A real privilege
I was taken by ambulance recently to Gawler Hospital and asked if possible could I stay as a private patient in my hometown. Bonus for me.
I observed in that time the league of supertrooper nurses level of care 10 out of 10.
Heartfelt smiling from the start of day until the end of shift.
I Felt it a privilege to have been a patient in their presence.
Time for the Government to step up and realise their real worth.
Pinky, Hillier
Racism in Gawler
“Boong” is an extremely disparaging word for Australian Aborigines. Many of whom I count as my friends.
It is a word I have not heard used in that fashion for 20 years, at least not in my presence, until today. In Gawler.
I am writing this while I am still shocked both by its use and the reception and acceptance of its use by others at the dinner table.
The occasion arose because I am equipping a new vehicle for bush travel and so I am putting a roo bar or bull bar on it.
The speaker referred to it as a “boong” bar. Deferentially at first to see what the reaction of the table was and then more strongly when it seemed to be accepted.
I felt the blood rush to my face. My body actually reacted to my feelings at hearing the word used in this manner.
The clear and obvious reference being that a vehicle equipped with a roo bar could be used to mow down my fellow Australian Aborigines termed as mere boongs. Even as I write this it causes my blood to rush.
But we have to speak up against this. I will not accept it.
So my immediate response was to close my eyes and lower my face as I buried my potential explosion.
This was noticed by the speaker who commenting something like “John’s not happy with me saying that”.
By this time I had made sure my reaction would be more moderate than abusive.
“I would like to tell you how I feel about that,” I said.
“I do not want to censor the words that you use but I want to tell you how you made me feel. The blood rushed to my face. I am so offended by the word that you used that I am surprised by my own physical reaction to it.”
Others said “We don’t care how you feel John”.
“I understand that and I am not telling you what to say or how to say it,” I said.
“But I just can’t believe in 2025 you think it is okay to talk like that about my Aboriginal friends.”
I didn’t know, don’t know what else to do except stand up each time and object and maybe write and post about it while I am still rather upset.
John Bolton, Gawler
History is important
Congratulations to Tony Piccolo for being picked by Labor to contest the new electoral seat of Ngadjuri, and congratulations that at last the powers that be have given an electorate an Indigenous name.
Annette Pethick says “history is history” and is offended by the name of the new electorate, which she thinks it is divisive.
Ms Pethick and others of a similar mind, have narrowed down the history of Australia to encompass the last 200 plus years, as if the history of Australia began on the arrival of the First Fleet, choosing to ignore the history of this land which stretches beyond time immemorial.
Well, Ms Pethick, history is important, especially if we Australians are to come to terms with our past and acknowledge the hurt and offence caused to the First Nations peoples of this land.
Indigenous people have occupied this land for an estimated 60,000 years, yet a descendant of the colonial powers that walked in and stole it a little over 200 years ago, is “offended” that original Indigenous names are now being used.
How do you think, Ms Pethick, the First Nations people felt when their land was stolen and their customs and culture destroyed by white people, who had the gall to rename some of their sacred places after colonial rulers, some of whom were very dubious characters indeed?
We were bitterly disappointed that the Referendum for a Voice to Parliament was lost last year and that the opportunity for meaningful reconciliation with First Nations people has been set back by decades, so we applaud the Government for giving an Indigenous name to a new electorate.
It would also be a step in the right direction to consult with Aboriginal elders and give new housing developments Indigenous names, instead of colonial impositions such as “Tudor Vale” and “St Yves” .
Jill Polkinghorne, Gawler South
