Shirley Lewis Story. Part 2.

Mainly, and um, we'd be at the pub now waiting for nothing. She got no money, and then I'd hear that language. I don't know where whether it's Wambai or Warumul. She could speak all those languages, but she just gave it to me. She used to give it to me, this language, but then be quiet. And when I look into her eyes, you see cloud. They're the ones who've seen shit that we. And you read about.

Ah.

You see, you know, clouded eye, but never said anything after that, from saying everything to nothing, you know, not hardly saying anything, because of the other world.

Ah.

I shifted from their world into Babalangi and Madagi world. Babalangi is Wormhole, Madagi is Ah. Check the name. Gunaba is warmu. Janji is wambaya. That's the dog. Basic stuff.

Thank you.

I used to get the wambaya out of my mum's auntie when my mum went pub.

Yeah.

Because mum would speak to her in language. Namani ji, yaar o gama na? Mere yaar, ngari bhi ngari gana. She'd say to her, I'm going now, you stay here, look after them. I'm gone drinking, you stay here, look after them. Because I'd go to my auntie. What'd she say? I shouldn't say it, I gotta stay here, look after them. No, say it in language. Say how you say it. Namani ji. So I learned from my bits and pieces from my auntie on the sly.

Ah.

Because my mum was a bully to her too. When she come back drunk one time, she cheated on mum and started getting into her. Me, my brother, and my little sister, we were getting into mum. My brother was dragging mum off, I'm hitting mum. Like, yeah, we just— and she was somebody, you know, couldn't speak a thing, just basic stuff we'd teach her. Mum learnt to read from our books.

Really?

My mother, from our books that we came— Dick and Dora and stuff like that.

Really?

That's how she learnt. And then when I was growing up, go get me newspaper, all that. I'd go get a newspaper, come back, and she'd be just looking at them big pictures and just the big words.

Words, yeah.

Like, look at picture. And then one day she goes, what do you need? What this thing say here? And I'm really— what? You don't know how to read? Nah. And I said, all them years I'm buying them newspaper for you, you didn't know how to read? Nah. What were you doing with it? And she was telling me, I'm just looking at the picture and then learning them little words from them books for wee boys.

Wow.

And then putting things together. But never missed the news, you know, because of all the shit that happened to them and relied on that for information. She was pretty special. She made me learn the hard way.

Hmm.

When I started getting on boards, you know, all the elders, I was like a young one just learning. And I'd see things that wasn't right, you know, with our mob sitting at the table, and I'd go back to her. So it's no good, Mum, you know. What I gotta do? Like that. I wait for advice. She leaves. You'll work it out. Oh well, Mama, I'm still working it out. I'm still working it out, Mother. But they'll show themselves eventually. You can't keep living a lie. No.

Truth will set you free. If you really want to be free, you've got to be honest.

They undo themselves. Yeah. But yeah, very, uh, timings. Well, growing up, you know, like when we moved to the main house and our house became a meeting place for all the tribe when they come to town, and I just I had to find an outlet, you know, a way of saving myself somehow, and that was sports. So I did every sport that was going in this town.

Really?

Little athletics, swimming, basketball, everything, softball. I did everything, all of it, you know. So every day my week was filled with something.

Another sport.

And then Saturday and Sunday was other games. Sunday was Little Athletics Day.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember that.

But the rest was Just filled with everything.

Football, swimming, yeah.

Swimming or softball, you know, netball. It was all filled. And then I excelled where I got to the NT level where I was representing Northern Territory.

Wow.

So from under 16 right up to senior level, just represented NT. Got to go right around the country, meet different people.

Wow.

Grew as a person. Still growing, but, um, just grew to a level where I'm up today and I just feel a bit disheartened, if that's the right word, with how we're going.

Yeah.

From where we come from to where we're going.

What do you think is the way forward?

Knowledge. Knowledge, it doesn't necessarily have to be in a written form. Knowledge verbally, showing, telling knowledge, and that knowledge has to be of yourself. It's got to be of yourself. You know, like, this is a good time now, I believe, because all the lies have been exposed.

Yeah.

Everything's coming out now. You know, like all the things that we were learnt at school, taught at school, Yeah. It's a joke.

Yeah.

No wonder the society turned out to be a mess.

Yeah.

So it's a new opportunity, I believe, for growth in knowledge and receiving that knowledge too.

Yep.

Digesting it and making use of it.

Yeah.

Looking forward to, um, looking forward to whatever knowledge has come out now.

Yeah.

I'm looking forward to seeing you. Yeah.

What happens?

We'll just— they say that we'd be citing things, you know, like we, we're supposed to be the ones who— just the knowledge gained over time that even when it When it comes to the sense of people fighting over country.

Yeah.

You know, when they're fighting over country, then, you know, when you go, you wanna go deep into it and that's ancient.

Yeah.

We don't come from here.

Yeah.

