Anyinginyi Manuku Apparr: Stories from Our Country

The Old People Told Us About this Place

Kunjarra
E. Graham Nakkamarra

People come here all the time. I was just little one then, must be six horses pull that thing with things, everything swags, big drums with water, and water bags everything. They use to go now, stop they used to stop anyway and used to burn the grass now so the people walking behind say there now, they stop must be camp for us. One old man stop there and take one horse back. He used to walk back and horse and tell them we stop there where the bush fires and used to cut wood, must be something goanna or kangaroo before that we didn't have gun, dogs only, good dogs to catch emu or kangaroo sometimes wild cat. But these days they got gun now, olden days nothing, no guns. That's why the old people used to travel cause they had wagon with the swags to take and they used to have a little thing coolamon to carry and digging stick that's all. But these day they have everything. We have cars to go bush and we got crow bar and we got bag to carry our things and long time they had to carry in a coolamon everything, that's all.

Big corroboree, here too people used to come from different places, join the party. Warumungu the main one, Alyawarr, Warlmanpa, and Warlpiri used to come, big dance and ceremony and big party now. Old people, all the elders. Elders, people from different tribe, come and talk first and people really good. Was really good old days, before us. And mum, our mum, used to tell us, that's why, we grow up hard way. We didn't grow up with mother; grow up in mission, hard way. Didn't stay, only for old people at night used to stay with. Mums or dads, auntie, grandma, great-great grandmother they used to stay and tell us stories at night time, sit down make a fire.

They used to tell us this way dreaming. Used to tell us little tiny kids, we tell it like that, like that way that's what they told us always go bush. We follow them old people for tucker, digging, digging. Get-im like, one bush soap. You boil it and wash body, sometime when they have scabies, we boil them and wash the kid or old people too, it takes all the itchy thing away.

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