Trip there.

When we started the road trip, I felt very happy and at home. I’ve been on more road trips than the average person, since my family has travelled a lot – Mum’s from Canada, Dad’s from Australia, they met in Russia. That explain a lot. So, as we began driving and were on the edge of Howard Springs, I felt so free, and I was glad my trip had begun.

It is significantly dryer as you drive south because there is a desert. Lots of people seem to think that the desert would be hot, but it gets very cold at night - and it does the same in the winter when we travelled. The desert in far more arid further south. There were tons of termite hills in the desert, which stirred my imagination. There weren’t any people out there except for the occasional truck every couple of hours. but there were termites. There are thousands of termites in the termite hills, and they would’ve taken ages to build, and lots of cooperation, which means that they are very smart. They are often as tall as me. Maybe if you cut one apart you would find a complexed society. There is a really old joke going on in the Northern Territory, and people keep sticking t-shirts on the termite hills, it’s like a joke told too many times, but it proves a point – that the termite hills are huge.

The petrol got always got more expensive because beggars can’t be choosers. “if you can’t choose, you can’t beg” would be more accurate. Dad would complain that the petrol was so expensive. The truck stops were a relief to the emptiness of the desert, and I took the opportunity to look around, finding butterflies and flowers. Inside the truck stops there were some … peculiar souvenirs, which I didn’t buy, because we had stopped at the truck stop for fuel and weren’t going to stay.

Hermannsburg.

It was the moment of truth. After a million and two years in the car, waiting for my mum to come back with permission to go to Hermannsburg, mum finally came back. We could go, to see the friends we’d made in Darwin. Mum’s friend Carissa, with shiny black locks and a dimpled smile, had met mum in Darwin. She had come around Christmas to visit family, but broke her leg and was stuck in Darwin for months. Mum met her then. We had learned so much from her about this other land down in the desert, a couple hours away from Alice. At least, I thought I’d learned a lot. But it was when we were accepted to go to Hermannsburg, where Carissa and also Mum’s friends Julie were from, then – only then it began.

As we drove into the town, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so conscious of being white. We stopped at the petrol stop, which was in front of the shop, to try and find out where our friends lived. Mum had asked Julie on the phone where she was.

“Hermannsburg, my friend” she replied.

Which doesn’t seem like much information, but was actually enough. Another guy at the petrol station pointed out the way. Just look for the Collingwood picture, he assured. Dad didn’t want to ask for a number, since he didn’t seem to be about to give us one. We managed. Turns out, adults are terrible at spotting Collingwood signs. They are trained to look for shiny golden numbers on the little mailboxes, not what was right in front of their noses.

Down the streets, I saw many new things. Toddlers playing with toy trucks on the road, a sign the said no photography, no entry past this point (thankfully we had gotten permission back in Alice Springs), rubbish clinging to the gates outside.

When we got out of the car, we got a pretty warm welcome. The other teenage girls offered to let me hold their baby cousin, or sister, Daisy. You couldn’t really tell who was directly related, and who part of their extended family - they were constantly switching between houses.  Daisy was absolutely adorable, very happy, and didn’t seem to mind being held by a complete stranger. She didn’t start crying or anything. Perhaps she just trusted me because her relatives did.

They had lots of dogs running around, chasing each, resting on thin mattresses without sheets on the front porch. One female dog was in a little corner in the back, nursing her pups. They were very cute, newborns. They hadn’t yet opened their eyes, and were so small, though their father was quite big. This was a bit surprising because the mum was about average size. One of the ladies offered to sell them. Dad doesn’t like the idea of pets, and mum said it would have a very big impact on our life. I knew it wasn’t going to happen anyways. There was also this really cute puppy that was another breed, golden-brown. My sister kept carrying it everywhere we went. And treated it like a little doll – which is a good type of love, but doesn’t work too well for puppies, it traumatises them. Our friends didn’t mind that my sister carried it everywhere, but said she should put it on the ground before it got sick. Robyn did occasionally. I moved about freely with my new friends – relatives of Julie’s.

The houses were quite empty and that was shocking. The floors were made of concrete and the TVs seemed to glow brightly, because there wasn’t much light inside. The bedrooms in the house next to what was probably Julie’s had a bedroom and the back. It might have had more than one, it probably did, I wasn’t paying attention to that. Well that bedroom was cushioned with mattresses and thin blankets, they were all connected, expect for one white metal bed, with a dog hiding beneath it. I don’t remember where they kept all their clothes. I think there was one cupboard, but the room – and house in general – had less furniture that my house. The teenage girls, Bianca and Gina, told me that they took turn on the bed. There were some other people who I sort of met, they just kept floating around but I got to know Bianca and Gina more.

I already knew that asking too many questions is often considered rude – well before its rude for us, its rude for them. Answers are a type of currency, like asking for too much of other stuff can be considered rude for us.  But somehow, we managed to start a conversation anyway, or they were very polite.

And surprisingly, these girls were even more obsessed with tic-toc than people at school. I didn’t mind so much, it was good to have a bit of relief from conversation, but I’m sure we would have started talking if Gina wasn’t on her phone so much. I don’t really blame her, because apparently, they didn’t know we were coming. Perhaps only Julie did.

A woman was openly breastfeeding Daisy. I didn’t mind that all, I just noticed it’s not as common to see someone breastfeed in public in western cultures.

