Brinkley's Bluff and Beyond

Sunset on the MacDonnells...and then sunrise...

Last weekend I finally got to do an overnight walk on the Larapinta - to Brinkley's Bluff from Standley Chasm and return. The company was excellent, Rick and Meg from the Bushwalkers club - and the views were stupendous. We camped the night on the bluff and here is the view from my sleeping bag in the morning. Sleeping bags, actually, too cold for just one. The wind reached gale force but I had my gloves and beanie and everything else on and the stars were my lullaby...



Then back to work, a very busy week. There have been hordes of whitefellas swarming around, doctors, nurses, centrelink people, even Sue Gordon, the chairperson of the taskforce - a women's meeting that had umpteen male photographers and cameramen recording it all. I even made it to the Alice Springs News (look for the blonde up the back).
The elders from Mt Liebig danced and presented Sue Gordon with some special totemic items. Sue is an Indigenous woman from WA who was stolen from her family as a child and is now a magistrate. She and Alison were both urging women to bring their children for check-ups and to view the intervention as benign, but there is a lot of mistrust - funny, eh.

Anyway, the doctor and nurses have all left now, they were a good bunch and probably saw half of the kids. The checks are voluntary and very thorough and there is no looking for signs of sexual abuse, so it has been quite helpful to some of the mothers and carers to get a total picture of their child's health. But we still only have a doctor out here for a few days every six weeks.

Aged Care has had a booming business in selling paintings to all the whitefellas and some of the old ladies sold lots of yininti necklaces.

The Centrelink crew have been very busy signing everyone up for work-for-the-dole. They couldn't quarantine the pay of CDEP workers, so CDEP's been abolished. And no-one had any plans for how to fund the hundreds of positions and programs that rely on CDEP labour - including Aged Care. There will be emergency meetings happening, I was assured by all the comfortable bureaucrats, and things are being acted upon 'higher up'. I still have heard nothing so am being pro-active and writing submissions - which have then to be signed and sent by Rod as I am his underling - bureaucracy rules the west these days.

Life goes on here, football is more important than anything else (these boys have been playing since they could walk) and Papunya is deserted this weekend while the whole community is in town supporting the lads in the semi-finals...except me, I am recovering from feeling like s...t all week. Been making ice-cream in my $10 garage sale maker: peach and mango - better than Weiss! And lying around reading and enjoying very much not being at anyone's beck and call.This funny little photo is of the circus driving through town, it really did look like a real circus, not just the centrelink mob or whatever...it's strange times out here!