by Jared Thomas
Bruce whistled as he drove. He had loosened his tie and the top buttons of his shirt were undone.
‘Good week at work?’ I asked.
‘Not too bad, but working in Aboriginal health, it’s a hard gig, cuz. Seeing your own mob sick you know, seeing people feeling sorry for them self.’
‘I guess some people have good reason to feel sorry for themselves,’ I said, thinking about how I felt when I couldn’t get a job.
‘True. And a lot of bad things happened to our mob. But if you don’t make things better for yourself, you’re letting the fellas that did all the bad stuff get at you. You’re letting yourself down and not giving the young mob much direction, ey?’
‘True cuz,’ I said nodding my head and thinking about Run. ‘Just at the end of this street here, take a left and then the first right,’ I directed.
‘Have we met Calypso’s mum before, Dad?’ Brea asked.
‘Don’t think so. I was only a young fella last time I saw Aunty Audrey. She looks a bit like Nanna though.’
When we got to Mum’s I jumped the front gate and shot through her screen door as I called out to her. I thought Mum would be all set to go but she was just sitting at her kitchen table, wearing her slippers and dressing gown and doing a crossword.
‘Mum … why aren’t you ready?’
‘I can’t go Calypso,’ she said quietly.
‘Why not? Bruce is waiting for us.’
Mum sat silently looking at the crossword, her reading glasses balanced on the tip of her nose and her pen resting lightly on the page.
‘Mum, what’s wrong?’
‘I can’t go Calypso.’
‘Why Mum?’
‘Because it’s been too long since I’ve seen that mob. They’ll be wild with me.’
‘Mum, Aunty Janet called me only yesterday to check that you’re coming. Her and Uncle Ray are real excited.’
‘True?’
‘True as god, Mum. So you can’t sit here all weekend. Things will be good when you see them I promise.’
‘But I don’t know Calypso.’
‘Come on Mum. How do you reckon it was for me just rocking up on their doorstep? The only way you can find out how things will be is by coming.’
‘Well, you can go.’
‘Yeah Mum but we want you to come, all of us.’
Mum sighed, put her pen down and placed her reading glasses in their case. ‘If it makes you happy I’ll come,’ she said. ‘Alright then, I’ll just throw something on.’
‘Well, be quick then. You got anything packed?’
‘There’s a bag in my bedroom there. Can you grab it?’
I raced into Mum’s room hearing Bruce’s car rev. ‘Jingies Mum,’ I said when I saw her old leather suitcase loaded up with a strap wrapped around it to hold everything in. ‘We’re only going for the weekend.’
‘Never you mind Calypso … and be careful with that thing.’
There was no way I was going to be anything but careful with that suitcase because if it dropped on my feet it would break them. When I walked back through Mum’s lounge room I noticed that all of her photos were missing. Then I realised they were in the suitcase, probably along with all her photo albums. I laughed to myself as I struggled to lift the heavy bulk out to the car. Bruce took the suitcase from me and lifted it into the back of the vehicle.
‘Bloody hell,’ he said, ‘what’s in here?’
‘Photos,’ I said, shaking my head.
‘Guess Aunty Audrey and Mum got a lot of catching up to do?’
When Mum stepped out of the house she was wearing her good dress and shoes and stockings. I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen her dressed up like that.
Mum was happy when she saw Bruce and walked towards him with open arms. She hugged him and said, ‘Oh bub, you’re a real big man now. Last time I saw you were just a young fella. You remember?’
‘Course Aunty,’ he said, his face all lit up. ‘Been long time, but really good to see you Aunty.’ He moved around to open the door, but when he tried to help her in she said, ‘Never mind, I’m a fit old bugger, I could still outrun this car you know.’
Bruce laughed as he closed the passenger door, and so did Shae and Brea. Mum held out her hand to them as she introduced herself. ‘Which one of you is Shae and which one’s Brea?’ she asked. ‘You big girls now.’
°°°
The trip to Aunty Janet’s seemed to take no time at all with all of the chatter going on. Mum was asking Bruce all kinds of questions like is Aunty Janet still making quandong pies, does Uncle Ray still play the guitar and what buildings are still on the properties. I could tell that Mum had a lot of knowledge about the place that she hadn’t let on.
