Tracker by Alexis Wright

Author:Alexis Wright
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Giramondo Publishing
Published: 2017-10-26T04:00:00+00:00

I will tell you about the time when we first met Robert Tickner. He was a minister [for Aboriginal Affairs]. We were having a Council meeting up at Hatches Creek and we had not met him before – brand spanking new, had just appointed the first three ATSIC commissioners, there was Lowitja [O’Donoghue], Gus Williams and I cannot remember who the other one was. Anyway, we were having a Council meeting at Hatches Creek and, Oh! The minister wants to come, Yeah! By all means come along, come to the Council meeting. We get up there the day before the Council meeting and the following day the minister was going to arrive, and somehow this bloke from DAA turns up and says, We got to put these tents up for the minister. Oh! Yeah! Well we’re camping down here.

Is it safe?

It is safer out bush, nothing is going to get you here.

This is the first time we had ever seen tents at a Council meeting. There is a bloke from DAA turns up and puts up tents for the minister. Oh! Yeah! Putting up another. Who’s that for? Oh! This is for the commissioner, Mr Williams. Oh! Jeez! He gets a tent too. Another one for this bloke. He had two or three tents being put up. It was all brand new. Later that afternoon, Geoff Clark was there, he was at the time the coordinator for the National Federation of Land Councils. He was a guest at the meeting, he and his wife Trudy as guests of the land council.

At some point Tracker and Clarky decide they were going to get a killer and they come back, and it is dark and they quartered it up and left it hanging in the tree. At some stage the minister had turned up and was in bed. The minister gets up in the morning and there are these quarters of bullocks hanging in the trees, and he wonders what the hell is going on. So Tracker cuts some meat off and he is feeding the minister this beef. I am not sure if he is the first federal minister…who owned the killer we had no idea, but technically it was stolen meat. And here was Tracker sweet-talking this minister about how nice the meat was, and how you should have some, minister. Brand spanking new minister. Mr Williams knew exactly what was going on, but he was having a piece too. Geez, here was Clarky and Tracker feeding the minister.

So that was Robert Tickner’s first meeting with the CLC, eating – oh lovely meat it was too, geez it was beautiful meat. Them two. Tracker was a butcher so he would have taken Clarky along for the ride. Some of these things are outside the normal day-to-day work, and all the big things that have taken place.

Nick Bolkus

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