Novocastrian Tales
Close Encounters I
Ignorance was walking down the street when he met Knowledge. ‘Gidday!’ Knowledge said. ‘Don’t speak down to me,’ Ignorance replied. ‘Well, I’d have to be on my knees to speak up to you,’ Knowledge smiled. ‘I’m just being friendly, mate.’ ‘Don’t mate me, mate!’ Ignorance declared. ‘You wouldn’t give me the shirt off your back, even if I was naked and cold.’ And that evening, Ignorance walked back home in a YES shirt. Copyright Paul F Walsh 2023
Heart of Our Nation
Speech at Conservatorium September 21 2023 The photo behind me features Uncle Bob Smith. Uncle Bob was a humble man, a teller of tales, my friend and comrade. When Uncle Bob’s black dreaming of an accommodation centre for the relatives of Aboriginal patients at John Hunter Hospital met my white Novocastrian Tales dreaming, Yallarwah Place became a reality. Novocastrian Tales, published by Susan Harvey and myself, was a national bestseller and the Novocastrian Tales project raised the funds to build Yallarwah Place. Yallarwah Bicentenary Memorial, embodied by Yallarwah Place, is believed to be the first united and inclusive Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal memorial
Return to Yallarwah
‘By February next year, it will all be here: Yallarwah Place, Yallarwah Bicentenary Walk and Yallarwah Circle of Reflection. And every person who looks upon this memorial over the next one hundred years will know. They will know that we built it with love in our hearts and the power of unity and tolerance in our hands. Could we leave them with a finer legacy than that?’ Paul F Walsh, Groundbreaking Ceremony, January 30 1998 I return like a boomerang. But to whose hand am I returning? I study the bronze hands at the front of the Yallarwah
Yirannali: The Quiet Project
Yirannali: The Quiet Project replanting a shared future together Heart of our nation Reconciliation A Moment in Time: A moment in time can encapsulate a timeless truth. Such was the case when the Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld and Biraban et al shared a quiet moment under the cliff named Yirannali adjacent to Newcastle South Beach. Threlkeld did refer to the English-speaking Biraban (aka M’Gill) as ‘my Black tutor’, and so it was on this occasion: ’There is a sort of sacred place near Newcastle on the sea-beach, beneath a high cliff, named Yi-ran-na-li, where, it is said, that if any
A Leaf
A Leaf Paul F Walsh I am as a leaf until I discover the tree and then the tree discovers me Copyright Paul F Walsh 2022
The Clock
Time should be ticking like a bomb. But time was not ticking. This Seth Thomas clock had died at the exact moment that this Seth Thomas was born. And this Seth Thomas was named after the clock. His mother had been struck by the apparent coincidence. The clock preserved the time of her son’s birth much as a dinosaur could be preserved as a fossil encased in stone. 8.21 pm, or was it 8.21 am? Now that his mother was as dead as the clock, Seth could only speculate as to whether he was born in the morning or the
Communion – Celebrating the 25th Birthday of Novocastrian Tales
He had been watching me from a distance for some time. Silent. Still. Wary. Ever vigilant. His approach was slow and sinuous. Stalking. Ever closer. Silent. Still. Wary. And then he was standing beside me, looking down at my seated figure. Silent. Still. Wary. Curious. He touched me on the shoulder. ‘Cambai,’ he said, ‘cambai.’ I later learned that ‘cambai’ meant brother. ‘Me’, he said, ‘me Wepohng!’ He had a smattering of English words. He was perhaps twelve years old. ‘Me Browne,’ I said. And then there was silence. He sat beside me as I tried to capture a preliminary
Magpie
Copyright Paul F Walsh 1997
Merlin Magic
Author: Susan Harvey I’m just so full of Merlin, and I want to write something about what she means to me. Beautiful girl. Yes, but she has a male name! Well, when she turned up, she was wild and injured. We couldn’t get close enough to her to determine her sex and, since she kept appearing and disappearing, I called her Merlin. She was an absolute mess. Her face and body were torn to pieces, much of her body fur missing, and she was clearly distressed. We left food out in the hope that we could catch her.
Merlin
Merlin, Merlin Merlin Magnificat I love Merlin What could be plainer than that? She is a beautiful pussycat Of that I have no doubt about And Merlin this, and Merlin that She’s a beautiful pussycat I love Merlin Merlin Magnificat I love Merlin What could be plainer than that? She is a beautiful pussycat Of that I have no doubt about And Merlin this, and Merlin that She’s a beautiful pussycat Copyright Paul F Walsh 2022