O.K., Henry - I will have a crack at it.
But first of all, have I missed something? Where does the idea of this poem by Murray being spoken by an aboriginal person come from? It seems like straight autobiography to me. But I might be wrong. Anyway, my reading is based on the assumption that this is Les, or a very Les-like persona, speaking.
We need to recall the last two stanzas:
Nothing else intense
happened to us, in this village.
My two years’ schooltime here
were my last in my own culture,
the one I still get held to
in this place, in working hours.
I love the wry equal humane
and drive in to be held to it.
It all comes down to what "my own culture" means. I take it to mean the Australian culture - the mateship, ocker culture, which the speaker, perhaps like Les himself, has always stood outside of, as a sort of "weirdo" - maybe a bit of a poet-loner.
But it remains the culture the speaker still gets "held to / in this place, in working hours", when he has to relate to others, who still live in their own culture.
And he says he loves "the wry equal humane" - which I read as a very succinct encapsulation of the Australian character. A wry-sense of humour, profoundly democratic and "equal", and a certain sense of kindness, characterise this culture. And he adds that he "drive[s] in to be held to it" - the culture he no longer "lives in" full-time, but only in "working hours", when social contact occurs.
Although, what Les has to do with driving in to work, I have no idea.
Anyway, that's my reading.
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Mark Allinson
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