Warrigal's Way
Page 21
Nothing much was working for me in Queensland so I headed for Darwin. I got as far as Katherine and found work and thought I’d stick around for a while at the meatworks. I didn’t know then that Katherine would become my home. I was camping in the caravan park and got to know quite a few people there. Gary and Jill and Peter and Esmae became close friends.
Peter was a ringer on Mambooloo station and he got me a job there doing all sorts of things. I might be working in the market gardens among the rockmelons, cucumbers and capsicums, weeding and hoeing. Or I could be out at the mango plantation, planting trees or digging holes for the irrigation pipes. Or fencing, or butchering and breaking down the carcasses for the cookhouse. Or working in the workshops welding or making gates. Or going bush to repair the grader. Or sometimes, and not as often as I’d like, going out on the cattle.
Gary introduced me to Eric, who had ten acres on the Victoria Highway about a mile out of town. He had a caravan on the block—a thirty-foot Viscount—which he let me rent in return for doing some work for him—like giving him a hand with some power installations and putting up new buildings on his block. I went to work for Gary who had a contract with the Housing Commission doing repair work, and also worked with Gary’s wife Jill cleaning Commission houses and flats.
I had a great job with the local council for six years, but had to give it up after an accident wrecked my shoulder. And I found out that the diabetes I had was getting worse. When my friend Eric died of a brain haemorrhage and then Jill died of cancer I thought it all didn’t seem right somehow.
I was urged to write to Mr Tickner, the then Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, for a birth certificate or information to recognise I am alive after years of frustration with state government departments. Through him I was granted my passport, you have no idea how much it means to me to come off the grey line and finally be recognised as a person. I look and listen to the pollies play with our lives, the paternalism that completely rejected us from the constitution putting us on the grey line is still there. With me looking as white as any white Australian, people are not too careful what they say in front of me, and I can tell you racism is still rife and healthy in our wonderful society. So until all of us get a fair go I will keep writing and I hope to live long enough to see society change.
Well, this is my life to date. Now I’m a person, I still don’t know who I am, but I will keep on searching for family.
THE END—MAYBE.
UQP BLACK AUSTRALIAN WRITERS SERIES
UQP’s Black Australian Writers Series continues strong its commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writing. The Series opens up exciting opportunities in Black writing and makes this emerging literature more widely available.
This significant series testifies to the diversity of Black writing. Launched in 1990, it evolved out of the annual David Unaipon Award which attracts texts by unpublished Black authors from across the nation and is judged by well-known Black authors, Jack Davis, Mudrooroo and Jackie Huggins. The late Oodgeroo of the tribe Noonuccal was a founding judge and series consultant. The Black Australian Writers Series is made up of the Award winners and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors.
This unique paperback range celebrates and proclaims the literary achievements of Black Australia.
WARRIGAL’S WAY
Warrigal Anderson
Warrigal has every reason to believe that the Suits from the Department are coming to take him away, with five pounds from his mother and hasty instructions he hops on what he thinks is a train to Swan Hill. Instead he finds himself on a life-long journey.
Winner of the 1995 David Unaipon Award
Memoir
DREAMING IN URBAN AREAS
Lisa Bellear
Lyn McCredden in her introduction to Dreaming in Urban Areas captures the essence of Bellear’s poetry.
“These poems are anything but motionless. Their emotions cut, determined to map out another possibility, a place of personal and social reconciliation. The tools of this poetry range from wild analogy, to smart-arse juxtaposition, from calculated advice, to articulate imagery. Let it unravel you.”
Poetry
MY KIND OF PEOPLE
Achievement, Identity and Aboriginality Wayne Coolwell
Profiled in this exciting book by ABC journalist Wayne Coolwell are actor Ernie Dingo, TV journalists Rhoda Roberts and Stan Grant, artist Gordon Bennett, opera singer Maroochy Barambah, rugby union coach Mark Ella, singer-songwriter Archie Roach, and land rights advocate Noel Pearson, teachers, a medical doctor, and a classical dancer. Includes photographs.
Profiles
BLACK LIFE
Jack Davis
“I write of life as I see it. Whether it is the beauty of the bush or the difficulties which my people find in living in the cities and the towns. I want my audience to feel the hurt and the pain of being born black as well as to feel the beauty of the countryside.”
—Jack Davis
“This latest collection of poems is, in my opinion, Jack Davis’s greatest.”
—Oodgeroo
Poetry
PAPERBARK
A Collection of Black Australian Writings edited by Jack Davis, Stephen Muecke, Mudrooroo and Adam Shoemaker
Thirty-six Aboriginal and Islander authors are represented including David Unaipon, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Gerry Bostock, Ruby Langford, Robert Bropho, Jack Davis, Hyllus Maris, William Ferguson, Sally Morgan, Mudrooroo and Archie Weller. Many more are represented through community writings.—Prose, poetry, song, drama and polemic—“A watershed in Australian literature.”
—Irruluma Guruliwini Enemburu
Anthology
HOLOCAUST ISLAND
Graeme Dixon
Graeme Dixon’s ballads speak out on contemporary and controversial issues, from Black deaths in custody to the struggles of single mothers. Contrasted with these are poems of spirited humour and sharp satire.
