Tradie Gaga

My first encounter with a coolie hat was at a very young age. So young, in fact, I had no idea who or what a coolie was. And not once do I recall it ever being mentioned that the term might be considered offensive.
I don't know which year it was (let's just say it was the late '70s), but I do remember our primary school class was re-enacting the dance of the mushrooms in Fantasia. It's performed to a movement in Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and I vaguely remember it involved a lot of shuffling around in circles with our heads down and palms together. Much like this!

Which minor school spectacular this was for I have no idea, but I presume everyone's parents were there, given the work required of them.
In order for us to achieve the full theatrical effect, parents had to turn their darling children into even more adorable little Chinamen. In a feat worthy of MacGyver, my mother accomplished this with only a piece of red cardboard and a pair of black pantyhose. The former became a coolie hat, the latter was plaited and attached to the back – instant ponytail! The transformation was miraculous.

Mercifully, there is no photographic evidence of this charming slice of casual racism. By the way, there were no Asian students in my school at the time.

I was thrown back into this memory earlier today as Mick and I were leaving Woolies. Across the road is St Someguy's Anglican church, which is having its sandstone façade cleaned. It's going to look lovely!

Then I noticed something unusual – the hat on one of the workers:

It seems to have a label on it, maybe an advertisement for the company he works for, and I wonder if this has become a new uniform.
Is it a reinforced coolie hard-hat? Can you imagine these on every building site? I know it's effective for shade and might allow falling heavy objects to simply slide right off but this just feels wrong. It also looks a bit ridiculous with a discomfortingly camp, almost high-fashion edge. Very Tradie Gaga.
(Here's a fun game: tell a burly tradie wearing one of these things you "love the hat" and see what happens.)

If this is indeed a turning point in Australian working mens' headwear then they can't very well call it a coolie hat, can they? They'll have to come up with new, preferably virile, name for it...

Good luck with that!