The bush food and medicine trip

                           I

The first thing we find

on the bush food and medicine trip

is a centipede -

it's as long as a ten year old's foot

gets stomped on

we're looking for yalka

bush onions, smaller than a marble -

the mounds and hollows dug here

look like a marble playground

groups of children on their knees

hands scraping patiently

around scrappy clusters of leaves

til they find the little bulbs

put them in their pockets

to take home and roast on a fire

as much as they can

they ignore their teacher

asking what to look for, how to dig, how to eat yalka

he is very excited when a local woman says

you can store them for a long time

gets her to repeat this to the kids

we drag them away from their digging

the teacher is going on about protein and fat content

the Aboriginal woman tells me

yalka are good for when you're bored

you can snack on them, they don't fill you up

young Bianca stands next to a corkwood tree

for the video

says how you cook the bark in a fire til it goes 'thing'

put sand on it, to make 'thing'

to put on sores

most of the kids are raging through the bush

they've found a nest

two little birds curled up next to each other

everyone's trying to grab them

I make them put the nest back in the tree

at least the birds will get to die in it

we drive on to a big sandy creek bed

find some mistletoe but the berries aren't ripe

the kids are more interested in a huge spider web

pelt it with rocks

we get them away

sit them down with worksheets

they produce drawings of rows and rows of yalka

or single big fat ones

one boy does lovely mistletoe leaves and berries

they manage to write a few words

                                II

scraps of arrathe, bush passionfruit, fig

swimming in glue

that doesn't stick them to the cards

finally we get sticky tape

hearts in red pencil, linked with graceful lines

labels laboured over - 'Vanessa! Meg! Help me!' -

in between running around

grabbing pencils, scissors, shouting at each other

trying on stiletto shoes from an art room cupboard

the English name, the Arrernte name

the type of plant, the country it grows in, what it's used for

they get it all done somehow

stick the labels sideways, so they fit

inside the card, on the back

also a strip of paper, the teacher has photocopied

'Happy Mothers' Day. Love from....'

'Do I write Laurie?' - that's the teachers name

'No, who's it from, the card?'

'Mother?'

One boy wants to write 'Happy Fathers' Day' -

he doesn't have a mother -

I start telling him it's not Fathers' Day this week, then stop -

'Sure. OK,' I say