Why I Live Where I Live

Many years ago I was traveling with a small group of Njardu people. My 'boss woman' (read here to read about my first encounter with her) and a Njardu medicine woman and medicine man were part of the group.

We were returning to the city after a funeral many hundred miles away. Along the way there were two significant sacred sites that had large and important rocks. The Njardu people are the 'keepers of the stones'. We stopped and communed with these rocks.

As we approached one of them we had to travel through a small forest of trees unlike I had ever seen before. These trees had a most eerie 'vibe'. At the rock (Boojin) I was told many stories; stories of how all the large rocks around Australia all link up together along song-lines. Though we were on Nyungar Boodja (lands belonging to another tribe) it was explained to me that there was 'co-responsibilities' between tribal groups.

We spent nearly a whole afternoon at Boojin and I heard many stories about the rocks there, the animals, the djukurpa (dream-time) and the medicines. We left in order to be back in the city before 'shadow-time'.

As we left and during the journey through the next ten miles or so away from the rock I was overcome and announced, "that I wanted to live right here".

This seemed to be a strange thing to say as I was not borne of this country.

About four years later a friend and I were looking to leave the city and buy some rural land together that was not too far from the city.

We looked for over twelve months, mainly east of the city and over the scarp. We were more or less decided on a patch when he died suddenly.

I decided to still keep looking and now started looking south east of the city. This section is the most remote, perhaps because it heads into the wheat-belt. I wanted to be within a sixty five mile radius of the outskirts of the city.

One day one of my sisters sent me a real estate link which was about another fifteen miles farther out.

I went to have a look and was immediately interested. I then told the real estate agent that I could never buy a place without first sleeping overnight there to see if the Land Spirits felt about my presence. He accepted this very well and I was allowed to sleep and 'dream' there.

In the morning I felt I had been 'claimed' and been given a story about what I needed to do on the Bannah (western desert term for Land). In short I was told this was a place where women give birth sometimes and need protective men. And also that many mothers and fathers (in separate groupings) needed to return to this patch for specific types of healing.

This fitted in well with certain responsibilities I had already been 'given'.

It is also what is known as 'scary country'; not suitable for weak-hearted sorts.

It was only when I had been there nearly two years that I realized that I was exactly where I had earlier been overcome and said that I wanted "live right here". By traveling along a combination of both bitumen and gravel road I was about twenty odd miles away from the Rock but as the crow flies am only about five miles. That it took this long for me to realize this is another type of spiritual matter.

Around the time that I realized my proximity to Boojin Rock I 'found' a book on my property that I had not bought. It was a very limited edition book written by an elder and it happened to explain exactly the story of the Bannah I was on.

In short it told the story of a woman who kept running away and could not settle. The elders ordered her then to go to spend a while with the keepers of Dut Nyin (where I live) so that she could 'catch up with herself, do lots of crying and then heal.

It has been a very hard slog for me to be living there. The weather is extreme by Western Australian standards; being very hot and dry in summer and very cold in winter. Bear also in mind that I live in two homes; initially because I was also working as a sessional academic and also spending a great deal of time with my little granny (grand-daughter) in the city.

Though having said that, as far as any town councils are concerned I am homeless being that I live in two sub-standard dwellings referred to as sheds with limited facilities.

For somewhat complex reasons that have extremely little to do with the actual job itself I have been 'on strike' for the last two years, having been placed into an untenable position because of Government policy and some University administrative practices.

My 'home-base' down the farm has insufficient electricity to run air- conditioning or other appliances that use >600watts. Mobile (cell) phones are out of range there and decent broadband services are also unavailable.

Though I have managed to make 'home-base' much more comfortable over the years and conditions have in the past been more extreme I am still living with a largish hole in the roof that lets rain (and big black goannas and snakes) in, several droughts, gutters not good enough to catch much rain-water, and what I call the 'worst bathroom in the world' that is not very usable.

I still have a mortgage and no funds to realize the massive potential of the place or to get it to the standard it would need to be in order to become the retreat the spirits ask of. I (try) to live on three hundred dollars a month in an economic atmosphere where an income below nine hundred per week is considered poverty. I also drive a small bus that is not air-conditioned that I have owned since it was new in 1987.

It has really been difficult and harder still not being able to allow the place to reach it's full potential. I think I soon need also to write an article called 'The Starving Mystic".

So yesterday as I returned to the city I talked to the rocks and country telling it that 'I needed a miracle' if it wanted me to stay; otherwise I cannot go on. I've thrown all the balls into the air.

Let's see what happens next.

Keep posted.