Who would have thought that a sport as innocent and as simple as ice-skating could be embroiled in a racism row? But that’s just what has happened with the Russian world champion ice skating couple.
Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin have been heavily criticised for their ice-skating routine performed yesterday at the European Championships in Estonia.
Both skaters wore brown costumes that were decorated with white lines and green leaves – very similar to the ceremonial dress of Aboriginals. Their routine also included a didgeridoo along with chanting, shouting and whooping.
Bev Manton, an Aboriginal leader from New South Wales certainly thinks the similarities go too far and accused the Russian couple of offending Aboriginal culture: “From an Aboriginal perspective, this performance is offensive. It was clearly not meant to mock Aboriginal culture, but that does not make it acceptable to Aboriginal people,” she wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald. “There are a number of problems with the performance, not least of all the fact that both skaters are wearing brown body suits to make their skin appear darker. That alone puts them on a very slippery slope.”
The couple, in trying to defend their routine, only served to deepen the row as they stated that they were wearing “authentic Aboriginal paint markings” – this led Bev Manton to accuse them of seeing Aboriginal people as “cheap ‘Aboriginal’ tourist trinkets”.
However the Russian ice skating federation pointed out that all skaters had to perform to a ‘world’ theme and the Aboriginal routine was just part of that. One former Olympic skater, Oleg Ovsyannikov had dressed up as Buffalo Bill and his partner was an Indian princess. He defended the Russian couple saying: “I’m sure that Oksana and Maxim are not trying to hurt anyone’s feelings. These kinds of dances are really rather typical.”
The problem appears to be that the couple did not consult the Aboriginal community before performing their routine, which others had done. In 2008 Australian skaters Danielle O’Brien and Greg Merriman performed their own Aboriginal routine but had consulted the community beforehand.
Bev Manson said that it was important for people to understand the sacredness of the Aboriginal dance ceremony: “Our dance, our ceremony, our image – and, importantly, how they are depicted – are sacred to Aboriginal Australians, just as the ANZAC legend and how it is depicted is sacred to all Australians, me included.”
The Russian ice-skating dance routine can be viewed following the link below, let us know what you think of it by using our comments box.
Other related articles:
- Abbott Dismisses Aboriginal Acknowledgement As Tokenism - Tony Abbott stirs up debate by criticising acknowledgement of Aborigines....
- Possible Oscar Nomination for Aboriginal Love Story - An Aboriginal love story collects AFI awards after wowing the...
- Race-Row Australian Politician to Head For UK - A controversial Australian politician immigrates to the UK....
- Holidaymaker in Australia Angers Aboriginals - A holidaymaker has angered Australian Aboriginals by disrespecting Mt Uluru....
Love Australia? Let us keep you informed...
- Join the Embrace Australia community today. Have your questions answered by our experts, start your own blog, get vital migration information and gain valuable insight from those who have already made the journey.
- Subscribe to our RSS Feed and have all our daily news and features delivered straight to your news reader.
- Join our mailing list -
One Response to “Russian Ice-Skaters in Aboriginal Race Row”
Comment by Rae — January 24, 2010 @ 11:07 am
Give me a break! That was a beautiful performance done by the Russians. Give them credit for letting the world know that natives in Australia do exist and has beautiful & rich culture. Give them respect to have chosen your aboriginal dance over other thousands around the world. Lucky they just made your country more known & a tourist magnet.