Coffs Harbour: Big Bananas, Aboriginals, and Drag Queens

Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, is about halfway between Sydney and Brisbane.















Originally its economy was based on bananas, so there are many  big bananas in town, including the Big Banana Fun Park.










And the big bananas who compete in the many aquatic events, such as the Coffs Harbor Ocean Swim and the Coffs Harbour Triathlon.

There are 8 high schools in town (most called "colleges").    Australian high schools don't offer wrestling, but there are lots of swim teams.

There's also a campus of Southern Cross University.

If you get tired of the big bananas, Coffs Harbor features the Bunker Cartoon Gallery, a museum dedicated to the history of Australian cartooning, and the annual Buskers and Comedy Festival (a busker is a street performer).

Although I suppose they have some big bananas, too.

And a variety of outdoor activities, including hiking, golf, tennis, scuba diving, and surfing.  These guys belong to the boardriding club.

Big bananas are a prerequisite for membership, I suppose.

5.6% of the population of Coffs Harbor is Aboriginal, nearly double the national average of 3%.  Most belong to the Gumbaynggirr, one of the largest Aboriginal tribes in New South Wales.  The language had almost died out by the 1990s, but now there are classes and activities, and about 700 people can speak it.

Gumbaynggirr educator Clark Webb looks like he has a big...well, never mind.

  Every July Aboriginals and their allies across the country celebrate NAIDOC Week (National Aboriginal and Torres Islanders Day Observance Committee).  In 2019, the Coffs Harbour NAIDOC featured a football carnival, an art exhibition, an elders' lunch sponsored by the Deadly Sistahs Girlz, and:

An after party hosted by rhe Fearless Felicia Foxx, the "Realest Tidda of Sidney"

A drag queen at a family-friendly event in rural Australia?

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.

Kamal Ellis

Kamil Ellis is the young Australian actor who starred in seasons 3-4 of Nowhere Boys.  This was the first time he played a generic role: previously his characters tended to embrace his aboriginal heritage.

Cleverman  (2016-17) sounds like a psycho-slasher, but he is actually the leader of the Dreamtime in a tv series about hairymen (sort of aboriginal Neanderthals) experiencing racism and discrimination in contemporary Australia.  Kamal plays Mungo, a boy who tries to escape capture and ends up being beaten to death.



















Deep Water (2016) is based on the real-life murders and disappearances of gay men near Bondi Beach, Sydney, in the 1980s.  Kamil plays Jason, a boy who hangs out on the beach.

The reality series Bushwacked (2014) sends Kamil and journalists Kayne Tremills and Jordan Walters into the outback in search of Australia's weirdest animals. 

Dance Academy (2010-13) traces the lives of mean girls and it-boys at Sidney's National Dance Academy (apparently they dance shirtless on occasion).  Kamil appears in 3 episodes as Jayden, a street kid with dancing cred.

In addition to his on-screen acting, Kamil has had a long career as an aboriginal dancer and singer.  His credits include:
Ganang Spirit Dancers
Secret River Sidney Theater
Bangarra Dancers
Koormurri Dreaming 

He's done so much of interest as a kid, I can't wait to see him as an adult.

Glitch: Resurrection and Gay Subtexts in the Outback

Another tv series with a gay character showed up in my Netflix recommendations. Glitch (2015-) is set in the small outback town of Yoorana, Australia, where six people inexplicably crawl their way out of their graves in the local cemetery.

It's a lot more "realistic" than the suddenly reappearing dead people of Les Revenants and The Returned:  They're naked (rear nudity, no frontal) and covered in dirt and grime.  And at first no one realizes that they've come back from the dead.

They have amnesia, but gradually they remember some details of their lives, including how they died -- usually by violence.

1. Paddy (Ned Dennehy), the town's first mayor, a hard-drinking, scrappy pioneer who was murdered in 1860.

2. Charlie (Sean Keenan, left), a gay soldier who died in World War I.

3. Carlo (James Monarski), who speaks only Italian, and saw his brother murdered.

4. Maria (Daniela Farinacci).

5. Sarah (Emily Barclay), the deceased wife of the town constable, James Hayes (Patrick Brammell).

6. John Doe (Rodger Corser), who never remembers his past, and may be the key to everything.

The main plots involve James and town doctor Elishia (Genevieve O'Reilly) trying to keep the Risen safe from various threats, especially Vic (Andrew McFarlane), who wants them back in the ground "where they belong."

Meanwhile alliances form, romances blossom, and unfinished business from the lives of the Risen get squared away.

Charlie doesn't get a boyfriend; instead, he buddy-bonds with a lady.  His gayness appears only in a subtle confession about a man he loved before he died.

But there's a gay subtext buddy-bond between Paddy and the aboriginal teenager Beau (Aaron L. McGrath).  I can't see why -- Paddy is exceptionally ugly.

But they exchange smoldering looks, and have conversations dripping with innuendo.

Paddy: You're so skinny!  You're all dick and bone.

Beau:  What do you want?

Paddy:  What do you think I want?

Unfortunately, there's never any explanation for why these people rose from the dead.  Lots of clues, including supernatural intervention and secret experiments, but no resolution.

But there's ample beefcake, and Aaron L. McGrath definitely gives off a gay vibe.

As does Sean Keenan.

In Search of Australian Aboriginal Men

Brisbane, Australia, July 2002

In 1986, I followed an Australian cowboy to his home on Kangaroo Island, with only the briefest of layovers in Sidney before going on to visit Alan in Japan.

This summer, same problem: my conference is in Brisbane, and I don't have the time or money to spend more than two days in Sydney.

Still, a week in Australia!  A chance to meet Aboriginal men!

Of course, there's nothing wrong with Anglo-Australians (80% of the population), or Chinese or Indian-Australians (8%) of the population).  But I can meet Anglo and Asian guys at home, or in Europe.  When will I be able to meet an Aboriginal Australian again?

Their culture is at least 40,000 years old: they began their migration to the continent during the Middle Paleolithic Era.

Most of the tribes practice so-called "ritualized homosexuality," in which the older men initiate the young men into the community through oral sex.

Initiate, right.

There are 27 language families, with over 100 languages in daily use, as distinct as English and Navajo.

The Wagiman word for "penis" is lagiriny, "tail."

The Ngarluma word for "erection" is jurdu, a cognate of jurdurn, "mountain peak."

Now that I've got to see!

Aboriginal Australians have a distinctive look, with dark-skin, frizzy hair, and broad noses. I couldn't find any nude photos on online bulletin boards (the precursor of blogs), but I imagine they have rather impressive mountain peaks..




The full story, with nude photos and sexual content, is on Tales of West Hollywood.