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Give Me My Emu Back

With all the carryings-on about the War on Terrorism I'm a tad (but not completely) surprised by some goings on in our wonderful capital of Canberra.

It's a double kidnapping - and a damn serious one at that.

It seems that someone in the mob inhabiting the Aboriginal tent embassy outside Old Parliament House has got a bit peeved at Australia using the kangaroo and emu as our coat-of-arms symbols. You know kanga on the left and emu on the right.

Anyway, the protesters are saying that the animals are sacred to Aborigines and it offends them to see the creatures used in such a way. Needless to say, the coat of arms from the Old Parly has been liberated by the activists and now sits next to them at their fire.

Some of the protesters have even gone as far as to reckon that only Aboriginal Australians should actually have anything to do with kangaroos and emus.

Now, this brings up a bit of a sore point with this chappie because the creatures belong to Australians as a whole, not any one group.

Now I know there will be the bleeding hearts out there who empathise with their "indigenous" cousins and agree that those of us who have only been here a couple of hundred years (and I was almost on the first ship) should have no say in what happens here.

However, I'm indigenous to Australia too. So is anyone born in this great land. Indigenous is native to and that, according to my dictionary-like mind, means person born in specified place or a local inhabitant.

So if the Federal Coppers don't get off their backsides and get the symbols of MY country back I'm going to set off for Canberra, set up my own little embassy for Indigenous Grumps Who Want Their Kangaroo and Emu and deal with it myself.

Mind you, because I'm just an Old Indigenous Grump I'll probably be the one led away in irons.

Ooooh, speaking of irons, hey Matron have you still got those handcuffs?

If there is something that has really got up your nose, let Grumpy Old Coot know at grumpy@webwombat.com