ANH: Two of my great passions are people and painting.
In this series, I get to enjoy both.
I meet extraordinary Australians, explore these stories...
I'm putting my hand up and saying,
"I want to do something. I want to be part of the solution."
See, I'm now crying, now talking about crying! What's happened to me?
..and paint their portraits.
It's theirs to keep, so I hope they like it.
(GASPS) Oh! (LAUGHS)
Wow! (GASPS)
Oh, my God! Holy mackerel!
That looks me! It's beautiful.
Mate, that's incredible.
You look gorgeous. That is absolutely amazing.
Welcome to Anh's Brush With Fame.
Adam Goodes is an Aussie rules legend and a role model.
Drafted to the Sydney Swans at 17,
he was a key player through their most successful era
and earned himself two Brownlow Medals in the process.
His skill on the field as well as his public stand against racism
saw him named 2014's Australian of the Year.
In 2015, after an 18-year career, Adam retired.
I want to find out where Adam learned to stand strong
in the face of fierce opposition.
ADAM: I'm excited about today.
I've seen the show. So I'm looking forward to it.
I'm not too sure about what I'm hoping he captures in the portrait.
I think... what I've seen of the show,
it's just about having a great conversation.
If that conversation comes through in the painting,
then I'd be very excited.
Adam is an incredible athlete, but it's also his work off the field
that shows the mark of a true leader and gentleman.
He is an inclusive and positive Indigenous voice
who works hard to guide the next generation.
I want to capture his kindness, his strength and his determination.
Adam. Anh. How are you doing, mate?
Welcome. Thank you.
So great to have you on the show. Take a seat.
Thank you.
Jeez, uh, you look even more muscly than you were when you were playing.
Are you still training? Oh, not so much, mate.
Playing a little bit of basketball on Monday nights
and a bit of six-a-side soccer.
Have to be honest, I haven't been into a gym since I retired.
You still look great. (CHUCKLES) Oh, thanks, mate.
So, Adam, I'm fascinated by your ancestry.
Your mother is of Indigenous heritage...
Yeah. ..from the Flinders Ranges,
and she's one of nine children taken away from her parents.
Yeah. So, obviously, growing up, I knew I was Indigenous.
I knew I was Aboriginal.
You know, I wasn't brought up knowing
where exactly and how we're connected to the Flinders Ranges.
I knew I was from the Adnyamathanha people,
which stands for 'rock people',
but now I also know that my family comes from where I was born,
in Wallaroo - so, the Yorke Peninsula.
And that's pretty much all I knew,
because Mum was taken away when she was five.
Uh... Why was she taken away?
Well, there was a policy, unfortunately,
about, you know, taking children away
that they thought were in danger,
or they thought that they were giving these children
a better opportunity to assimilate into Australian mainstream.
So, Mum was taken away with my auntie, Auntie Joy,
at a very young age.
I think out of all of Nanna's nine kids, they took six or seven
and placed them in different homes across South Australia.
So, very sad and, I could imagine, very traumatising
for my mum and my aunties and uncles that were taken away.
I know what motivated her when she had kids
was that she never wanted someone knocking on her door
saying, "We're gonna take your kids away,"
and so she sacrificed everything
to make sure, you know, we got an education,
that we had breakfast, lunch and dinner served to us,
and we had the best opportunity to learn.
I asked her, like, "Did you ever get to see your mum or your dad again?"
And that's when she told me,
"I was always scared of this black guy in a big black trench coat
"that would follow me to school and home from school every day."
And then one of her older siblings,
once they reconnected a little bit later in life,
said, "Oh, that was Dad. He was..." Wow.
"He was just checking up on you and Auntie Joy
"to make sure that you were getting to school OK."
Yeah.
Mum learnt that Nanna and Pop
actually just lived around the corner,
and she did open up to me about...
..just, "Why didn't they come and get us?
"Like, why didn't they come and grab us?"
