That old lady, my Mum, was born in 1899, she was born out bush near Wauchope. Old people was there then. She spoke about five different languages. Old people used to talk to her, anyone she could understand them. Old people saw a comet, when they were living behind Devil's Marbles. The old lady told them about that when they saw a big fire in the sky, old people were singing at it and telling the kids to hide; that was 1905.

Wauchope part of her country, behind Devil's Marbles, there she grew up. When she was 9 or10 she left there. Her mother was Kayteye and father was two ways, Warlpiri and Kayteye, old man came from Majumba they call it. That's an outstation now. That's her father's country, but her mother's country is Barrow Creek. Old lady Kaytyej that old lady, my grandmother, she was a really tall one. My Mum was with her all the time then, but when we was at Phillip Creek, school there, the missionaries wouldn't let us go and see the old people that were in other country. Old lady passed away at Phillip Creek and old man too. They came there; they were looking for the old lady, but Nana went with Mum.

When we was at Phillip Creek I used to look after them old ladies. Them other ones would say for me to look after them, if they go hunting might be I would sit with them four old ladies. One old lady, Dora's mum, she showed me them dances. She was my Mum's auntie, two sisters. My mother and Dora were cousins. But Dora used to be with two Nanas now. She grew up with them two at Seven Mile. The old lady, Dora's Mum, was at Phillip Creek now. Dora was working at Blue Moon mine when they moved to Phillip Creek, then Dora went after and the old lady had moved to BB station, all those old ladies, the whole lot went there.

My mother went from Wakiriji then to Six Mile. Wakiriji was a big camp, they moved when the miners came, moved to Six Mile then. Lot of people there Dora was there first then to Seven Mile then to Blue Moon. At Wakiriji they would camp under two mulga trees, big camps then. Dancing then, and I was born out that way, past that waterhole there that wirnkarra (dreaming) one there.

Them old people used to walk in the road, break a branch and wipe their footprints from the dirt so the miners wouldn't see their tracks. Them kids would hide and the old ladies told them to run in the front. The old ladies would wear emu feathers on their feet so their tracks wouldn't show. Sometimes they might use some vines, the old ladies taught them that. The old ladies were frighten for the dynamite that's why they left Wakiriji, there old humpies are still there back behind the waterhole.

My Mum came up from Barrow Creek that way. The old lady when she got married then she came up this way, come for good then. The old man used to travel everywhere, from Tennant Creek to Alice to Hearts Range with camels, he used to travel then. He would go to see his country, other one, mother's side. His mother came from South Australia somewhere, my old man's mum. He would go back and visit and then when the old lady passed away he came and stayed for good then.

Old man's father came from this way, proper Warumungu that one. Old man used to travel backwards and forwards with those two, see he had two camels. He took the mail all the way with them camels. Then they took the camels back to Alice Springs. Whitefellas gave some camels to Aboriginal people then. They used together. Afghans too, they were all traveling like one mob, back and forth.

First Phillip Creek was a station. But then government came, then it was run by missionaries. Before the missionaries there people from Alice Springs were there, Arrernte mob working there at the station. Mum worked in the kitchen at Phillip Creek, all the old ladies did, Bunny's old lady and that other one, all the Warumungu old women used to work there making bread. They used to come early in the morning from out bush. They came in early in the morning, must be six. They were staying out at that hill past where the dormitories were a long way out there. Us kids stayed in the dormitories and the old people out bush. Missionaries kept them along way away they didn't want them to talk with kids.

My grandfather was from that country but he stayed out that way, stayed working at Alroy Downs Station. They used to work there, Warumungu old people, doing stockman. Most Warumungu people were at Rocky and Alroy stations. They worked there. Men and women both worked there, women cooked and cleaned and milked cows. They got rations, clothes and rations. They could still go off and have ceremonies and go to country. They used to come to Phillip Creek to see that country and kids, old people who were there. They would go for big holiday after Christmas. They would bring everything, bush tucker and goanna, big bags of food for the people at Phillip Creek, then everyone come together for big corroboree. After we left Phillip Creek, then, no water. They shipped everyone, all us to Alekerange then, Warrabri. Not everyone, some went to Brunchilly or BB station too, for work.

My Dad, he used to do paintings then too. Out there at Gosse River for them papulanji. I saw them, he did those paintings just sit down all day and do them. I don't know what happened to them. That old man he said one papulanji, government bloke, George Williams probably took them. I don't know could be Mr. Giese from Native Affairs, I think. He didn't get nothing then. Lot of old people used to paint and things round there then. Nobody knows where those painting are now.

At Alekerange whole mob there too. Warlpiri camp south side, Kaytetye west, Alywarr east and Warumungu north side. My father was a butcher there and mother worked in bakery. Two brother and sister were boss and auntie worked at bakery, the whole lot. There was a big kitchen there and everybody paid six pence for each meal. They got money then at Alekerange, not just rations. People might get a four-course meal for fifty cents. During the week like that they smelled the fresh bread baking, that old lady baked it. The money they made in the kitchen they would use to feed the community, the money was used to buy the food. They came to Tennant Creek for shopping. A big truck would come, sometimes they went to Alice Springs too. But they cooked their own bread. Four or five in the morning you could smell that bread, the whole of Alekerange used to smell that bakery.

They had a bush bus then to take people. People lived in tin houses with just one room, open, then floor right around. People would put up blankets and tie them up to separate the rooms. Some people had people camping around the veranda. Houses too cold in winter and too hot in summer. People slept outside and lots of old people there. Not old people anymore. Still on weekends they would go out bush.

That old lady never stopped walking; she went out bush all the time. Worked in the kitchen after. Old lady left Alekerange then to go to Murry Downs. My mother, she used to be at Murray Downs station all the time. That was east of Alekerange, she was there all the time. Mum went away to McClaren station milking cows, washing dishes for that papulanji. She walked from Phillip Creek to Alekerenge too. Across the country, not on the main highway, bush she went. They had a song for them then to make the country close. They would sing then and sing their legs to make them go faster. They knew where all the soakages were for water, every water hole they knew so they would follow that same route every year. She would follow those ladies to those soakages. Her old lady knows all the soakage all the way to Gosse River. Then they would come back slowly, sleep there, early, then stop and walk again.

Her and the old man would go out bush to Nobel's Nob and further they would walk and go for two weeks sometimes. Once they had to send the police for them to find them. They just left here, from town and went walking. She never liked to stay in town. We were looking and looking for her, then the police had to chase them up.

That old lady she was really strong. When she went in that nursing home I took songs then on a CD [the Yawulyu Mungamunga Dreamings CD] and played them songs. She could still hear them and sing too. She's the one that opened them up at that place where the railway is now. She was really hard.