Winner of the 1989 David Unaipon Award
Poetry
BROKEN DREAMS
Bill Dodd
When eighteen-year-old Bill Dodd dived into the Maranoa River his life changed in an instant. This young larrikin had enjoyed many adventures as a stockman on a remote cattle station; now he was a quadriplegic. His boxing, running and football days were over, and he would never ride his beloved horses again.
Winner of the 1991 David Unaipon Award
Autobiography
NO REGRETS
Mabel Edmund
“Mabel Edmund is a gifted writer as well as an artist. She tells her story with determination, courage and humour. Overwhelmingly, the reader is left humbled by Mabel’s deep compassion for her fellow human beings.”
—Sally Morgan
Autobiography
CONNED!
A Koorie Perspective
Eve Mumewa D. Fesl
Language is power—it can describe and direct events fictional and true. This is a look at the history of its use and the way in which it has conned a nation. Linguist Dr Eve Fesl reveals the invisible text used in perpetuating a false and oppressive image of indigenous Australians.
History
SON OF ALYANDABU
My Fight for Aboriginal Rights
Joe McGinness
From his involvement with the trade union movement of the 1930s through to the black rights movement of the 1960s and 70s, Joe McGinness has often been labelled a troublemaker.
Highly commended in the inaugural David Unaipon Award, this personal journey is also a landmark history of political struggle and achievement in the area of human rights.
Autobiography
THE SAUSAGE TREE
Rosalie Medcraft and Valda Gee
The title celebrates the favourite childhood game of authors Rosalie and Valda. This memoir tells of the sisters’ childhood during the Depression in smalltown Tasmania. For the family of nine, thrift was a virtue and home-grown food and hand-made clothing a necessity. In later years, they learned of
their heritage as descendants of Manalargenna, leader of the Trawlwooway people of Cape Portland in north-east Tasmania.
Winner of the 1994 David Unaipon Award
Memoir
SWEET WATER—STOLEN LAND
Philip McLaren
Winner of the 1992 Unaipon Award for unpublished Black writers, this is a thriller, a historical novel, a story of conflict and triumph. Black and white lives are swept up in an epic tale of romance, greed and murder in 19th century New South Wales.
Fiction
PACIFIC HIGHWAY BOO-BLOOZ
Mudrooroo
This powerful collection of poetry exhibits the interconnectedness of the cultural and the personal.
Poetry
BRIDGE OF TRIANGLES
John Muk Muk Burke
A story of family struggle and cultural allegiance told by Chris who is a tender witness to poverty and despair. The torment of a young boy living black in a white world is truthfully told in writing both lyrical and wise.
Winner of the 1993 David Unaipon Award
Fiction
CAPRICE
A Stockman’s Daughter Doris Pilkington/Nugi Garimara
One woman’s journey to recover her family and heritage. “In the life of an Aboriginal woman, no one is more important than her mother when she is young, her daughters when she is old...”
Winner of the 1990 David Unaipon Award
Fiction
FOLLOW THE RABBIT-PROOF FENCE
Doris Pilkington/Nugi Garimara
Doris Pilkington’s second novel tells of extraordinary courage and faith. It is based on the actual experiences of three Aboriginal girls who fled from the repressive life of Moore River Native Settlement, following along the rabbit-proof fence back to their homelands.
Fiction
UP RODE THE TROOPERS
The Black Police in Queensland
Bill Rosser
A chilling story of the infamous Queensland Native Police Force, a murderous band of black troopers led by white officers. Their activities contributed to the extermination of whole tribes of Aborigines.
Winner of the 1991 Ruth Adeney Koori Award
History
UNBRANDED
Herb Wharton
From the riotous picnic races in the famous Mt Isa rodeo, from childhood in the yumba to gutsy outback pubs, Unbranded presents a strikingly original vision of Australia.
“One of the most important Black texts ... A creative work of signiflcance.”
—Mudrooroo
Fiction
CATTLE CAMP
Murrie Drovers and Their Stories
Herb Wharton
These droving stories by ten Murrie stockmen and women record the vital yet seldom sung contribution of Australia’s Aboriginal stock workers. Entertaining and informative. Includes photographs.
History
WHERE YA’ BEEN MATE
Herb Wharton
Unforgettable characters emerge from this vintage Herb Wharton collection which ranges from city to bush.
Short Stories
First published 1996 by University of Queensland Press PO Box 6042, St Lucia, Queensland 4067 Australia
www.uqp.com.au
© Edward Warrigal Anderson, 1996
This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.
Typeset by University of Queensland Press
Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group
Publication of this title was assisted by the Australia Council, The Federal Government’s arts funding and advisory body.
Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
National Library of Australia
Anderson, Warrigal, 1948–.
Warrigal’s way.
1. Anderson, Warrigal, 1948–. 2. Aborigines, Australian – Biography. I. Title. (Series: UQP black Australian writers).
305.89915092
ISBN 978 0 7022 2909 1 (pbk)
978 0 7022 5028 6 (pdf)
978 0 7022 5029 3 (epub)
978 0 7022 5030 9 (kindle)