And why didn't they?
That's what the law was,
and they had those powers to take those children away and...
Well... That's heartbreaking! It is.
And, you know, this story doesn't, unfortunately, get any easier
for my mum and, you know, my aunties and uncles.
Unfortunately, Nanna was, um...
..she was murdered at the Adelaide races.
This guy had a mental illness.
He followed her to the toilet blocks
and, unfortunately, murdered her there, and...
So, for me, it's just another tragic part to this story.
And I was just... you know, I...
..the more I kept learning about it, I'm just thinking,
"How have you been able to raise us three kids the way you have?"
Like, it's just a true inspiration.
Your father is of Scottish ancestry.
Is that correct? Yeah.
So, Scottish, Irish, English and some Prussian...
(LAUGHS) ..side of our ancestry as well.
So I always knew I was bits of everything, mate,
and to add a bit of Prussian into there is amazing.
But Dad didn't stay around for long?
Yeah, so, Dad was always working for the family,
whether it be on a prawn trawler out to sea,
whether it be in the mines.
So he wasn't around.
And I think Mum and Dad were engaged for quite some time,
and I think Mum made a... you know, a decision for the family
that, you know, she wanted to move closer to family to have support.
And, yeah, that's when Mum left Dad,
because, you know, he was away three, six, nine months a year.
How old were you at the time?
I think I was about six. So I was quite young.
I just thought, you know, like, we were just going on an adventure
and we were going to Adelaide to move closer to relatives.
Then a few years later, your mum remarried?
Yeah, so, Mum met our stepdad, Warren,
and, you know, she was over the moon,
and they got married and, you know, it was a really special day,
and then, obviously, to be there,
you know, with Mum while she got married was a good day.
Yeah. But things didn't stay good for a long time?
No, it didn't, and I think Mum and Warren,
um, they started to have difficulties.
He liked to drink as well, and, you know, unfortunately...
..and at times when they did fight, you know, I was wide awake,
so I knew my brothers were wide awake,
and you just wanted it to stop.
So sometimes I'd climb out the window
and go to a telephone box and call the police,
and then they would come and settle them down,
and then it would be quiet.
So, that happened quite a bit,
and I think it just happened too much
over, you know, a couple of years
when Mum just said, "Look, we've had enough of this.
"My kids don't need this. I don't need this.
And we moved from Mildura to Horsham.
Mmm. Gosh.
And were you worried about your brothers as well?
Yeah, I think being the oldest,
you're always worried about your siblings.
(CHUCKLES) I learnt pretty quickly
that whatever trouble they got into, I got into.
I remember getting the strap off my stepdad
because my brothers got caught stealing chocolate.
(BOTH LAUGH)
Their honesty - you know, when Mum and Warren said to them,
you know, "Why are you stealing chocolate?"
they said, "Oh, Adam taught us how to do it."
And I just looked them in the eye and I said, "You little rats!"
And Mum dragged me in and said, "Is this true?"
I said, "Yeah, it's true."
And so she walked us down to the local Coles store
and sat us in front of the manager and we apologised to the manager,
and when we got home, I was the only one who got the strap.
So I learnt very quickly
that whatever those boys got into trouble with
was gonna reflect onto me,
so I knew I had to keep a keener eye on them
and make sure that they were right,
and that was across, you know, lots of different levels growing up.
You were living near Mildura.
You went and... to sign up for a soccer team.
Yeah, so, when we moved over from South Australia to country Victoria,
we went to the local soccer game
and it just looked like adults were playing,
and we sort of went up to the people afterwards and said,
"Oh, is there junior soccer teams here?"
And they said, "No, no, they're in Mildura."
And Mildura was about 20 kilometres away,
and Mum didn't have her licence, Warren didn't have a car,
and I was like, "Well, this is a disaster. What am I gonna do?"
And it just so happened
across the road, the Merbein Magpies were playing,
and it was the under-14s.
