Some years ago, around 2015, I was invited to a function put on for Brisbane Blacks organised by Sam Watson. It was held at the Dutton Park men’s shed overlooking the Brisbane River and the University of Queensland, just under the Green Bridge.
At that time, a small group of us were running a food program for the Sovereign Tent Embassy out of that shed under the patronage of Sam Watson.
That area of land has special significance for me because, in the early 1970s, I lived for three years on a boat on that reach of the river. I was there during a difficult time, the 1974 floods.
During the proceedings at the men’s shed, Angus Rabbit got up and sang his song, Dancing Aborigine:
I’ve been around, singing and dancing, with my people.
Me and my brothers still going strong.
I hear a voice of my father’s, calling me.
Dance, Brother, dance
Don’t stop dancin’ just because you don’t see me anymore
Brothers, dance, I will always be there by your side,
This is the voice of the aborgine…
‘This is our music’ Sam Watson had told me when referring to Mop and the Dropouts. Angus Rabbit, along with other Cherbourg men, were part of that famous band. Sam meant this was his music and that of all Brisbane Blacks. This was ironic given that Sam Watson’s family was one of the few who did not grow up on missions, controlled settlements or communities. Sam’s grandfather had worked ring barking trees around the Beaudesert area (Mununjali country). Sam Watson Snr earnt enough money to pay for exemption from the racist Queensland Acts that forced people onto communities controlled by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.
But this did not separate Sam Watson or his uncles and aunties from the struggle. If anything it gave them a greater role in it. Unlike other Murris at that time Sam and his uncle Ross Watson who appears on the film Brisbane Blacks were ahead of their time. They completed high school when most of their people only finished primary schooling. Sam went to Uni, one of only a few, and developed his politics from there.
Every time I hear Angus Rabbit’s melodic voice, I feel connected to First Nations people and particularly to Brisbane blacks. I remember the 1982 Commonwealth Games land rights protests with Ross Watson and his sister, Maureen, sitting on the roadway on the approach to the QE2 1982 Commonwealth Games venue. Hundreds of police stood in front of them. I remember the protests in defence of the sacred fire in Musgrave Park in 2011 – 12. I remember the march for Daniel Yock in 1993 after he had been killed near Musgrave Park by Queensland police. I remember visiting Cherbourg in the early 1970s to make a short video about the establishment of a kindergarten. I was helped by future ABC film editor, Lesley Mannison, and saw, for the first time, the effects of apartheid in Queensland. These memories of such events once seen whisper in our hearts.
The contribution of the women from Cherbourg is also strong. Karen Fusi, Cepha Roma and her niece Cephia are part of this story, they are part of Brisbane Blacks, they set up the Grandmothers group to stop DOCs from taking aboriginal children.
This video depicts an era, now past. This is the story of the Brisbane Blacks.
My thanks to Ben Carr and the many people at the Griffith Film school who contributed to the making of this beautiful story of struggle – Ian Curr, 3 Oct 2022.
Brisbane blacks: the story of mop and the dropouts
SPEAKERS
Dennis Walker, Tiga Bayles, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, 4ZZZ announcer, Kev Carmody, Dennis Conlon, Angus Rabbit, Murri Radio announcer, Ross Watson, Gary Foley.
ABC News
… with yet more people appearing in court and Brisbane today after yesterday’s arrests in the streets the dispute over land rights and the government’s attitudes doesn’t look like going away …
Gary Foley
We have proven the fascists in the Queensland government to be wrong … we are capable of making our point in a dignified and peaceful manner …
Dennis Conlon
Watching it on TV you’ll only see it once … if you write a song about it, it is on radio all the time … (songs plays) “… on TV i saw a story of the Brisbane blacks, a story that is touching, a story that is right …”
Dennis Conlon
When I started the band, I said we’re not going to be political. Because we’re not … we’re not into politics. We play music …(singing) “It is the story a group of people sitting and a drinking in harmony, drinking until dark”
When I put out Brisbane blacks (laughs) I think it just turned the whole show around …
Dennis Walker
(at QEII Commonwealth Games venue) “what do you want? [Land Rights!] When do you want it? [Now!] What do you want? [Land rights!] when do you want it? [now!]
Dennis Conlon
(song plays) “… these so called drunken blacks … Pressure from the society is strong …”
The pressure from the society is unbelievable
Kev Carmody
It was unbelievable. You know what went on in this so called democracy; but as a black fella at the bottom of the pile, you’re fighting an uphill battle all the flamin’ way.
