Chapter 4

Jos conned his canoe further to the left, Zeke to the right. They each removed a stone from the facing of the dam, wedged the cases in the vacancy and attached the detonators to the pins.

“OK?” whispered Zeke.

“Yes.”

“On three. One – two – three!”

“Fire in the hole!”

The paddlers wheeled the canoes and they sped off. It appeared too soon there was a flash and another and then several seconds before the noise and then a shower of debris arrived. The canoers didn’t pause and ten minutes later they were aground, several metres from where they had set out.

“Looks like the water’s droppin’” said Zeke.

“Yes. I wonder what happened,” Jos responded.

They helped the paddlers move the canoes back to where they had been, walked back towards the ute, a blacker spot inshore, and greeted their guide.

“It appears something happened,” he said.

“We weren’t there.”

“Of course not.”

“Can you guide us to Yardungarl?”

“Yes, but we return in different way.”

“OK.”

Timber Creek is a small town of about 250 on the Victoria Highway about 600 kilometres south of Darwin. Though over half the town’s population is Aboriginal, the Ngaliwurru and Nungali lands surrounding Timber Creek were confiscated and sold (by the Territory) for commercial development. The traditional owners protested, but the High Court of Australia’s decision handed down in 2008 found that the provisions under the Lands Acquisition Act meant the Minister could legitimately acquire land for any purpose, extinguishing native title and interests in the land granted under the Native Title Act (1993).

Wijilawarrim (called Molly Springs) is a small Aboriginal community, located in the Ngamoowalem Conservation Park about 30 kilometres west of Kununurra. They are Miriuwung Gajerrong (MG) people, and therefore are signatories to the Ord Final Agreement, a broad package of measures which implements a platform for future partnerships between the MG people, WA State Government, industry and developers for the benefit of the wider community and the East Kimberley Region. (This means that they are exploited at will.)

Two hundred kilometres south of Kununurra lies Warmun (or Turkey Creek), home of the Gija people, who resisted the European invaders. The last known massacre of the Gija people took place in 1924, when, Paddy Quilty and others at the Bedford station took tribesmen off the station and fed them food laced with strychnine. The corpses of those they killed were then heaped up and burnt on a funeral pyre to eliminate traces of the deed. [Robyn Ferrell, Sacred Exchanges: Images in Global Context, Columbia University Press, 2012] The Gija community has between 400 to 600 people, the local population increasing in the wet season.

They took a roundabout route back to the settlement. It was still quite dark when Zeke and Jos went to sleep. When Jos woke it was bright daylight. The nungungi was tending a fire of small twigs, periodically adding eucalyptus leaves to form an interrupted tower of smoke.

“Good morning,” Jos said, “Sending a mulga wire?”

“I let nearby groups know that meeting is needed.”

“You will meet with them?”

“Yes. But more important that you meet with them?”

Jos started, but said nothing.

“You are Josiah. The Great Serpent has breathed on you. You will do something.”

Jos was sipping a billie of tea when a ute pulled up. An older man wearing a booka got out from the passenger side. He walked towards the fire as the ute drove off. [A booka is a kangaroo-skin ceremonial cloak.]

“I greet you, ancient one.”

“I welcome you, Boobook of the Mirima.” He turned to Jos, “The boobook is noted for protecting his territory. You have regained some for him.”

“I heard a noise in the night. Earlier today the whitefellas were like honey-ants in a dug-up nest. Did you do this?”

“Jos and his companion, Zeke, acted, enabled by the Serpent. I have summoned the Nungali, the Wijilawarrim and the Warmun. They should be here before dark. Then the full story will be told.”

“The whitefellas destroy when they are aroused, stinging like wasps. If we need help, we should summon Dayah Minyah. He has visited, as has his son, Bunjil, and his son’s wife, Wodang.”

“Bunjil and Wodang have been here. They slept with the oldest ones.”

“They told me they had been here. I told them that you were no more.”

“I was no more and am no more, yet I am here. Sit. I have not finished signalling.”

By mid afternoon, two more utes had arrived: the first from Molly Springs was a tawny frogmouth, close kin of the boobook, the other – a short-eared rock wallaby -- from Timber Creek in the Territory. The red kangaroo of the Giju was awaited. He arrived when it was nearly dark.

“It took long to cross the Ord bridge,” he said, “The water was high and fast.”

“I will explain, now that all are here. I did not invite the Munthanma. They are the least among the Miriuwung Gajerrong. I dreamt that a man from afar would do the serpent’s will and restore our land. I returned from Dreaming to here to guide him. He arrived with a helper and slept with those who went before.” There was a murmur. “They sit behind me. Josiah, come forth and bring Ezekiel!” Jos stood and stepped into the ring of light, followed by Zeke.

“The whitefellas Bible says that Josiah launched the program of national renewal and that Ezekiel foretold the restoration to the land of Israel. Over the past days they have enabled the serpent to throw down the whitefellas’ dam. Lake Argyle is no more, it is flowing out to the sea. Some farms may be lost; some fish farms. But the land will reappear and will dry.”

“The dam is gone?” asked Giju. “That explains the traffic tie-up.”

“Hear me!” said Frogmouth. “The whites took our land and moved our people. Then they drowned the land. The country is sacred to we Miriwoong people. We are the custodians and have obligations to care for the country and the resting places of our spiritual ancestors. Land is not something we own, but something that is a part of us and for which we have cultural responsibilities.

“In the Ngarranggarni [Dreaming], spirit beings roamed across the country performing actions that created the landscape, made waterholes, springs and rivers and filled the whole land with a spirituality that remains potent.