MABO!

How wonderful this is!  "Mabo" has been made into a film, but not just any film:

Look at that!  It's starring my very dear friend Deborah as Bonita, Mabo's wife.

If you don't know who Eddie Mabo is, nor his vast significance to Australia, look here: MABO.

I never knew Eddie but I did meet Bonita several times. When Eddie got ill with cancer, the amazingly wonderful human rights activist Bobbi Sykes gave them a house in Aitkenvale in Townsville, which happened to be down the back from our friend Anita's house, and Bonita and I had several chats over the back fence while I was helping Anita organise her garden.

And so I can tell you first hand that Bonito was a gentle-souled darling lady who was actually very funny - I recall a hilarious conversation about Noel Coward's song "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" where we decided that since neither of us could call ourselves Englishmen we'd have to settle for being Mad Dogs - and now The Mighty Debs gets to play her in this film.

I can't be happier.

Oh, and let me tell you a very funny story:  Many years ago, in downtown Townsville, I was in a street cafe in The Mall with a dear old friend, an actor from Brisbane whose name I won't tell you because he won't like this story associated with him.

Anyway, he's looking around, most contemptuous and says "I cannot believe that someone like Eddie Mabo was able to do what he did in such a little town like this."

I said "I assure you that he couldn't have done it anywhere else!  The Mabo Legistlation grew out of the realities of this place."

"Oh nonsense!" says Old Friend.  "He could have achieved so much more in one of Australia's real cities."

"I disagree." I said, and then I noticed "Oh look, there's Eddie's wife Bonita.  Why don't we ask her?"

Old Friend looked around, entirely astonished. "Where?" he says. "Where's Bonita Mabo?"

"Right there!  Outside Dick Smith Electronics. That's her.  Pushing the pram."

"IT IS NOT!"

"It is too!!!"

"But she's alone."

"She's not alone.  Her daughter is inside the shop and she's outside minding her grandson."

"But it can't be her. Where are her body guards?  Where is her posse?  Where are her followers? Why is no one mobbing her to get photos and her autograph."

"Because we don't do things that way.  Monica Lewinsky was hiding here in town doing a scuba diving course when all that fuss was going down in America.  We left her alone too. And whenever Bill Clinton is in town, we leave him alone too.  We're remarkably sophisticated up here in the North."

And right then Bonita, her daughter and grandson passed us and Bonita gave me a wave and a smile in passing.

"You know her?"

"Of course I know her.  It's a small town."

"But she's like Australia's own Coretta King.  She can't just know people in a regular way.  That can't be Bonita Mabo."

"I assure you," I said "I've met her many times and that is indeed Bonita Mabo."

"But someone so famous and historical like her shouldn't just be allowed to carry on with her life living like normal people."

"And that ..." I said "... is precisely why Eddie Mabo could only have done what he did in a place like Townsville."

"Hhmmmph!" said Old Friend.  "I'm sure you were just joking.  I'm sure that wasn't really Bonita Mabo."

And since you can't argue with idiots, even when they're dear old friends, I left it at that.