Free Wild Lands by Nicole Alexander Page A

chewed on the tender flesh, the juices running down his chin. ‘If the rains come the grasses will grow thick and fast.’
    â€˜There is plenty of game here, to hunt and trap.’ Colby ate hungrily. ‘It will be a good season for us.’
    â€˜What about Lycett? Maybe we should go to another place further away,’ Jardi suggested.
    â€˜This is another place.’ His father reached for the fresh water, took a sip and then stuck his finger into a bag of sugar and sucked at the sweetness. The sugar was a ration, along with blankets, provided to the clan by the Lycetts in exchange for occasional work, such as barking trees. ‘Our tribal lands are on the other side of the blue hills where the mullet run and the lilies grow. Within those lands is the place where my mother took the afterbirth when I was born and buried it in the ground. That is where my mother laid me down. That is my land. Do you expect us to keep moving forever?’
    The men ate silently. It was difficult to argue with Bidjia.
    â€˜You who are born of this land may go to your sacred place, the place of your totem and perform the rituals that make this land grow and flourish. You have this right. I do not. I cannot go to the place of the yam and do the ceremony to make the yam plentiful. I cannot ensure the release of the life force to which I am connected. I am stolen from my land.’
    The men finished eating, the truth of Bidjia’s words reminding each of them how he suffered.
    â€˜You saved your clan, Bidjia.’
    The Elder of the tribe looked at Bronzewing. ‘Only some,’ he muttered.
    They sat by the flames, the sadness dissipating as birds settled in the trees around them and night creatures began to forage.
    As darkness began to send its wispy shadows across the clearing, one by one they moved slightly away from the campfire. Bronzewing stretched out his legs and rubbed his shoulders against the bark of the tree behind him. A few feet away Bidjia rested his aching muscles by lying flat in the dirt on his back.
    With the men’s leaving, Annie served up meat for the children and herself, and then carried nuts and fruits to Merindah. Bronzewing shouldn’t have been surprised to return home and find Merindah with child again, the second in two years, however she’d been unhappy here since her arrival and a year had not improved her countenance. She was a pretty girl, whose young body had attracted envious glances from both Darel and Colby, but she was clearly miserable. Her sick child lay on a piece of bark while Annie’s two children ate and played.
    â€˜How is the baby?’ Bronzewing asked Bidjia while following Annie’s movements as she went to check on the infant.
    Bidjia shook his head and closed his eyes. The men’s bellies were full and they were tired from the day’s work. A short distance away Darel and Colby talked quietly, Jardi had disappeared. With the lengthening shadows Bronzewing sought out Merindah. Shehad her own fire behind a bark lean-to and the sick child lay close to the warmth of the flames. The girl started at his approach, drawing a blanket across her swollen belly.
    Bronzewing squatted opposite her and asked after the child, noticing that the foods brought to her remained untouched.
    The young woman touched the baby’s chest gently. She had swabbed the child every day for three days with an infusion made from the leaves of the paperbark, which could help with aches and pains, but there had been no change.
    â€˜How long is it now?’ Bronzewing asked the girl.
    Merindah poked at berries cupped in her palm. ‘Four days, he grows weaker. He will not suckle. The milk is good, but if he does not drink …’
    Her words hung. In the firelight the child looked starved. His tiny rib cage stuck out and the cheeks were sunken. It was only a matter of a day or so at most. Perhaps there may have been a chance if the child had been taken to Mrs