Novocastrian Tales
Close Encounters VIII
Ignorance was walking down the street when he met Knowledge. ‘I am very strong,’ Ignorance said. ‘We are the majority.’ ‘I know that you think that,’ Knowledge said, ‘but when you multiply ignorance you get divisive weakness rather than unifying strength.’ ‘Says who,’ Ignorance demanded. ‘Knowledge,’ Knowledge responded. ‘I’m avoiding you in future, mate!’ Ignorance declared. ‘Listening to you is like being mugged.’ ‘So, you don’t like the sound of my VOICE?’ Knowledge challenged. ‘I’m voting NO to shut you up!’ Ignorance blared through his megaphone. ‘And I’m voting YES to give Knowledge a VOICE!’ Knowledge quietly replied.
Close Encounters VII
Ignorance was walking down the street when he met Knowledge. ‘A YES vote would divide us, mate,’ Ignorance said. ‘We’re all equal here in Australia, mate, even the Aborigines.’ ‘So, you’re voting NO to maintain your equality with Aborigines?’ Knowledge asked. ‘Well, when you put it like that …’ Ignorance hesitated. ‘I’m a little bit more equal than they are.’ ‘So, you’re voting NO to maintain your superiority over Aborigines,’ Knowledge observed. ‘You’re not hearing me, mate,’ Ignorance responded. ‘Well, what are you afraid of?’ Knowledge persisted. ‘I don’t want them to take my house and backyard,’ Ignorance admitted. ‘So,
Close Encounters IV
Ignorance was walking down the street towards his car when he met Knowledge. ‘You should always drive on the left-hand side of the road,’ Knowledge advised. ‘There’s nothing left about me, you woke, leftie bastard!’ Ignorance declared. And that night, Ignorance woke in the hospital thinking that he really should have said YES to Knowledge’s advice. Copyright Paul F Walsh 2023
Close Encounters III
Ignorance was walking down the street when he met Knowledge. ‘If you don’t know, vote NO!’ Ignorance said. ‘But I do know,’ Knowledge replied. ‘Well, you best vote YES then, I reckon,’ Ignorance declared. ‘Exactly,’ Knowledge agreed, ‘but now you know too.’ ‘How do you figure that?’ Ignorance asked. ‘I know you know because you’ve been standing here talking with Knowledge.’ ‘That’s why I’m now voting YES!’ Ignorance whispered for fear his friends might hear him. ‘YES!’ Knowledge agreed. 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
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
Stargazer
Today is my birthday in 2021. The best early birthday gift that I ever received is Susan Louise Harvey. Susan and I grew up at either end of Lambton Park, but we did not knowingly meet until we were adults, and we then discovered that we shared the same childhood memories such as Lambton Library, the rotunda and the old steamroller. We went on to discover a bizarre similarity in the school subjects that we had studied (including Latin), and we noted a curious congruency in that we had both studied mathematics at the University of Newcastle. Our time at
Australia Day
Yesterday, we sat in the gutter harvesting six hundred litres of stormwater for our Placemaking Project in Rosann Park. Today, Susan used a small portion of our harvest to water our Banksia Birthday Candles. These precious native plants protect our community time capsule, which contains Aboriginal artefacts contributed by members of the Awabakal community in addition to non-Aboriginal artefacts contributed by local residents. Susan was ably assisted in her watering duties by Chester the Jester, our noble Staffador, who had earlier circled Lambton Park with the current Australian flag draped from his collar like a pair of tattered budgie smugglers,