Earth, page 19
‘Alwyn, I hope you don’t think I’ve – ’
‘No, no, Captain Hindsmith.’
‘Richard, surely.’
‘Of course, Richard. No, you have prepared the ground very well, but we are fighting cultural and religious perceptions and a completely different understanding of agriculture and ownership.’
‘Alwyn, would you mind if we walked a while?’
‘No, not at all.’
‘Mr Too roo rer, thank you for talking to the Prince, we really appreciate your . . . patience. We will go now, but we’ll return.’
‘You got ‘bacca plug Cabin Inesmith?’
‘Of course, my dear chap, of course, here, and look, I have a coin depicting the Royal visit.’
‘Dank you, Cabin Inesmith.’
‘Well, we’ll call again to tell you what the Prince has decided.’
‘Brince give back yallock? You Yang?’
‘It’s early days yet, Mr Too roo rer, we’re working to turn the whole ship of English and Australian opinion. It will be some time before we will have any indication of success.’
‘Yueh.’
‘Bye for now.’
‘Mr Too roo rer seems less than impressed, Richard.’
‘Well, what has he got from the Royal family but the King’s face on a coin dangling from a ribbon.’
‘They can’t equate a man sitting under a tree with any idea of ownership or civilisation.’
‘That’s exactly it, Alwyn, they struggle in their minds with the idea of these people’s fellow humanity. They look at the nakedness and the poverty and can’t look past it to the humanity.’
‘You have done all you could, Richard, you couldn’t have expected immediate success. I will present all your papers and impressions to the Anti-Slavery Society, but, speaking quite privately, Richard, I have a sense of absolute doom, the legislation and land grants already established are destined to crush the independence of these people.’
‘Into the dust.’
‘Exactly, but we must continue, Richard, it is our duty as Christians.’
‘And Alwyn, on another private matter, I wonder if you would join me for the evening meal at my house in Mercer Street, we have quail and lamb and crayfish fresh from the bay. The Palmer boy, remember Mr Palmer at the trial, his grandson is a most proficient fisherman and supplies quite a few public houses.’
‘There was talk that the Palmers were part Aboriginal.’
‘It seems that’s correct, but you could hardly tell looking at either of them, but please, Alwyn, join me for a meal of this fine Australian produce.’
‘Of course, Richard, I would be delighted.’
*
‘Alright, alright, popular request, I’m back again. People shoutin’ out Da you do this, Da you do that, and I was gunna say, oh, you people bugger off, comin’ to me with all your petty little grievances. Women die all the time. Babies get born all the time. What’s the problem? One minute there’s a little toothless black hole yellin’ it’s lungs out for milk an’ next thing there’s a toothless black hole rattlin’ on about nothin’. No one wants to hear you say that, people get all offended when they hear Earth speak like this, but you can’t expect someone as busy as me to be polite. Look at it from my point of view, I’ve gotta get to and crumble it all back up again. I feed you, I build your bones, I listen to your whingein’, an’ when you’ve finished all your bloody histrionics I have to crumble you all up again, grind you into dust, mix ‘em all up with all the rubbish an’ stuff, the chips an’ flakes of my own bones, an’ then I have to build another one, who’ll turn around and grizzle at me for seventy years about their circumstances, about their fate, about unrequited love, can you believe it? Think about it from my point of view. Free will. Bloody nuisance, and it leads to a lack of respect. Free will inclines you all to think you created yourselves, that you leapt out of your own mighty intelligence and sophistication, you can spell cappuccino and think you’re a genius, you take a punt on the stock exchange, heads or tails, you win, start smokin’ cigars an’ think people should invite you to parliament house.
