Novocastrian Tales
Close Encounters IX
Ignorance was walking down the street when he met Knowledge. ‘What’s so scary about an advisory group that only has the power to be heard?’ Knowledge asks. ‘You’re trying to trick me,’ Ignorance replied. ‘We know your agenda, mate?’ ‘But do you know your own?’ Knowledge asked. ‘You’re a bloody know-all, mate!’ Ignorance declared. ‘Wanker rhymes with banker, and I hate them too.’ ‘So, you hate Knowledge,’ Knowledge observed. ‘And yet you claim a knowledge of my agenda.’ ‘You want to paint me as a racist, that’s your agenda, mate,’ Ignorance said. ‘So, how do you explain that some Aborigines
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
Close Encounters II
Ignorance was walking down the street when he met Knowledge. ‘You think you know it all, don’t you?’ Ignorance said. ‘Well, yes,’ Knowledge replied. ‘You don’t know what I don’t know,’ Ignorance challenged. ‘I do, actually,’ Knowledge declared. ‘Well, what I don’t know is in charge of my decision-making.’ ‘I know that too,’ Knowledge noted. ‘Let me ask you a question.’ ‘What!’ Ignorance shouted. 'Are you proud of not knowing?’ Knowledge asked. ‘Hell, YES!’ Ignorance replied. ‘So, I now know that you can do it,’ Knowledge observed. ‘Do what?’ Ignorance was confused. ‘Say YES!’ Knowledge said. ‘Of course, I
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