“I’ve written to the editors of ‘The Australian’ newspaper asking them to apologize for those terrible stereotypes… fancy a cartoon implying that Aboriginal parents don’t love their children”.
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After widespread condemnation on social media, Leak has hit back, describing his critics as “sanctimonious Tweety Birds having a tantrum”.
In a statement, he said cartoonists have a rich tradition of irreverent satire but there is absolutely no place for depicting racist stereotypes.
It appears to be a response to comments from Indigenous leader Noel Pearson, who said this week that Aboriginal people needed to take more responsibility for the behaviour of their children.
In an editorial published on Thursday, the paper said Leak’s cartoon was meant to be “confronting”.
“We are saddened and upset by the offensive Bill Leak cartoon in the Australian that denigrates Australia’s first peoples”, it said in a statement.
The original illustration was criticised by Indigenous groups, politicians and on social media.
Greens leader Richard di Natale called the cartoon “disgraceful” and reminiscent of attitudes from a bygone era.
“This type of cartoon helps no-one”, NSW Aboriginal Land Council chairman Roy Ah-See said.
The cartoon was “deliberately chosen to insult Aboriginal people”, according to Professor Muriel Bamblett, AM, the chief executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency Co-Operative.
She said in 1990 the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody said that Indigenous people were poorly portrayed in the media.
Treatment of Aboriginal children is in the spotlight after The ABC’s Four Corners aired footage of prison guards at the detention centre teargassing teenage inmates and strapping a half-naked, hooded-boy to a chair.
‘The appalling cartoon we have seen from Mr Leak today speaks to the racism, discrimination and denial of history that still mars the nation’. Past year he depicted scrawny Indians trying to eat solar panels during the Paris climate conference.
“I wasn’t completely shocked, because I know what Bill Leak does before”, she said.
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As you probably heard, regular cartoonist for The Australian Bill Leak caused (another) controversy yesterday with a drawing that was decried by many (anyone with a brain who saw it) as racist.
