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Glen Morris: Discrimination - swimming, movies, education and jobs

We weren’t allowed to swim with the other girls and boys in the main pool there was a separate pool

I remember in Armidale when we were teenagers we used to go to the swimming pools and the picture theatre and of course we would go down to the pool and were weren’t allowed to swim with the other girls and boys in the main pool there was a separate pool, it was segregated from the rest of the community.

When I used to go to the picture theatre I was put right down the front

When I used to go to the picture theatre I was put right down the front of the picture theatre and of course being right down the front and section chained off you couldn’t see the picture property it was all blurry and loud noise.

School - another form of discrimination that I look at was they put us up the back

When we was at school another form of discrimination that I look at was they put us up the back of the classroom not down the front so when the school teachers were asking us do we hear about what they said or could we do the sums, we couldn’t hear because they didn’t speak loud enough and we were right at the back of the class, we got in trouble for not fully understanding what they said.

Again it makes you think that we were less educated in those days because we didn’t fully hear what they said. We had peers of our own like our own people saying that when we do get ahead “What are you trying to be white?” and so you would come back into line to have the same sort of education that they had.

Education and jobs - even when I obtained the equivalent to the school certificate and I had better marks than the non-aboriginal people, when I went for an apprenticeship I was knocked back

When I did move away from Armidale I moved down to Newcastle and there was only two aboriginal people in the whole of the high school and so I had to learn to compete because there was no other Aboriginal kids pulling me back so I had to learn to compete to further me education. I got up to intermediate in those days, it was called the intermediate certificate and I had to end up leaving school very early to get out and work because I had me younger brother and sister coming through.

It was very difficult in those days, even when I obtained the equivalent to the school certificate and I had better marks than the non-aboriginal people, when I went for an apprenticeship I was knocked back, I went of a job I was knocked back. It didn’t stop me from trying but when you get knocked back a lot of times you tend to sort of give in. I remember going for a job at the Retravision store at Armidale and one of the first questions they asked me was we don’t allow stealing here and I said “Ha Ha, well it looks I haven’t got the job” and I said “I don’t steal”. I went back out into the waiting room, the next applicant came in and he came back out and I asked him “Did they ask you about stealing” and he said “No” so again, another form of discrimination.