Defying the Enemy Within by Joe Williams

Author:Joe Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2017-12-18T05:00:00+00:00

Wagga Wagga citizen of the year.

On the day, I put on a black suit and a white T-shirt with a dreamtime message on the front. I’d cut the sleeves on the T-shirt and covered my bare arms in white ochre — a mixture of finely crushed rock and water that is used for body paint in traditional ceremony and dance. I put the rest of the ochre in a small container, and took it with me.

During the night a number of awards were announced, including one for a singing the national anthem competition. A small group of children was asked to sing the national anthem to the packed civic theatre, and the entire audience was asked to stand. While the children sang like angels, everyone in the hall stood. Everyone except for my family and me.

When it came to announcing who’d won the award for citizen of the year, my name was read out. The crowd was a few hundred strong, and they cheered loudly. I stood up and took off my suit blazer to reveal my First Nations warrior-like painted arms. It was time to paint my face. By now the audience in the auditorium was on their feet, still making loud cheers and whistles.

When I reached the podium, I could almost hear the whispers around the room, because I’d donned my traditional paint to accept my award. The mayor, Rod Kendall, congratulated me, then I took to the microphone for my acceptance speech. Even though I hadn’t known I’d be receiving the award, I’d thought that, if I did, it would be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to try to educate the crowd of mostly non-Indigenous people.

I started my speech by acknowledging the traditional elders and ancestors on whose country we were gathered. I acknowledged not only the owners and custodians but also my ancestors who, some 228 years earlier, were lying down to sleep with their families, not knowing what the future days would hold. That evening, some 228 years earlier, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people were about to embark on a brutal war that would last until today. They would see many loved ones lost in what some call the frontier wars but what many of our people see as acts of terrorism.

I went on to talk about how many people speak of this as being in ‘the past’, but my dad and his brothers often had to run and hide down by the river and in creek beds when government cars approached, so they wouldn’t be stolen away.

I went on to speak about how I believe the country is moving forward with regards to racism and discrimination, and how non-Indigenous Australians can learn so much from the traditional First Nations people’s culture, which has lasted for over 65,000 years.

I was then reduced to tears, thanking my family — in particular, Courtney and my kids — as I believe that without them, I wouldn’t have a reason to live.

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