The Wallaby'sTrack

[Zondrae]

This was a homework topic of IBP.
I always try to find a different view, than what would be expected, for each topic we address.
In this poem, rather than using the Swaggie, or the depression, or generally men walking 'the Wallaby', I tried to convey an indigenous youth, feeling lost spiritually, because he had not gone through any form of initiation. He is then faced with a moral dilemma of a female carrying young. The fact that he does not kill the wallaby then proves he is a man and can judge what is the right thing to do.


The Wallaby’s Track
Zondrae King (Corrimal) 03/10

I stand and raise the spear I have made
and balance it in my hand.
The courage instilled by my father
has bought me here, to this land.

A young man by our totem is bound,
as ancestors did before,
return to caves in the hillside
in ‘country’ where ours was law.

Our ‘Language’ now not spoken aloud
and home no longer with clan.
Our spirits feel the need to belong.
We seek the ‘Rite’ to be man.

Men, but as yet not given the ‘Rites’
our spirits will not find peace.
You’ll find we go looking for trouble.
The longing will never cease.

On outcrop, clear the Wallaby sits.
My view unobscured by scrub.
Her silhouette cutting the sky line.
Her Joey, merely a nub.

I stop my movement, lower my hand,
remove the spear from it’s place.
Should I kill a mother and baby,
would bring dishonour, disgrace.

My mind is singing in harmony.
The wind and mountain sing back.
I trace the steps of my ancestors,
and walk the Wallaby’s track.

[william williams]

Thank you Zondrae to me that poem has strong feeling of the dilemma that the true bush Aborigines must face

Bill Williams

[Dave Smith]

I agree with Bill Zondrae, I too can feel the dilemma of the youth nearly but not quite a man.

TTFN

[Bob Pacey]

The plight of the urban aboriginal is worse.


Bob

[Neville Briggs]

I think you have have done a fine job of writing there Zondrae. I like the short straight to the point sentences. I have the opinion that short strongly made verses like that are just as worthy as any long narrative ballad.

[Stephen Whiteside]

You're right, Bob. I worked at the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service in Fitzroy for eight years in the '90s. Many had been brought up in foster homes or institutions, and only found out about their Aboriginal heritage in their teens, or even later. To them, it was all about identity. Who am I? Were am I from?

I arrived with a very negative image of the missions, but they turned my perceptions right around. The occasional Koori was able to trace their heritage to a particular mission. For them, it was a source of intense pride - a fixed point in a chaotic historic landscape. An identity. A validation.

It is true that the missions were highly destructive of Aboriginal culture, but it is also true that without them the squatters would probably have wiped them off the face of the Earth completely.

[Zondrae]

Stephen,

I have heard some horror stories from the mouths of the perpetrators (or the sons thereof) when living at Tabulam. Tales of poisoned flour and round ups - far worse that we could imagine. Then we have the sexual abuse of servants resulting in half cast children who were really 'stateless', fitting in with neither the tribal nor the settler society. I know this was typical of any country where the invaders wish to wipe out the original inhabitants, but it is so 'inhumane', to my way of thinking, that I can hardly get my mind around it.

[Stephen Whiteside]

Yes, I always feel sad when I hear people deride some Kooris as not being 'proper bush Aborigines'.

The problem often presented itself to me the other way around. A young person - male or female, dark-skinned or light, or somewhere in between - would arrive in my consulting room in a distressed state. It was often their first visit to the Aboriginal Health Service. They gradually revealed a long and troubled history. They had been brought up in a foster home, but had left when the foster father - or a close friend of the family - began to sexually abuse them, often in a systematic way. After several years on the streets, in and out of other foster homes, whatever - often with some drug use and petty criminality - and a whole lot of other stuff that I probably never knew about, somebody mentioned to them that they had Aboriginal heritage. Perhaps an Aboriginal person they met on the street got talking with them, and claimed to know one of their parents, or an aunt or uncle. This was often the first time they had been told they were - or, more accurately, might be - of Aboriginal descent. Prior to this, they may well have been told they were of Indian extraction, or some other ethnicity thought by somebody to be consistent with the colour of their skin. These people had lived all their childhood in the city, usually, but were now faced with the possibility that they were part-Aboriginal.

Of course, just because somebody claimed they were Aboriginal, it didn't mean they were. Often this was just the beginning of many years of enquiry, with no final result at the end anyway. Perhaps they were, perhaps they weren't. The issue for many of these people was that they had no sense of identity at all, and would grab onto anything. The other issue is that Aboriginal people do have a much stronger sense of kinship than Europeans, so if you accepted it, you would be welcomed into a large community with endless numbers of 'cousins', 'uncles' and 'aunts'.

On the other hand, it was also quite common for young people who were not believed by the Aboriginal community to be Aboriginal to nevertheless be embraced by the Health Service out of a sense of sympathy for them. After all, you don't have to be Aboriginal to be lost and homeless.

From my perspective, it didn't matter one way or the other whether a person was Aboriginal. It was just a matter of trying to offer some assistance to a young person in distress.

But to hear the general community point the finger at some of these people, claiming they are not 'proper Aborigines' seems so unfair. Usually, there is no person more acutely aware of this than the person themself. It should also be said that some of the harshest comments along these lines came from the 'proper' Aborigines in northern Australia, who could be very contemptuous of their paler-skinned southern cousins. This would often occur in the context of something like a national conference for Aboriginal Health Workers, for example. There is a lot of intolerance and misunderstanding on both sides of the fence.

I should also add that many of these people had no birth certificates, or other form of formal identification.

[Bob Pacey]

Well said and right on the ball Stephen. I'm an uncle to many by marriage and the kids in most cases have a great deal of respect for their elders. Many of my sons friends kids call me granddad and I'm really proud to wear that tag.

We are dealing with a couple of cases now and have a young girl staying with us who was in the situation that you describe. We are hopeful that all will come out right but it wil take a lot for her to trust strangers or for that matter family.


The family unit of aboriginal people has to be experienced to be believed and nothing is too much trouble for family, be they cousins,uncles or elders.


Bobbo