‘Alright, I’ll agree I might have been a bit harsh before, but you try putting up with this for three hundred million years. You try stayin’ calm an’ reasonable. Anyway, I’m supposed to take notice of Granny Kneebone, am I? An’ Aunty Hatpin, an’ ol’ Parwung? Well, the thing is they’re old friends and every now and then I drop the tectonic plates for a bit and intervene. Far back as I can remember that old lady gabadj she’s been camped on that river, both those old cockatoo ladies, they’ve always been here, squawkin’ up one red gum or another, an’ I tell you that Parwung too, he’s been around since the first dawn, what do those blackfellas say, pilk puriyn, how am I supposed to remember all their little names? But truth is I’ve got a bit of time for dawn, cool, bit of time to think, and that Parwung he’s always been so polite, you know, just a quiet voice, never like them gabadj, just quiet and polite tryin’ to guide his mob, tryin’ to breathe into their dreams. You can do a lot worse than Parwung. An’ this other one them women are goin’ on about, that Golkawil, the little hawk, well him too you know, never screamin’ an’ shoutin’, never complains, he just climbs into the sky and looks down at me and he just says, good, very good, it’s true, that’s what he says, the earth is good. How polite is that? No wonder I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for him. But don’t expect me to intervene in every little trouble. I’m havin’ a hell of a time with the Andes at the moment, even Da has to let off a bit of steam, and you should hear ‘em go crook about a bit of dust and lava, and while you’re tryin’ to keep all that under control, the sea gets hot and all the coral dies and it’s supposed to be my fault, can you see how it gets on my plasma? Anyway, if you aunties will just stop wailin’ an’ gnashin’ ya teeth for one second, ya listenin’? Alright, I’ll look after all them birds for you, . . . even those noisy ones who get up in the top of trees and go karrark, karrark, all day long, give the entire crust a migraine, I tell you. But, I’ll look after ‘em, yes, yes, even Parwung of course, I’ll do what I can, birds, birds, and they’ve got a little one called Sky is it? Sky, I’m glad someone has time for romance, a working earth is at it day and night, and millennium after millennium, rocks, air, water, fire, see how you’d handle that all at once, but yes, yes, relax you people, of course I’ll look out for Parwung, when I get a break from continents and oceans, yes, yes, and Golkawil, and Betty Morlgalyu, and, what’s that? Uncle Reggie would like a horse and cart. I’m Earth you fools, I do fire, water, and food, horses and carts aren’t my business, you’ll take what I give you and like it because I think I can feel a bit of lightning coming on. I said it’s a promise from the earth’s core . . . now piss off.’
*
‘You like wallaby, Frank?’
‘Not too bad.’
‘You whingin’ ‘bout possum alia time.’
‘Yeah, it’s quite tasty.’
‘Uncle Reggie gettim.’
‘Yeah, Arnie told me.’
‘He wan talk to you, Frank.’
‘Oh, yeah.’
‘Yueh, ‘bout pullin’ up sock.’
‘And what do you reckon?’
‘Bout time mebe.’
‘Yeah, well I’ll take me own time. You don’t know. None of you know.’
‘S’alright, Frank, I know, I not cook like that Missus Claud.’
‘It’s not bloody food, Betty, Christ can’t you people see that, can’t you see it’s not bloody food, why don’t all you people open your eyes an’ leave me alone, it’s not bloody food I miss.’
‘Keep shirt on, Frank, I know what you miss. Not food, Betty know that, she not bloody silly y’know. You never get back what you missin’, we know that, we all know that. But we not lettin’ you go an’ hide from us, Frank, not hide from baby, not hide from Alfie.’
‘I’m not hidin’, who said I’m hidin’, I’m sick in the guts from fuckin’ misery.’
‘Yueh, yueh, Frank, we know that, but no time.’
‘You decide about time do you, Betty, you and your great wisdom of . . . what is it twenty-one years?’
‘I woman.’
‘Yes, yes, bloody woman, but how could you know what it’s like to – ’
‘You reckon I not have plenny to hurt in my belly, Frank? Anyway, spirit been tellin’ me, ancestor whisper me.’
‘Oh, God.’
‘No, oh God, Frank, you not listenin’, spirit woman by creek she whisper me, she tell me ‘bout baby an’ men, she tell me woman thing, she tell me we mob gotta live, gotta – ’
‘Yes, yes, I’ve heard all that’
‘But you got spirit baby, Frank. Like I got that Sky one, you got liddle Cecily, what you reckon her name true way?’
‘Well, know-all, what is it?’
‘She be Toortna. She be star baby.’
‘Star?’
‘True way. Star send that baby you an’ Missus Claud, that baby be big one our mob, all ol’ Aunty been come longa camp an’ talk that baby, oh, you Toortna, they say.’
‘So?’
‘They say you better look out that one. Grow her up, Frank. She big one our people.’
‘What about my people?’
‘She big one all people. She come longa all us people, she be grow up, she be tellin’ plenny big story all us people: you people, my people, black people, white people. I bin help you look after Toortna.’
