That's a heck of a name for a tall lean half Irish half aboriginal, northern territory entertainer.
I did not realize what I was getting myself into, the first time I met Valentine McGinnis. I'd never met anyone like him before, and I've never met anyone like him since. That was in the sixties before i ever got involved in the australian opal industry
Val was a real black fella whitefella mix. He was equally at home amongst the black and the white. He could talk white fella language with eloquence and charm and astounding humor. But amazingly he could also talk fluently in the language of his black ancestors in tongues dating back to when Australia was exclusively an aboriginal domain.
Now the typical aboriginal is a rather shy reserved type of person. A bit quiet when there's white fellas around. Perhaps out of necessity, not wishing to succumb to some Anglo Saxon deviousness. But of course, anyone who has been around aboriginals a lot [as I have over the last 40 years wandering the Australian outback], knows that underneath their reserved appearance lies some unique personality traits.
So, maybe it was the Irish in him that brought out the loud, outlandish, sense of humor that held no respect for person or privilege. He could laugh at himself and his race. He could laugh at the white fella too, and neither group could become upset because he had a generous volume of both cultures coursing through his veins.
"Once I knew a very lazy aboriginal" he chortled with a grin nearly as wide as the face that held it, " this fella was so lazy that one day when he was asked directions, he didn't so much as raise a finger to say which way to go.. he just pointed with his lips" Now this doesn't seem so funny when you read it like this but to see those huge pouted lips screwed up and pointing like a finger adjacent to his face, bestirs hilarity in the most sombre individual.
Val had a little islander wife called Jane. Now Jane was the quiet one. She would just sit next to the big fellow and look adoringly into his face as he entertained the crowd. Every time you saw Val, there would be a crowd.. I mean a BIG crowd just sitting fascinated by this lanky entertainer with his bush yarns. Then, just when it seemed he had run out of jokes, out would come the little mandolin. His huge bulky fingers would dance back and forth across the strings while Jane accompanied him on the guitar. His booming voice rang out:
'Old Darwin town is in the boom
For workers hard there's plenty of room
But when you go to get your pay
You'll often hear the big boss say'
He didn't know what the juice to do
Well he didn't know what to do
With beer and gin and whiskey too
He'd jump around like a kangaroo
He had fluid on the knee, so he drank that too
Caus' he didn't know what to do!
I lost track of the old timer back in the late 60's but then out of the blue, I got a phone call from him In the 80's just before he died. Eh Pete! He said. Remember the parties we had up on the top end? Remember that you played the piano at my wedding? Remember the wedding reception when all our mob turned up. I think you were one of about three white fellas there!
How could I forget? There was no one to play the piano and I could only play with two fingers but I bumped out a couple of tunes and then sat back and watched while all these aboriginal artists got up there with their guitars and didgeridoos and entertained us with songs and stories for the rest of the evening. What a show it was!
Guess what? That was the last time I talked to old Val. He passed away not long after, but he sent me a tape recording of all his old songs and memories which I still have somewhere among the old cassettes. What a thrill it was to bring back the past so vividly!! And as an extra bonus, I have come to know his son John McGinnis really well and recently I had the privilege of meeting up with him at a Christian convention in Brisbane with John, Gladys, and a whole bunch of other aborigines from as far away as WA, NT, North Queensland. Some of those WA Noongars were sons of the old people my father grew up with in Pingelly north east of Perth about 60 years ago.
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