We arrived at Aunty Janet’s place at dusk. Mosquitoes swarmed around the porch light. When the Toyota pulled up Aunty Janet and Uncle Ray came out from the house, Aunty Janet squealed as soon as she saw Mum. Everything was quiet. There were no squawking crows, no chirping crickets, no wind, as I watched Aunty Audrey and Uncle Ray give Mum a big warm hug.
‘Oh sis, so good to see you,’ said Aunty Janet as she and Mum wiped away their tears with handkerchiefs.
‘Welcome home,’ said Uncle Ray, leading Mum into Aunty Janet’s house.
I went to the back of the Toyota, grabbed Mum’s heavy load and by the time I plonked it near the front door Mum and Uncle Ray were already sitting at the kitchen table jabbering away and Aunty Janet was making tea.
‘Would you fellas like some tea?’ she asked.
‘No Mum,’ said Bruce, ‘We’ve got to set up camp, before it gets too dark. Plus, you fellas got a lot to catch up on, hey?’ he said as he started backing out the front door.
‘No worries, well bring us back a feed when you come back then,’ she ordered.
‘I’ll see you later then, Mum?’ I called out.
I don’t think that Mum heard me but Uncle Ray walked over, shook my hand and said, ‘Howdy neph.’
‘Howdy Uncle.’
‘He’s solid fella this one,’ Uncle Ray said looking at Mum.
‘We’ll catch up tomorrow, hey mate?’
‘No worries,’ I said and then I dashed off after Bruce and the girls.
I was happy that Mum was already yarning flat out with Aunty Janet and Uncle Ray.
°°°
Bruce pulled the Toyota up onto high sandy ground close to an estuary overlooking the Spencer Gulf. The girls jumped out and began unpacking things from the rear of the car. Soon an esky, some buckets, a bag, three swags and a box full of food and cooking utensils were placed on the ground. Then they started to grab things from their knapsacks. Brea pulled on a faded maroon hoody and Shae a flannelette shirt. Then they kicked off their school shoes and leant against the car to pull on well-worn sneakers. Bruce was also getting changed, out of his work shirt, slacks and shoes and into some old jeans, t-shirt and jacket. The girls looked like completely different kids once they got changed. They went from cute kids wearing their neat school uniforms to rough bush kids in a flash.
When the girls finished getting their things I gathered my bag, fishing rod and sleeping bag and the girls started setting up camp. I looked up at the stars in awe after I closed the back of the four-wheel drive. They were amazing. The Milky Way was so bright and clear that I could just reach out and touch it.
The girls rolled out three swags and then made their way into the bush with their flashlights to gather firewood. They didn’t muck around, they were like proper bush women.
‘We’ll just get this fire going a bit before we do anything cuz. See if the girls want to eat first or fish or whatever,’ Bruce said as he dug a fire pit with a small fold-up spade.
‘No worries, I’m easy,’ I replied, taking in the sound of the sea and the smell of the air.
As I threw my sleeping bag down on soft ground Bruce scrunched newspaper into balls and threw it in the fire pit and shuffled around picking up kindling. Seconds after the girls returned with bigger pie
ces of wood the fire was lit, throwing light across the area that was our place for the night.
‘Calypso, you’re not just sleeping in that are you?’ Shae asked pointing to my sleeping bag that I reckon is pretty deadly.
‘Yeah, what’s wrong with it? It’s not going to rain or nothing.’
‘The outside of our swags will be wet when we wake up, even on a really hot night. You will be soaked,’ said Brea.
‘Yeah mate you always get a bit of dew around here, even when it’s forty degrees,’ said Bruce. It’s even worse in the desert. Old fellas had it all worked out with their animal skin cloaks inny?’
‘They be waterproof too ’ey?’ I asked.
‘Yeah, that’s right.’
‘You know what a shelter tree is?’ Brea asked me. I shook my head, not having a clue.
‘Well, you tell him Brea,’ Bruce advised. ‘And while you’re at it, can you grab Calypso a tarp out of the back of the car bub, to wrap around that thing there?’ he said, pointing to my sleeping bag with his chin.
