Platypus Flats
In The Shadows of The Honey Trees
by Neville West

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We don't cry because we are weak! It is our healing power speaking. As a survivor of abuse I carried the burden alone for 60 years. When I did speak out I changed; my world changed. So did my words. The djinn of denial could not be put back in the bottle. Abuse is the iceberg tip of neglect in the sea of institutional oversight. It is just the tip of significant failure of someone to do their duty. They are the true perpetrators. We all have a role to play in creating change if we are not just going to bark up the dark side of history. I don't seek medals for words dipped in gold and blood, nor am I looking for a hill to die on. As a survivor I am, unfortunately, not alone. Yet abuse is invisible to outsiders. We can only reveal it by illustrating the spaces around it. Shame cannot live in the light. We must put a human face to it. This ore took a lifetime to mine. Through blood and dust and swelter I wrought these words, not with my hand but with my heart. N.W.

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Walkley Award winning journalist Neville West was born to a beautiful remote valley lost in the Australian mountains, part of an extended family who had called this place home for more than a century. After a decorated global career as a writer/artist/teacher his own story has been the most difficult of all to tell. Words do not weary him, nor has he let the years condemn. This story is 100% human content.

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Contributors

Author

Neville West

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