You know, we waited till that game finished
and Mum said, "What do you reckon?"
And I was looking at all the kids, I was sizing them up,
and I was the tallest by a mile.
And I said, "Oh, yeah, we can probably give it a go."
And we went up and she signed me up to play for the local team,
and that was the start of my AFL career.
At 16, Adam was playing for the North Ballarat Rebels
in Victoria's elite under-18s competition.
And before he was drafted to the Sydney Swans aged 17,
he had some unfinished business.
Is it true you were the first person in your family to finish year 12?
Yes.
The AFL draft was on the same day as my year 12 English exam.
(LAUGHS)
So, I'm, like, looking at the clock.
The exam finishes at 12:00. The draft starts at 12:30.
And I'm just, like, going like this, doing... like, going like this.
I'm like, "OK, I've got to get out of here."
So, I was 17, so I was a priority draft pick,
and in that draft, every AFL club had one priority draft pick.
Draft pick 43 came along and the Sydney Swans announced my name.
You know, I was over the moon.
It was... it was exciting, but at the same time, daunting.
Here I was, this country kid,
who's got three more exams to do next week.
(LAUGHS)
You know, this is... this is... this is what's happening.
Mum just packed my bags and said, you know, "Good luck.
"Make sure you bring me home a Brownlow."
And I'm just like, "Jeez, Mum!" (LAUGHS)
"I haven't even done one training session
"and you're already putting it on me to win a Brownlow!"
And, yeah, I went off for eight weeks' training
before the Christmas break.
Adam spent 1998 in the reserves.
The next year, he made the move up to the firsts
and won the Rising Star Award.
In 2003, he did as his mother had told him
and brought home a Brownlow.
You brought your mum as the date to the event.
Yeah. You know, it was great.
You know, to be honest, we went there
not anticipating anything on the night.
We just thought we'd had a great season, we were gonna celebrate.
It's the first time us boys are getting together to have a beer
with our mums and our partners that were there with us on the table.
And as the night got longer and longer,
the boys are like, "Goodesy, you're a chance here."
And I sort of just played it off.
You know, you've got these greats in the room,
like Nathan Buckley, Michael Voss, Mark Ricciuto,
and as it kept coming down, kept coming down,
I was just like, "I'm gonna start drinking some waters here.
"I'm a little bit nervous." (LAUGHS)
And to announce me equal leader with a guy that I grew up following -
'cause I was a Collingwood supporter - Nathan Buckley
and Mark Ricciuto,
they were both captains of their football clubs,
to share that honour with them as a 23-year-old kid
that sort of just came out of nowhere,
it was quite amazing.
And to see my mum crying and so emotional was really special.
That's why I tried my best at what I did at football,
because I just wanted to make my mum proud and make her so happy
that the sacrifices she made for us boys didn't go wasted.
Yeah. Mate!
It's beautiful.
Yeah. To bring your mum.
What did she say to you afterwards?
Um... the first thing she said is, "My feet hurt."
And I just said, "Well, you can take your shoes off."
She goes, "Are you sure?"
And I was like, "Yeah, I don't care. Like, they're your shoes."
So my mom was walking around the after party
at the Brownlow Medal in 2003 with no shoes on.
(LAUGHS)
And to have her there, it was special,
but I think the real special thing was
I'd been looking for something to belong to.
Having not been brought up in my Indigenous culture,
not having any knowledge about it -
I'd just started to go to TAFE to do a Diploma in Aboriginal Studies.
So I was going on my own journey, and that was the start of it,
and what I was learning at the Swans was what culture was -
what it meant to belong.
And that's when my leadership journey started as well.
Mmm.
Adam has chosen to turn the challenges of his childhood
into the motivation to be an agent for change.
His mother's strength has certainly shaped him.
For someone so strong and so passionate,
he also has a real gentleness.
I want to capture that.
