Life of Riley: A faux pas

Issue 

Life of Riley

A faux pas

So there is no such thing as a stolen generation?

Maybe what we have here is a failure to communicate. It's all a misunderstanding. Or maybe the government got its dates mixed up — "Oh, you mean that generation. But there were so few", says Senator Herron.

"It wasn't a generation. And besides, the systematic removal of indigenous children from their families was very much the attitude then. Gee, I did it to white kids all the time. Trust me, I'm a doctor."

Well that makes it OK then. Quid pro quo and all that. We're all equal here.

Later on in life someone surely got around to setting the record straight: "I have something important to tell you, Johnny. You are adopted."

"Oh", says Johnny, "you mean you aren't my real mother and daddy isn't my real father?".

"'fraid so. And another thing: you're black!"

"I'm black! Gee, am I? I wondered why I looked so different from you and dad, my sister and aunt Alice, uncle Fred and gran. I'm black! Wow! Who would have thought?"

"Yep. You're black all right. But keep it under your hat. We brought you up to be a nice white kid. No living on the riverbank for you, my son. (I can still call you that, can't I?).

"No siree: you've lived the life of Riley. You were taken from harm's way and brought up proper. But you're still black unfortunately. That's our little secret."

"Mum's the word, mum. I really appreciate what you did for me. I sure do. I know you did it for my own good so I hate to tell you this — I already knew. I did. I worked it out all by myself. I just knew I was different somehow."

"Now you know then".

"Yep. I'm black. It's a strange feeling, being black. To tell you the truth, I had a niggling suspicion that that could be the case. Call it intuition, a lucky guess, whatever — but I had this nagging feeling all these years that I didn't belong."

"Poppycock! Of course you belong!"

"Do I, mum?"

"Of course you do. Just don't go anywhere near the Northern Territory for the time being. You may be mistaken for someone else."

BY DAVE RILEY
<dhell@ozemail.com.au>

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