Therese K Posted January 14, 2015 Report Posted January 14, 2015 Great post mate. Would be very interested at seeing that "color map" if you have the link handy. I couldn't find the exact one, but it looked something like this. It doesn't show Australia as dark as I think the other one did, but it's still darker than what Home and Away is, so I think my point still stands (hopefully). Diversity is an interesting subject. The first question I would ask is are we trying to reflect the diversity in Australian society or are we attempting some kind of "social engineering"where we try to promote an idealized view of the society that some would like to see. Australia is a very diverse society and that diversity is not uniform across society. Cities and larger regional towns tend, in general terms to be more culturally diverse than really rural areas. That difference is quite wide. Where Summer Bay would fit into that I'm not real sure. In regional Victoria where I live we have a large representation of Italian, Greek, Maltese etc origin who originally migrated here after World War 2 and are now a valued part of our society. In more recent times our Regional University campus has brought us many students from Asia. China, Korea, The Philippines, Malaysia. Also refugees have arrived from Africa, Nigeria, Sudan etc. My feeling is that Home and Away should reflect Australian society and it's diversity. In the future I would like to see the cast and/or extras at least acknowledge the presence of Asian and African members of our society. Australians of European origin are already represented. I can't see any reason why people with disabilities shouldn't at least be a part of the show for periods of time. Why not do both? They can portray a realistically diverse Australia, and also portray a diverse society filled with acceptance at the same time. (Edit: the more I look at this sentence and your first sentence, the more I think I have misunderstood something, so I'm sorry if I did.) But okay, let's say there is a real life Summer Bay somewhere. And maybe it is a community dominated by white, straight and abled people. What do you think the crime rate is in that small town? Probably not so high. But what is the crime rate in Summer Bay? Extremely big. You could say it's unrealistic. And then add all the cancer storylines and fatal accidents and and every other dramatic storyline Home and Away has ever had. It's not realistic for small town to go through that. So why should it be that the only time the producers try to be realistic is when they can avoid to cast/show people of color, or people with disabilities, or lgbt+ people? Why should "it's more realistic this way" suddenly be an excuse, when, let's be real, the whole point of soap operas is to have bunch of people and have them go through unrealistic amounts of drama? Again, I'm not Australian so I can't say exactly how diverse Australia really is, I only know what I've read. (Let's play the "how many times can you say the word diverse in one post" game. Also, if you feel like I sound mad that's not targeted towards you, I swear, I just get very enthusiastic. When I say "what do you think the crime rate is?", I'm just talking to someone in general, not you-you. I hope that's clear, because the more I look back on my post the angrier I think I sound... )
Jacklost Posted January 16, 2015 Report Posted January 16, 2015 I think there should be more black people on the show, has only been like 2 people ever
marcosb Posted May 20, 2015 Report Posted May 20, 2015 People are forgetting about aboriginal Australians, I don't know how many of them there are in Sydney but the only one I can remember was aboriginal Alf Stewart, Neighbours only recently casted their first major aboriginal actor.
Red Ranger 1 Posted May 20, 2015 Report Posted May 20, 2015 We did have Lenny and Kevin Baker way back in 1993, as recently seen on 7Two, although I don't believe we've had an aboriginal regular.
gutterboy Posted May 22, 2015 Report Posted May 22, 2015 Anyone remember that Aboriginal actor in that old show that used to be on that Leah was in before H&A....... Breakers was the name I think??? That's the only Aboriginal actor I can recall from a soap I have watched.
atrus Posted May 22, 2015 Report Posted May 22, 2015 Yes, it was Heath Bergersen - he played Reuben Neeson on Breakers. More recently we've had Meyne Wyatt in Neighbours as Nate Kinski.
JosieTash Posted May 23, 2015 Report Posted May 23, 2015 Although Breakers was a realtively long tome ago, i'lll always remember an artcile that i read where either the producers or one of the actors said that they weren't looking specifically for an aboriginal for the above mentioned role ..........or for an Asian girl for another role, but Heath and Ling Hsueh Tang [who alos stared in Oz medical drama All Saints] were the best people who auditioned for those roles.
atrus Posted May 23, 2015 Report Posted May 23, 2015 Likewise with Meyne Wyatt in Neighbours - the character wasn't specifically written as Aboriginal.
dee123 Posted June 2, 2015 Report Posted June 2, 2015 WOW. So Neighbours actually made one of the Brennan boys gay. I think there was more of a chance of me being crowned King Of England than one of the Braxtons being gay. I still don't get why H&A haven't introduced at least 1 gay character yet. At this point there really is no excuse anymore.
ebrett84 Posted June 2, 2015 Report Posted June 2, 2015 WOW. So Neighbours actually made one of the Brennan boys gay. I think there was more of a chance of me being crowned King Of England than one of the Braxtons being gay. I still don't get why H&A haven't introduced at least 1 gay character yet. At this point there really is no excuse anymore. Charlie was gay. Oh, you mean you forgot about that. Don't worry, so did she.
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