Club Captain Marnie Irving.
I am writing this, this NAIDOC week, from Bindibu country in the Western Deserts region of WA, almost as far from the sea as you can possibly get.
I have been lucky enough to spend two days camping amongst white coolabahs and spinifex with two women from the Pintubi Nine. You may recall the family group of nine indigenous people who came in from the bush in 1984, almost the last people on this planet to have contact with other civilisations. They described the trees racing by as they travelled in a ‘monster’ car and met the white fella ‘ghosts’ for the first time. They talked about their recent visit to the Smithsonian in Washington DC and ride on the London Eye.
They showed us how to dig for witchetty grubs and how to stomp on the ground to find lizard burrows. They then took off in a helicopter searching for bilby burrows and dropping bait for feral cats and foxes as part of their work as rangers.
They were generous, charming, erudite, resourceful and full of good humour – all qualities that we respect at RBYC over our 150 years.
Best wishes,
Marnie Irving, Club Captain