Adam's leadership journey and the Swans' strong team culture
went hand in hand with the Swans' success,
winning a premiership in 2005.
STEPHEN QUARTERMAIN: For the first time in 72 years,
the Swans are champions of the AFL!
One year later, Adam joined a select group of players
by winning a second Brownlow.
In 2012, they won another premiership.
But just one year later, the headlines were for different reasons.
Alright, Adam, let's go to May 2013. Indigenous Round.
What happened?
I just remember this game at the MCG.
I was playing an absolute blinder.
A ball trickled over near the boundary line,
I grabbed it, handballed to one of my teammates,
and just as I turned my back to get back into the play,
I just hear this voice saying, "Goodes, you're an ape."
Hmm. Now...
..just, my whole world sort of stopped in my mind,
and I was like...
I looked back and took a step forward
and I said...
.."Not today. Not today. This is Indigenous Round."
And I turned back and I saw the security guard
and I pointed to the person in the crowd who said it...
..and I said, "Mate, she called me an 'ape'.
"Um... you know, can you get her out of here?"
How does that make you feel when someone calls you that, Adam?
It's gut-wrenching.
It's... it's a snapshot into a past
where people only see us as animals then.
They see us as these primitive beings
that, you know, um... people think are lower than a dog.
And that's when it just sort of hit me
and I... came off and I just broke down.
I just couldn't believe that someone so young... could call me that.
And I knew that she wasn't knowing what that actually means,
to call someone an 'ape',
that she probably was copying the people in the crowd around her.
It just cut me down, and I wasn't expecting it.
It was just gut-wrenching, mate.
Being a proud black Indigenous person,
proud of who I am and where I come from,
you to cut me down because of that and what I'm proud of, it hurts.
So, when you're called an 'ape',
it brings back all of that - all the injustices?
All of it. And that started from the first day.
You know, for Australia to be claimed as terra nullius -
and for people to understand what 'terra nullius' means,
is it means that the land is uninhabited by any... people.
Mmm.
And that really started the journey of...
..how Indigenous people were going to be treated, um...
..from day one.
Adam, were you surprised
at some of the slack you were copping after that incident,
as if you went out that day
to look for a 13-year-old girl to pick on, you know?
Oh, it didn't surprise me. That's for sure. Um...
You only need to look at history
and the way media have portrayed Indigenous people.
So for me, I wasn't surprised by it.
It's been very well publicised,
with, you know, Eddie McGuire coming into the change rooms
and shaking my hand and saying, you know, "That's unacceptable.
"We'll make sure that we do our absolute best to cut that out,"
and then, you know, two days later on the morning radio,
they were promoting King Kong in Melbourne, that was happening,
and Eddie made this joke about, you know,
"We should get Adam Goodes down to promote it."
And I'm just like, "Really? Is this really happening?"
And for me, it just emphasised we need to have more conversations
about what racism is in this country,
and the microphone had fallen at my feet
and, you know, I was happy to pick it up
and keep having the conversation.
Wow.
Adam started to be constantly booed.
Fans and commentators were divided, and many asked why.
Some claim it was racially motivated.
But whatever the reasons, it was something Adam had to endure.
2014 was when it started to happen every week.
I only think we lost about five games that year.
So, if we won the game of football, that was my big finger up to that.
'Cause I couldn't see the individuals, right?
It was... it was the masses.
Walking away that year - "OK. Closure. Season's done."
We got pumped in the grand final by Hawthorn.
2015's gonna be a fresh season.
It's gonna be a new start.
And then round one, bang - booing again.
So I just had to saddle up again, that this is what...
..this is what the season's gonna look like.
The footy club came to me at about round three, I think,
and said, "Look, Goodesy, this is unacceptable.
"We want to say something to the media and put something out there."
And I was like, "Look, let's see what it's like in the next two games
"and we'll go from there."
And one of those games was actually against Carlton
in the Indigenous Round.
For me, I wanted to do something special that day.
