Controversy shook Barack Obama‘s lucrative speaking tour in Australia when an Aboriginal woman got dropped from a ceremony in Melbourne featuring the former president.
A Wurundjeri elder known as Aunty Joy Murphy said she is “shocked and distressed” after the organizer of the event removed her from the program Wednesday night at John Cain Arena.
“I am 78 years of age. I have never been treated or spoken to in this way in the past,” she said, according to the National Indigenous Times.
“I do not want this to be a reflection on President Obama,” she added. “I am a leader of the Wurundjeri Nation. I asked to be treated as an equal.”
