Synopsis

Remember the song "Ten Little Nigger Boys" or "Nigger Boy Licorice"? When you were young you probably didn't think twice about it, but as you grew up you realised that the word 'nigger' is defamatory and racist.

This is what Stephen Hagan, an Aboriginal leader, felt as well when he moved to Toowoomba (Queensland) in 1990 and discovered the local rugby league grandstand's name was "ES 'Nigger' Brown Stand".

ES stands for Edward Stanley Brown, a white man who's nickname was 'Nigger', because at that time a shoe polish existed called 'Nigger Brown' (now being sold as 'Dark Tan'). Edward was a former Kangaroo rugby league player of the 1920s who became an international and local Toowoomba legend. The stand was built in the 1950s, the sign added in 1960.

Nigger Lovers documents Stephen Hagan's fight for the sign to be taken down. He discovered the sign in the late 1990s when he took his family to a rugby league game. Being the Aboriginal activist he is he decided to take action.

Stephen Hagan's fight makes an interesting story. In 1999 the Toowoomba Sportsground Trust politely declined his request to take the sign down. In 2002 the High Court ruled that the sign could stay. In 2003 the United Nations found that the offensive name should be changed, however, Australian authorities simply ignored the ruling.

Nigger Lovers is not only a story of enormous strength, of determination and persistence, it's also a story of a man being challenged to his limits, receiving death threats and bringing his family close to bankruptcy.