Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Hollywood celebrity meets Aboriginal community

As much as they create even more confusion, one of the more amusing things about the communities I'm working with are the nicknames given to people.
Usually inspired by the person's favourite Hollywood movie, or resemblance (however slight) to a particular movie star, nicknames are used as often as the person's Aboriginal name and English name, creating three layers of confusion for outsiders trying to find someone.
So, for our subject above, we've got his Aboriginal name ('Debilipu'), English name ('Percy') and nickname ('Popeye'), and it's not uncommon to hear him called any or all of them during conversation.
Beyond spinach-eating sailors, we also have Van Damme, Charles Bronson, Crusty the Clown, Scarface and Free Willy, and a host of non-celebrity but equally intriguing names, such as 'Burn the Rubber', 'Wookie', 'Mango' and 'Matchbox'.
Even the whitefella government man gets a nickname, and I guess I should take it as a compliment that people have given me enough thought as to come up with something appropriate. I just wish they'd come up with something more impressive than 'Tennis Ball Head'.

1 comment:

David Bacon said...

You know that nick name's going to stick.