The outback

It was the first weekend of summer 20 years ago and  Christmas holidays, and we were excited. Four good friends on their first road trip into the outback! No parents for a week! It was just my best friend Donovan ( the star rugby player ), Dani ( his nice but princess-like girlfriend ) Ruby ( my girlfriend and the school’s cleverest girl ) and me, Angelo. I’ve always been quite the worry wart, and I wasn’t sure this road trip was the best idea. Two guys and two girls – was this going to work in the outback? But it was summer and school was over, so I didn’t care. I should have. Four friends left together on that Sunday, and four friends returned to Sydney a week later. But not the same four people…

Our trip started on Sunday and when we arrived we did nothing. It was very interesting, we were in a small camp with a few other people but we didn’t got know the better. You can imagine it like a big camping side and each day you can drive with your car a bit further in the outback and do some new things. The first three days were very relaxed but also exciting. We saw some wild animals and visited some beautiful places but on the fourth day something happened we couldn’t imagine.

 

Aborigine

My dear children, today I want to tell you a story which was happening not at all too long ago, it was a Thursday, 20 years ago:

There were those creatures again! My brother and I, Yalma, often saw them in cars or big groups with a leader. They always looked very funny in their clothes. I think they have still too many of them. My brother didn’t like the white humans because they had stolen our most important tribe treasure. It’s the amulet from “Lilga” the morning star. 1000 years ago in the dreamtime, the Bullangi people created an amulet with the captured light of the star and if ever our tribe is in big trouble or danger we can open it and Lilga will help us. But one day the amulet was taken away.  My brother Geriga was ambitious to find this amulet and to bring it back to our tribe. My family is the only one who knew that our treasure was stolen from a white man. It happened 100 years ago, when only a few whites travelled to the Blue Mountains. Now there are many foreign people here in our area and my brother looked at each of those people hopeing to find the amulet, and to bring it back to our tribe.

 

Angelo:

On the fourth day we went on a trip near the Jenolan Caves and all seemed to be great.
“Hey guys, let’s get out of the car and explore the area!” Donovan said, Dani laughed “Haha funny Donovan! My dear, can you please help me to get out!?”
“Sure honey, but I told you to wear the sneakers and not the high heels!” answered Donovan and Dani said “Hmm your right, next time I will listen to you but high heels look so much better than sneakers.”
“So come on guys and let’s have a look at these beautiful Blue Mountains! It was such a great idea to visit this place” Ruby said happily.

It was really beautiful there, I never thought that it would be so great! Only Dani, our drama queen got a bit on my nerves…
“Oh what is this?” Dani asked.
Her voice broke the silence of the nature while she was pointing at the entrance of a cave.
“Wow I think that’s another entry for the Jenolan Caves, the oldest cave in Australia. It was created 340 million years ago.” Ruby answered.

I really loved Ruby, she is so clever and knowledgeable and in addition the best and friendliest girlfriend ever. After Dani, Donova, Ruby and I went around the small entrance of the cave and took photos of the nature we took our sandwiches out of the car and decided to have a small picnic.

 

Aborigine:

It was in the early afternoon when Geriga and I looked for something to eat when he talked to me: “Do you see them? Who are they? They don’t look like the usual groups coming to visit the big cave, they are different!”
I was a bit confused so I only said “What do you mean Geriga? I can see myself that the one girl looks very pretty but not characteristically like a normal tourist. She is wearing these high shoes, I’ve never seen before…” But he said “Well, no, look at her necklace, Yalma, it’s… I think, that is… no –  I know for sure that this is the amulet!” I shouted: “Stop it Geriga, you can’t know!”
But he didn’t hear me anymore. He ran and ran. The next thing I saw was that Geriga snatched the necklace from the girl’s neck, she screamed and the three other people ran after my brother who disappeared into the cave and they followed him. The only thing I thought was: What should I do now? And at this moment I heard a noise, so loud, it was ear-battering. As I looked up, I saw that the cave was closed by an enormous rock fall. The girl was screaming and shouting.

