Australia: Lucky Country/Hungry Silence

Abstract

We were a poor family and frequently went for several days at a time with little or nothing to eat. Consequently hunger is one of the most enduring memories of my childhood. If we were lucky, our daily diet would consist of a bowl of porridge in the morning before school, one slice of bread with dripping or golden syrup for our school lunch, and occasionally damper for tea. We ate whatever we could find — kangaroos, wallabies, snakes run down by passing cars, snakes killed in the yard, and fruit and berries from the trees. Very few Aboriginal children could ever afford to bring a lunch to school and when the bell began to ring for the beginning of afternoon class and the end of lunch time, we would gather around the rubbish bins and hastily pick out any crusts or a half-eaten apple or other leftovers. (Wilson, 1989, p. 16)