What Happens in The Australian Dream?
The complete story of The Australian Dream, from the first scene to the last, in 555 words (about 2 minutes). Spoilers throughout.
Spoilers ahead
Goodes, an Aboriginal Australian of Adnyamathanha and Narungga heritage, was drafted by the Sydney Swans in the 1997 AFL draft and went on to have a successful career with the Swans, being awarded a number of accolades for his performance including the AFL Rising Star award in 1999, the Brownlow Medal (2003 and 2006), the Bob Skilton Medal (2003, 2006 and 2011), and All Australian selection (2003, 2006, 2009 and 2011). In 2014 he was named Australian of the Year in recognition of his community work supporting Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander youth, the efforts of the Go Foundation (co-founded with his Sydney Swans teammate Michael O’Loughlin), and his efforts to combat racism.
On 24 May 2013, during the AFL’s annual Indigenous Round (the Sir Doug Nicholls Round), a 13-year-old Collingwood supporter called Goodes an “ape”. Upon hearing the abuse, Goodes pointed the girl out to security, who ejected her from the stadium. Goodes was deeply affected by the incident, but said repeatedly that the girl should not be blamed; the environment that she grew up in had shaped her response. The girl phoned to apologise, saying that she hadn’t realised the impact of her words.
Over the following years, and particularly in 2015, Goodes was repeatedly and loudly booed by opposition fans at most matches. The motivation for, and acceptability of, the booing generated wide public debate, which dominated media coverage from both sports and political commentators for weeks at a time.
During a match against Carlton in May 2015, again during the Indigenous Round, Goodes celebrated a goal by performing an Aboriginal war dance, in which he mimed throwing a spear in the direction of the Carlton cheer squad. Goodes said after the incident that the dance was based on one he learned from under-16s Indigenous team the Flying Boomerangs, and that it was intended as an expression of Indigenous pride during Indigenous Round, not as a means of offending or intimidating the crowd. The booing of Goodes intensified in the months after the war dance. Goodes took indefinite leave from the game in August of the 2015 season. Many clubs and players in the AFL supported Goodes in the week of his leave. He returned the following week and played for the remainder of the season after an outpouring of support from fans, actors, politicians, celebrities and teammates, including two spontaneous standing ovations.
Goodes retired from AFL in September 2015. He did not attend the Grand Final, where retiring players traditionally take part in a parade, one of only a handful of players to decline this invitation since the parade for retiring players was established.
The Australian Dream tells the story of Goodes’ life, from before he became a professional footballer through to his later career as an activist for Indigenous rights in Australia. It includes archival footage of as well as recent interviews with a range of Australians, including Indigenous and non-Indigenous people – politicians, sportspeople, politicians, media commentators and Grant himself.
With Grant commenting on or explaining each segment of the film, it is only at the end that the title is explained, when it includes his 2016 address at the 2019 IQ2 debate, which went viral. In it, he delivers a powerful message about how discrimination and colonisation are the base on which the “Australian dream” is built.
