'Matrix' star shaken by Sydney racist vibe

Laurence Fishburne

The star of the Matrix movies, American actor Laurence Fishburne, has spoken out about the "racist vibe" in Australia after being mistaken for a "Maori bloke".

Fishburne - an African-American - told the Sydney Morning Herald this week he felt a wariness and unease among people when he went to Australia in 1997 to begin filming the Matrix trilogy.

Fishburne, 44, was a virtual unknown at the time of his first nine-month stay, and he said people automatically assumed him to be Maori or Polynesian.

"When I got to Australia a lot of people did not know who Laurence Fishburne was. I was a big guy walking around with no hair on my face and no hair on my head.

"And most people assumed I was Maori back in the late 1990s."

"There was a definite vibe ... I wouldn't even say it was hostility ... but there was a wariness, and unease."

He said it was not until he gained recognition through the Matrix movies that this attitude changed.

Fishburne's comments struck a chord with entertainer Sir Howard Morrison.

"There's a definite superiority complex with regard to colour in Australia."

Sir Howard, speaking from his Rotorua home, said he had visited Australia regularly since the 1950s.

"It's a peculiar situation in Australia, but one thing that has always been in is that anyone coffee-coloured or black doesn't fit into the culture that Australians feel comfortable with."

He said Australia was "keeping apartheid alive", and was getting worse every year.

When Sir Howard was a young man, many Australians had served alongside Maori in World War II, but that generation was now disappearing.

Racist attitudes were also extolled from the top down, Sir Howard said, citing the example of Prime Minister John Howard's refusal to apologise to Aborigines.

"They live in Taa-Taa land. Howard will not apologise for the persecutions of the past."

But Labour's John Tamihere has never noticed a racist undertone across the Tasman, despite being "a rugby league boy" who visits twice yearly or more.

He said he had never felt racially threatened, "but I didn't go looking for it, either".

However, dig deep enough and anything could turn up.