My father Tibor, mother Maree and sister Ange came to visit. I set them up in the house with birndu (mozzie) nets. Mum and Ange climbed Injalak Hill and Dad and I sat with the artists, many of whom I know now. My favourite painter still being Graham Badari who I call kakkali (eligible partner) although the daluk in my family of the same skin as me often call him kanjok as he is not their actual spouse using kakkali when humbugging him. I love Glen Namundja’s work too of course, but he is my skin brother meaning I should avoid communication. All the artists have distinct styles and capabilities with several emerging or mid career painters exhibiting in the cities and entering the Telstra, an important prize for indigenous artists.

Although we went on a Yellow water cruise viewing a spectacular array of bird life and large kinga, the highlight of the visit for my dad was a very short but successful fishing trip at the crossing with karrang (mum). Within the hour had caught two fish which looked a bit like namarngol, but were called Narrgarl.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

A second daluk (woman) who I call karrang (mum)has also become friendly with me outside my immediate kinship family. She is married to really down to earth senior man who I call ngabba (father) from Goulburn Island. He has impressive traditional scarring and is a skilled fisherman. I went with karrang, ngabba and their extended family on an action packed fishing trip at Cahill’s Crossing. Ngabba throws a net perfectly when catching yow (bait fish) and both daluk and bininj caught the biggest mob of wakih (shark) I had ever seen. There was about 9 and one namarngol (barramundi).

I couldn’t believe that the alligator river would have so many, although it is estaurine and the tide came up rapidly from the ocean and we moved from the sand to the bank. This is why so many kinga (crocodile) are seen here. Although I did not see one this time, when I crossed the river at a 70cm high tide in the troopy, there was one swimming across! When crossing at high tide (which is not advised) the rule is to wait for the tide to turn so the water becomes very still and less likely to push you.

Although ngabba said hot coal cooking in the sand is traditional, they cooked up one shark for me in another way. First cutting out large organs which they called fat, then chopping the shark up discarding head and tail and boiling it before removing skin and bone and straining the meat. Then the fat was chopped up and fried like liver to which the strained meat was added. It was really tasty and eaten with rice and salt, sometimes onion. Salt is always added to fish here, I guess being freshwater, the natural saltiness is reduced. I transported the sharks on the roof of the troopy so it was dripping with blood and required a big clean up.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

The Mardam (whisling kite) have a feeding frenzy, and nesting in my yard, I have the djenj they catch in the nearby billabong raining down as mardam drop them half eaten. I awake to a mardam eating a large garlerrk outside the window and wish I had got to my camera in time. Missing camera moments has been a common situation for me.

Areas of country in Gunbalanya are fenced off for bullocky which the community have kept breeding since Cahill’s time. There is an abbatoir and the meat is sold at the store. There is alot of kunngobahn (pandanas) growing in the paddocks and so many times I have taken daluk there for harvests. They do not trust the bullocky calling them cheeky (dangerous) especially if their horns look long and will not get out of the truck near them. The other night after a big day driving with kakkak to bars in kakadu resorts, Jabiru town camp and an outstation called Mudginberri between Gunbalanya and Jabiru, we encountered a Buffalo near Cahill’s crossing. It wasn’t tall but it was round and well fed. It appeared like a giant pig with buffalo horns. This trip was hilarious, so many different bininj coming for trips in the truck and we ended up with a couple of huge freshly caught djenj too.

On another trip to Darwin to pick up the manager and shop for Injalak supplies (boy, what alot of tea and sugar!!) I spotted a Jabiru eating what looked like a snake, but I was told probably an eel. The bininj who paint at Injalak went hunting the other day and got a wallaby, I wish I had been there, they cooked it on the spot. While collecting kunngobahn, daluk often find manme (vege foods) and we have had green plums, and black plums. After I made a particularly good manmali (hook stick) from a paperbark tree all on my own to replace one that we lost off the roof on the bumpy road to the springs (another sacred place), The daluk began making a kuku (pipe) from the wood scraps. It looked like a chillum (Indian pipe). We often collect colours for dye as well, the mandjurndum (yellow root), wirdihl wirdihl (brown bulb) and leaves of a bush no-one knew the name of to make black. Ash is added to the yellow to make orange and green is made from boiling kunngobahn leaves.

I love taking daluk out on country and they love it too. We are always wary of nayin (snakes) and bang the ground. A small brown went under the car once as I sat in it and another reared up at us on the road. One night after the club taking bininj and daluk home, I was given a large cooked egg to eat on the spot, It was really yummy and turned out to be wilark (the egg of the magpie goose). This is the dreaming for Arguluk Hill.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

I now feed 3-4 dogs, they come with the house. Suitable really in dog dreaming country. A film of the dog dreaming featuring Balang the president of Injalak was being edited when I arrived. An earlier film was narrated by T.O. Jacob Nayinggul. The Rock you see featured in the doco is held up by three thin legs which translate as the female dog or ngalduruk who had a broken leg.

I was invited to one of the sites by a T.O. who I call kakkak (grandmother). It is a beautiful waterfall called Mandjaworlbidji in Mangerrdji. I make two trips there on the heavily flooded dirt track. I took my immediate kin family first, mostly daluk who I call karrang (mum) rdarda (younger sisters) and dje dje (our kids), then take kakkak’s family, many who I call berluh (auntie) or ngadjadj (uncle). We fish, first kicking the small bait fish called yow out of the shallows onto the sand to pick up. Using handlines djenj (fish) are caught quickly and flicked out of the water onto the shore. Shallow fires are made and the bordoh (small bream) are cooked in the coals without gutting. There are lots of Garlerrk (log tom) in the water and dje dje plays with one as it dies, so I draw it. He took it home in the car still playing with it, this garlerrk.

Traditionally, bigger djenj like namarngorl (barramundi) are buried in coals after wrapping in paperbark and some organs are eaten, we used the paperbark for plates and salt was always added to the flesh which was very tasty.

The waterfalls and swimming holes were luscious amidst rainforest and palm scattered forests. Wangi Falls was still closed for swimming but we swam at Buley rockhole and Florence Falls amongst the large fish. We have all been abstaining from sunscreen and insect repellent when swimming, but unfortunately most of the other visitors were lathered up not thinking of the local wildlife.
http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

Wagiman women’s sacred ceremonial place. Young girls learn here, it was amazing. Some pools were so hot to touch there was a dead frog and toad. It bubbled up in green mossy bogs and mingled with the cold water creek where we swam.
http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

The town has grown since my last visit in 1992, partly due to a RAAF base. Still loved the place, but saltwater crocodiles were still about in the gorge, so we could only swim in the top waterhole above the third gorge. Saw kunwarde bim in red and yellow delek, there was short neck turtle and magpie geese and bat men. Cicada dreaming. Went to the Hot Springs for a swim, happy that local Mungguy families were swimming there too. Met another travelling family at the campsite who had worked in a small community art centre in WA and we heard stories of their time and friendships there near Warburton on Ngaanyatjarra country. Had a swim Leliyn (Edith Falls) top waterholes, beautiful.
http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649