Myself and Lewis Jetta said,
"Whoever kicks the first goal, we're gonna do a dance."
The second quarter started
and I took this mark in the pocket, kicked the goal,
and instinctively, I knew I was gonna dance.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
BRUCE McAVANEY: It's a war cry from Adam here.
This dance was something
that an under-16 all-Indigenous team taught us.
I just imagined how they must have felt,
how proud they'd feel that they created that.
Yeah. And it was perfect.
The situation couldn't have been any more perfect,
because it was in that pocket the Carlton supporters were there...
Indigenous Round. Indigenous Round.
They'd been booing me. It was the perfect...
It was my perfect opposition to who I needed to do the war cry to.
I feel it's no different to the haka.
And New Zealanders are so proud of the haka.
Oh! The haka is literally what they would do...
When warring tribes were fighting each other,
that is exactly what they would do before they actually got it on.
For me, what my dream is - that, you know, how good would it be
if, you know, NRL,
when they're playing against the Kiwis, they've got a dance?
Yeah!
You know, I think it's 2019 the Wallabies play in the World Cup.
Imagine if there's an Indigenous war cry that we do.
It'd be awesome. It'd be incredible.
I just hope people look back at it one day and go,
"It was Adam Goodes celebrating his culture."
It's a part of Australia that we really haven't acknowledged.
It's a part of Australia, the Indigenous culture,
that, you know, we can still tap into.
Adam's actions that day once again polarised people.
There were many who supported Adam, but there were plenty who didn't,
and the booing intensified.
You know, people ask me a question -
"If Lewis had have kicked the goal and done the same dance,
"do you think there would have been the same reaction?"
And it's... you know, it's an interesting question.
In my mind, you know, is there this stigma with me
that, you know, am I trying to create trouble?
Am I trying to... too much to raise Indigenous issues?
Am I not grateful enough for the position I already have?
To have people booing every mistake, every touch,
it was just like another piece of straw
added to that baggage, you know?
Slowly, slowly, it was gonna break.
I didn't even realise it, but...
..you know, Monday morning, I was getting ready to go to training
and it just hit me.
I was like, "I'm done. I don't want to do this anymore.
"I don't deserve this."
And I couldn't pack my bag that morning.
You know, my partner, who is now my wife, at the time was still at home.
She was like, "What are you doing? Are you gonna go to training?"
I said, "I can't. I can't do it." And she goes, "Why? What's wrong?"
And, you know, I just broke down again.
It just hurt.
And in a place where I thought I was pretty safe and sacred -
being on a footy field -
was now a place that I just didn't want to go.
I didn't feel appreciated. I didn't feel any self-worth.
Um... How low did it get?
It was really low, mate. I...
I was, like, to the point
where I just wanted to get away from everyone.
And I did. And I knew exactly where I wanted to go.
And that was my spiritual place that I knew of,
and that was back up to the Flinders Ranges.
And just to be back on the land where my people come from,
it was the best thing for me.
And I knew right then that I wasn't gonna play the next year.
I knew right then that this was gonna be my last season.
I didn't want to play the rest of the year,
but I also didn't want to finish the season like that.
So I made a commitment to myself
that I would go back for the last five or six games of the season.
It was tough. The bullying didn't stop.
But I couldn't do anything about that.
To be honest, when that final game finished -
we lost to North Melbourne in the final -
I knew it was my last game.
None of my teammates did.
When I actually told the boys in the change room, I was relieved.
I was relieved that I didn't have to go back into that environment.
Oh, man!
Do you feel like you were bullied out of the game?
Oh, I don't feel like I was bullied out of the game.
It was my choice. I wasn't... pushed out the door.
Injuries weren't the reason why I retired.
I retired on my own terms.
And I'm an old man in that industry now.
(LAUGHS)
It's just unfortunate the last two years of my career are so fresh
and affect my perception of AFL to this day, mmm.
