Well I was half way to being almost famous. I was sitting outside the Art Gallery of NSW with a glass of champagne feeling pretty pleased with myself can’t remember about what but it most likely involved some dellusions of grandeur when Ann Graham another almost famous artist approached me. Awefully glad to see you I need to ask you something……….Would you be interested in a short teaching stint in the jail?
Me “Er no.”
Ann, ” You’d really like it blah blah.”
Me “Why me, heaps of others you could ask I’m sure.”
Ann ” Yes but he will only work with an Aboriginal teacher.”
Me” Who’s he and I don’t recall telling anyone I was Aboriginal.”
Ann,”Dennis B he’s got life for murder wants to learn to learn to write. Wants to write his life story.”
Me sarcastically” That should be interesting.”
Ann”Well will you do it it’s only for six weeks. Good money.”
Six weeks at the money they were paying was enough for me to bring the four Philippina artists to Australia I wanted for an exhibition, so what the hey, I said yes.
I did the time with the boys for almost eight years.
Dennis wrote his life story it fitted onto one page.
Captain Kitty Hawk is a result of working in Long Bay jail. I was teaching inmates at Long Bay jail for most of the week and for two days a week teahing kids at Cleveland Street high school, families of boys and men, uncles, fathers, brothers and sons, all Aboriginal people.
The characters in the story are largely inspired by my students. I have never been sure that they got that much from me I felt that I failed in many ways to impact their lives but I know I got so much more from them.
CAPTAIN KITTY HAWK
Set in a future of space ships and domed metropolises, Kitty Hawk, probationary freighter pilot finds herself swept along in a race for a horn with mystical qualities. She joins forces with a cast of manimals, aliens and robotic creatures, and together they confront an army of fish-like aliens, a civilization of animated bells and killer chickens. The adventures climax in an isolated roadside hotel where the true meaning of the horn is discovered.
WIP
Side kick in his own mind.
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