Butcher Joe’s multiple world Stephen Muecke
In 1916, when Butcher Joe was a young man, he saw his world starting to crumble apart. The occasion was the little‑known massacre at Mowla Bluff. He was taking his countryman Paddy Roe on mulalu, his pre‑initiation walk, deep into Nyikina Country bordering the Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia. At the turnoff on the Broome–Derby road they ran into mounted police riding back to town. They greeted them, but nothing was said. As the young men walked towards Mowla Bluff, they met survivors fleeing what had been a mass shooting and burning of bodies.
