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2011 - Theses - Flinders University

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White Lives in a Black Community: The lives of Jim Page and Rebecca Forbes in the Adnyamathanha communityTracy SpencerVolume Three Appendices: Creative Life WritingSection C: Contact ZoneChun-chunk! the picture ripples as Jack’s stone turns lazily on its way to the depths of thepool. ‘It’s just us here, here for a swim. Old Fred’s cousins,’ he calls out. He hands the boysa stone each and nods to Rebecca to get one, too. ‘Throw it in, just to say hello. Nothingscary here, it’s just the right way.’Chunk, chunk, chunk. Yah! Splshh! Rebecca’s husband and sons are whooping in thewater, and she already has her shoes off and placed neatly beside each other on a large flatrock. She wades into the water while her skirts billow around her, until her boys pull herover. She floats on her back, watching the clouds burn off in the hot, blue sky, feeling thedust and sweat slough off her skin and clothes. She does feel better.They lunch on juicy white wityaris and fat alda roasted on a small fire and washed downwith billy tea, while their clothes dry where they are spread out on rocks or over low bushes.‘Why don’t we just stay here for a little while?’ she asks Jack.‘It’s nice, eh? Good now with water in it. Must have been rain a little while back. But no,we can’t stay right here. See?’ and he points to the tracks on the sand. ‘Sheep come in here todrink at evening. Those station men get angry if you scare the sheep away from their water.Maybe shoot at you. Some of them don’t like you camping around their stations. That’s whywe’ll go to Mt Serle, get some work there, some rations, camp with that big mob. They got anice creek, too …’ His voice trails off as he watches a willy wagtail fussing at the watersedge. ‘Maybe better get going, then,’ he says with a small frown, and Rebecca reluctantlygathers up the clothes.They camped instead at Nguthunanga Mai Ambatanha, a strange pink-and-yellow moundrising suddenly from the ash-coloured ground. ‘Call it Damper Hill, eh?’ Jack called over his14

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