Chapter 21: Kununurra – Part V

“We must return to town,” Sam said to Potoroo.

“First you must have some tea and some bread. And you must tell me what was revealed.”

“We will but hint at what we learned. We cannot tell, grandfather,” Tessa remarked.

“You have both been touched,” Potoroo responded. “I can see that.”

“But we must speak with Boobook.”

“Understood.”

Sam began: “The cave had been prepared for us. We both saw that.”

“We both saw it, but we experienced it differently.”

“As you must everything. You are not one, but two. You may be together, but you are separate.”

“I saw what has gone by.”

“And I the way there was peace before the whitefellas destroyed the face of the land.”

“Eat and drink. Then you can go and tell the Owl. You will also talk to those where it is already near midday.” They realized that he meant Gordy, Patrick and Rachel who were in NSW.

Later, when they were about to leave, Potoroo handed a beat-up booklet to Sam. “Read this while Raven drives to Mirima Village.”

“I will.”

Tessa drove up Lake Argyle Road to the Victoria Highway and turned left. Sam was well into his reading material. He completed it just as they were turning right onto Weaber Plain Road.

“You’re right!” he exclaimed.

“What?”

“You’re right! Look, indigenous people comprise 2.7 per cent of Australia’s working age population, but only 1.6 per cent of university domestic student enrolments – up from 1.2 per cent a decade ago, right?” [stats from 2017]

“Sounds right.”

“So here’s a book published by Australian Geographic in 2010 about Kununurra and the Kimberley. And it only mentions Aborigines four times in over 100 pages. The first time is to mention that the Purnululu National Park ‘as only discovered by non-indigenous people in 1983.’ And four pages later it says that ‘The park is a significant place for the local Miriuwung people, who have lived in this area for thousands of years.’ Then, twenty-four pages later, there’s ‘The indigenous Wunambal people have lived on the Mitchell Plateau for thousands of years.’ And finally, they inform me that I can ‘see Aboriginal rock art, too’! You are invisible! And just getting a permit for some areas won’t cut it!”

“Calm down, dear.”

“No! It’s time for us to become masters of our own destiny! Your culture clashed with the culture of the white and lost. It lost because the culture had been weakened. Disease had destroyed entire families. The old had died without passing all they knew to the young. The young were faced with a culture they didn’t understand.

“Your culture was based on hunting rather than farming. You can’t stay in one spot and hunt sufficient game to feed even a small mob year round. It requires that you move according to the season. It takes a lot of land to support a small band.

“The white culture was based on farming. Seeing land was vacant and was suitable for farming, whites would move in while the band was gone and establish a homestead. They didn’t move away when the season changed and your people returned. Instead, they fought to keep your people from trespassing on land that they had worked hard to develop.

“Some of the worst things that happened over the years of were the result of well- meaning people trying to help those they saw as inferior. They tried to stop you from speaking our laynguages and practicing your rituals. They forced your people to convert to Christianity at the point of a gun.” Sam ran out of steam. Tessa had pulled to the left and parked.

Australians are aware of the appalling statistics First Nations face: dying younger, incarcerated at the highest rates in the world, poor educational outcomes, children still being removed from their families. The gap is not closing. This has become the narrative of a country that is too afraid to dream big and reimagine a world where we see Australia’s First Nations as the solution, not the problem. (Teela Reid in The Guardian, 2018-11-14)

“What should be done? What can be done?”

“I don’t know. I do know that visibility must be increased. I’ll talk to my dad and to Gordy. But I don’t think any answer to tourist trespass is a genuine answer.”

“Where were you?” Boobook asked.

“Yardungari,” Sam replied.

“You are sure?”

“Yes. We turned off Lake Argyle Road. Tessa saw the track.”

“The Raven deflects the Eagle from the sky.”

“What?” Sam asked Boobook.

“It is an old saying.”

“Well. I guess she did.”

“It is a wonder.”

“What?”

“There are no Yardungari. They were relocated a decade ago.”

“But we spoke with Potoroo!” Tessa exclaimed.

“Question not the Powers that Be. You were gone. You have returned.”

“What should we do?”

“What were you told?”

“Potoroo gave us an old book. Sam read it as we drove back.” She showed the tattered relic to owl.

“That is interesting. Not what I would have expected.”

“What should we do?”

“You are both young. The young want to rush and do. It is better to learn more. To study. To think. To talk to grandfathers. Then do. Talk to the Python.”