Chapter 28

Wednesday passed without incident, but on Thursday Patrick was decidedly morose. In mid-morning he phoned Gordy.

“Can we meet for lunch?”

“Today?”

“Please.”

“Beppi’s at noon? Or a few minutes before?”

“Deal.”

Patrick thought for a few minutes. “I’m downtown for lunch. I’ll shop and be back in mid-afternoon.”

“No problem.”

“Behave yourself!”

“Of course.”

Dad was outside when I got to Beppi’s. “Are you OK?”

“I think so. But not a happy camper.” He nodded.

We were seated right away. I ordered scampi and a salad.

“What’s the problem?”

“I think I should be happy. Between the art blokes and the ministry, I’ve more than enough income for the household, and Rachel’s articles pay for the cars and more. But I’m not content. And the whole business with the NNTT has got me even more uneasy. I thought the Noongar settlement would set an example. But look what’s happening. Protests. I think it’s obvious that inequalities in the native title system are limiting any flow of benefits to traditional owners from agreements with governments and industry. And the mining companies aren’t happy, either. There’s a new report that suggests it.”

[Released by Curtin University and the University of Western Australia, the report found that, even after native title had been recognised, the weak bargaining position “inherent in the legislation” created significant barriers to positive outcomes for native title holders and left them at the mercy of their negotiating partners.

In one case, it found, that led to native title holders feeling they had bargained away native title rights without receiving anything in return.]

“What about the government?”

“After the court tossed the Noongar settlement as undemocratic because it wasn’t by unanimous aboriginal consent, the Turnbull government proposed a hasty amendment to the Native Title Act (1993) to protect other agreements from appeal by restoring the presumption that agreements only needed majority support from native title holders to be valid. Labor indicated on Tuesday that it will support the move. It’s not a good solution, though.”

“And I can tell that it’s not at the root of your problem.”

“Right. But I don’t know what it is. And it’s the not knowing that’s bothering me.”

“I understand. Remember, it took me months on walkabout to come to grips. And when I was your age, I was interested in ants ... maybe a few other insects. I never thought of the CSIRO or UWA or the Museum.”

“But you were interested in things ... in insects.”

“And you are in a different ‘how come’ story. You are living ‘how the aborigines regained the land’.”

“A few weeks ago, Rachel said you were an enabler. And so you are. Remember the Kipling stories. The crocodile was the enabler of the elephant’s trunk. The Parsee was the enabler of the rhino’s wrinkled skin. And Kipling explained why the whale has a narrow throat, why the camel has a hump, why the leopard has spots. And you know the Dreamtime story of how the kangaroo got her pouch.”

“Yes, but...”

“No. No ‘but’. The crocodile didn’t go out of his way to elongate the trunk. You were sent to Sturt and to the Cave. You are an instrument in the Serpent’s hands.”