A day in 1919

         I was scared. I didn’t want to get hit by Timothy! It’s not fair, why did Mr. Harrison have to pick on me all the time? Didn’t he understand how much it hurt to get hit by Timothy?

         I was standing in front of the class; Mr. Harrison had made me hold out my hand. I clenched my eyes shut, bracing myself for the pain.  Mr. Harrison had Timothy held in his hand.

         Timothy was the name we gave to the bronze cane that the teacher used to beat us with whenever we did something naughty.  I didn’t know why Mr. Harrison called it Timothy, it just was. I think it’s because Mr. Harrison is a really creepy teacher, but I can’t be too sure.

         “Young man, this is for disobeying the rules and not adhering to proper conduct, 5 slaps for you” Mr. Harrison told me, in his stern, cold voice. He then proceeded to slap me with Timothy, 5 times, on my wrist. I could feel the burning run up my arm, I wanted to pull my arm away and run away, but I couldn’t, the last time I tried that I only made things worse.

         As I walked back to my seat, my classmates shouted out mean words to me.

         “Stupid Darkie” cried one of the boys.

         “Get back to the bush mate” called out another, a boy named Nicholas. As I sat down, I looked down, trying to hide myself. I don’t think it worked very well though, as everyone was still shouting at me.

         Mr. Harrison shouted at the class, demanding order. Everyone quickly stopped laughing at me and pulled themselves into their seats, back straight, perfect posture. I tried to keep up with everyone, back straight, perfect posture.

         Mr. Harrison turned back to the board, pointing at the squiggly lines again. I didn’t like the squiggly lines very much, if I looked at them too hard they would jump out of the board. They scared me.

         It didn’t take me very long to get bored of the teacher and his silly squiggly lines so I looked out the window instead. Outside I saw a barren, red landscape. Across the landscape were scattered bits of spinifex.  The landscape stretched endlessly into the distance. The sun’s reflection on the landscape made the land shine a shimmering red.  Without noticing, I broke my perfect posture, and lost my straight back.

         “Adam! Pay attention!” shouted the teacher, slapping me on the wrist.  I quickly returned to my perfect posture and my straight back. The class tried to stifle their giggles. Mr. Harrison gave me a stern look, his cold blue eyes staring straight at me through his glasses.

         “You’re a menace Adam, nothing more than a menace, I suggest you pay attention or suffer the consequences” he sternly told me before returning to the board with the squiggly lines.

         Adam, when did people start calling me that? It was so long ago that I don’t even remember what my real name was. I don’t remember much about what happened before I got taken away from my mama and papa. But I remember the day I got taken away, I remember everything, I remember the pain.

Everyone in the class started to scribble down notes all of a sudden. I quickly picked up my pencil and started to scribble too. I didn’t know what I was meant to be scribbling, but I scribbled anyway.

“Ok class, I want you to go home and study all these great monarchs, by next week we will have a test, I would like you to have memorized them by that time” said the teacher. The students said “Yes Mr. Harrison” all at the same time. I said it too. It’s something that happened all the time. I learnt to play along and then in return the teacher wouldn’t hit me with Timothy.

Outside, a Kookaburra started to laugh. I didn’t want to get hit by Timothy, but I wanted to look outside. I couldn’t help it, I turned to look.

Outside, there was a gleaming white Kookaburra perched atop a gum tree. It laughed, mocking me. I don’t know what it was saying, but I could take a guess.

“Why are you in there silly boy, why are you looking at squiggly lines on a board, why are you sitting like that, come out to play silly boy” I imagined the bird say.

The class started to file out, I followed.  In a single line we all marched outside. The school stood in front of a flagpole. At the top of the flagpole was the Australian flag. The principle of the school stood at a podium out front.

“Students, at this very moment, your brother’s and sister’s are out fighting the German menace in Europe, protecting our Mother Britain and preserving our English culture…” The principle said.

While the principle was talking, I turned to look at the trees. The Kookaburra was still up there, laughing at everyone.  I could imagine what it was thinking.

“What are you all doing down there, standing like that, listening to that stupid man” I imagined it say. The Kookaburra kept laughing, everyone tried to ignore it but it made no difference, the loud Kookaburra made it hard for the Principle to keep talking.

“Let us all now praise our queen” said the Principle, as he turned around. A trumpet sounded and everyone started to sing. I tried to keep up, but I didn’t really know the lyrics, and I didn’t really understand the song all that well.



“God save our gracious Queen,

Long live our noble Queen,

God Save the Queen:

Send her victorious,

Happy and glorious,

Long to reign over us:

God Save the Queen.”



         As everyone sung the song, I looked at the flag. At the top right hand corner of the flag was a strange symbol. I think they called it a Union Bob, or a Union Tim, or something like that. It seemed so familiar, were have I seen that symbol. Then I remembered, I remembered everything. I remembered that day, that fateful day.

I was only 7, it wasn’t very long ago. I didn’t wear a lot of clothes back then, not like today. Today I am nearly suffocated in garments. My mama was holding me close to her breast; she didn’t wear a lot of clothes either. We were painting, strange shapes with lots of dots. We were learning about the Dreamtime, now I remember.

Then it happened, the marching, the trumpets, and the flags. The flags all had that same shape at the top-right corner. The Union Bob. There was a man at the front; I remember my grandpa thought he was a ghost because of his white skin. They then started to talk, I don’t remember what they said, I didn’t speak English back then.

Then they started to take me away, my mama started to cry, my papa got angry and tried to take me back. There was shouting, I heard a loud noise, and then my papa was on the ground bleeding. I started to shout out for my mama and papa, but the white man took me away. That was the last time I saw another person with the same skin as me. That was the last time I saw my mama and papa.

Everyone turned to look at me. I was on the ground, sobbing, crying for my mama and papa. Everyone started to laugh at the darkie who cried for his parents. The music still played and the flag with the Union bob still flew high. The Kookaburra stopped laughing; it just stared at the little white fellas as they laughed at the only darkie who missed his mama and papa.