Nick's Speech For Hollywood, Amarroo Book Launch
contd.
"My people," he says, "were very religious.
Everything they touched was sacred, everything and the spirits that unite the
dead with the living roamed about the land. When the white men came they brought
with them guns, chains, flogging whips and strychnine. They shot my people and
poisoned our water holes."
Peter interrupted. "Strychnine? Did I hear
you right?"
"Yes! I grew up in Maryborough only because the white men
poisoned our waterhole in Fraser Island. My folks shot through after they buried
our rellies. They did, Pete. Like thieves in the night. In other parts of
Australia the white man offered us poisoned flour. There was so much hatred in
the land, the spirits took off."
Percy a leading light of Amarroo
describes the Aborigines to Peter.
"Every fortnight we witness the
Pension Day Ceremony. The boongs pick up their pension cheques from the Post
Office and wait under the gum trees for the pub to open. At ten they rush in the
hotel and hours later they crawl out pissed and broke. Once you get to know the
boongs, you will realize that they are good for nothing bludgers. They have
babies out of wedlock; not one or two, but five or ten. And they all finish up
in our hospital because their parents don't feed them properly"
Nifty
Nev, an Amarroo young man asks Peter to describe Allison.
"She looks
like Mary Travers"
"You lucky bugger, can she sing too? Nev asked but Peter
dismissed the question with a polite smile.
"She lives in jeans and has
blonde shoulder length hair. At parties she always attracts mates around her. We
are all for the underdog but she is passionate. It's true what they say about
the eyes."
"You are hooked mate. What do you see in her eyes?'
"Passion
and more passion,' Peter said grasping the air with his hand. "She wants nothing
less but to destroy the world and re-create it stone by stone according to the
rules of the heart." Reading Peter's body language, Nev sensed the strong bonds
between them. "We hit the hay a week after the debate but our relationship
bloomed because we are idealists. She and her family believe the privileged
should help the underprivileged and I believe in equity for all. I'll always
love her."
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