 

Angelo:
We ran and tried to follow the boy but we finally lost him. So there we were: Two boys and one girl in a dark cave, and one girl outside in the outback. Not the best situation! Everybody was silent and nobody said something so I decided to speak out: “So what should we do now?”
Donovan: “Let’s look for that stupid boy and find him!”
Angelo: “But Donovan, think a moment, your girlfriend Dani is still alone in the outback.”                    Donovan: “Yes but this boy or whatever…”

Ruby: “Aborigine!”
Donovan: “What?”Ruby: “I think he is an aboriginal boy!”
Donovan: “Well yes maybe Ruby, please stop kidding me.”
Ruby: “I’m not kidding! I’ve read that here in this area lives an aboriginal tribe.”
Donovan: “Oh my gosh, are you saying that there are more like him, Ruby?”
Ruby: “That can be possible, Donovan”
Angelo: “Stop, I think we have to decide if we should go back to Dani or look for that aborigine boy?”
Donovan: “I think we have to find her amulet.”
Ruby: “But listen Donovan, she is alone… in the outback… what is the most important thing for you, to find your girlfriend’s amulet, or to save her?”
Donovan: “Okay, okay, you’re right. Let’s go back!”

So we went all the way back. We followed Ruby, because she remembered things very good, so maybe we would find the way out very fast. A few minutes later Ruby stopped.

“Well that’s the point we got into this cave.” She said, but there was no exit. At that moment I realized that noise I heard when we followed the aborigine boy was the crashing of a rock fall. The entrance was crashed and we were caught in the cave. We helplessly looked at each other and a few minutes later we decided to search for another exit of the cave.

 

Aborigine:

I thought “Well, here I am, the blue sky over me, the blue mountains behind me, and the black cave in front of me, and in addition an hysterical girl screaming and overreacting”. I had to think… What to do now? Finally I decided to go to the girl although I was a bit scared how she would react. What would she do? Slowly I approached the girl. When she realized it she stared at me. When I saw the fear in her eyes I decided to talk to her with a calm voice:
“Hello my name is Yalma.” I said, “I saw the whole situation. The boy who stole your necklace is my brother. Don’t be afraid, I am not like him, he was only hypnotized from your amulet, I will tell you the whole history, but at first you have to come with me to my tribe. You’re not save here.”

For a while she didn’t say anything but then I heard a little quiet “Okay”. I was happy that she was calm too. It was such a strange situation! I think it never happened before that a white girl and an aboriginal girl were so peaceful together. It was a long way to walk to our tribe so I decided to tell her the whole story about our tribe treasure and my brother. When we arrived at our place I brought Dani -that was her name- in my family’s tepee and my people took care of her. I decided to go back to the Jenolan Caves.

 

Angelo:

It was, creepy, I don’t like to admit, but yes it was. Donovan was the bravest of us three in the cave but not the cleverest one, that was Ruby like you all know. And I was quite the worry wart. But that had to change. We were searching for another entrance in vain but after some hours we couldn’t go further and we all broke down. After a while Ruby said: “Boys, I think we have to go back to the crashed entrance and cry for help. Maybe someone will hear us and help us to get out of the cave.”

“But what if the aboriginal boy hears us and sends his friends to kill us?” I asked nervously, but Donovan answered: “Come on Angelo, don’t be a fraidy-cat, then I will save you two.”
“Well maybe they won’t kill us but I think it would still be better to be quiet in this cave. We don’t know the animals here, I didn’t think about that beforehand.”

I was happy that Ruby supported me. After a few minutes we decided to go back to the crashed entrance in hope to get it free, but in real we all knew that it wasn’t possible.
We were only longing for a little bit of sunlight because in that part of the cave we were there wasn’t any light. We only had the dim light from my wrist watch. After a few minutes of walking I thought that something or someone might follow us but I didn’t like to alienate the others or make them nervous. I thought I was already nervous enough myself! But when we were nearly at the entrance I couldn’t help the feeling that somebody was following us. So I whispered: “Ruby, Donovan, don’t you think that there is somebody behind us?”
“Psssst, but yes, I think so too.” Ruby said quietly. And I was right, I wasn’t getting nuts in this cave, the others thought the same! In that moment I realized a big shadow in the little light that shone through a tiny opening in the ceiling. The shadow was huge! Ruby, Donovan and I pressed to the wall and decided not to move. But then the shadow got smaller and we saw a little girl only a bit smaller than we were. She stopped and stood in front of us. She was motionless too.

 

Aborigine

It was strange. Two strange situations at one day, I thought that was too much. The three people looked at me and I looked at them but then I only had attention for one of the boys, he stood on the left side of the girl and was breathing in such a weird way that I frowned. The two others frowned too and then I heard such a funny noise! It was a “hick” and an “ou” was following. And at that moment I’ve had a gust of laughter, such a big gust of laughter and the three others laughed too! So we all laughed together and in our gust of laughter the hick up just didn’t stop! I’ve never laughed so much in my whole life!