‘And me?’
‘Aunty, Uncle Reggie, all ol’ fellas they tell me, you look out that one Woorer Woorer, you look out that Toortna, you look out that Golkawil, even that ol’ Cranky Franky, you look out that mob, can’t lose none of ‘em. I say, yes Aunty, yes Uncle. Frank say, bloody possum, bloody woman, bloody food, bloody house. Real happy time, Betty, true.’
‘I’m sorry, Betty.’
‘You think my idea hang ‘bout ol’ cranky ol’ Franky?’
‘I said I’m sorry, Betty.’
‘Sorry, sorry. Whay good sorry? You call me Morlgalyu anyway. That nice name like Claudie, you call me Morlgalyu, not whitefella name.’
‘Alright. Everyone’s tellin’ me what to do, but, I know, I know. Uncle Reggie, all of you, you’re right, I’ll pull up my socks. Unless, of course, we run out of socks. Claudie – ’
‘Yueh, Missus Claud darn sock, I see that, but Morlgalyu not know that needle one but she know plenny other thing.’
‘Like possum.’
‘You laugh, Frank, possum, wallaby, bobup, plenny thing I know, you see bye an’ bye.’
‘Will I?’
‘You see. Man, woman stay in camp. You see.’
‘That what you think, is it?’
‘That what happen, Frank. Think it my idea stay with cranky ol’ fella? Think Morlgalyu like you turnin’ up nose at ‘er? But that how it is. Aunty she say you Morlgalyu, you longa that Toortna, longa you bobup Woorer Woorer, longa that Parwung, an’ that Glokawil, that proper way you, that what they tell Morlgalyu. That Aunty Kneebone too, she say you carry longa that mob that proper way. Missus Vera she say Betty, you look out that mob. Man, woman stay in camp, you see Frank, you see.’
‘And what do you think, Betty?’
‘Morlgalyu.’
‘Morlgalyu, what about you, what do you think?’
‘I doan think. Aunty tell me. Uncle tell me.’
‘And that’s it? Plenty of girls do what they like these days.’
‘I done what I like. No good. Trouble way. Aunty tell me, go back yallock, Morlgalyu, go back longa ol’ fellas, that true way.’
‘And you don’t mind bein’ told what to do?’
‘I got that Woorer Woorer. Spirit woman say to me, you reckon we give that Sky baby to any ol’ woman, we give that Sky baby so he crawl ‘roun pub lookin’ for ‘is mumma? We give that Sky baby you, Morlgalyu, he be big one longa that Toortna, we be give big job longa Morlgalyu, you help that Frank fella too, they say.’
That right?’
Too right it right, I be down longa that river, longa yallock an’ parwung ‘e come up an’ ‘e look at me an ‘e bring liddle bobup parwung, ‘an ‘e leave liddle bobup parwung with Morlgalyu, make bobup sit down longa Morlgalyu while I be fishin’ eel, an parwung ‘e go off look for worm, look for grub, ‘e look me that parwung, ‘e trust me true, ‘e say you look out my baby I be goin’ for tucker. Spirit woman send that bird tell me. I be listen now.’
‘Parwung, eh?’
‘Yueh.’
‘Well, when’s that ol’ Uncle Reggie cornin’ to tell me how to run my life?’
‘Shh, Frank, you show respect now, Uncle been ‘ere long time, you not be lookin’ other side fire. You not see ‘im. Quiet one that Uncle. He be Too roo rer.’
‘Uncle?’
‘Yueh.’
‘I’m sorry, Uncle, I . . . I didn’t know you were there, I didn’t mean to be rude, it’s just that – ’
‘You got bacca plug you, Uncle?’
‘Yes, Uncle, here look, you have this packet, I’ll get a new one, Alfie an’ me did real well with the fish today.’
‘True, eh.’
‘Yeah, we caught a lot of fish and sold ‘em all.’
‘You think Uncle doan know that, Frank. You think you just lucky? Uncle know. He know that Golkawil, he be lookin’ alla time, not like ol’ Parwung sittin’ in tree talkin’ to ‘isself. You bring eel for Uncle, Morlgalyu?’
‘Yes, uncle.’
‘Oh, true one, plenny fat boonea this one.’
‘Yueh. Caught ‘im by river, Uncle.’
‘Parwung yallock?’
‘Yueh.’
‘You see that parwung, Morlgalyu?’
