Bumper Sticker Carnage

In some parts of the world, putting an Aboriginal bumper sticker on your car can be a suicidal act.

After putting a "Stolen Wages Built This State" sticker on the back of my car, I had to run the gauntlet of redneck road terrorists each day on my way to work. One day, I got to face one of them.

She sat on my tail in her RV for five minutes, ignoring opportunities to pass me. Eventually, her bumper nudged my car ever-so-slightly, so I slowed gradually to a stop. She still didn't pass, and sat there beeping at me and giving me the finger. Finally she veered back onto the road and sped off, finger held high out the window.

Shaken, I resumed my journey, only to find that roadworks further along had stopped the woman, and now I was behind her. I got out of the car and approached her vehicle with my palms held out, like you might approach a mad dog. I wanted to ask what was the matter. She screamed and thrashed around, locking her doors and howling, "F- off, f- off!" So I f- off back to my car and waited for the stop sign to turn around. When it happened, the woman sped off and stopped at the other end, talking quickly to the road workers.

When I reached that end, she was gone, and my path was blocked by stern-faced road workers. They had been told that I had attacked the woman and was chasing her. It took a lot of smooth-talking on my part to convince them to let me go in the end.

That little vignette really captures the essence of the Australian Indigenous experience. Victims are attacked, only to find that their attackers then claim victim status, framing the real victims as villains in a kind of two-pronged attack.