‘Well up in the hills there Calypso,’ Brea continued, looking to the east, ‘there’s the biggest mobs of shelter trees. They’re huge gum trees that the old fellas cut out, hey Dad?’
‘Cut and burnt out,’ said Shae, returning with tarp in hand that she spread on the ground before tucking my sleeping bag inside.
‘So when you stand in them, there’s heaps of space, you throw roo skins and that down for blankets and you don’t get wet. It’s like a little house or a teepee,’ Brea explained proudly.
‘That’s real solid,’ I said.
‘You know what’s even more solid?’ Bruce asked.
‘What?’ Brea and I asked.
‘The inside of a tree is round.’
‘What’s so special about that?’ asked Brea.
‘What’s so special about it?’ Bruce repeated.
‘Well, like you’re not going to tell us anyway Dad,’ said Shae.
Mucking around, Bruce looked at Shae like he was pissed off and then he said, ‘The earth, the moon and the stars are round and time goes round in a circle. Our past, present and future are all connected to each other. What we did yesterday affects today, and what we do today affects tomorrow.’
‘That’s deadly,’ I said before thinking a little longer about what Bruce had said. Then Shae asked, ‘Do you know what else is round, Brea?’
‘What?’ asked Brea.
‘The hole you came out of!’ Shae said bursting into laughter.
Bruce and I cracked up too and even Brea couldn’t help but laugh. I guess being careful not to encourage Shae, Bruce quickly stood up from his crouched position by the fire and asked, ‘Alright, what you mob want to do? Fish or have a feed?’
‘I’m hungry Dad,’ Brea moaned.
‘Yeah me too, and look, the moon’s still rising,’ Shae said looking to the night sky.
The full moon is the best time to go fishing. There’s always more fish biting, especially garfish.
‘Alright, well let’s start cooking then.’
Bruce and the girls were like a well-oiled machine. Brea buttered bread and Shae opened two cans of baked beans. Bruce placed the bread inside a waffle iron and then cracked an egg on the bread and a few dabs of baked beans before closing the irons and putting them in the fire. When I could hear and smell things sizzling Bruce looked up at me and said, ‘You see, that’s the amazing thing about our old mob. They didn’t need to cut things down or have electricity. They just learnt to live with the land in a way that made them comfortable.’
‘Like the shelter trees,’ I said.
‘Yeah, but that was kind of more short-term accommodation in the winter or if you got caught in the rain when travelling type of thing. And you know how rich fellas have central heating in their houses?’
‘Course … seen it on television.’
‘Well our old fellas had that in their winter homes too, their fires up in the caves there. And they had air-conditioning too. In the summer they’d live down here by the coast, getting cool by the sea breeze and swimming. Our next door neighbours, the Adnyamathana, call this way of living Yura Muda. That’s what they call the Dreaming. That’s what I call it too … even though our old people called our history time Wipma. You see, connected with country, giving and taking.’ the Dreaming ain’t just a lot of stories, it’s a way of living, staying I sat on the ground next to my young cousins considering what Bruce was telling us and I realised that, like Uncle Ray had told me, I was only learning kindergarten stuff.
‘Yeah, they were smart fellas our old people,’ Bruce said as he looked into the flames of the fire and sipped water from a beatenup pannikin.
°°°
Not long after dinner we sat at the mouth of the estuary, Bruce and the girls fishing with hand lines and me with my fishing rod. The moon was full on. It felt like there was electricity in the air or something. The sea gurgled as it started to cover the saltbushes that cling to the coast. The olive leaves of the mangroves shone silver and occasionally you could see and hear the splash of a jumping fish. I could smell the fish swimming beneath the glassy surface too. We all baited our lines with cockles and Bruce was fishing with a float, to catch garfish. But Shae was the first to shriek, ‘I’ve got one,’ and then she pulled in a healthy King George whiting.
‘Beauty! That’s a big one,’ Bruce yelled out as Shae landed it on the shore, unhooked it and quickly threw it into a bucket of sea water.
I shone my torch in the bucket. ‘That’s a deadly fish. It’s huge.’ Brea baited her hook as fast as she could, her face beaming.
