be fair. They’ve kind of lumped all Aboriginal people into one cohesive group. Even before European colonisation of the continent, there were hundreds of different tribes with their own distinct languages, and presumably distinct customs and practices. Fast forward to 2024 and the differences are even more stark. There are Christian Aboriginal people, Muslim Aboriginal people, and I presume Aboriginal people who belong to every other faith, or otherwise. Are they taking heed of these warnings and not reading the articles because of some traditional superstition held by some Aboriginal tribes?

I guess my point is, how many Aboriginal people actually practise this? Is Stan Grant not reading ABC articles because of this warning message? He’s a very learned man. I presume he reads everything he can, especially about Aboriginal deaths in custody, and so on. What about young Aboriginal people? Are they still practising these ancient traditions? Are they purposely avoiding articles and TV shows that discuss deceased persons? The point is, who is this warning for? Approximately 3.8% of the total Australian population identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Of that 3.8%, obviously less practise traditional customs and beliefs. So essentially, is this warning just appeasing a minority of a minority? I think so.

Another thing, if you look at any other article about a person who has died, for example, John Blackman of Hey Hey It’s Saturday fame recently died. No warning! He’s Australian. He died. Why isn’t there a warning? The message warns of “images and names of people who have died.” This article contains all those. Why no warning? Well, I think we can all guess. He’s not Indigenous. As I said, this warning is very racialised. Only Indigenous people apparently count. If the superstition is indeed correct, why does it matter what the ethnicity of the deceased person is?

What about other cultures and religions? Why is it only Aboriginal people who are deserving enough to get this warning? There are hundreds of different cultures and people of different ethnic backgrounds living here in multicultural Australia. They must have hundreds of different beliefs. Isn’t it possible that other people in the world also don’t want to read about deceased people? At the very least, they should modify this warning to include all people, not just Indigenous Australians: “Warning: Readers are warned that the following story contains an image of a deceased person.” Isn’t equality the goal? Shouldn’t we be inclusive of everyone, not just one particular ethnic group that the ABC decide?

This to me indicates that this was never about actually warning the subset of people in Australia who actually heed these warnings. This was always about, and is just another example of, virtue signalling, is it not? Look, as I said, I’m not here to criticise people’s beliefs, but why only have warnings for Aboriginal people? Why not have a warning message to Christians? “Warning: The following article contains language that takes the Lord’s name in vain.” What about Muslims? “Warning: The following article contains acts of alcohol consumption and gambling.” Those are the two biggest religions that comprise billions of people. Why is it only Aboriginal people getting a warning about a particular superstition that presumably only a subset of them believe in? Why does this warning continue to exist in a country where supposedly equality is the goal?

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn