Hayden

'What trees did that old lady

show you this morning?'

'athenge! 'says Hadyen

'that's ironwood', I say, looking through the plant cards

'I'm sure it was gidgee,

Bessie said gidgee', says the white teacher

the Arrernte teacher is away

we try the question from different angles

show the plant cards, each with a picture of a local plant

Hayden repeats his anthem of 'athenge!'

'I don't have the language name for gidgee

maybe gidgee has a similar name,' I say

'yes, that must be it', says the teacher

later we find out it was athenge

you pound the roots

to make a lotion for sore eyes

we sit the children down

to draw and write the Arrente names of plants

Hayden is doing the witchetty bush

he repeats its language name 'atnyeme'

many times for me

but I still don't quite get it right

later he sits with me

goes through all the plant cards

reads their names,

'atetye!', 'utyerrke!', 'awele-awele!' - he's excited

they don't all grow near here

but he knows them

we play sorting games

those that grow in sand country, rocky country, plains

at seven or eight he gets it all right

the other kids are interested

but not this much

'Hayden's usually pretty dreamy at school

I've never seen him engage like that',

says the teacher