Two friends travelled across the country for a year to find Australia’s best swimming spots. In this book extract, they share some of their discoveries
Every body of water in this country has a compelling story behind it. Australian swimming spots tell this country’s social and political history. Indigenous Australians – whose First Nations far outnumber those of modern Europe – harvested and swam in these waters for 60,000 years, for longer than any other human civilisation on this planet. The Freedom Ride of 1965 – led by activist Charles Perkins – was staged to protest the fact that the local Moree pool in northern New South Wales banned Aboriginal (‘quarter caste, half-caste or full blood’) swimmers. Aboriginal protestors picked up children from the local mission, escorted the kids into the pools personally and not only changed the pools’ policy, but set the stage for the successful referendum on Indigenous rights two years later.
These places where we swim remind us of the values to which Australians aspire: egalitarianism and fairness. What form of leisure is more accessible and democratic than dipping into a shared stretch of beach or a suburban pool on a baking summer’s day? You don’t need money to access the best spots this country has to offer. - Benjamin Law
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Pb9uGo
via
0 Comments