Life In Pukatja

My Days With Dickie

2008-11-23T23:21:00.007+10:30

Our favorite person out here is Dickie. He is the cutest tjilpi (old man) out here. He used to come in a get all his shopping by himself, but now we do his shopping for him when he comes in. I think in his day he was a womanizer, b/c he has kungka's (women) everywhere. He was going to marry Rosie after Christmas when she was here. Bet she is glad she left, although we joked, 'at least he has lots of money!'

We had many battles with his wife, over dresses and shoes. She had a big spear that she would pretend to threaten us with, then she would shriek with laughter when we looked scared. Dickie would always try to find shoes for her and in the end he would just say 'kungka has big feet!' When his wife died all he said was' just me, only 1 left and point to himself, then say other one up here and point to the sky.

Now it is just him and his 10 dogs. He lives in a little self-made shelter/tent. And drives around in his john deer car. Dickie is one of the more well known painters at the Ernabella art centre. His paintings sell for thousands of dollars. And believe it or not...he is in his 90's!

His car was broken down for a few weeks and we would sometimes deliver his groceries to him if he didn't walk down to the store. The last weekend before his car was fixed, I dropped off groceries for him b/c it was raining and he didn't show up at the store. Well wasn't I in for a surprise when I seen Dickie in his house. He was sitting there on the blankets with no pants on. THANK GOODNESS he had a long shirt on!

And it happened again when we were driving by him in his other shed. I glanced over to see if he was there, and went 'oh, Dickie is in the doorway with no shirt on...and no pants....yikes! Thankfully we were a bit away from him and him being dark skin and dark in the shed...ya you get the picture.

But you gotta love him! He calls Allison the long kungka! and I'm just the kungka! But he does call me his daughter, now and again.

What can we say, we take care of him.

Turn Me Slowly

2008-09-08T12:45:00.003+09:30

So we went to Uluru(Ayers Rock) on the weekend and met up with the manager from the Docker River store-Gavin. Gavin is the son of Maureen and Derek who work with us at the store. So we met up and had a few drinks on Saturday night. While we were drinking and talking about each others communities, Gavin told us a good story. Apparently he had an aboriginal come into his story and asked him for a "turn me slowly". Gavin looked at him and said "what?" He said I need to buy a "turn me slowly". Gavin says, "look mate I have no idea what you are talking about!" So they guy tells him to come outside. So he follows. The guy then opens the hood of the car and points to the radiator cap. On the top of the radiator cap reads "Please Turn Slowly". So you know what it is if someone asks you for a "Turn Me Slowly"!!

Kidnapping in Pukatja

2008-04-09T10:59:00.003+09:30

Funny story about a truck driver, a boy and a community.

Truck driver (white) comes into town with a little boy (anangu - black). Community is concerned. Boy must be lost and driver has picked him up on his way to town, it can be the only reason why an anangu boy is in white man's care. Community asks truck driver where he picked up boy. Driver replies "he is mine, he has been my foster child for 4 years."

It seems everyone is happy...until sometime later driver realises boy is missing.

Several people from community still insisting boy must be lost, as this could be the only explaination, had taken him away to be looked after til his family could be found.

So police had to be called to go a get him back from the sorry camp he was taken to. The truck driver eventually got him back, but he says, 'yah they only care about this little kid when he is with a white man, not when he is left by himself and starving to death. How sad!

Aahhhh WHAT??

2008-04-08T22:25:00.005+09:30

So last week, I was getting ready to close up the store when one of the customers at the till said "Billy there's a snake over there!!!" So I go, "WHAT? WHERE?!" So she tells me it is in the back caged area, by the bikes. Then I tell her "I don't care and I don't want to know about it, cause I am not going to go ANYWHERE!!! near it!" Then I think...the back door in that area is not sealed off properly at the bottom so a snake could very well slither in. YIKES!!!

So I go over towards the caged bit to see. But I can't see the snake, so I ask where is the snake(thinking if I can't see it, it could be closer than I really want!!!)So she tells me, there it is, by the fooseball game. Then I see it!

Here's a photo of the snake we found in the store...

He may be small (like a earthworm after a good rain) but believe it or not this baby brown(mulga) snake could still kill you! Gotta love this country!