‘The Redfern
Address,’ delivered by then Prime Minister Paul Keating in Redfern Park,
is now considered to be one of Australia’s
most unforgettable speeches, thanks to an ABC-led competition reports Ben Falkenmire in the South Sydney Herald of September 2007.
Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ topped the ABC’s Most
Unforgettable Speeches project with the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ by Jesus coming
second and Keating’s Redfern speech a clear third.
Such was the tenacity of Keating’s speech and what
playwright David Williamson once described as “head-on courage that’s no longer
heard on the hustings,” that it caught the attention of one Casey Bennetto.
Anyone who has attended Keating! The Musical will identify
Bennetto as its playwright. The SSH caught up with him just prior to Keating!
being awarded Best Musical at the Helpmann Theatre Awards in August, with Neil
Armfeld picking up Best Direction of a Musical. Despite the song ‘Redfern,’ a
bossa-nova referring to Keating’s speech, being added to Act 2 when the
production came to Sydney, Bennetto talked fondly of Keating’s now-famous
speech. A commemorative plaque in Redfern
Park marks the occasion,
according to a City spokesperson. The SSH has not sighted this plaque and
failed to locate it, the search muddled by current upgrades. The question begs
whether this plaque should be transformed into something more grandiose to mark
the speech’s new-found acclamation in the annals of Australia’s political and cultural
history.
“Concrete action is always better, but symbols are
important,” said Bennetto.
“As long as it is something that comes from the Indigenous
community rather than something that is created for it.”
A local Labor Party member is adamant something more
edifying should be built. “It is a sacred spot for the Aboriginal community and
for the residents of Redfern, and something the whole neighbourhood can be
enormously proud of.”
City of Sydney confrmed that
the existing plaque would remain intact during the upgrade of Redfern Park.
Photo: John
Paoloni – Redfern Park 1992: Vic Smith (Mayor of South
Sydney), Paul Keating and Robert Tickner (Minister for Aboriginal
Affairs)
Source South Sydney Herald September 2007 – www.southsydneyherald.com.au