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WITH last month’s col- umn all about consumers and their buying habits, especially when it comes to pork, I can’t help but share a rather personal tale with you that con- veys a certain shopper’s interesting buying be- haviour.
Not just interesting be- cause he chose lamb, but how he came to choose it and how one of my best mates suggested to him, while walking him down the aisle so to speak, that a better buy would have been pork.
First, by way of back- ground, I will tell you my big mate and I have shared many a robust discussion over many years about Australia’s first peoples.
Second, by way of dec- laration, I will tell you I have a reasonable under- standing and connection with our indigenous mob, having lived and worked with many over the years in places such as Alice Springs, Arnhem Land and far north Queensland.
I also collect indigenous art.
But my big mate Gavin, although a white fella, was born and raised alongside black fellas in Mount Magnet in Western Aus- tralia’s remote mid-west and later in Kalgoorlie before attending boarding college in Perth where I got to know him in our early teens.
He fondly recalls head- ing out from school at Mt Magnet, shooting a kan- garoo and then taking it to share with the local Badimaya/Wajarri mob at their camps.
Anyway, let Gavin take up the story.
Here’s his email that landed in my inbox on Monday after I’d returned from Injedup (pretty much Yallingup if you surfed the net to find out where it is), where I just happened to have spent a weekend on a bush block among the banksias, grass trees and kangaroos.
“Over at Woolworths this morning getting some health foods for dinner, I heard a bit of a fracas in the next aisle and the next minute an indigenous fella comes around the corner carrying a tray of lamb chops and muttering some profanities under his breath.
I can now assume he was cursing a security guy because he was caught trying to put the meat tray inside his shirt.
He stopped where I was and we stared at each oth- er for a while as a secu- rity guard was viewing us from the end of the aisle.
I said “Mate, lamb’s a great choice, my friend would prefer it if it was pork, but it’s OK.”
I asked what the drama was and he said he had been caught trying to steal the meat tray.
I said “Mate, you don’t want to do that, too much hassle involved.”
“Put in in my trolley and I will pay for it.”
He didn’t believe me at first but eventually put it in, with security still eye- ing us off.
On the way to the check-
out I told him about a few of my indigenous mates in Mount Magnet – Wil- lie and Ray Little, Bunyil, Frankie and Noon Walsh, Dan Curley and so on.
He said he lived in Brent- wood and knew them all.
Iaskedifhehadabag to carry the meat in and he said he had a backpack.
So, I put all the items through the checkout and not wanting to embarrass him in front of everyone, told him to come outside for the exchange.
I put the meat tray in his backpack and told him to enjoy his meal.
I then looked in my wallet (all I had was a $50 note – damn) took it out and gave it to him and said “Get a few other things you need
on the way home.”
He looked at me and started to cry, thanked me and said no one had ever
done anything like this for him in his life.
He thanked me profuse- ly and wished me good karma.
I think I then had a tear- drop in my eye.”
I subsequently sent Big Gavin’s email to Ken, a high school teacher mate of mine who has served plenty of time in the bush and still teaches and men- tors indigenous and mi- grant and refugee kids.
Here’s Ken’s response.
Worth pondering I think, so we’ll leave it at that.
“A great story BC. Bravo to Gavin.
The key is he connected
with the guy.
Most would like to but
how?
That is the key chal-
lenge for real ‘on the street’ reconciliation, not parliamentary apologies, though they are needed.
Gav has had meaningful contact with indigenous people.
He is lucky, but how do we get others to experi- ence this.
Thanks for sharing.”
Cant
Comment
by BRENDON CANT
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Australian Pork Newspaper, December 2018 – Page 5
While the author’s good mate ‘Big Gavin’ clearly likes a lamb chop or three, he did the right thing telling a fellow shopper that pork was a better choice, in more ways than one.