After my family had chatted for a bit we got in the car with our friends and drove to another part of town. No idea how far it is, I wasn’t really paying attention, but if Hermannsburg is small, maybe it was more for the sake of parking the car near us. I realised no one put their seatbelts, but we weren’t driving very fast and there wasn’t much in the way I’m not sure it would matter. I didn’t leave mine on either – I tend to blend in in other cultures, but stick out in my own. Though I probably stuck out a bit in Hermannsburg, but there wasn’t much I could do about that. I could not put on my seatbelt, though.

We squeezed me, Bianca, Julie’s daughter Aleiya, and the guitar in the back seat. It worked, but it was hard to keep Aleiya still. Sometimes Robyn was in the back. It gets a bit confusing on who was where each time, but there was definitely three people and a guitar in the back at one point (it’s a 7-seater, so the back is designed for 2 people.)

We drive to the grocery store, because, well, we needed groceries, we were on holiday. Mum said there was a sign at the cash register that said covid19 was killing 5,000 people a day.  Mum said that she thought they were just trying to make Hermannsburg seem safer, out of reach, so that people should stay there, and the shops will make more money.

Everything was in the shop. To the right there was the groceries, to the left well everything else. I remember the first row having clothes on one side and stationary on the other. Everything was there, well it seemed like that.

Bianca said that she got her ears pierced when she was 10, and she said she was missing one earring. I asked her if there were any in the store, and she said you have to go to Alice for stuff like that. She said it was funny that she was missing one, because she only had the left stud remaining, and baby boys get their left ear pierced so that people know they are boys. I suggested that she swap them over, but she just took it out. I’m not sure, maybe one in the right ear means something entirely different. Logically it would mean she was a girl, but she got them done when she was ten, and come to think of it, I don’t remember Daisy wearing any studs.

Bianca told me a lot of things that would be rude to repeat, they are her story. It’s too personal, too private to repeat. It was nice that she was very open. Um not sure what ‘d done right but I was trying to be friendly, and well the conversation just started. We started walking towards the old Hermannsburg church. I didn’t realise this until later.

As I turned around to see the trail we left behind, the picture was practically photo-worthy. But I think I left my phone in my bag, in the car. And besides, it would be strange for me too pull out my phone and take a picture of the dirt. Too whitefella. Perhaps my eyes are trained for finding beauty, and I’ll just have to keep a mental picture of what I saw. For the rest of my life. Two trails of footsteps walked side by side on the dusty road, one in flat city girl shoes, and one barefoot. I hope my mum got a photo. She takes a lot of liberty taking photos of me without me noticing, and she probably got a few of me and Bianca, because I’m Mum’s daughter, and apparently that gives her the right. I don’t think I can argue with her very... biological explanation.

Well, by the time we got to the gate ahead of us, the conversation got… deep. We’d arrived at the old Hermannsburg mission. There were lots of very rusty carts on display. Bianca and I sat on one and this, time mum took a photo that I noticed of us. This is the cart that had carried the Lutheran missionaries to Hermannsburg. I’m not sure what Hermannsburg was named then, but the name is pretty German now.

My family in a sense has a history with the place. My Grandpa is German, and grew up in a town called Bethany, in the Barossa Valley, SA. This town was the one that sent out Lutheran missionaries to central Australia.

Their carts had passed Hermannsburg, but they turned around because they saw a star. It was a bit like the star of Bethlehem, pointing directly at the town. I suppose it was pretty bright that night. They have a monument up the front of this metal star propped up on beams, like a tent skeleton. It’s quite pretty, actually.

Julie’s Aunty, whose name escapes me, was showing us this worship song book, some of the songs were translated hymns, other were traditional Arrenta songs. Arrenta has strange spelling, it also be Arrente or Arrenda. I’ve been trying to learn for a while, but so far only two words have stuck – pitja kukai, which means “come here, little girl”. Pitja means girl. I need to use it a lot - because Julie’s daughter is a little ragamuffin. She’s adorable. I suppose most toddlers are little ragamuffins.

Its sometimes frightens Aleiya though, or gets her attention. It’s a bit hard to tell. Its either “help me, whitefella speaking my language!” or “woah, there’s a white girl speaking my language”. I should learn more.

They have an old chapel and we sat just outside it for lunch. Since we were with our friends we got to go in for free, but Julie said that if you had come when it was open, you could get a cappuccino, proper down-south food, not buns and cheese and ham, and please pass the empty sprite bottle.

The empty sprite bottle actually came in handy. Julie’s aunty went to the tap nearby the picnic table, which is actually a well, because it is accessing water underground. Julie’s aunty explained to us that it was holy water, and so we went and prayed for it like the people there usually do.,

Holding a puppy in your arms, out of reach from your sister is a bit distracting while praying, but I’m sure God won’t mind. It was a bit difficult to figure out what to do, because the puppy was shivering in fear when my sister was trying to grab the puppy form me, and when I tried to get it out of Robyn’s reach, Robyn started squealing.

We prayed that God would forgive the horrible mistakes my people had made against the Arrenta people, and the God would reconcile us and help us to move on. I think we also prayed that God would bless the water, or maybe we didn’t, maybe God just does that. I didn’t realise because was trying to save the poor puppy. I think Robyn got it in the end because she was interrupting our prayers. Th puppy was exhausted, but it was all right.

When people are sick, the water heals them. Julie’s Aunty explained, which I think is pretty cool. It’s the sort of stuff that happens up here. I remember Janis, our friend in Melbourne, telling us about this, because incredible stuff just does happen up here, miracles and stuff. I haven’t personally witnessed miracles yet, but I believe them.

Robyn was still carrying the puppy. I carried it for a bit, and it seemed to relax. Bianca went back home around now, it’s a bit of a blur.

I’ll tell you more later.