Author has his day

The celebration of NAIDOC Week at Albany Public Library came to an end last Friday with a talk from Aboriginal author Archie Weller.

The Day of the Dog author spoke on most aspects of his life which gave the audience insight into his compilations of short stories, poems and novels.

Originally from Cranbrook, Weller spent his youth in East Fremantle and his experiences there served as inspiration.

Speaking about The Day of the Dog, which was later adapted into the film Blackfellas, Weller said the story dealt with issues of racism, alcoholism, fighting and stealing.

“It was a lifestyle that hadn’t been explored by anybody and it needed to be told… especially about racism in the police force,” he said.

Weller said some of his work had been turned down for being too dark and depressing, but these were issues that he had seen firsthand. “Nowadays I try to be more positive. You’ll see in my second novel that there’s Noongars, there’s shearers, there’s doctors, there’s nurses, and there’s a town drunk,” he said. “So it’s negative and positives… and even the town drunk is a brilliant guitar player… although the white people think he’s just a drunk, he’s actually really intelligent in the Noongar way of life.”

Weller’s new novel Boodjara, which has been 11 years in the making, is to be released soon.