ABSTRACT

On 25 September 2020, the ABC released a documentary film to mark the twentieth anniversary of Cathy Freeman’s gold medal victory in the women’s 400 metres at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Media interest in Freeman’s victory still erupts periodically, most recently, to commemorate the twentieth anniversary. This article revisits Cathy Freeman’s historic gold-medal-winning performance in order to ponder the lost promise of reconciliation. At the time, and still today, Freeman’s victory is overwhelmingly celebrated as more than just an athletic feat; it is also lauded as a victory for reconciliation. Rather than trying to determine the extent to which Freeman’s race did bolster reconciliation, or even whether it contributed to reconciliation at all, this article instead analyses the metaphors, rhetoric and images through which Freeman’s victory was represented as an act of reconciliation, and what this tells us about how reconciliation plays out in the Australian context. In particular, it argues that the complex ways in which Freeman’s victory were represented, and continue to be understood, reveal a widespread desire to be free from the burdens of history by projecting the work of reconciliation onto Freeman herself.

摘要

2020 年 9 月 25 日，美国广播公司发布了一部纪录片，以纪念凯茜·弗里曼在 2000 年悉尼奥运会上获得女子 400 米金牌二十周年。媒体对弗里曼获胜的兴趣仍然不时爆发，最近一次是为了纪念 20 周年。本文重温凯茜·弗里曼 (Cathy Freeman) 获得金牌的历史性表现，以思考失去的和解承诺。当时，直到今天，弗里曼的胜利都被压倒性地庆祝，而不仅仅是一项运动壮举；它也被誉为和解的胜利。本文并没有试图确定弗里曼的种族在多大程度上促进了和解，或者甚至是否有助于和解，而是分析了这些隐喻，弗里曼的胜利通过这些修辞和形象被表现为一种和解的行为，以及这告诉我们和解在澳大利亚的背景下如何发挥作用。特别是，它认为，弗里曼的胜利被代表并继续被理解的复杂方式，通过将和解工作投射到弗里曼本人身上，揭示了一种摆脱历史负担的广泛愿望。