Saturday
7am
"Victoria!!!" "Bang, thud, bang" Pantjiti, banging on my un-insulated, corrugated iron donga - aka - shipping container. I lay in bed, open my eyes and lay still. I tilt my head and I can see Uluru out of my bedroom window.
"Victoria! Mungawinki! Vic-toria! Nyuntu-pa nana, Pantjiti!" Transaltion - "Victoria, it's morning. Victoria. It's your nana, Pantjiti!"
"I know who you are" I'm thinking, and crawl under the doona.
"You better get up" Ben says.
"No, you better get up" I reply. "She'll go if we're really quiet" I whisper to him.
And, she did. And off we dozed.....
9am
"Vic-toria!" Bang, bang, against the bedroom wall!
"I ain't movin' " Ben says
"Victoria! Kunkga! (kungka means young girl) Mamu ere! (Mamu is ghost or spirit)
I drag myself out of bed, disoriented and open the door. The wind has begun to gently pick up and carries a Coke can along the sand, making a hollow tin can like noise as it bounces by. Pantjiti, blind in one eye looks at me and laughs.
"Munta! ('oops') Sorry!"
"Nyaa nyangatja?" (What's this? What's wrong?) I ask her from the door.
"Hey, mamu der last night" She whispers
"Yaaltji" (where) I ask her.
"That place over der" she whispers again, pointing to the Artist HQ "Room 1"
"Ngananya?" (Who was it) I whisper back
"Must be Yvonne ey. Someone threw a brick. " She says
"Maybe" I reply.
Yvonne normally stays in Room 1 when she's in from Docker River and is very territorial! It would be fair to say that she was letting Pantjiti know that she was on her turf!
"That Billy Cooley heard me scream. We put my swag in number 2" She laughed.
"Udda kungka yaaltji?"(where's that other girl) She wanted to know.
"Yaalitja kungka?" (which girl) I ask Pantjiti
"That ranger - Tracey"
"Must be at 'ome" I tell her
"Ring him up" She says
"Wiya. She's busy. Too early. We ring up after" I tell her.
"You might take me ey" Pantjiti told me
"Take you where?" I asked her, still in my jim jams
"Elsie ku ngura" (Elsies house)
"Uwoh. Elsie ngura kutju ( Elsie's house only). Then I gotta come home. Palya?" I asked her
"Uwa palya"
2pm
Ben decided to go into work which had left me in a space of quiet, and, openness. A friend had been in touch with me asking to review some of their work. Having completed my own tasks, I happily got to work.
I heard the washing machine finish it's cycle. I had to get those sheets on the line - rain was coming.
I was pegging my sheets on the line when the infamous sound of a diesel troopie was getting closer.
"Hey kami! (granddaughter). We visiting!" It was Elsie and Pantjiti. My 'grandmothers'.
"Allo nanas!"
I was in a mode of focus and concentration. Nothing would get in my way. Unless of course, two gorgeous old girls arrived at my house!
"You ladies want cuppa-tea?" I asked them.
"Uwa, uwa"
"You can stay, but I'm doing that whitefella work on the computer. Palya?" and I handed them their cups of tea.
"Uwa. You right" Elsie said
I sat back in front of the computer and continued what I was doing.
"Hey, kami, you 'ome"? That was Billy, my grandfather and his wife (my nana) Lulu
"Hello tjamu. Nyuntu palya"? (you good?) I asked him.
Billy and Lulu joined Elsie and Pantjiti who were sitting on my rolled swag.
"Yeh I'm right. You take us shopping?" Billy asked me.
"Wiya. I'm stayin' 'ere today. Ben'll take ya"
"Yeh, that's right" he said. Billy was wearing the most funkiest glasses I'd seen! They were 70's style sunnies with pink lenses and translucent yellow frames. Deadly!
Billy and Lulu wandered off and Elsie and Pantjiti started unrolling canvas' and unpacking paints.
I returned inside (again) to continue working. It was quite magical, having those two women on my doorstep translating the depths of their tjkurpa (dreaming) and creativity onto canvas as they chatted and laughed away, while I was reading and typing - in my own world of creativity.
Within half an hour, they were ready to move again - these ladies get around!
"Vic-toria (most of this mob pronounce my name with a pause in the middle!) you got any of that smelly stuff?" Pantjiti asked
"Yaalitja? That incense" I asked her
"Uwa."
"I'll give you some" I laughed
"Wiru-nya" (beautiful)
So, off we went again, both ladies with nag champa incense in their hand bags!
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