Nigger Lovers (ATOM Study Guide)

Nigger Lovers (Rhonda Hagan, 2007) is a 26-minute documentary about a fight to replace a sign on a Toowoomba sports grandstand – the E.S. 'Nigger' Brown stand.

The stand was named in 1960 after a famous non-Indigenous local sporting hero of the 1920s whose nickname was Nigger.

After first seeing the sign with his family in 1999, Stephen Hagan was shocked and appalled by it and decided to take action, firstly against the sports club, then the city, the State Government, the Federal Government, the High Court, and the United Nations.

But still everyone refused to remove or change the sign.

Nigger Lovers follows one man's relentless refusal to give up against hate mail, death threats, media ridicule, mixed feelings in the local Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, and government opposition.

Along the way the film explores the meaning and impact of a 'taboo' word in a modern community.

It also raises issues about civics and citizenship – including the role of the individual in fighting to bring about change, and the conflict that may exist within a community about what is acceptable and what is not in a time of changing values.