‘Yueh.’
‘I dream that parwung.’
‘Spirit woman, she send parwung.’
‘True one.’
‘I tell Frank ‘bout that parwung, Uncle.’
‘You like wallaby, Frank?’
‘Yes, Uncle.’
‘Plenny good, eh.’
‘Yes, Uncle.’
‘You look out all you mob, Parwung. We bin send tolum, we bin send wiidji, we bin send Morlgalyu longa you camp.’
‘Yes, Uncle.’
‘You got cuppa tea for Uncle?’
‘Yes, Uncle.’
‘You gettim now, that Morlgalyu be kumba, liddle Woorer Woorer bil baab, that Toortna too, eh. She be good one, Parwung, that Morlgalyu she be good one, she bin listen Aunty, listen Uncle, listen Spirit Woman, mebe listen Parwung story?’
‘Yes Uncle.’
‘Alright, I kumba now.’
‘Frank?’
‘Who’s that?’
‘Might be Da, Frank’
‘Where are you?’
‘You work it out, Frank. You got over your great sorrow, Frank?’
‘You laughin’ at me too? I remember your name now, you’re Earth.’
‘Don’t you scoff. Don’t be too proud to listen to the Earth, Frank, that’s what you people are like, reckon the reality of the world originates in your own precious head.’
‘You have no voice . . . it’s only the trees, only the wind in the trees.’
‘That’s right, Frank, exactly, moon moon meet. I’m the water too, yallock, hear me over the rocks? I’m the rocks too, toll, here me talkin’ to nubiyt. You’re tryin’ to laugh at everything in your grief, tryin’ to blame everyone for taking your Claudie, but it’s no one’s fault, Frank, people come and go, I’ve seen it all, but how many of ‘em lie under a rug with another one and know in their heart there is no other? I’ve seen the ones who have done that, Frank, I’ve seen what becomes of them, and I can tell you they’re the lucky ones, even if it doesn’t last for ever, they’re the lucky ones. And look here, Frank, I said I’d come and do what I could, but that’s it, you’re on your own now, except maybe for that camp full of people sleepin’ by your fire, but don’t expect me to be as nice as this any old time, it’s out of character; if it wasn’t for the sky and stars and all you birds and flowers, I wouldn’t have bothered at all, if that Gabadj woman, Aunty Adpin hadn’t pleaded with me, I wouldn’t be here at all. You know what she said to me, “Da, I don’t mind becomin’ dust under your foot if it could mean somethin’ for that other mob.” As if that’s how I work, Frank. But it was good wasn’t it, to want something like that? But I said, no, Aunty Adpin, I want you to live until your teeth fall out and you get a beard like a billy goat. And she laughed, Frank, “I can scare all the children,” she said, “I can make ‘em kiss my hairy ol’ cheek.” Funny sense of humour some of them old ladies, but to offer your life for another, Frank, what do you think about that?’
‘Alright.’
‘Alright what?’
‘Alright this is my lot.
‘Don’t be so cheerful then.’
‘I’m no bloody Christian.’
‘Who said anything about Christians? One mob wants a carpenter, the other mob wants a cross, I said nothing about a lot. You get what you get and do what you can.’
‘Profound.’
‘You’re scoffing again, it’s not like you, Frank.’
‘Well, I can hear one of the babies cryin’.’
‘Lucky you, which one? Sky or Stars?’
‘Alright Da, alright, but an old bloke like me takes time to see reason.’
‘There’s no time, Frank, there’s no time for reason. It’s pilk puriyn already. That baby’s got an empty belly and if Morlgalyu wasn’t here, what would you do, Parwung, feed the star baby some worms? See ya, Frank.’
‘You talkin’ that Da, Frank?’
‘Yes, Uncle.’
‘I dream that Da.’
‘I’ve gotta get the babies an’ give ‘em to Betty.’
‘Morlgalyu.’
‘Yes, Uncle . . . here Bet . . . Morlgalyu, here’s the babies.’
‘Frank?’
‘Yes, Uncle?’
‘That new Godfella he be needin’ new gate. Missus that Godfella she bin sayin’, ooh no gate, no fence, she bin scared longa bush.’
‘Yes, Uncle.’
‘You plenny good fence man, Frank.’
‘Yes, Uncle.’
‘You got cuppa tea for Uncle, johnny cake mebe?’
