Dongas and Diversions

This is a picture of Emily Gap, my first sacred place out here in 1983 when we came there to swim in the deep cool gorge after the rigours of protesting in the hot sun at Pine Gap. I swam across and immediately fell asleep on the sandbank. There were kids of all colours jumping in from high on the cliffs and those fellas, like Ian Cohen, who just had to follow the women out to the protest were camped there. Now it is a dry sandy gorge and has been for many years, like many places out here. I have camped there illegally a few times since to find peace and quiet, but two weeks ago went there to climb the cliff and walk along the ridge with the bushwalkers. From high up there we could see the toxic Pine Gap puffballs in the distance. It is heavily involved in the war on Iraq so I hope everyone is signing the latest petition to get the French to mediate an end to the war there.

The war here continues and this is the accommodation for the invading Centrelink and workforthedole crews - a classic NT donga, providing a tin hothouse with no ventilation but lots of noisy and diesel-guzzling airconditioners. It makes me appreciate my funny little box, which I am now sharing with Natasha, my friend Linda's daughter who is 28 and works in the office and needs some privacy and somewhere safe in town to keep her things so she can get to work...accommodation for local workers is non-existent per se, they have to share the overcrowded besser block monstrosities with their extended families (and dogs, the thing that gets me most is avoiding the puppy shit on the floors...).

Footy is of course the greatest diversion from all these other matters and Papunya was almost totally deserted last weekend while we went in to Alice for the Grand Final - Papunya Eagles vs Yuendumu Magpies. All of Yuendumu was there too, three times as many as us - and they won. All the players have been practising in their bare feet every evening for months on red dust grounds littered with dangerous rubbish so they were pretty well matched. I took the troopy in and our three frailest old fellas and their families and they enjoyed it. Now its back to work, although with the Carer Respite troopy I will be going out bush a lot and hope to have an evening picnic tonight.

I will be back home to stay for a while on 14th October and am feeling quite sad to be leaving so plan to have lots of picnics and bush tucker to give me good memories to bring back. I now have my own digging stick, a small metal crowbar with a flattened end, perfect for digging maku and tjupi. I bought ten from the Centre for Alternative Technology where Steve works. They are doing an excellent job and amazing things that Rainbow Power could do well to emulate.

I will be also pretty busy working to ensure that the workers at Aged Care get proper and decently-paid positions, it looks like it is going to happen , just have to make sure that the funding is sufficient. I am also hoping very much that the work for the dole crews will get the fence finished and the floors of the Women Centre sealed before I leave.

here is the about to be eclipsed moon a few weeks ago and here is the sunrise this morning - both delight me by rising over the Honey-Ant dreaming hill...

Kala! Palya!