Do you ever feel like all of this is a burden?
It's definitely not a burden, because...
..I'm putting my hand up and saying I want to do something about it.
I want to be part of the solution.
I don't think I'm a bad bloke, Anh. (LAUGHS)
You know, I don't just go out there every single day
beating my chest about racism,
'cause that's a tough issue, mate.
I've dealt with it. It's hard to talk about.
We deal with it every day as Indigenous people.
Ask any minority in this country,
they've got stories of racism themselves.
It's there. It's alive. It happens.
But let's be part of the process that's helping change that.
Let's keep having the conversations.
'Cause when you're part of the conversations
and you're wanting to do something about it,
there's hope, there's a way forward.
What advice would you give a young kid?
The best advice I'm giving a lot of Indigenous kids at the moment
is that the world that is being created around them
is a lot different to the world that was 20, 40, 50 years ago,
and the best thing that they can do is get a good education,
'cause the opportunities are gonna be endless for them.
We're gonna be looking back in 10 years' time,
when these kids that are coming through high school, university,
they're gonna be completely colourblind, mate,
and they're gonna look back at us and go,
"What were you guys thinking? This is who we are in Australia.
"We ARE all different. We come from different cultures.
"And that's OK."
We're lucky to have you, Adam.
(LAUGHS) Thanks, mate.
I'm nearly finished.
I'm just gonna need another 20, 25 minutes to finish this off,
so take a little break.
And I'm pretty happy with it. I can't wait to show you the Adam Goodes.
Cheers, mate. (LAUGHS)
You sort of forget where you are at times,
and you forget that he's actually doing a painting
whilst we're having a conversation.
It just felt like having a chat with a mate down the pub. It was great.
Yeah, I'm not too sure how the chat will affect the portrait.
I've seen a couple before and seen how they have sort of affected it.
So I'm really excited to see the final product.
Adam has stayed true to his beliefs
and not shied away from using his profile
to put important issues on the national agenda.
He has faced controversy with dignity.
I've tried to capture his thoughtfulness
and his pride in being an Indigenous man.
Let's get him in.
Alright, Adam. Come on back in.
I'm all done.
How'd you go, mate? I think I went pretty well.
I wanted to get a couple of things in there.
You have a lovely gentleness about you,
but of course I wanted to get the strength and purpose
of a man who's put his hand up to do a job as well, you know?
So I wanted to combine those two things.
Time to close your eyes, Adam. Alright, mate.
(LAUGHS) Alright. Don't open them till I tell you.
Alright, Adam. Go for it.
Wow!
Mate, you're making me look very young!
(LAUGHS) Thank you! Thank you!
Mate, that's incredible.
But I can see the purpose in the eyes, mate.
That's exactly what I'm about.
You know, I'm always looking forward.
And I reckon you've really captured that in that picture,
you know, that I'm always looking forward.
We look to the past to reflect, but always to look forward,
'cause that's the future and that's what we want to go.
And I reckon you nailed it, mate. Thank you.
(LAUGHS) And thank you for... thank you for everything you're doing
AND for having that vision of the future
that you've just shared with us, Adam.
No, it's awesome. That's so good.
(LAUGHS) Thanks, mate.
I'm just really appreciative of, you know,
him taking the time out to hear my story,
and then to sort of interpret that in his way onto a bit of canvas,
it's pretty special.
It's very unique in the way that he does it,
and I'm very happy that I got a chance to be on the show.
That was amazing.
Adam Goodes is such a positive contributor
to the national conversation about race,
and it was an absolute privilege to paint his portrait.
Captions by Red Bee Media
Copyright Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Next time, Carrie Bickmore has lived a life less ordinary.
She's experienced the highest of highs
and the lowest of lows.
Sometimes...
..you can be defined by a diagnosis, and that's the wrong way to go.
I need to capture the spirit that keeps her smiling.
Oh! Wow!
Oh, that's gorgeous!