Grass the colour of straw and the smell of honey. Wind between eucalypt leaves. Tony Greig on the ABC. Snags crusty with charcoal debris. Peeling my thighs off the black vinyl of a Kingswood. Screeches as the sprinkler hits hot skin. Paddle Pops and Gay Times. Backyard cricket and red stains on cricket whites. The Aussie flag.
Or not? I have become scared of that flag, and its hate.
Aussies. We love dick, apparently. Drawing Dicks on the Herald Sun takes me back to the 663 to Ringwood. But I have friends who immigrated here, what is their Australia? I have met many solid indigenous folk, what is their Australia?
I may share a white history, but my Australia is not the Aussie Flag up high in Cronulla. It does not bash a Lebbo. It does not hate Mussies. It's learnt so much from it's Asian colleagues and African friends. It respects Gays, and I'll be fuct if it turns its back on the boat people.....
Anyway, with mixed emotion I say to you, Happy Australia Day, and earnestly I simultaneously apologise for all we have done to this land and the indigenous people who understand it so much better....