‘Your turn now cuz,’ Bruce said just as I felt a strong nibble and pull on my line. I put the torch down on the ground quick smart and then started to wind in my catch. It was a King George whiting, another huge one.
We only fished for about three quarters of an hour but between us we caught almost a dozen whiting, half a dozen garfish and a couple of massive tommy roughs.
Shae and Brea boasted, ‘We’re real deadly fishers, hey Dad?’
‘Yeah, I know that. But do you know how to make the fish come back?’ Bruce asked.
I considered the question for a moment and then Brea said, ‘Course we do. You stop fishing them.’
‘Or you just keep the big ones and throw the little ones back,’ Shae added.
°°°
Bruce put a billy on the fire when we returned to the camp and the girls grabbed a box of chicken flavoured biscuits. There was also a big block of chocolate, some biscuits and marshmallows. ‘Anyone want some bananas and grapes?’ I asked pulling a lunch box from my bag.
‘How many bananas you got?’ Bruce asked.
‘Four.’
‘Can I use them to make dessert?’
‘I don’t mind but what you gunna do with them?’
‘Oh it’s lovely,’ said Shae.
‘Just wait a little while and you’ll see,’ said Bruce before grabbing the bananas and going to the back of the Toyota with them.
‘How do you want your tea?’ Brea asked me as she threw teabags into four large pannikins. ‘No sugar and just a little milk.’
Soon we were all scraping melted chocolate and hot banana out of aluminum foil packages. It was too deadly to believe.
‘Told ya,’ said Shae, as she lay in her sleeping bag next to Brea watching me lick my lips.
‘Yeah, it tastes good but you’ll end up looking like a fat Elvis if you eat too much,’ said Bruce with a laugh.
‘Once in a while is alright,’ I said.
‘Alright for you to say, skinny young fella, your guts is not big like this yet, is it?’ Bruce said pushing out his big gut and slapping his hands on it.
‘And it never will be either,’ I told him.
‘So you’re really into this health food thing ’ey Calypso?’
‘Not that much, I mean I just try to eat natural things, things that come pure from the earth and sea. Never really had much of a sweet tooth.’
&n
bsp; ‘But what about the health food shop where you work? What’s that like?’
‘It’s alright most of the time.’
‘Most of the time … is your boss a prick or something?’
‘Na, he’s alright, sometimes he’s just a bit slack … other things on his mind, I guess.’
‘He’s a whitefella, hey?’
‘Yeah.’
‘He’s the fella that told you to get traditional medicines and things inny?’
I was glad that Bruce was asking questions about Gary because I never really got the chance to explain things the first time we met. I looked at the girls in their sleeping bags starting to get comfy. They were knackered.
I began telling my story by saying, ‘It was kind of unexpected how it happened.’
‘How what happened?’
‘Getting a job for starters … but especially Gary asking about Aboriginal plants and things. See, he’s always going on about different plants and foods that are good for you or help treat sickness. I didn’t think he’d be interested in Aboriginal things. But then he started talking about wanting to make products out of them.’
‘What type of products?’
‘He talked about lots of things like foods, massage oils and medicines but the one thing he is on about most of all is something you can put in a tub to help people relax.’
‘True? I bet he didn’t offer to pay for them though?’ Bruce said taking a gulp of his tea.
‘Nah, he did. He said he’d give me a three thousand dollar bonus if we find something, he’d pay family for helping and he’d split profits with us.’
Bruce threw the last of his tea in the fire and said, ‘That sounds alright.’
I didn’t know if Bruce was taking the piss but anyway I said, ‘Yeah, that’s what I thought but I didn’t know talking about it with everyone would cause so much trouble.’
‘Jingies,’ said Bruce, ‘don’t worry about that. You see, we’re all just a bit suspicious. Since the government returned land to us, and with native title and everything, there’s been all types of people coming out of the woodwork wanting a piece of things. But you cuz, there’s no denying you’re family and you’re kind of coming proper way.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well our mob always gives something to get something in return. That’s why we’ve really got no word for thank you, because if someone does a good turn for you, it’s expected you do the same for them, see?’