The Black Australian - Chapter 18

Incomplete journeys

by Sunil Govinnage

Siri slept until late afternoon on Saturday as he was tired due to his nearly three weeks of incomplete journeys to the east. He woke with another headache but with less intensity than the attack he had while visiting Cairns. Apart from the sounds of vehicles moving up and down Mount's Bay Road that oozed through the open windows, there was quietness inside the house. Before closing the windows, Siri looked at the quietly flowing Swan River. There were several sailboats floating down the river, similar to the vehicles moving east and west on the adjacent road that stretched like the Wagyl, the Aborigines' dreamtime rainbow serpent. The car passed each other as if in an eternal race; competing during the journey but at the same time ignoring each others' east and west-bound destinations.

Having observed the fast moving vehicles and slow moving sail boats, Siri's was reminded of a passage from a Sri Lankan novel which states that "life is full of inward and outward journeys". Siri thought of his own journeys and his incomplete travels to the east of the continent starting from Sydney to Brisbane and then finally to Cairns. Though Siri could not visit most of the places he desired to see while in Cairns, he reflected on his meetings with strangers such the travelling fishermen and the taxi driver who was totally unsympathetic to Aboriginal people. Siri tried to collate his various disjointed memories of his recent journeys. However, with his headache still lingering, there were a few images and conversations that stuck in his mind and those that did seemed like unrelated artefacts found during an archaeological dig.

Siri thought of his conversations with John and the funny taxi driver who drove him to the Tjapuka Aboriginal Cultural Park in Cairns. The differing opinions concerning the Aborigines expressed by both strangers were like the sky above and mud below. John, who had attended a public school with Aboriginal children, had very sympathetic views towards the native Australians while the taxi driver hated the original inhabitants of the continent.

"Why?" Siri questioned.

Is it mere discrimination or lack of understanding of each other? Don't we have the same attitude towards the two ethnic groups in Sri Lanka? Those Sinhalese who haven't even interacted with Tamils think that every one of them is against the Sinhalese and are sympathisers of those who are engaged in terrorist activities. Are these kinds of misunderstandings limited only to Sri Lanka and Australia. What about ...?

"Tring ... Tring ..." The sound of telephone rings shattered Siri's reveries.

"Hello, Siri! It's me, Frank. I thought of calling you to find out whether you had come back! How was the trip? Without allowing Siri to respond, Frank continued, "I wonder whether you could come over for a bar-be-cue at our place this evening. A few friends are visiting. Would you like to come over? By the way, there are some interesting things happening at work. The rumour is that a new manager has been hired; a woman. There'll be a lot of changes. "Frank wanted to reveal the latest office gossip.

"Who cares about changes at work, Frank? Everything changes; don't they? I must excuse myself from your kind offer. I have a headache and I might have brought an infection from the east. I should rest up a bit. Anyway, I will be back on deck on Monday. I'll catch up with all the office "gossip" then, Siri politely refused the invitation.

The house was quiet inside and Siri felt hungry. The items he had bought for himself on his trip, a few books, didgeridoo music cassettes and a CD from Queensland, lay on the dining table like a group of abandoned children. He chucked the CD into his audio player and switched the kettle on for some tea. While the kettle was boiling, the quietness was broken by the sound of didgeridoo.

Strange music, music lovers around the world are yet to appreciate the messages from a lost culture with forty thousand years of unwritten history!

Having had a cup of tea and a few biscuits, Siri decided to go for a stroll in the city which he had not seen for three weeks. Still tired from his travels Siri changed his mind and instead of taking a long walk from his house to King's Park, he decided to go for a drive. Siri drove through the quiet roads inside the park and parked his car at the city end near the newly completed cafeteria inside the park. Dusk had just begun to set but Siri knew it was a full moon day and he was keen to sit on a bench and enjoy the new moon over the city and the river.

He walked slowly through the car park and sat on a bench overlooking the Swan River. Siri was overcome by a trance-like feeling as he was mesmerised by the picturesque sceneries akin to a beautiful post card. Siri recalled from a few tourist brochures that King's Park was a meeting place of the Noongar people, who were the original inhabitants of the South-West of the continent. Siri recalled reading a magazine about some archaeological evidence from Perth and the South-West indicating that the Noongar people have lived in the area for at least 45,000 years. Some campsites in the caves amongst the hills near Margaret River were thought to date back 47,000 years.

So the stories about Aborigines were not just dream time stories and myths. Australian Aborigines have a very long history compared to the Sri Lankan written history that we boast about. The only difference is that the Aborigines have no Mahavmsa or other great chronicles.

The Noongar people have lived in harmony with the natural environment. Their social structure focused on the family and family groups and they did their best to look after both elders and children alike.

But everything has changed now like the gleaming sailboats moving in the river, the restored Swan Brewery building below and even the new cafeteria that had just completed. King's Park has become a new meeting place for the invaders and visitors of the country, including people like himself. The history recorded by the conquerors and the victors could not be shifted or changed any more.

From his readings on Aboriginal history and culture, Siri knew that based on archaeological evidence from Perth and South-West, the Noongar people have thrived in the area long before the arrival of white settlers and immigrants like himself. Siri sat and reflected on not only on the Aborigines, but also his own life and his native country which is now engulfed in a bloody civil war.

Siri continued to walk the path along King's Way leading to the city. He saw a few drunken Aborigines lying under some trees and one of them saw Siri and came running to approach. The Aborigine wore a rag-like cloth and had red, lotus-like eyes. He asked for money from Siri: "Bro, can you give me a quid? We are short of few dollars for food!" Siri didn't resist or ignore the man and gave him a ten dollar note. The Aborigine's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw the ten dollar note. He looked at Siri with a grateful look and said: "Thanks bro, thanks mate, you are a good bloke. Are you from India?" Without uttering a word, Siri quietly walked through the path leading downwards to the City of Perth, where he usually spent a good part of his woken life everyday from Monday to Friday and on some days during weekends too.

The city was quiet compared to a week-day but Siri watched people driving in cars and walking in groups going for Saturday night parties and meals. After completing a long walk along St George's Terrace, the main street which runs through the city, he decided to walk back up the hills to King's Park to pick his car and go home.

As he approached the traffic lights near Mill Street, Siri saw a young girl, a teenager, sitting on the pavement with a hat and sign that read, haven't had a meal the whole day." Australia is a place with no beggars! What is she doing here? Why?

As the girl saw Siri, she said, "Please give me a dollar or two, I want to have a meal tonight?" "Why are you asking for money? Don't you have a home and parents? Please call your mum or dad Siri offered his cell phone.

"No. Dad wants me to leave home, and he has a new girl friend!" "Where is your mother?" "I don't know! She left my dad a week ago with my little brother. She hasn't contacted me so far. "The young woman said with a sad voice.

Siri gave the girl all the coins he had in his wallet and also a twenty dollar note and started walking away from the girl while attempting to control the tears in his eyes.

Siri didn't have energy to walk up the hills and wanted to take the last bus to King's Park at 8'clock to pick up his car and go home. Dusk had fully settled in as he arrived at the car park. The full moon was shining over the city. Before getting into the car he saw a new moon, different to what he used to see in Sri Lanka.

A frowning moon of a new age stood above his head in a new country where not only the original inhabitants have become helpless but also the offspring of those who have arrived looking for new homes but go homeless, like the young woman whom he met a few minutes earlier in the streets of his new home town.

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Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.