There was no Wet Season here in northwestern Australia last year. The rain never came. Last night a cyclone (or hurricane) formed at sea to the north of us. It’s over 600km away and the sky is clear blue this morning.
Read MoreI was ambivalent, but curious, about the UN. It accommodates a bunch of scoundrels, kept in dull sinecure. And there are also terribly earnest people, sincerely looking to make things better.
Read MoreWe watch the birds sheltering, clustered on one side of the tree as a dust-storm blows in. It’s the Australian interior in January in the era of Climate Change—way too hot.
Read MoreThe Egyptians had cults of the bull, including prognostication from the actions of a specially selected animal.
Read MoreI was allowed to stand above the patient's head to see his heart and lungs working while the doctors and nurses worked on him. I stood as still as I could, afraid I might fall in.
Read MoreBroome was the first place I saw hot pink frangipanis – their perfume swelling up in the waves of midday heat
Read MoreI watched her breathing for three or four hours, checking her pulse, alert to any grimace or gasp.
Read More‘This is a very serious incident —' said Claudia.
‘There was no incident,’ interrupted the doctor.
“Why is he worse now than he was before the operation?” John demanded. “Why isn’t he better? Are you telling us he’s not going to get better?”
Read MoreIn his new reality in the hospital, he was being captured and taken away, tortured and traumatised, every night.
Read MoreAs 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 MoreMany 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 MoreWhy 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 MoreI 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 MoreInsidiously, 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 MoreSome of the Aboriginal babies she cared for were thin and irritable, with watery diarrhoea and scalded nappy rashes. They were diagnosed with Failure to Thrive — a diagnosis which puts a child’s parenting directly under the spotlight. Their mothers seemed powerless. Health workers wondered what was going on in these babies’ homes?
But Christine wondered if it could be something else.
I’m not on call except for unusual emergencies. I sleep through the everyday emergencies — the heart attacks, obstructed gall bladders and car roll-overs — that my colleagues, the Remote Area Nurses (RANs) deal with at night. This week there are two RANs here with me — for a town at its peak population of around five or six thousand.
Read MoreAt first, the stony path was unremarkable except for a closer look at some of the bright flowers. But cresting a rise at the end of the path revealed an immense and strange space — a panorama of desert dunes and volcanic cones.
Read MoreClaudia spent many early mornings hunting bats with her camera. They had complicated wings and hooky ‘hands’. Our garden was full of food for them and for us — fruiting banana trees, cannon-ball-sized breadfruit, taro, soursop and limes. Piglets fussed and rooted for fallen fruit below, following their mum.
Read MoreThe big beast gets up elegantly with you sitting on it, back legs first, pitching and tilting the rider as you lean back in the saddle. Suddenly you’re up and can see a long way over the desert landscape. A camel’s walk is measured and rhythmic. Being there gives you a lofty and mellow perspective.
Read MoreSlot Canyon photograph in banner by Sebastian Boguszewicz
Creative Writing by Dr. Janelle Trees
Photo: Claudia Jocher
I'm a doctor of Aboriginal descent living and travelling with my photographer wife, Claudia. I see myself as a bridge between 'races' and cultures, gay and straight, the child and the crone, arts and sciences. I am inspired by Nature, including humans in all our splendid individuality.
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