The 'Nigger' Brown Stand debate

As I was packing my briefcase late on a Wednesday afternoon, after a long day at the office, I received a call from a journalist from my local newspaper asking if I would care to comment on the imminent demolition of a building.

I’m not talking about any particular building, but more specifically a structure that has impacted significantly on my life and that of my family for the past nine years.

“Stephen, I received news today that heavy machinery was now in place to start pulling down the E.S “Nigger” Brown Stand - do you care to comment?”

I wasn’t sure if that call, from out of the blue, meant the controversial stand was being pulled down that afternoon, the next day or sometime within the week.

“Mate if they put another sign up with that offensive word, or if it appears on a statue or a plaque I’ll be in and out of the courts for the next nine years fighting to have it removed as well,” was the first thing that came to mind.

I must say I felt a little ambushed by the leading question of the journalist, as I was aware the stand was going to be demolished soon to make way for a $2.15 milion redevelopment, but no one had contacted me about a timeframe for work to commence. Generally in a small town like Toowoomba with a population a tad over 100,000 people, you’d get word from someone in-the-know of developments.

As usual, I made calls to various national newspapers to inform them of the unexpected news I received so they could do their own investigations and provide an alternative commentary to my local paper on news that was sure to break the next day.

The following morning I woke early after an interrupted sleep, and made my way to my local convenience store to buy the paper and see if I should prepare myself for another round of irate letters to the editors that routinely follow news of any description on this topic.

Nothing quite shakes-up the ultra conservative rural community of Toowoomba like an attack on their iconic international rugby league representative and eminent businessman, Edward Brown, than an out-of-town black activist interloper like me wanting to besmirch his good name.

These are not descriptors I give myself, but are the words used by the broader community who constantly attack me through the media for daring to challenge the status quo of the sign erected in honour of Brown, a white Australian. He received his racially charged nickname because of his fair complexion, or because he had a penchant for using the Nigger Brown boot polish used in that era.

After reading the headlines “Nigger Brown sign to survive” I knew I was safe for the moment from the avalanche of hate mail.

Not satisfied to bear the brunt of further ridicule in the town I now called home I hastily lodged a formal application to the Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland (ADCQ) seeking recompense of $10,000 for hurt and suffering against the Chairman of the Toowoomba Sports Ground Trust, John McDonald, on the grounds that he was inciting racial hatred. 

McDonald was quoted in the paper as saying that he would ensure the famous sportsman was honoured with his nickname on a statue or plaque, at the oval, after the stand was demolished.

I also knew the action of my compensation bid would rile the locals, as they hate the very notion that I would benefit financially from my legal challenge against McDonald - who is also a former international rugby league representative and Chairman of the National Rugby League Association.

I also sent copies of my ADCQ application to my media contacts so they could add to their news flashes on the ongoing controversy. It’s not hard getting valuable space in the national carriers as they know their readership also have a healthy appetite of the saga that had been played out before them for the better part of nine years.

Back in Toowoomba on the day after I received the surprise call from a local journalist and subsequent tame article favouring John McDonald for daring to pre-empt the replacement statue or plaque I was totally knocked speechless when a journalist from The Courier-Mail rang me with the news from the Sports Minister.

Judy Spence, Queensland Sports Minister, who has control over the sportsground complex where the stadium stands, made a public statement only moments earlier announcing that there would be no reference to the offending word on any structure at the venue.

And, if that wasn’t news enough, I was further thrilled to hear reference in the statement that the Minister had confirmed discussion with McDonald had taken place and that he was in agreement of this new position. 

Even the newly elected mayor of Toowoomba, Peter Taylor, who only announced recently that he supported the retention of the name, joined in on the latest disclosure saying the “time was now right to move on”.

I knew it wasn’t April Fool’s day and the circus wasn’t in town but I couldn’t quite work out why all of a sudden I was hearing of our fearless civic leaders doing back flips left, right and centre. They say “a week’s a long time in politics” but in this latest saga on the controversial stand we were only into day two and the fireworks were going off.

And yes, the letters to the editor, SMS and angry messages on my phone have grown in volume by the day as the news began to sink in that I had claimed victory.

I recalled being told by civic leaders on numerous occasions during my campaign that I was a sore loser and ought to move on with my life after losing case after case in the domestic courts. Now the shoe’s on the other foot and moving on is something I don’t believe this community will do for some time yet.

So what has the past nine years taught me?

Well to say my stand on this case was a defining moment in my life would be an understatement. The campaign shook me out of my lethargy as I was basically cruising in life; content to spend time back in the town where all my family reside, with my wife, Rhonda, and young children, Stephen junior and Jayde aged seven and four respectively, maintaining a low profile and enjoying the peaceful life on the Darling Downs.

The first thing the campaign forced my hand on was to write my story on this extraordinary case that made international headlines. I was always concerned that a PhD student would write a book about the saga such was its legal notoriety. So, from a background of limited literary skills I “had a go” and convinced Magabala Publishing that it was a good yarn worth printing. 

As they say, “the rest is history”: I won a Deadly award for outstanding achievement in literature for The N Word - One Man’s Stand, followed up by several other books; NAIDOC person of the year award for my campaign on the stand; and received multi-awards for the documentary Nigger Lovers, which I co-wrote and produced while Rhonda directed.

With confidence in my newfound writing skills expanding to writing articles for various magazines, I was pleasantly surprised one day to receive a call from editor Steve Gordon inviting me to join his Koori Mail team as their national columnist writing on social and political issues. Almost two years later I’ve still got the fire in my belly and I am happily submitting my articles every fortnight.

The down side of this storm was to see the intensity of ill feeling directed at me, and indirectly at my family, by Indigenous and non-Indigenous people alike who didn’t quite know how to handle the public controversy I’d placed them in.

Maybe the Indigenous people who were aggrieved by my actions felt I had no place disrupting the racial harmony of the township of Toowoomba they had developed with non-Indigenous people over the past couple of decades.

I hope there are lessons that we can all take from this protracted public debate: principally that we should demonstrate our maturity as a nation by fully embracing social discourse on issues associated with race, specifically pertinent matters that involve Indigenous Australians.

We all need to begin by respecting and valuing each other’s points of views instead of sitting on the fence. We all have rights in a democratic country and part of having rights is the knowledge that we can express them without fear of recrimination from others, even if at times the law appears to favour the dominant group.