Walking on Country

TasPride TASMANIAN ABORIGINAL CULTURAL HISTORY

Country History Walk Pitura Kitina 838e Derwent Highway, Risdon Thursday 11 February 2021 | 4.00pm – 6.00pm $5 individuals, $10 families – see Taspride.com Community Gathering for all LGBTIQ+ Family, Friends and Allies. All are welcome for TasPride’s Connecting with Community to be held at the Pyramids at Risdon Cove. We will commence with a Welcome to country at 4.00pm. Followed by an on-country history walk for those who would like to learn Tasmanian Aboriginal Cultural History.

Something in the air

IT STARTED, AND ENDED, WITH A BANG. A BIG EGGY TEAR GAS DROP-YOUR- GUTS SPECIAL, PRECIPITATING A TEDIOUS GURGLING SHIT. AT 1.21 AM, EXACTLY, SHE WAS BORN FROM THE NETHER REALMS OF MY SPIRALLING BOWELS, INTO THE RATTLING SYNTHS OF A MIDDLING HOBART CLUB.

Then, I saw her. I could barely recognise the fine lines of her face and her eyes, warbling, always on the edge of breaking into something. Greta. My first love. She made my heart feel like a throbbing angle grinder. I sprouted for her, like my old housemate’s immaculately tended marijuana plant, tender veins of buoyancy and an inexplicable quivering joy making its way through my limbs.

I left… a note in her locker. Too overwhelmed to write, I drew for her, a primitive imprint of a flower. The night after my water balloon heart had burst, I awoke with cold sweats. Everybody Would Know. That I had dared- to not only be a lesbian, but to think that someone as beautiful as Greta could ever like me back.

Like a dream Greta wafted towards me, past the strobe lights and into the cloud of my fart. “Oh, hey. I remember you from high-” She smiled coolly. “Yeah. I know.” She breezed away. My pungent fart did not follow, instead clinging to every single one of my cells, as if it was trying to comfort me.

I felt like I was fourteen again. A dyke too putrid to dream of even rejection.

That moment, my friend Zac came back with fistfuls of cider. “Oh phwoar, somebody did a fart.”

I nodded, on the verge of tears. He looked into my soul. “Oh hey, don’t worry about it. Let’s go to Flams.”

Arm in arm we left, no longer just gremlin gays but instead full souls, content.