I, the Aboriginal

“My name is Waipuldanya, or Wadjiri Wadjiri. (If they twist your tongue too much you may call me Phillip Roberts. That is my white-feller name.)

I’m a full-blood Aboriginal of the Alawa tribe at Roper River in the Northern Territory. I have been through the fires of tribal initiation. I have been subjected to many taboos and as a child was ‘sung’  to death. I have worshipped Kunapipe, the Earth Mother and I have also worshipped the Lord God of the Christian religion. I married a tribal woman chosen for me by my uncle.

My life changed dramatically in 1953 at Roper River when a white doctor chose me as his driver and orderly.
Since then I have treated white and black people with the white man’s medicine taken from herbs much as our own medicines were made.

In spite of my knowledge, my acquired citizenship and sophistication, I am still and always shall be an Aboriginal. I have a duty to the tribe.

Douglas Lockwood wrote this story about my life.
He was my countryman.
This is my story.”