Joh Bjelke-Petersen
(televised speech) “Every citizen of Queensland looks to the police force for three main reasons: for protection of life and property, the detection and prevention of crime and the preservation of good order. It is necessary for the policeman of today to understand the motivation behind human behavior.”
Ross Watson
[dige plays] … something like the Commonwealth Games, that’s supposed to be an event of international goodwill and to bring them to a corrupt stinking center like Brisbane, Queensland. It was an insult to sensitivities. I think of a lot of people, not just not just Aboriginal people.
Dennis Conlon
I wrote Brisbane blacks for community awareness … to let white people know what we have to struggle through…
(song plays) “every day, each passing day our culture’s slowly dies like a piece of paper thrown onto a fire. Now all we’ve got is ancient weapons. … now is our only trade. Compared to all the immigrants, look how much we’ve made.
Angus Rabbitt
One day, Mop asked me why don’t we get in and start a band and be serious about that sort of thing you know. So we actually started like that and dumped into some gigs around Brisbane. All of us in our band, in the band, we all grew up on missions, controlled settlements or communities.
Dennis Conlon
Most of the fellas in the band were all brought up the same way. We knew what it was like to struggle.
Kev Carmody
Mob and dropouts was just there …
Tiga Bayles
… people loved them from up the other side of Cairns, all the way all the way down, down the coast and inland. People love to Mop and the dropouts …
Dennis Conlon
(sings) “You look down your noses to see the black man problem at your feet”
Kev Carmody
in the sense that they form like a center point, musically that other people could emulate or learn from you know, they stood their bloody ground.
Murri Radio
Hello Murris, Kooris, Nunga’s and Noonga’s and in the next song I’d like to introduce to all my brothers and sisters
Ross Watson
there was was a need for our voice on radio here in the in the media … somewhere where we could present our perspective on issues. Somewhere where we could we could play our own music.
Tiga Bayles
The radio is important because it allows us as aboriginal people and Torres strait islander people to articulate our own struggles.
4ZZZ Murri Hour announcer
Hello people welcome to Murri hour, two introductory songs were the Kookaburra song from Daniel … the other one from Dennis Conlon and the Magpies, next one called Brisbane Blacks. Incidentally, ‘Dennis Conlon and the magpies‘ are now known as ‘Mop and the dropouts‘.
Kev Carmody
But I could just walk down with the guitar, down to the studio at Queensland Uni with Rossy and he’d set the bloody quarter inch tape going and I just single bloody song live on the radio and he taped it and then they could play it …
Dennis Conlon
Rossy really really pushed to get airtime for indigenous people.
Ross Watson
… in any society, in any community, media is an essential service … in our community, it’s even more of an essential service because the mainstream media is so geared towards serving politics and business
“In the 70s and 80s, it was a time of mobilisation.”
Tiga Bayles
It wasn’t real good at all. In the 70s here in Brisbane, what the the positive side of it was. It was a time of mobilization.
Kev Carmody
But all people that were sort of confronting this bloody regime together say you had single moms, you had lecturers, you had bloody black fellas, you had everybody that was dissatisfied with the bloody the political climate coming together, and it really, it built, and it built, and it built …
Tiga Bayles
it was an amazing scene. Musgrave Park in 1982 for the Commonwealth Games protest …. it was fantastic mop and the dropouts was down there playing … we brought up a truck and a PA system and a set of lights…
Dennis Conlon
(sings) “now it’s time for them to sleep and it’s not in their bed; but in some warm surroundings in a park or in a shed, warmed only by the grog that’s been drunk through the day … warmed only by the grog the killer of his mates”
Dennis Conlon
It always come down to alcohol … not only alcohol, there’s a lot of other issues
when we come down here, getting out of Cherbourg, it was very hard to adapt, and we carry the Cherbourg tag with us ever since we left there … all around the place, you know we always … when we played down in Victoria, we tell everybody we’re from Cherbourg … Cherbourg is very well known for his toughness … they take no take no shit from nobody, do we? (Angus laughs) … that’s where we get our inspiration from because of the old mates that was there, you know; if they can do it, we can do it too.
Angus Rabbitt
(sings) “I’ve been around, singing and dancing, with my people. Throughout the night me and my brothers still going strong. I hear a voice of my father’s, calling me. Dance Brother dance don’t stop dancin’ just because you don’t see me anymore (didge plays) brothers dance, I will always be there by your side, this is the voice of the aborgine…”
[Transcript by Ian Curr, apologies for any mistakes.]