Science  Write  Now

Share article
Everyone is feeling the heat
the long dry
roots of red gums 
           hang adrift            
           on a channel
           sinking
voices rise 
rage at the sight
the smell 
           of river life 
           drying up
           dying
anger spreads to dams   
weirs 
holding back
the flow
            allocated water
            bought and sold
                                                                                       
Along the banks
three Nations gather 
for corroboree
traditional men dance
Sing up the Paarka
in language 
     Wangkumara- 
Ngemba men 
          mourn with creatures 
          struggling
underground
                  beat clapsticks
                      stamp 
                  wake the earth
               their storylines        
            flowing
          slim to a trickle 
          now
Downstream 
          Barkadji men                                                      
          dance  makkarra
          rain stories 
          pound the dust                    
          call River Spirits
          into life 
                     Sing  
                       for a tribe
                         bound 
                           to the  Baaka
                             in flood
*
When the rains come 
Paakantyi read the signs 
welcome this time of plenty                        
watch thiirri                                             
          the sacred mudlark 
fly over territory
to wake her water world 
     
       fill lakes 
            at Cawndilla 
                 Menindee   
                         Tandou
                                Bijiijie

As if by message stick 
river life stirs 
                   
                Sleeping for years under mud  
      kathunya     
   watarta                      
         spawn in the flow

Pelicans 
    cormorants 
      come to feast 
         bring movement
                    song 
         to the waiting country


 
           Barkadji: Northern River People 
           Paakantyi: Southern River People 
           Baaka, Paaka: Darling River 
           kathunya: crayfish  
           watarta: mussels

Previously published in Westerly vol. 67 no. 1 2022 periodical issue pg. 165-167

The science inspiring the piece:

During the ‘Long Drought’ a friend joined a group of Aboriginal people walking the Darling River in an attempt to ‘dance the river’ back to life. To bring rain to restore the flow and bring wildlife back to the region.

I researched online, reading articles written by water ecologist Professor Jamie Pittock from the Australian National University, regarding the environmental science and the present inadequate conservation policies meant to protect the river. 

Feature image by William Piguenit