Arthur Hunter (born in 1989) describes dating culture amongst young Aboriginal men and women in the Kimberley in the 2000s.

Edited Transcript

Broome had this this competition called Kimberley Girl in 2006. Oh, me and my mate and my teacher, we built this black border for the staging, to help the Goolarri mob set up. And there was one girl that in the competition. Her name was Anjay Phillips. She was checking me out, from what she telling me. Then on the finals night she got someone to come up and ask me, you know, if you want to go out or hook up or something. I was a good boy. The girl came up to me and said like, ‘Oh this girl want to know.’ I’m thinking, ‘Fuck.’ I was thinking, ‘Gee.’ Then I asked this other dude here—my cousin—but I was shocked that the girl wanted to go out with me or something, like go out with me. I was speechless. I was shaking —

Elaine Rabbitt: Can you explain that that’s a bit of Broome style or Kimberley style—about how Anjay didn’t come up to you direct.

Up here in the Kimberleys we don’t—well some people do but most people don’t—they get someone to, they get a friend or a cousin to ask a girl or a guy out. So they don’t go directly to that person and ask them because they’re scared to get shut down or get rejected and people don’t like that—getting rejected. So she did that to me and she got someone else to do it for her. And I said, ‘Yeah okay, might as well.’ I was really shy, and a little good boy.

Credit: Arthur Hunter interviewed by Elaine Rabbitt in the Australian generations oral history project, ORAL TRC 6300/115, National Library of Australia. Recorded on 29 August 2012 in Broome, Western Australia.

Listen to the rest of Arthur’s interview.