You know, like, and how society created this mess by saying that, you know, like dividing and making boundaries and— And this yours, you know, like that, that, that's universal, those boundaries, that's universal. Now they put on roadmaps and, and then put dollars and, and everything in now, and now separation, you know, just all that. But if they— we claim to come from ancient people, yeah, then I don't see much knowledge in these people from our ancient people.

I wonder about that and the concept of Traditional owners. Like, the concept of owning land is such a European thing. And so now what we do is, I will make you a traditional owner, which means you are not, which automatically puts you in conflict with everybody else. And out of a whole nation of people, I'm going to pick 2 or 3 people, and I as the white man will declare you the owners. Which makes everybody else lesser. Whereas once upon a time we used to sit in a circle and decide about what we were going to do for our land and for our people and have conversations about other people and coming and going. But now we can't do that. So when it comes to the decision-making process, I'm now poking one or two people that may or may not be, and it's like, well, okay, this is kind of the weirdness.

Yes, it's, uh, creative chaos. And people to control that chaos.

Yeah. And at some point, maybe everyone's just got to let go of everything and say, okay, let's get back to maybe what we're supposed to do, which is respect for a greater thing.

Well, you know, like part of my journey, I've met some interesting people. And one of the first owners of that IGA used to be Peter's Place, Peter, Point Wales. Strawman, we call him now, because that white man name is the name of somebody we call Gummanjay, you know. So we used to call it Gummanjay Shop. And anyway, I became really good friends with him, and, um, he made his money, millions. He went over home to the East Coast, then came back.

Oh.

And he made— excuse me, I'm talking here— and he made a thing with himself saying that he'd come back with and survive on $100 a week. But he still owned a bit of that, that food barn there at the back, and that's where they sort the fruits and everything. And there was a big container of real old No good, so-called no good fruits were set. And me and him, because he owned it, we'd go in there and collect all the good fruits out of it.

Yeah.

And everybody knew he was in town and where he stayed, so when they came, he just gave them food.

Really?

He just put— he said— I said, what are you doing? He said, I've got one year to put back what I took.

Really?

And so he did. And I worked with him and we were doing permaculture gardens. He taught me the permaculture Really? And so I was his apprentice. All right, Georgie, I'm talking. So in, in— I, I spent a couple of years with him, you know, like we ended up getting the Calgary nursery too, you know, doing—

Really?

Potting on and doing a lot of stuff. He only just got caught out because marijuana was his medical and he got caught growing it. So he had to get caught. He got let, you know, he fought his thing, got out of it, but then Through that time when I was, you know, like, I remember just staring into space and he's down there on the ground talk— telling me stuff.

Yeah.

And he looks up and then he sees me staring into space. He goes, are you taking any notice? I'm not gonna be on this earth for long, so you need to really take notice. I'm like, oh shit, sorry. Anyway, he got— he's got Alzheimer's now, but he came back from his last trip and he, on his way back, Longreach, Somebody had to pick him up because he didn't know where he was.

Really?

So in that time he was here, he said to me that, um, so you really know you need to know how to filter your water.

Yeah.

Grow your own food.

Yeah.

And make shelter.

Yeah.

Because in at the end of the days, it's going to become satellite towns and you're going to have to know how to do all this sort of stuff. And this is coming from a white man.

This is very interesting.

This is coming from what?

Water, food, and shelter. It's fundamentals.

He came back and the old people that are gone, they were connected to him.

Yeah.

And he had met, he told me, beautiful people.

Yeah.

Beautiful people that helped him to grow.

Wow.

But yeah, he's there now staring in space himself. In a home in yeah, Nimbin somewhere, Shannon area. But he yeah, he said that's so um yeah, that's why I started a little garden down the dump there in some sort of sense. Just keep growing things, you know. Just keep growing. Yeah, keep watering, growing. Yeah, can't say I'm looking forward to the future, but yeah.

It might be a lot simpler than we've all thought, but it'll be interesting.

Well, it's interesting in the sense that, um, just, uh, with all this knowledge out too, how the other world is meant to be coming into our world, and apparently they were here first before us, and we only just— some of us are offspring of these people, things, beings. And that makes sense to me because everything is starting to uncover underneath.

Yeah.

You know, it's— Where, yeah, they're intelligent and we're going to say we're intelligent.

Yeah.

Dumbasses, man. But anyway, here I am in the middle of nowhere, town of Dust and Growth.

Dust and Growth.

Living the dream.

Thank you. Appreciate you very much. You too, bro.

Welcome home, man. Yeah, I don't—

it's the strangest thing. From orphan to something. It's the weirdest thing.

Saying like, Mom, when will you come back? That when— like it's a karma, karma sort of thing, but they have a— wind will chuck it back. It can either be good or bad. Yeah. And this— and in this sense, in this sense, it's a good thing, cuz that wind, look, that easily—

Yeah, chucking you back.

Yeah.

Love you. Thank you.

I love you too, man.

It'll be a good journey.