Under the Australian Sun
By Gregory Kaskaniotis

There I was waking up that dreadful morning that changed my life forever. Opening my eyes slowly and letting them adapt to that hot and rustic looking Australian sun. I had then gradually opened my lungs and I slowly, slowly in-hailed that country fresh air. As I looked off into the distance I could see lovely green lushes trees and far of behind it I could see a line of crystal clear blue water as far as the eye could see. Looking, smelling and feeling that Australian landscape that holds such beauty can also blind you from the real dangers a 13-year-old aboriginal boy can face. It was a few minutes after sunrise where all the elders are meant to go hunting. Since I had been initiated into being a man the following week that would of been my first official hunt.

I was extremely excited, since I was we'll known for an accurate throw with a boomerang I was handed a boomerit. This was a very similar tool to a boomerang but this was ideally used for hunting, the only difference was the edges were sharpened. Not far into the track I had gotten lost and couldn't find the group. I knew my way home but I really wanted to prove my self to the elders of our tribe. After one painful and worrying hour I had completely lost them. The sun was directly above me; this gave me a clear indication that it was about midday. Then knew that it was time for me to go home because it would take me hours to get back home from where I was. Not only was I worried about the consequence but I was also hungry because I hadn't eaten in days. About an hour away from home I spotted a little family of rabbits. This was ideal for me at the time. With only one shot I raised my right elbow with the boomerit fastened in my palm, I took a breath of air and held it in. With all my might I let the thing spring right out of my hand. Luckily I had just clipped its right hind leg, the poor thing was still alive. I had to put an end to its misery; I picked it up with my hands and “snap” I cracked its neck into half with my own two bare hands. As gruesome as it may have sounded it was the way of life for me back then. I then happily went prancing my way home with my boomerit in one hand and the rabbit in the other. Close to the tribal home I spot a dark plume of smoke at first I had completely disregarded it because I thought that they were just smoke signals that the tribal herbalist was using. But as I got closer it smelt a bit funny and different, but yet again I still ignored it because I just thought he was burning a different type of wood.

Just out side our tribal base I see bayonets resting on the ground with the tips of the blades emerged with blood, it was as if these bayonets had just came out of a paint shop colored dark red. The state of my mind at that point of time was indescribable. Suddenly the worst thing possible had come to my train of thoughts. I knew what had happened but I didn’t want to believe it, my heart suddenly sank and I had completely blocked every thing out around me I just starred of into the distance and cried. I suddenly felt a great erg to go and run close to see what had gone on. With tears rushing down my face I had reached the spot. That was the spot that would soon turn my life into misery, I have seen the unexplainable. Bodies of people I knew just left there resting on the ground face down. I was too scared to see the horrifying image if I rolled the bodies over so I just left them to rest in peace. People I knew my friends my family left on the ground with individual pools of blood surrounding not just some one, surrounding my friends and family. They had been left there to be scraped up by animals but some of my friends were so burned not even the birds would feed on them. I was trying to look for my mum and sister in the burned rubble but it was literally trying to find a needle in a haystack. They were nowhere to be found until I went to my Aunties tee pee and on the ground