A Great Mischief: Alice Pung
Artwork by ENOKi
Featured music is ‘Handwriting’ by Frank Jonsson
About the Author
Alice Pung OAM is the author of the bestselling memoirs Unpolished Gem and Her Father’s Daughter, and the essay collection Close to Home, as well as the editor of the anthologies Growing Up Asian in Australia and My First Lesson. Her debut novel Laurinda won the Ethel Turner Prize at the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Her second novel, One Hundred Days, was shortlisted for the 2022 Miles Franklin Award, and has been optioned into a film. She is the current Artist in Residence at Janet Clarke Hall, the University of Melbourne, and Adjunct Professor at RMIT University’s School of Media and Communication. Alice was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for services to literature in 2022.
Transcript
Rodents have been successful in populating every continent except Antarctica… They are the second most successful mammal on the planet. – Victorian Department of Health
Chaperoning Charles Darwin
to win this eponymous race,
we are the original FOBs,
queue jumping to stake
our place.
City-hopefuls, we arrived
packed en masse—
Not to go to mass
but to forage for food.
For over two hundred generations
our forebears have lived in this city.
We are the original Brackish
Collins St., 5pm crew.
Our brown coats never changing
with fashion or time.
We were here when Ms Cooke taught
the daughters of John Batman, and
here when the bisque face of Frozen Charlotte
had a body
to be dipped in lukewarm
Victorian toddler baths.
The roof rat (Rattus rattus) also known as the ship rat or black rat, is…usually found in built-up areas or near the coast. They have good climbing ability and can nest in buildings, roof voids and ships. – Department of Health
In the city you’ll not find your
feted State ambassadors –
your helmeted honeyeater or your
Leadbeater’s possum up a tree.
Those folks dwell in the outskirts of town,
not the tight-end corsetry of the CBD.
You’ll also not find our native cousins
Rattus fuscipes and Rattus lutreolus
For those guys only stomp
in far-flung areas
of bush and swamp.
A shy scampering lot, we’re
careful not to be seen or heard,
careful not to disturb your peace.
Yet you’ve disturbed ours
with your newly-minted state bird,
your Construction Crane
suspended in the mosaic of sky
like a flagpole of progress.
Not all rodents are considered pests. Many rodents are an important part of the food chain, as they are prey for meat-eating animals such as cats, snakes, large birds and foxes. – Department of Health
Three years ago we had our moment!
The Chinese down Cohen Place
gave us a year of good PR,
lauding our qualities of gregariousness,
intelligence and diligence.
We detect landmines and diagnose TB
which used to be called consumption—
but the only consumption you know today
is that of the tapas and martinis
when you visit Vue Du Monde,
Chin Chin or Pelligrinis.
And those laneways—the tight secret places
Where people used to tip their night waste
Are now the places your fertile youth like best
For the bagels and beans freshly pressed.
Rodents are also important ecologically for spreading seeds and spores. – Department of Health
Our lives span at most a year of yours.
But we are not all that different, you and I.
While you shepherd your babes
safely onto trams
clutching red balloons
from the David Jones sale,
clutching Boba tea cups—
A mischief of us bucks
would move literal earth
for our dams and our pups.
Inspect the premises carefully and look out for signs of damage caused by gnawing or feeding, holes, smears and droppings – Department of Health
May Opie’s electronic peasants—
His herons, gulls and ducks—
distract you from our presence
in shops, alleyways and parks.
This city belongs to all of us.
This city is not just for the well-suited,
but also for the ill-suited, the tuft-haired,
the scratchy-patchy riff raff, the suitably naff.
Many birds share our living space and, thanks to flight, are largely free to ignore us… It seems to me that animals are generally underrated and ignored in such a terrible way, also in art. – Julian Opie
You have overturned our earth
and uprooted our world.
Now there is nowhere for us to go
except above and beyond.
We rise, mole-blinded by the light.
We try to keep out of your sight.
But we will not go back down
without a fight.
We are the largest order of mammals.
More multitudinous than your order.
And you forget how fragile is the human body,
wrapped in fluorescent vests and hard hats—
Diggers like us.
But remember this—
You bore your way down here,
but we were born down here.
Who belongs where?
This initiative is supported by the Metro Tunnel Creative Program which harnesses the innovation, imagination, and expertise of the creative sector to help manage construction impacts.
