Many people don’t realise how bad racism was in Australia.
When I got there in the 1970s, many Aborigines in Queensland were restricted to reserves and had to have a permission to be out of it – usually granted only if it was for work eg on a cattle station. They were also paid a fraction of the white wage, and most of the wage was deducted and paid to the Dept of Aboriginal and Island Affairs.
The last massacre was not that far in the past then, about 50 years.
Peter Norman’s moral courage was of a high order and he paid a high price.