Chapter 3

After typing away from memory for nearly an hour in the morning, Patrick felt that he’d made a start and that he could phone his father. He was brief in his description of the meetings but arranged for the three of them to meet in the early afternoon. Gordy suggested the Savoy pub on Elizabeth.

They met at two and after a bit of chit-chat, Patrick told of the meeting.

“Nothing new there,” Gordy said. “None of the mining companies care about the land nor the Aborigines at all. That was true at the end of the eighteenth century, when smallpox wiped out thousands here in the east and a century ago. Have you ever read the telegram Morgan sent?”

Neither Rachel nor Patrick had.

“On 20 July 1907, a Broome resident named Chas Morgan sent a telegram to Henry ‘Harry’ Prinsep, the state’s then-Protector of Aborigines. It read: ‘Send cask arsenic exterminate aborigines letter will follow.’ Eight words. That was the attitude in Western Australia then, and the mining companies still think that way. Their boards and stockholders think about money, not people. What did you say? Several hundred million dollars? For some old caves nobody lives in? No real choice!”

“Don’t get overexcited, dad.”

“You’re right. You stick it to ‘em, do it on my behalf.”

“Have you heard from Sam?”

“Oh, yes. He flew from Coober Pedy to Mintabie, where he had an adventure. He went to Marla and then back to Coober.”

“I guess he’s not headed for Uluru, that’s the wrong direction.”

“His eagle is guiding him. He’s hitching his way east and then north along the track.”

Patrick worked on his report for an hour or so on Saturday and all day on Sunday, sending it off to Wyatt first thing Monday morning. He also sent an invoice, including his expenses at the Hyatt. He received a ‘thank-you’ by email and a cheque for ‘consultation and reimbursement’ ten days later. In the meantime, Sam had met a young woman in Marree. Henry had told him that “eagle matches raven.” And (finally!) he had bought a Samsung phone. Sam had called from Adelaide and reported.

“Well, I have a trip to the north of Western Australia for both of you, if you’re willing,” Patrick told him. “I have to make a long trip to the Kimberley – first to the northwest coast and then to the far north – near the border with the Territory. The first, on the Kimberley coast, should be only a few days, the second up to two months. They both have to do with Dreamtime images and sites that may be sacred. I can’t spend two months in Kununurra, so you would be my representatives.”

“Both of us?”

“Yes.”

“We’d be paid?”

“Of course.”

The next Saturday, Sam reported that he’d phoned Gordy and that he and Tessa would fly to Sydney tomorrow. Patrick relayed the information to Rachel and Weena, both of whom were excited at the idea of meeting Tessa.

“I’m quite curious about her,” Patrick said. “Not least because of Henry’s comment.”

“I’m missing something,” Rachel responded.

“Henry said: ‘eagle matches raven’ – that’s not Hawaiian. Nor polynesian. Though ravens are important in North America and here, as well as in Greek, Germanic and Celtic mythology. The raven’s the national bird of Bhutan and is important in Zoroatrianism, too. Interesting.”

“You’re still nuts.”

Nearly a month later, after the trip to the west, Patrick was asked to another hearing concerning Rio Tinto and the Juukan shelters. This time, it was the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia. Its formal charge was to conduct an “Inquiry into the destruction of Indigenous heritage sites at Juukan Gorge” and to report by 9 December 2020.

Patrick recalled that his grandfather had said: “This land was taken from some band or other. Never got paid. Got their women raped. Introduced to booze and baccy. We’re lucky the great serpent didn’t take us all. And we’ve had a good run.”

Patrick thought of the two serpents Ngalyod and Borlung who still inhabit the deep waterholes in the Kimberly and of Wandjina, who is the most significant of the Creation Spirits. But the dams and the buildings block the serpents. They cannot come and go. Blowing up the sacred sites obstructs Wandjina. The area is dry because Wandjina cannot bring rain. Perhaps Ngalyod and Borlung could be liberated. Then they could renew the land and from the land would grow the people. He shook his head. Might Wandjina break the drought, stop the summer fires?

The meeting of the Standing Committee was quite strange. It was public; and it started from the previous committee’s report – titled Never Again -- which concluded that Rio Tinto “knew the value of what they were destroying but blew it up anyway.” Moreover, senior executives from BHP, Roy Hill, Woodside and Fortescue Metals were also called before the public hearings. All defended their own relationship with traditional owners. But Aboriginal corporations in the Pilbara said that the issues outlined in the destruction of Juukan Gorge were widespread. They included agreements with gag clauses that prevent traditional owners from speaking out against mining companies, and a heritage system that is geared towards mining companies and does not allow for review once more information about a site is discovered.