Australia Day…or Invasion Day, Survival Day, Day of Mourning? I’m in the ‘change the date’ camp with this one.
And then there’s the block-headed and deliberate leftie-baiting with the day’s honours. Margaret Court! For all she’s one of the rare women awarded a big shiny gong, she is an even worse choice than last year’s low, Bettina Arndt. Religious and political conservatives and their News Corp minions must be rubbing their hands with glee, for they can now have fun with all the politically correct outrage. It’s all so predictable, and I’m just as liable to indulge a bit of confected outrage myself. Whenever I see an Australian flag in someone’s yard, I think, “White supremacist”!
Anyway, the date. 26th January. After frowning and shaking my head over the morning’s newspaper, I’m ignoring or perhaps abstaining from Australia Day. I’ve just come back from a walk in the Botanical Gardens. Last night’s heavy rain had freshened everything; as I walked under the huge old oak trees, the breeze shivered the leaves and little showers of raindrops spattered down. Snobby gardeners may sneer at colourful municipal mass bedding, but the display of multicoloured coleus looked spectacular.
People of all ages, were out walking, running, strolling, ambling or powering along. Some were obviously there for a leftie alternative to the official Australia Day celebration. But streams of older folk with yoga mats were heading towards the flat area around the rotunda for some kind of class and kids were hopping like fleas around the playground. Dogs – all kinds, from greyhounds to those little white things that look like animated fluffy slippers – did their own canine versions of meet and greet while I constantly exchanged “good mornings” and smiles with my community.
And I came across the storywalk. It’s a Mount Alexander Shire project – a book, page by page, fixed to stakes to be read as you walk along. My Two Blankets is an award-winning picture story book by Irena Kobald and Freya Blackwood.
A little girl moves to a new country. Everything is so different and foreign; the very words people speak sound so hard and strange. Fearful, she clings to her old blanket, her old words, for comfort. But a little girl she meets in the park makes friends with her, and begins to teach her new words. Her world changes. Now she has a new blanket; she has two blankets.
All that communal greeting and smiling and tail wagging must softened me up, because – soppy old me – I read the story, stake by stake, page by page, and was moved to tears.
Hi Susan;
Thank you for your lovely story about MY TWO BLANKETS. I only discovered it today!
I am always amazed at the different responses towards this simple story. It has taken on a life of its own.
Thank you for sharing your experience!
With my very best wishes!
And isn’t the story trail a lovely way to share your book? I’m so glad I walked that way.
Hi Susan;
it’s only been three years since our last exchange and I only saw your reply today.
And today I discovered a copy of my book in what must be one of the most remote and isolated school communities of the N.T. – a place called Kintore/Walungurru where I have decided to work for a while as a Literacy Intervention Teacher with local children.
To get to Kintore, a good 7 hours drive from Alice Springs – heading toward the W.A. border is required. A good car and a sense of adventure is essential – and stamina. The landscape though is divine, overwhelming and awe-inspiring.
The children at the local school speak a mixture of Pintupi and Luritja, the two major languages of this area. English is their 3rd ‘blanket’ and for most it is very small…
Finding my book here in this isolation was a very emotional moment – I felt like I had come home.
I’ve sent you an email, Irena. Thank you for getting in touch.