FOR those who have trouble understanding the Black Lives Matter movement - or who have trouble seeing the relevance of an originally African-American protest movement in "multicultural" Australia - the words of Newcastle surgeon Kelvin Kong might provide a comfortable introduction.
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Dr Kong grew up - as Newcastle Herald journalist Damon Cronshaw writes today - in a two-bedroom fibro house at Shoal Bay.
The son of a Chinese man and an Indigenous woman, he stayed with his mother when his parents split.
As he told this space last night, he does not emphasise his Worimi side to deny his Chinese heritage, and points to a tradition of Chinese and Indigenous blended families, a coupling of peoples who were both forced to the margins for much of this country's post-1770 history.
From his perspective, Black Lives Matters is not a movement specific to race (to use a much contested description).
It is, he says, "ultimately about recognising and supporting vulnerable populations in a society that is very much geared to White culture".
Like many Indigenous youth, the young Dr Kong saw professional sport as his way to move forward.
In his case, it was rugby union, where he turned out for the powerhouse Randwick club.
He says wise family advice pushed him to use his academic abilities - "and I probably wasn't quite good enough anyway" - and he secured an Indigenous pathway into Medicine at the University of NSW, before going on to become Australia's first Indigenous surgeon.
It's an accolade Dr Kong wears lightly, and it's only one moment in a storied medical career that has been undeniably based on "giving back".
At the same time, only two more Indigenous people have been able to follow Dr Kong's path through surgery.
It's a statistic that annoys him greatly.
The Herald agrees with Dr Kong that the reasons will not lie in any lack of ability. In his words, a lot of his people are high achievers who have been pushed down.
The obstacles remain, but there are signs of hope.
The Black Lives Matter movement has challenged many, and re-energised a debate that has pulsed backwards and forwards for decades.
But words are only part of the solution.
For many Aboriginal Australians, the promises of politicians ring hollow beside the reality of their lives.
Hence the need to proclaim what should be obvious and unquestioned.
That Black Lives Matter.
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