Invasion Day
Saturday, January 27th 2007 - 9:15 AM
Yesterday, believe it or not, i spent the afternoon at an Australia Day party here in Kabul. I don't think i've ever been to an Australia Day party in Australia - unless you count the gatherings in Brisbane's Musgrave Park, after the annual Invasion Day rally and march. The only other Australia Day party i've been to, as far as i remember, was in London, in January 1985, 10 months before i first arrived in Australia.
I considered going along in thongs and stubbies (flip flops and shorts, for the confused foreigners reading this). But it was a bit on the cool side for that, and in the end i couldn't be bothered!
The party yesterday was an outdoor event, in the large front yard of a house a short walk from where i live. There was a big awning over the lawn, which took up most of the yard, and there were plastic tarps with carpets on them on the ground over the grass - which started off fozen and ended up as squelchy mud!
When i arrived, it was a beautifully sunny afternoon, and warmer than it has been for a while. But there were still piles of snow everywhere, and some clever bugger had pushed a dozen or so cans of VB into the mound of snow on a garden bed to cool.
There was, of course, the obligatory barbie - with big chunks of sheep meat cooking away. Plus another one with home made meat pies heating up on it. These meat pies were also made of sheep meat and were really good. I've never eaten a "proper" Aussie meat pie - because i've been mainly vego for the whole time i've lived in Australia (until arriving in Kabul last year, that is). But i know what's in them and these pies were a million times better than the chunks of gristle, drowning in gravy, that you get in the Aussie ones.
There was also a good stack of beer sitting in icy water in a couple of plastic bins. Fortunately there was plenty of Heineken, as well as the undrinkable VB. Where was the Fourex, i wanted to know??? Maybe it wasn't so fortunate though - as i drank 5 cans of Heineken, which is more beer than i've drunk in one go for a very long time, and i can feel the effects this morning. But if there'd only been VB, i wouldn't have drunk any beer at all.
However, there's something about the parties here (although i've only been to three or four) that makes me feel the need to drink - which i never feel normally. So if there hadn't been any Heineken, it would have been some sort of spirit, i guess - which may not have left me feeling any better today than i do now.
There were a lot of people there - mostly Australians, but a smattering of Maoris, Kiwis, Poms, and Seppos. As well as a small number of other nationalities. A significant proportion of the Aussie contingent were yer typical footie shirt-wearing, rowdy drunks.
The main entertainment was ear-bleedingly loud Aussie music - crap like Cold Chisel etc, mostly, but a bit of Paul Kelly (including Kev Carmody on From Little Things Big Things Grow). And sheep racing! Animal abuse seems to be an Aussie tradition on Australia Day - rather like two-up on Anzac Day. There were no cane toads available to torment, so three of the local sheep had to do.
The sheep race consisted of the poor buggers being dragged around the path round the edge of the yard. I didn't pay much attention to it myself, but the rest of the crowd seemed enthusiatic. Naturally, as it was an Aussie party, there was betting on the result.
The Kev Carmody song was the only concession - probably an unintentional one - to Australia's Aboriginal heritage and the fact that what we were celebrating was the anniversary of the start of two centuries of genocide.
I was kicking myself for not being prepared and having a Land Rights flag with me, to hang on the wall somewhere. If i'd known, before i left Australia, that i was still going to be here now, i would have gone out and got a Land Rights flag to bring with me. And if i'd thought, last week, that i'd be attending this party, i might even have got it together to make one. Or maybe not - i was frantically busy last week and getting the materials probably wouldn't have been a simple matter.
For those non-Australians reading this, the Land Rights flag is the "national" flag of the Aboriginal people. The colours represent (black) the colour of the skin of Aboriginal people, (yellow) the sun - which Aboriginal culture regards as their mother, and which gives life to the land, and the yellow ochre used in ceremonies, and (red) red ochre, the colour of the land, and the blood of the Aboriginal people which has been shed since colonization.
The flag was designed by Aboriginal Elder, Harold Thomas, of the Luritja people in central Australia, in 1971. In 1995, it was proclaimed a flag of Australia, under the Flags Act 1953.
Later in the afternoon, when it started getting cold, i went home to get some warmer clothing. While i was there, i grabbed my MP3 player, which has some Aboriginal music on it - including the George Burrurrawanga album, Nerbu Message. I wanted to play some of this album, to at least have a little bit of Aboriginal input to the party. But when i got back, i realised that everyone was too drunk and rowdy, and taking off Barnesy (or whatever crap was playing at the time) and putting on something which starts off with a short didgeridoo and vocal track would have only met with abuse and would have had no real impact on anyone. I wished i'd thought of it earlier.
January the 26th is also Independence Day in India - the exact opposite of what we celebrate in Australia - and another celebration related to British colonisation.
You can see some of my photos of Afganistan at
WillKemp-Photos.com/afghanistan