Historian labels Commonwealth Games representation of Indigenous people as romanticised

Commonwealth Games organisers have ignored 160 years of Indigenous history on the Gold Coast, according to a leading Queensland anthropologist.

Gold Coast Historical Society President and University of Queensland Anthropology Museum director, Michael Aird, said that the games’ cultural celebrations have romanticised Indigenous people’s contribution to the Gold Coast.

He says that this is what mainstream audiences have come to expect since they aren’t interested in knowing what Aboriginal people have experienced over the years.