No Sugar by Jack Davis

Author:Jack Davis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Currency Press
Published: 2014-09-09T16:00:00+00:00

SCENE SIX

A clearing in the pine plantation. Moore River Native Settlement, night. A camp fire burns. JIMMY and SAM are painted for a corroboree. JIMMY mixes wilgi in tobacco tin lids, while SAM separates inji sticks from clapsticks. JOE arrives with an armful of firewood and pokes at the fire.

JOE: They comin’ now.

BILLY: [off] Get no rain this place summertime.

BILLY and BLUEY enter and remove their shirts.

JIMMY: Eh? Where you fellas been?

BLUEY: Aw, we been pushing truck for Mr Neal.

BILLY: He goin’ Mogumber.

BLUEY: [miming taking a drink] Doin’ this fella.

JOE: He’ll be minditj tomorrow.

BLUEY and BILLY paint themselves with wilgi.

BILLY: My word you fellas pr-retty fellas.

BLUEY: Wee-ah, plenty wilgi.

BILLY: Eh? You know my country, must be walk two, three days for this much. Your country got plenty.

JIMMY strikes up a rhythm on the clapsticks. BLUEY joins him.

JIMMY: [singing]

Tjinnung nitjakoorliny?

Karra, karra, karra, karra,

Moyambat a-nyinaliny a-nyinaliny,

Baal nitja koorliny moyambat a-moyambat moyambat,

Moyambat nitja koorliny moyambat.

Kalkanna yirra nyinny kalkanna,

Yirra nyinniny, yirra nyinniny,

Moyambat a-kalkanna moyambat a-kilkanna

Yirra nyinniny, yirra nyinniny, yirra nyinniny,

Karra koorliny kalkanna karra karra koorliny kalkanna.

Karra koorliny, karra koorliny, karra koorliny,

Woolah!

BLUEY: Eh, what that one?

JIMMY: That’s my grandfather song. [Miming with his hands] He singin’ for the karra, you know, crabs, to come up the river and for the fish to jump up high so he can catch them in the fish traps.

SAM: [pointing to BILLY’s body paint] Eh! Eh! Old man, what’s that one?

BILLY: This one bungarra, an’ he lookin’ for berry bush. But he know that fella eagle watchin’ him and he know that fella is cunnin’ fella. He watchin’ and lookin’ for that eagle, that way, this way, that way, this way.

He rolls over a log, disappearing almost magically. BLUEY plays the didgeridoo and BILLY appears some distance away by turning quickly so the firelight reveals his painted body. He dances around, then seems to disappear suddenly. He rolls back over the log and drops down, seated by the fire.

BLUEY, SAM and JIMMY: Yokki! Moorditj! Woolah!

JIMMY: Eh? That one dance come from your country?

BILLY: Nah. That one come from that way, lo-o-ong way. Wanmulla country. Proper bad fellas.

SAM: Well, I won’t be goin’ there.

JOE: Me either!

JIMMY, JOE and SAM laugh. SAM jumps to his feet with the clapsticks.

SAM: This one yahllarah! Everybody! Yahllarah!

He starts a rhythm on the clapsticks. BLUEY plays didgeridoo. JIMMY, and then JOE, join him dancing.

Come on! Come on!

He picks up inji sticks. The Nyoongahs, SAM, JIMMY and JOE, dance with them. BILLY joins in. They dance with increasing speed and energy, stamping their feet, whirling in front of the fire, their bodies appearing and disappearing as the paint catches the firelight. The dance becomes faster and more frantic until finally SAM lets out a yell and they collapse, dropping back to their positions around the fire. JIMMY coughs and pants painfully.

[To JIMMY] Eh! Eh! [Indicating his heart] You wanta dubakieny, you know your koort minditj.

BILLY: This country got plenty good dance, eh?

BLUEY: Wee-ah!

JIMMY: Ah, yuart, not too many left now. Nearly all finish.

BILLY: No, no, no. You song man, you fella dance men.

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