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    Black White Red
    Black White Red
    Black White Red
    Ebook137 pages1 hour

    Black White Red

    By David Bailes

    ()

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    About this ebook

    David Bailes was born in Adelaide and later attended primary school in Darwin and then high school in Alice Springs. While living in Alice Springs, David listened to many stories about the pioneering days as remembered by older family members. In Adelaide, David completed an Arts degree at Adelaide University and teaching diploma at Murray Park

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGinninderra Press
    Release dateSep 6, 2021
    ISBN9781761091612
    Black White Red

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      Book preview

      Black White Red - David Bailes

      Chapter One

      Manta – Land: Wangka – Language: Tjukur – Dreaming

      Invitation to Mparntwe – Alice Springs

      Come with me to another world

      beyond closed walls and beyond closed minds.

      Leave behind illusory pursuits

      and come to a place of inner peace.

      Faster than the speed of light

      your mind can take you where the spirit is free.

      We journey past gleaming ironstone plains

      and over oceans of red sand dunes.

      Folded mountains sleep like giant goannas

      as we come to the lands of the Altyerrenge.

      Here in the Dreaming the Ancestor Beings

      created the past world with us in the present.

      We have arrived and now our feet crunch

      through the salty crust on the soft desert sand.

      Past clumps of bluebush and yellow salt pans

      we appear like pilgrims at a sacred hill.

      Winding upwards along a narrow path

      we are drawn to a place of meditation.

      Here we rest in a shallow cave

      where we are at one with the land and all life forms.

      Placing our hands on the cave’s orange walls

      we can feel the strength of the Yeperenye Dreaming.

      We are surrounded by stories of an earlier age

      when giant stink beetles battled the Caterpillar People.

      The defeated Yeperenye formed the ranges and red gums

      along Lhere Mparntwe – the place of the river.

      In the distance Alhekulyele lifts its purple head

      for Mount Gillen was created by fierce fighting dingoes.

      Beneath us pink and grey galahs

      Slowly move along a timeless valley.

      The golden rays of the afternoon sun

      drench the ancient Arrernte landscape.

      We take a deep breath and slowly exhale

      as we take in the Land, the Law and the Dreaming.

      This is a journey back and forth in time

      that tells who we are and where we are from.

      Simpson Desert Morning

      The Simpson’s long rippled dunes

      rise up like giant red waves

      set in a sandy sea

      that stretches to a blue horizon.

      Here the wind has sculpted

      the ever-changing curves and contours

      of the desert’s soft scarlet body

      long hidden from curious eyes.

      Clumps of yellow spinifex

      cling to the base of the sandhills

      where tangled cane grass bushes

      scatter along the dunes.

      Camels and kangaroos shelter

      between bluebush and under acacia

      where the sand dunes meet the salt flats

      only moving once the earth has cooled.

      The sun’s early rays

      warn of the coming heat

      but hidden in deep tunnels

      the desert wildlife is safe.

      Patterned sand goannas

      stalk pre-dawn wanderers

      for here insects and animals

      provide both food and water.

      The secretive Eyrean grass wren

      hides among the desert grasses

      along with strange mice-like marsupials

      and cream and orange dragon lizards.

      The water-holding frog

      with cracked claypan eyes

      sleeps in dark suspended animation

      awaiting the rains.

      All those who enter

      this magical domain

      sense the calming peace

      of the stillness of the quiet desert.

      Ngintaka and Milpali: a Dreaming Story

      A giant orange and pale yellow lizard

      emerges from a remote deserted cave

      for this is the beginning in the time of the Dreaming

      and this is Ngintaka, the powerful Perentie Man.

      Milpali the mischievous sand goanna

      is a pastel-coloured young friend of old Ngintaka

      and on many a day they are together

      in the ever-changing world of the vast inland.

      Milpali has learned there will be a corroboree

      with rhythmic singing to the beating of sticks

      and there many young women will watch and dance

      with their bodies lined in ritualistic ochre.

      Excitedly Milpali and Ngintaka

      make plans of how to impress the girls

      and Milpali comes up with a clever idea

      of how to paint their transformed bodies.

      First Ngintaka would paint Milpali

      with an intricate pattern with beautiful lines

      and after Milpali would return the favour

      so that together they would make a striking pair.

      With his usual attention to fine detail

      Ngintaka carefully drew on his handsome friend

      and he patiently waited for the eager Milpali

      to make him look like a man of style.

      After painstakingly working on Ngintaka’s head

      Milpali grew tired of filling in patterns

      and quickly daubed great yellow blotches

      all along his friend’s half finished back.

      Milpali reminded Ngintaka they needed to hurry

      or all the girls would be taken by other suitors

      and as Milpali slipped away from their waterhole

      Ngintaka paused to admire his reflection.

      Initially old Ngintaka was quietly pleased

      but when he turned and looked over his shoulder

      he saw on his back the bright yellow circles

      that Milpali had painted with impatient haste.

      With a great roar Ngintaka reared up

      and chased after the scheming, frustrating Milpali

      but Milpali heard his angry friend coming

      and tunnelled deep in the earth to get far away.

      Ngintaka pursued Milpali until he tired

      and everywhere he dug down and re-emerged

      he created waterholes and made a landscape

      that remains to this day for his caring people.

      The Song Lines of Ngintaka

      Newly formed pink and purple ranges

      shimmer beneath an eternal sun

      and here the Tjukuritja, the Ancestor Beings,

      create all that is and will ever be.

      Moving stealthily between the grey-green acacia

      comes Wati Ngintaka, the Perentie Lizard Man;

      his giant black talons reflect the yellow grasses

      and his long forked tongue tests the air.

      Old Ngintaka follows a dry watercourse

      hiding behind the apara, the river red gums,

      until he reaches a place where a billabong

      is edged by green reeds and patches of tea tree.

      Pink-eared ducks swim on a surface

      that mirrors the endless blue liquid sky

      and small flocks of nyii-nyii, zebra finches,

      cheep as they flit from branch and tree.

      Bare feet crunch on the hot desert sand

      and happy voices rise and fall

      as the fair and dark-haired kungka, women,

      laugh as they approach the still waterhole.

      Ngintaka blends into the manta land

      with fine charcoal lines drawn like intricate shadows

      separating the patches of white clay on his sides

      from the daubs of untanu, the bright yellow ochre.

      The kungka wade into the cooling kapi

      and squeal with delight at the water’s touch

      their bodies glisten with a silver sheen

      like a burnished finish on kurku, the dark mulga.

      Like two black and gold suns Ngintaka’s eyes

      sharpen their focus on their innocent prey

      and his heartbeat quickens as his forked tongue tastes

      the scents of young women unaware of their fate.

      Massive black claws seize the fair-haired kungka

      as their screams carry to their ngura camp

      and Ngintaka places them in his python-like tail

      leaving before the wati, men, can gather their spears.

      Fleeing to the west across the Witjira

      Ngintaka crosses

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