The Whisper On The Street

Parasite and I enjoying some midnight coconut, Darwin style


“Hey brother, you’re a half cast aren’t ya, you understand?” the black fella, dressed in a dirty flimsy polo shirt, tight jeans and the obligatory bare feet asks intriguingly. I laugh acknowledging his observations and smile. “No, he’s not a brother, he’s a white boy” The other black fella condemns. He is short but lanky, dressed much like the first guy, except for one unmistakable feature – a small ghetto blaster perched aloft his thin bony shoulder blade. “Are you a half cast brother?” he then follows on from his own statement.. I turn to him, who for clarity purposes is blacker then the night.. “Look at me, I got a pretty good tan” I let the words linger while holding out my arm, they both look at it slightly perplexed, “I’m almost as black as you” I jokingly confirm. The two burst into a cheerful snigger.. “You aren’t as black as me” he protests between his curious laugh, holding out his arm against mine in comparison. It’s well.. Black against white! They then both burst into another round of infectious cackles. Anyone who has spent some time with the Aboriginal people will know they have a wicked sense of humour, particularly the men and these fella’s dig this joke!

Pulling himself together the first guy introduces himself, “I’m Abraham Lincoln, but without the Lincoln” I shake hands with him, as do Sean and Jen. The other fella without missing a beat infers that he is fact, Snoop Dog. “I thought Snoop Dog was much taller?” Sean interrupts. “Na brother, that’s my cousin” a dirty great big grin spreads thick across his black leathery face, “You are gorgeous” turning his attention to Jen, reaching in, gives her a sneaky kiss across her delicate neck. She looks to Sean and I with the uneasiest expression. We smile back unanimously, this time laughing ourselves. From my understanding this is the first time Jen, a back packer from New York City has ever had any close interaction with some black Australians. Most white Australian females would have slapped five shades of race out-of-him for such a bold manoeuvre an I think Snoop knows this. Sean, Jen’s Sydney based boyfriend finds all this totally bemusing, and again our new friends burst into a fit of laughter.

“You got two dollars for a brother” Abraham asks politely.. I should have expected this question was coming, but today I wasn’t ready for it. I used to feel offended by it, as if somehow it was intrusive by nature and would leave me feeling uncomfortable with the whole situation. In actual fact I’ve grown up with it, white or black. When we were younger it meant imminent danger, usually a refusal to comply would end with fists being thrown, blood lips and a good story to tell the boys.. But these older fella’s aren’t no threat; they are good people, leading a cheap scabby existence – dharma bums by pure instinct. I pulled all the change I had, and Abraham accepted thankfully, meanwhile turning his back to the fuzz paddy that just rolled in ready for the arrest.

You see it all started when we crossed the bridge just out of the Perth train station, opposite the Perth Art Centre sat a lone middle aged Aboriginal man, bare skinned expect for the well worn set of blue jeans which hung loosely around his thin frame.. Drunk presumably. Two eager young policemen stood over him doing there business, a filthy trade to get mixed up with I would say. We passed apprehensively as if ignoring the situation, better off out of site, out of mind type of approach is what we seem to be taking.. The same approach most City Mayors seem to have taken when it involves our indigenous heritage, preferring the non-confronting wall posters and delicate dot paintings which plaster arcade walls and shop frontages which sell chap imitation didgeridoos – usually attended by some entrepreneurial Asian shop keeper with eye for the market.

Twenty odd yards back were Abraham and Snoop Dog dancing to the rhythmic beat of “Hammer Time” which blared from the small ghetto blaster. Was this in protest to the evil which lurked around them, I’m unsure? But what I am sure about is that I’m kinda drunk and I love this song! I jumped in without hesitation and started dancing to the surprise of Sean and Jen, who then laughed at my ridiculousness as they watched on.. Maybe it was my flawless moves on the makeshift D.F. which confused them into thinking that I was half cast, but more likely it was the fact that I was prepared to listen, something I gather is not the priority of others. I had heard all this before, back up in Darwin drinking beers on the foreshore with Sandy and Paul, two natives from Groote Eylandt.. “It ain’t safe for us to be drinking here” they told Parasite and I, “We’ll get arrested”, “its okay for you guys though” they continued. Somehow a law was passed recently that stopped the consumption of alcohol and/or loitering in popular tourist locations. Confusingly this only ever really applied to the native indigenous, “They moved us out of our camp too”, (Which was well hidden in the bushes, precariously hung atop the sea cliffs a few hundred meter’s from where we sat. Parasite later found this camp and spent a night curled up in the black garbage bags amongst the numerus amount of empty flagons, but that’s a story for another time) , and relocated us too the Mangroves out the back of Fanny Bay, with the mud, the persistent sand flies and all other god awful creatures. The story was similar, apparently Abraham’s brother had been warned to move on, and as the story goes the cops followed, hassling him along the way, they then decided to arrest him for whatever.. loitering after a move on notice had been issued. How much of the story is true I’ll never know, but what is clear is there power to confront this matter.. Sweet f*#k all – cop it on the chin – and just don’t forget you are free to do what ever I say. “This is racism!” Abraham echoed it the exact same way I heard Paul say it, over 3000 kilometres away.

Florence Falls - Litchfield National Park

Yes Darwin.. I'm ready to go back.