2011 - Theses - Flinders University

‘Mrs Forbes’, Fred says, quietly so she comes closer, ‘Put your hands here’, and he showsher how to massage the belly. 52 ‘Those little muri, those spirit babies, they hang on like this.’He shows his hands like claws.‘This one’, volunteers a woman a few years younger than Rebecca, ‘this one still up thisway, like us, and got to let go and turn the other way. Then she can come out.’ 53Becky looks around. ‘There’s no table, nothing to lie on’ she remarks, to herself as muchas to those watching her closely now. 54 She can tell she has said the wrong thing at once, asthe older women sitting cross-legged by the fire, begin poking twigs at it, shaking theirheads. 55‘Jean?’ Fred addresses the woman who had spoken earlier. 56She shrugs. ‘She been lying back on me so long now, and it’s not turning. Maybe.’‘You think lay her right down?’ Fred asks Rebecca, although there is an edge to thequestion that sounds like an accusation. Rebecca nods, and bites her lip.‘And something under her hips, to tilt the baby back up,’ she says to Jean, who is settlingMay down. May’s eyes are closed, and her breath rasps. Fred’s chin tilts to the old women,still in the shadows, making small movements with their hands.‘Need that andupi over here,’ Fred says to them, as he points to a wallaby skin rug and jutshis lips towards May. 57 ‘And get that fire up, get some vartiwaka ash ready.’‘What’s that?’ asks Becky, now busy rolling the heel of her hands around May’s abdomenwhich spreads like a rising damper over her torso. She works carefully, moving from the baseof May’s ribs to her hips, and then again. 58May’s thick wavy hair spreads like a halo aroundher face, and her mouth is set against the pain. Her legs shift jerkily, trying to ease the pain inher back. Jean, kneeling on the other side of May and rubbing her legs, answers:‘Plumbush: you know those little trees? Mix the ash up and put it on sores, or bleeding.Need some ready if this baby hangs on.’37