29/07/2017 Witness

But if there is no resolution, the Straits will go on. Sima Kotecha,

BBC News, Birmingham. Now on BBC News it's

time for Witness. Hello. I'm Lucy Hockings. Welcome to

Witness here at the British Library in London. This month, we have

another five people have witnessed extraordinary moment so sad. We will

be talking about the legalisation of homosexuality in Britain, 50 years

ago. They breakthrough for when in the men's world of racing, and in a

moment, the Russian Ballet star, Rudolf Nureyev, who defected to the

West. But first we go back to a turning point for China. China was

wrapped in a civil war between communists and their opposers. I

never even thought about joining the commenters.

TRANSLATION: I am 99 years old, and they still have not changed my mind

about that. -- joining the communists will stop the country was

weak and divided. For most people, life was wretched. Someone had to

rescue China from these miserable conditions. There were two men

willing to try. One was the leader of the nationalist troops. The other

was Mao Zedong, who wanted to turn China into a communist state. The

two men were to become bitter rivals.

TRANSLATION: We worshipped him back then. We were probably influenced by

Germany's worshipping of Hitler. We worshipped him to. I was ahead of a

battalion in nationalist army, and fought against the comments in the

civil war. Chinese people fight each other, it was a complex situation.

It was all about which path China should take to the future. We

thought they were Chinese traders. During the civil war, both sides

made mistakes. I was involved in one of the last big battles. When we

suffered 200,000 artillery shells. But I survived all of that. The

Nationalists had the military advantage, but our soldiers were to

spread out. -- too. Mao Zedong one and Chiang Kai-shek loss. But Mao

Zedong did not win completely, and Chiang Kai-shek did not lose

completely. By the autumn of 1949, the communists had driven the

Nationalists out of all the major cities. They fled to the island of

Taiwan. TRANSLATION: You could say leading

mainland China was the lowest moment in his life. But he never accepted

defeat. I worked with Chiang Kai-shek very closely for five

years. I really respected him. He was very strict. But he was always

very good to me. Chiang Kai-shek's life was very ordinary. He would get

up every day at 6am. He didn't smoke or drink. He was very disciplined.

He issued a lot of orders. To be honest, so many that it was hard to

keep track of them. Some people say Chiang Kai-shek was a dictator. But

this is unfair, and it is slender. But because we were still against

the communists in mainland China, he did impose martial law. This, that

is antidemocratic, but it was to protect Taiwan. -- slander. His goal

was not just to make Taiwan independent. He wanted to achieve

freedom and democracy for the whole of China. He never gave up. He told

us, don't ever think we have lost the mainland. Marxism will

eventually fail. History proved him right. Chiang Kai-shek died in

Taiwan in 1975. The Djere went on to become the head of the army and

eventually became the country's Premier. In 1961, Rudolf Nureyev

defected to the West. -- the general went on.

