Letter To First Peoples of Australia

I sent the below letter to First Nations friends, mostly from my youth, and asked they circulate it ahead of my launch of “Alter Edgo and His Bloody Woke Kid” as an attempt to minimise retraumatisation from the content in the series. I was deeply gratified to receive all supportive responses…

First Nations people in Innisfail, Queensland and Australia

Firstly I want to apologise for not being a better friend early in my life. To mates that I played footie with and went to school and uni with, at the time I did not deserve the respect and love you showed me because I was taught within my community to hold something back in that connection with you, which made that connection from my side inauthentic.

Yet the really sad thing is that I truly admired so many of you, and that is what is so deeply wrong and insidious about racism. Please try to accept my deepest apologies.

The reason I am writing this is because I am about to release a series of videos involving my experiences growing up in Innisfail and how that led to me having racist views when I was young.

To do that I will be ‘acting’ in a character that I have created – Alter Edgo – as in my alter ego, or other personality if I had returned to Innisfail instead of staying at university. I know that I’m going to cop a lot of flack for this but that is neither here nor there – it is nothing, absolutely nothing, compared with what First Nations people have endured.

My main concern is for First Nations people to understand where I am coming from in these videos. I also wanted to warn you so hopefully you will not be triggered by the content. The first few videos will be mild to build the character and audience, but I aim to get into the nitty gritty of racism, so some of the material will be confronting.

You can imagine Alter Edgo as a cross between Reg Reagan and Borrat (Sascha Barron-Cohen’s character that mocks redneck Americans), with content like Kevin Bloody Wilson where instead of insulting and being racist towards First Nations people, Alter (me) ends up the butt of the joke and looks like an idiot especially when his (my) ‘woke’ son keeps on proving how stupid are his (my) opinions.

My hope is that the humour and local context will open eyes to the truth of our history so that, most importantly, the connection within the community improves. Secondarily, I hope that this will happen in time that it might make a difference and help to secure a win for Yes in the referendum.

Now I know, not nearly as well as you do, that there are people who will never have their eyes opened, because they don’t want to and nothing will change that. But humour has been shown to be one of the best ways to break barriers and get people to reflect more honestly.

Also, I think it is wonderful all of the First Nations leaders in the communities talking and building support, and I am in no way suggesting that I am going to have a bigger impact. But I do believe that I can say things, with the background of my upbringing and experiences, and – sadly – since I am not First Nations, so that there is a slice of people that I may be able to reach who might not be so open to messages by others.

I think it’s worth a try, and I hope that you agree.

Now that I’ve explained all of this, it is my sincerest hope that I will have your support and I hope that, knowing my intentions, you might be able to enjoy these videos in much the same way that racists sat and laughed at Kevin Bloody Wilson (so much so that he was awarded an ARIA for the album that contained “Living Next Door To Alan”!)

With warmest regards
Brett Edgerton

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© Copyright Brett Edgerton 2023