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Beersheba, Palestine
The name of a town, a tall mountain, and a mountain range in the northeast of Australia, in the state of Queensland. This region is the site of the first and historically oldest scene of Black Diggers, in which a group of white settlers hoping to take control of the land slaughter all the natives living there—except for the young Nigel, who is saved by a Taxidermist just before the others are about to murder him.
Bellender Ker, Queensland Quotes in Black Diggers
The Black Diggers quotes below are all either spoken by Bellender Ker, Queensland or refer to Bellender Ker, Queensland. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act One Quotes
Full-blood, too. Unusual. Perfect specimen. And if I’d been only five minutes later … it’s all chance, and fate. [To the baby] Look at you. Back from the dead, if only you knew it.
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In the opening scene of Black Diggers, a Taxidermist saves Nigel from sure death after a group of whites, clearing the remote region of Bellender Ker for settlement, slaughter the Indigenous people who live there, including Nigel’s parents. Even more disturbingly, the Taxidermist is traveling with them, and he only saves Nigel because he is a “perfect specimen.” The audience is meant to feel ambiguous about this act—while Nigel has been brought “back from the dead,” it is not because the Taxidermist sees anything inherently wrong with massacring other human beings, but rather because he sees Nigel as a potential Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitati
NIGEL: Father, what happened to my aborigine parents?
TAXIDERMIST: You know that, little man. They died.
NIGEL: How did they die?
TAXIDERMIST: I’ll tell you one day. Look, a chimpanzee. They are our closest relatives.
NIGEL: Why not now?
TAXIDERMIST: Because you’re not ready yet.
NIGEL: Ready for what?
TAXIDERMIST: The world—the bigger, grown-up world—is a complicated, difficult place. You should enjoy every moment of your childhood. Plenty of time for truth later.
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When the Taxidermist takes Nigel to the Australian Museum in Sydney, the audience realizes that he has adopted the boy as his own son after saving him in the wilderness of Bellender Ker. However, their relationship remains uncomfortably underlined by the Taxidermist’s motives; in this scene, the audience learns more about the Taxidermist’s work and its role in the colonial project. Namely, he seems involved in 19th and 20th century colonial science’s dedicated attempt to demonstrate that white people were more racially advanced by evaluating various human racial groups on a continuum from less evolved (closest to apes) to most Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Min
Act Two Quotes
Tarzan. At the Empire. Tarzan, man of the apes. The ape man. Tarzan. Ape. Man. Lowland Gorilla. From Zanzibar. Ape. Man.
He stops, has a surreptitious swig from a bottle. Stands still, watching people rush past him.
Sorry Dad.
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In the disturbing scene just after Nigel writes his letter to the editor, he walks down Sydney’s busiest street—George Street—wearing a sign that advertises the show “TARZAN THE APE MAN.” The implication is clear: because whites, following racist science, think Aboriginal people are evolutionary somewhere between apes and full men, Nigel looks like an “ape man” and is a perfect advertisement for a show about such a figure. This recalls all the other examples throughout the text when others treat him only in terms of his appearance, regardless of his desires or efforts—like when the Taxidermist (the “Dad” to whom Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostru
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Bellender Ker, Queensland Term Timeline in Black Diggers
The timeline below shows where the term Bellender Ker, Queensland appears in Black Diggers. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act One
It is the year 1887 in Bellender Ker, Queensland . A group of white settlers are, by force, clearing an area of natives. Thinking...
(full context)