I remember him as a great dancer, a great personality in many ways. He

had enormous technical prowess, enormous charisma. This kind of

style of dosing is unique movements and stage presence, sending we have

not seen before and very rarely since. -- silent dancing. -- style

of dancing. Issues you the geography two -- in cheesy the choreography

and genius. -- it shows you. I went to Leningrad to see performances at

the Kiev Theatre where he was performance in. He was recognised in

Russia, the USSR, and by all the great dancers. Then we went to

London and I started to negotiate with the Russians, and they agreed

to send this company to England for a season. This is an original poster

for the first appearance of the Kirov Ballet. Amongst the you

concede Rudolf Nureyev. But he never turned up this on. He went to Paris,

and Ron Paris, they were coming through to London, and we didn't

expect anything else at the airport. On the 16th of June, 1961, Rudolf

Nureyev seller for the airport to fly to London with the rest of the

Kirov Ballet company on their tour. He did not know that Soviet

authorities had decided he was a security risk, and were planning to

send him back to Russia, instead. At the last minute, rather than bought

the plane to Russia, Rudolf Nureyev broke away from his mind and asked

authorities for asylum in France. He jumped over the barrier and decided

to defect. The Rudolf Nureyev defection caused a worldwide

sensation. He became known as the man who had pierced the Iron

Curtain. I think the simple question of being by nature, by temperament,

not wanting to go back to Moscow in Russia. He was totally disinterested

in politics. He was interested in art. The idea of communism is... He

was not a defector for these reasons. At the tender age of 23,

Rudolf Nureyev phantoms of the centre of the media spotlight, which

would not them for years to come. What sort of parts do you want to

Dantz first of all? -- Ganz. -- dance. I'm a romantic Ganz, and I

would like to try every different way. It was a great dancer, of

course. But he was able to Madam Mariah is the world of Baz I -- he

was able to mesmerise the world of ballet. He transformed the whole

aspect, the whole scene of ballet. It is impossible to overestimate the

influence. It was unique, certainly, to this very day. Rudolf Nureyev

died of convocations from AIDS. On July 1990, Indigenous Canadian spent

months in a stand-off with the country's security forces over plans

to build a golf course over a burial ground. To see the text coming and,

we even had the fighter jets flying over us. The mood was very tense. --

tanks coming in. This is all for a golf course. This was all for some

group of rich people, the elite and their playground. Like many other

indigent people is, we call the earth our mother. It is a place

where our ancestors rest. It is extremely important. They wanted to

extend their nine hole golf course into an 18 hole of course. But at

the same time, they also wanted to dig up our burial ground to extend

their parking lot. We set up a blockade on a secondary to grow them

act -- blockade on a secondary dirt road. Our lineage goes round

mothers, and it is our duty to protect the land. It is the men's

responds purely to protect the people. We said we would go to the

front and the men said they would watch us and protectors of anything

happen. On the morning of July 11, we were interrupted at 5:15am by a

SWAT team and so we went to wards the front of the barricade and

towards the highway with our hands on the edge make sure that they saw

we had no weapons. But they still matters with a lot of aggression,

and a lot of force. What is said to them was that this is our land, and

we have every right to be here. They were not too happy with that. That

is why they wanted to talk to a man. It is against the women were being

very unreasonable, to them. Originally, people said they would

be no weapons, but there were individuals who carried their

weapons and we could not do anything about it. We said it was a peaceful

barricade. Around 830, deeply started firing tear gas and

concussion grenades at us. Concussion grenades, for those who

do not know, sound like gunshots. They are quite a loud noise. I had

to tell some of the people I was weird to run, you know, let's run

for cover. It was scary because we did not know if anyone was killed,

on both sides. The police force continued to block the roads of

people coming in or out. They prevented food, medicine, and they

were quite aggressive and always provoking. It was a siege after 78

days. A siege. When we did decide to ended we said

we had enough and went back to our homes. December 30 sixth was

supposedly when it finished. A big melee happened. Some of the soldiers

had their bayonets on because they were totally afraid of the people

who were coming out. There were a lot of arrests on that day. They

were still not surrendering because the land is viewed as still not

settled. I mean, the golf course sparked a discussion about the real

issues that indigenous people have been fighting for four centuries,

which is possession, protection of our languages and culture, of our

life. So it work up people. I would say it was up people. They are still

campaigning for indigenous rights. You can watch Witness every month on

the BBC channel, or catch up on 1000 radio programmes online. Next, back

to July 1957, when the British Parliament passed a bill to

decriminalise to the sexuality. For that being gay in this country was

not just illegal but widely seen as a disease. Witness went back to meet

the radio presenter Pete Price who was sent for a version therapy to

try to cure him of his homosexuality. It was very difficult

growing up in the 60s as a gay man because to touch another man, to

hold, to feel, to have emotions, you could go to prison. For many of us