After a while we came a bit down and introduced ourselves. Then Donovan, the boy who had that funny “hick up” asked me “But how do you get in here, Yalma, do you live here?” I was smiling and answered: “Haha, no Donovan, I am an aborigine and aborigines don’t live in caves! There is another entrance in the east but it is hidden behind a corner. When I was younger I often played here with my brother Geriga, he is the boy who stole Dani’s necklace. But don’t overact now, please. You are save with me, believe me, my brother didn’t do it on bad purpose. But let us clear it tomorrow because my tribe is two miles away and I think the best idea would be to go there now, it will be dark soon.”

“Okay, so let’s go” Angelo said, the other boy. He looked so tired and exhausted that I had the feeling he would go anywhere in the hope to go sleep soon. Suddenly I heard Donovan’s voice again: “Hey, stop guys. Yalma, how do you know my girlfriends name?!” I gulped and said: “Don’t think anything wrong. She was in front of the cave and totally drenched. I brought her to my tribe too, you will see her there. She is a really nice person.” When Donovan heard my last sentence he smiled in relief and said: “Thank you, excuse my bad manners, I’m sorry about that.” I smiled too and said “So then let us go, I think someone here is tired.” I looked at Angelo and he blushed.

 

Angelo:

When we arrived we all ran to Dani and hugged her. It was a good feeling to know that she was alright and that we four were together again. That night we slept very well, because we all were together and save and we had a new friend, Yalma, the aborigine.
The only thing we worried about was that we didn’t know why her brother Geriga acted so strange. I had the feeling that Yalma worried about her brother too but she said that he would know how to live in the outback for a longer period of time. The next morning I got up earlier than the others, and went to look for some berries to eat when I suddenly saw the boy. I quickly ran to Yalma into the tepee and told her what I’ve seen. So she got up and went outside to her brother. While they talked and Yalma made him clear to stay calm I woke up Ruby, Dani and Donovan, and told them to stay calm, too.  After a while Yalma and Geriga came back to us together and we all sat down in a circle. At first anybody said a word, but than Geriga began to tell a story:

“It was 100 years ago, when a white man had stolen our most important tribe treasure: The amulet from “Lilga” the morning star. Yalma told you already the history behind it, I know, but the thing that I have to tell you is that it is really very important for me to find the amulet and bring it back to our tribe, because…well I’ve never told anyone about it: It was me who gave the amulet away! The night when the treasure disappeared I gave it to a white man. He told me to give it to him as a ransom. He said that if I didn’t do it he would destroy our tribe and kill all our people.”

We all were dumbfounded, especially Yalma. Her eyes were wide open and she was almost in tears. Confused she asked: “But why did you never tell me?”

“I was embarrassed that a white man had forced me and I was scared how you and our people would react. It was my fault,” Geriga said quietly. “But why didn’t you open the amulet? I think that would have been a good reason to do it, I mean, your tribe was in real trouble,” Dani said.

“Yes I had the same idea and I tried to do so, but the amulet didn’t let me! When I realized that I was not able to open it I suddenly heared a voice talking to me. It said that I have to find four chosen ones and that they would help our tribe. I don’t know why, but somehow I have the feeling that I found the chosen ones. You are! One of you was the bearer of the amulet and you all survived the rock fall. The holy cave didn’t kill you. All that is the sign that I finally found you, you are the four chosen ones and you brought our tribe treasure back to us. I can think of only one possibility to thank you for that: let me give you a tribal name so that you will be members of our tribe.”

He pointed at Dani: “Your name is Miriyan, that means ‘star’ in our language. And you,” he pointed to Donovan, “Your name is Konol, that is the sky.” He went on with Ruby: “You will be called Alkina, the moon and now our last chosen one,” he looked at me and said: “Your name is Mandum, that means the sun. I am so happy and proud that you brought the amulet is back to us, thank you!”

There was something we learned from this adventure: Now we knew that although we were just normal teenagers we could be of great importance for other people. We are not living for ourselves but we are part of a big history together with others. So that’s the way how we changed.

And today we all, Yalma, Geriga, Dani, Donovan, Ruby and me sit together, gathered again in the circle like 20 years ago, to tell you kids that story. So that you can pass it to your children in the next 20 years.