Touristic Travail
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She was psychologically worn down, too -- expected to drink with guests, entertain them and be entertained by them. The bar staff helped by hiding the alcoholic drinks clients bought for her.
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Smoke and buzzes
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I began to think Terrible Thoughts. I knew that pesticides were poison. As a flame in my throat flared with each breath or swallow, I became convinced that I had accidentally inhaled a toxic dose of the insect spray.
Read MoreGetting a Line In
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I feel grateful to her for allowing me, all those years ago, to slip in and out of her classroom to learn more about the art and science of slipping sharp needles into people’s veins.
Read MoreThe Reluctant Mentor
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I have to admit that I didn’t like the idea of mentoring in the 80’s and 90’s. It seemed to me that if you needed some guidance on a path of greed and corruption, a mentor was the one to help you. You can see my ideas about business were a little narrow.
Read MoreAli's Prize
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I know many of the birds she describes. I have seen how those desert birds rush in wild flocks.
Read MoreMidden Treasures
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As I sat one day on the tall hill of sand and sea grass, I realised that the hill was mostly made of shells. Not just any shells, but large shells of tasty shellfish: oysters, cockles, limpets, pipis and periwinkles. All of them good to eat. Six thousand years of shells.
Read MoreWave of care
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As an alienated adolescent (who would rather do anything but look after – or even look at – sick people and their problems), I stared into the waves at the beach a lot. I knew there was something there for me, if I just kept looking.
Read MoreBig Flag Day at Home
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They are playing that slow-baked game called cricket — the pace of which accommodates inebriation and lethargy so well.
Read MoreItjanu Summer
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Massive storm clouds had been gathering and the long-distance fragrances of hundreds of different desert flowers curled itself around petrichor – the perfume of rain on dusty rock.
Read MoreRented Boxes by the Bay
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It’s a four-and-a-half star hotel, they say. Our room has a spa bath with 2 of the 4 jets working and it is only as loud as a lawnmower. The working jets are oddly placed. My ankles and knees are very relaxed.
Read MoreEducated Dancers
/The old men used to laugh and laugh while their university-educated pupils stumbled along. Now, the men dance with the efficient and compassionate grace of our earthy people.
Read MoreCity Special
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Many of my doctor colleagues work on one part of the body only and get to know that system or that set of organs very well. I used to wonder, as a student, how you could spend a career that way.
Read MoreCatching Spirits
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For local Aboriginal people, the Anangu, a person’s spirit can be disconnected from the body, causing sickness. You can even see the healer — the ngangkari — looking for a person’s spirit, finding it under a bush and restoring it to the sick person.
Read MoreSavouring Sublime Sunsets
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An Indigenous friend told me that the Arnhem Land Yolgnu have a huge body of knowledge about sunsets. That idea captured my imagination. I’ve never quite let it go.
Read MoreFestival of the Breast
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Why wouldn’t you want to have your breasts tenderly and thoughtfully painted with ochre for inma (ceremonial dancing)? And feel a connection between your breasts and the earth around you? Our bodies all come from our mothers’ bodies and breasts and the earth is our continuing mother.
Read MoreCactus Youth
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Whether slim and brown, pale and gothic or covered in overdeveloped muscles, nerdy glasses or gold jewellery, young people need to find a way to identify themselves, to the extent they know themselves. In mainstream society, we have nebulous rites of passage for our young people — getting a driver’s license, travelling with friends, drinking alcohol ’til you’re sick.
Read MoreThe Sweet, Warm Winds
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In the cool piriyitja mornings the flowers are full of honey. Even at the height of the day the flowers cover your fingertips with abundant syrup if you touch them. They are bracingly delicious. The Anangu kids call them lolly flowers.
Read MoreHard for the Money
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I tried to change my mind about Tuesday. I did not succeed. In fact, I’ve given up trying for now. I like where I live and work and I like my routine, except for that lumpy bit at the beginning of the week.
Read MoreTo Have a Carer in the World
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Insidiously, the work undermines a caregiver’s self-trust and self-love. This is a danger inherent in the work itself — you have to deny your own needs and desires twenty times (or a thousand times) a day.
Read MoreBubbling Up
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If a ball of lava is coming towards you, you focus on it and watch its trajectory, then move sideways, that is, not down the mountain or into the volcano, so that you can avoid it. I have missed catching so many balls in my life that I figured I’d be fine.
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