this is revolting, then dancing with ham. Homosexuals in this country

today rake the law. -- men dancing with men. The queer bashers were out

and people committed suicide, it was a very sad time. I was 18, going on

19, when my mother found out that I was homosexual and she took it

badly, then went to the doctors. The doctors told us, there is a queue. I

have now since found out it was called a version therapy. Didn't

know anything about it, so Mum said, will you do with? I said, yeah, for

you I'll do it. They put me in a mental institute. In those days they

were called a loony bin, or psychiatric ward. There were bars on

the window and I was very, very frightened. I went into see the

psychiatrist and he had an old-fashioned tape recorder, the

real to Reel, and he described all of the sexual acts that gay people

did, using very graphic language, to make you feel disgusting. Then they

put me in a room. I still didn't know what would happen to me, I

really didn't know, except they asked me what I drank and in those

days I drank Stout, Guinness. There was a male nurse, no windows, and

they have a stack of what they called "dirty books". There were

many in swimming costumes. There was nothing erotic about it. I was

supposed to look up the books, listen to the tape, which the notice

was operating, with his vile conversation and he was giving the

Guinness. Halfway through the hour he injected me, which made me

violently ill. So I asked, could I use the bathroom? He said, no, just

use the bed. I was violently sick and defecated on the bed and I am

lying in my urine faeces and vomit and feeling incredibly ill. I was

frightened young man, 18, going on 19. I was very, very scared. I

wasn't thinking of a cure, I just thought I was going to die because

this was torture. At the end of 72 hours I had nothing left. I just

wanted out and I decided I'd had enough. I am volunteering to leave.

I rang a Powell of mind to get me out and I thank. -- pal of mine. I

stamp of filth. I had a bath and I must have been in there for eight

hours, trying to scrub the filth off me. After the treatment I decided

enough was enough and Daewoo Corp one day and said, I am what I am,

have got to be who I am and accept who I am.

I channelled the way I was through my entertainment. All the big stars

I've worked with. They learn to be who I was and I became outrageous

and that was the way I got accept the. -- acceptance. You're lovely.

Got a brother? I think I've been happy with myself as a homosexual,

but I actually don't leave I belong anywhere. I can never forget what

they did to me, ever. Pete Price still presents a popular evening

show in Liverpool. Finally, in 1977 racing car driver Janet became the

first woman to compete in the prestigious Indianapolis 500 motor

race. She speak to Witness about competing in a male dominated sport.

Race drivers are special breed of American folk hero. They have always

been men, until Janet Guthrie. I had no house, no husband, no jewellery,

no insurance. I had one used up race car. I was playing in a

millionaire's sport from the very beginning and not having been born

with a trust fund I learned how to build my own engines and be my own

-- do my own bodywork. I thought there was a reasonably good chance

that I would be successful at it, because I wanted it a lot. I loved

the sport. It was the passion of my life, really. Part of the fun is to

accept the risk and deal with it gracefully and well. You have to

have an interest in what it's like out there at the limits of human

capability. I was saying to myself, you know, you really must come to

your senses and make some provision for your old age. That was the point

at which the phone rang and a voice completely unknown to me said, how

would you like to take a shot at the Indianapolis 500? It was sometimes

said that the Indianapolis 500 wasn't the most important race, it

was the only race. That's how most of the United States feels about it.

Over 400,000 people showed up. You can't imagine how many people that

is until you see them in person. When I got my big chance at the top

levels of the sport, it made a huge commotion. They simply haven't had

the experience of running against a woman and they were sure I was going

to kill them all. All I had to do at the beginning was open up a

newspaper and there was some other driver saying that his blood was

going to be on the official's cans. Seriously, when I say commotion, it

was big. -- hands. I was so happy. I was happy that I had put a car in

the field for the Indianapolis 500. I think a lot of drivers would tell

you the first time you make the field at Indianapolis is the moment

you will never forget. Of course any figure out what you really want to

do is win the thing. You're thinking, who's behind you, what are

their driving habits, who is ahead of you, what mistakes are they

likely to make on the first -- and on the first lap you really want to

keep yourself out of any trouble. In that race I had a mechanical

failure. When we finally decided the car was not going to be fixable, I

left the pits and headed back to the garage. There was a lot of

enthusiasm in the stands at that point. Janet is not a new, the car

racing. My best shot at Indianapolis was ninth, with a team I formed and

managed myself. I best finish in IndyCar racing was fifth at

Milwaukee. I wasn't racing to prove anything about women. Because the

fact that I was a woman in my opinion had nothing to do with it. A

racing driver was what I was, right through to my bone marrow. In 2006

Janet Guthrie was in the ready to the international motor sports wall

of fame. That's all from us this Month. When the next week at the

British library. We will have five extraordinary counts of history

through the eyes of the people who were there. For now, goodbye.