My trip to Dhanaya

My Yolngu family invited me to come with them to Dhanaya for hunting and fishing from Wednesday to Saturday.

On Wednesday I was already to go at 10 o'clock. 

At 1 o'clock I was still waiting to get picked up but they didn't turn up.Then they said that they would pick me up on Friday but they had to wait untill the car turned up they could use.I did'nt go untill Saterday. My family took the bush taxi to Dhanaya which will cost about $500 to get there and Dad and mum decided to bring me away, it only takes about 2 hours drive on a graveled road. When we got there, there were a lot of tents and a lot of people sitting by fires and making tea.

We got there before our family got there so we got to sit by other people and have some lunch.When our family got there with the bush taxi they got out and unloaded a lot of food and even a red tv. When we were finished unloading they told us to go to the beach and have a look . The sand was as fine as milk powder and the sea was really blue. We did a little bit of fishing too.

When we got back from the beach it was time for mum and dad, opa and oma and my sisters to leave.

I went and sat with some people I know and I played with some boys who were making a hut. When the hut was finished we all got inside and we made a little fire.

I had no idea what time it was when we started cooking dinner over the fire but it seemed like I had just lunch. It started to get dark and we were still sitting on the ground and now they were boiling water to make tea.

I got my stuff and started to go to the others that were watching a movie.

I sat down to watch the movie when my brother said that they were going to put up a tent for me to sleep in. When they were finished making the tent I went to bed.

The next morning I woke up and I did not know how early it was so I got a book to read.When I heard kids getting up I got up too and went outside where my families tent was.We had to go and get some water but the water runs by sunlight and the sun was behind the clouds so the water was not running so I had to bend the pipe upside down and then a little bit of water started running. When the bucket was full we walked back to camp.The others had already set up breakfast. I ate weetbix with milk powder.

But it tasted just like water with a little bit of sugar and weetbix.

When we were all eating one of them asked me if I wanted to go fishing and I said yes.

But when they had left, I just had to follow my family around and sit down at other people's and wait to go to the next people.

It was not that fun, because I could not understand them.I became sad, because they didn't take me fishing and hunting.

I started to get a bit homesick I went back to the tent.

When one of my family asked what was wrong she rang mum and told her to come and pick me up .

When I talked to mum she said that the car had broken down on the way back and dad and opa were trying to fix it, she said that she would ring us back. There is only one phone at Dhanaya working on solarpower.

When it is ringing anyone who walks past can pick it up. And they will yell out the person who they need.

I was sitting and waiting for mum to call back when one of my Yongu brothers wanted to play with me.We played at the rocks where they had made a hut and we had fun.

We went back to the camp for a drink. A lady came with a bag of raw oysters to eat and they asked me to eat one too, so I did, but I spat it out.One of the family said that my dad and his friend were coming in his friend's car to pick me up.

When we had finished we went to the beach and played for a while and I climbed a coconut tree to get a coconut out so we could drink the juice.

When we got back, I was happy to see my dad and his friend, I got my bag and drove back home.

                                                        By Aron Koch