Blackfella

When it came to blackfellas the [Aborigines Protection] Board had the final say. It was as if the blackfellas were their property, and the Board could do with them as they saw fit.

A blackfella and a whitefella are sitting at the bar. The whitefella says to the blackfella eh boss, whadya reckon? The blackfella says since you ask, I consider it a metaphor of the historic case of the Coorong massacre of 1840.

Most police officers had no blackfella cultural background, no knowledge of Aboriginal priorities in life, yet they were the power in the town. They had two police aides, blackfellas, whose job it was to liaise between the blackfellas and police.

“So nothing’s really changed for blackfellas in Brisbane,” I thought as I continued along Boundary Street, named for the city’s racist 19th-century policies of urban segregation.