Ernie Dingo

[Spudz27]

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment...-1225809776726

INDIGENOUS icon Ernie Dingo has hit out at hypocritical "white people" who lecture Aborigines about alcohol consumption.

"What you should be worrying about is who is giving them access ... who sells alcohol? Not black people," Dingo said.

"We (indigenous people) don't have a problem. Our problem is to say 'no' to you blokes, to white people ... 'no' is not really part of our cultural background.

"There are more white alcoholics than there are black people in this country, so don't come at us with restrictions and Aboriginal laws about alcohol."

The actor was speaking after this week's Broome premiere of Australia's first Aboriginal musical film Bran Nue Dae.

Dingo plays an alcoholic homeless man nicknamed Tadpole. Much of the film was shot in the North-West.

The normally genial Dingo, best known for his travel adventures on The Great Outdoors, got fired up about the depiction of Aborigines as problem drinkers.

"Aboriginal people are open people - if there's a drink and you don't want it in your house, you drink it in a public place," he said. "To us there is nothing wrong with that. But to other people, who are so far up themselves, who look at those drunken Aborigines out there, yet they go home and they are cupboard drinkers.

"We are open with things that we do and people judge us because we are open.

"They don't judge themselves because of what they do in the background.

"It upsets me a lot. I'm passionate about the fact that people talk - journalists talk - about Aboriginal people with our drinking problem. We don't have a drinking problem at all.

"(The) Aboriginal drinking problem is white people selling to them."

Broome's Roebuck Bay Hotel general manager Mike Windle said: "We certainly don't give them the money to buy the alcohol and they do have the option whether they buy it or not."

Broome Shire president Graeme Campbell said alcoholism was a complex disease that was often brought on by a range of issues, including homelessness and unemployment.

"Certainly some indigenous people are more visible, but I have no doubt that alcoholism is a problem across the whole of the community," he said.

Alcohol restrictions have been imposed across much of the Kimberley.

Takeaway alcohol bans in Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing have been widely hailed a success.

The sale of takeaway liquor in containers of more than a litre has been banned in the Kimberley, including Broome and Kununurra."


Please don't turn this topic into a racial one but my respect for the guy has dropped 100%.