Chapter 13

A sign of hope

I wondered why our smoke signals, which certainly had been seen, had not been answered earlier. Was it possible that Warri and Yatungka did not wish to leave their country and had no desire to make contact with us? Our progress across the land could be gauged by our signals and it would be apparent to them that we were moving along the ‘main road’ between waterholes, and that somebody was leading a party towards them, and who else but Mudjon would be guiding such a party? At his last meeting with Warri, Mudjon had told his friend that one day he would return to lead them out of the desert, that with advancing age they could not remain alone in their country. Was it possible that Warri and Yatungka feared Mudjon’s return and refrained from sending up smoke to indicate their position? But surely they must be in dire straits if the country we had passed through in the preceding two weeks was any indication, there being little game of any kind, and not one of the waterholes we had encountered in well over a hundred kilometres of travel had contained a drop of water. Mudjon believed they must be in very poor physical condition and would be prepared to leave the desert, at least until the rains came and the long drought ended.

Perhaps Warri and Yatungka were determined to spend their last days in their own country rather than be removed to a strange and, to them, frightening way of life. Was there a change of heart at the last minute and a decision made to acknowledge our last signal when they realised we were heading towards Ngarinarri and would find them even if they did not send smoke?

We had no wish to disturb them or to interfere with their way of life and should they desire to remain in their homeland and were in reasonable physical condition we would leave provisions with them and on our return to Wiluna would arrange for contact to be made at intervals to offer any assistance they required. However if they were weak and ill and wished to remain, could we just drive away and leave them, knowing they would surely die without adequate food and without medical attention? We sincerely hoped that such a situation would not present itself.

On the other hand, if they chose to go out with us, we would be haunted by the knowledge that we had removed the last of the nomads from the desert.

Those were the thoughts that weighed so heavily on me that night near Ngarinarri.

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