Sunday, May 27, 2007

As good a day as any



The figure holding the horse's head is Narungga man George Button, who grew up with my great-grandfather, and saved my father's life in 1929. My dad turned 80 in February, but if it were not for George he would never have made it past two. And I, of course, wouldn't be here at all.

6 comments:

WhatLadder said...

My grandmother had a hundred tales of deadly peril, and I found them similarly fascinating. Back to the Future clearly had a huge impact on my worldview.

And... awww, you linked me. Cool!

Anonymous said...

Please Pav, tell us how your father's life was saved.PLEASE.

Mindy said...

Yeah, you can't just leave us wondering!

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Sorry, didn't mean to. This was actually supposed to be a post about the 40th anniversary of the 1967 referendum, but I maybe should have made that a bit clearer.

As Whatladder implies, it was just one of those common situations that quickly get out of hand. Large farm dog, gone savage, viciously mauls two-year-old on isolated farm; elderly Aboriginal man intervenes, at considerable risk to himself as you will know if you've ever tried to stop a dog mauling a toddler to death. My dad still has a big chunk out of his arm. History does not record what, if anything, the dog did to George.

fifi said...

What a wonderful story!

And sharing it makes a great way to celebrate the referendum anniversary.

feral sparrowhawk said...

A somewhat related story, although with a less happy ending, is told in the song Guenevere And The Fire. It's written by Fred Small, but AFAIK the only person who performs it since he retired is Penelope Swales
http://music.msn.com/album/?album=10460497&

Apparently its a true story, which is remarkable, because as a parable of the current government's relationship to Indigenous issues and the environment it couldn't be sharper.