2011 - Theses - Flinders University

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 Zone‘This’, said Rita, showing an L-shaped piece of metal, ‘was a scraper for the fire, scrapingout from the stove.’ She demonstrated what she meant, standing there on the open spacewhile a breeze pressed her floral dress against her sturdy legs, and she mimed raking outcoals through the narrow opening of a wood stove.Lorna picked up a rusted shallow circular pan from the jumble of flat slate and wire. ‘Theyused to make their fire in, and a larger size for a bigger fire.’There were the remains of some twenty huts built of stone and mud and wooden uprights,in little more than an area of one hundred square meters. 40 They had more recently beenmarked with numbered pegs, and a map to identify their occupants. Beyond the camp fringeswere several mulkara grounds, where ceremony was held. Further away from the camp againwere the gravesites: Mathari to the south-east, and Arruru to the north-east. Closer were theChildren’s Graves. 41 In tight, thick groves, here and there about the flat, are stands of greytrunkedbullock bush, where in summer red minera berries grew amongst the bushy foliagethat was now perfectly grazed to head height. Once branches hung low enough to offer fruitto small children swarming the groves. Minerawuta, place of the minera bushes. 42 I was stillrolling the word around inside my mouth, silently rehearsing its vowels. It sang through mymind, to the rhythm of the Artoowarapana Band’s lyrics:Minerauta I heard about youThe Adnymathanha home you used to beWith mineras growing there on the ridge and in the creeksWith mallee gum and mulga treesRam paddock is your English name nowBut you’re still Minerauta to meI feel so good when I pass by you‘Cos you’re home sweet home to me... 4328