Yikartu Bumba Australian, Manyjilyjarra, b. 1939

“When I was a little girl, my father and mother took me around [Yulparija Country, north of Manyjilyjarra Country]. We used to walk around when I was a little girl. We travelled with my grandmother and all the family, we travelled with my sisters and brothers. We went from placeto place, stopping in one place, hunting around and stopping in another place. We visited all the yinta (permanent springs). We could even travel on the water from a soak. I used to stay atthe camp, waiting by the water, while my parents and grandparents would go out to get a lot of meat and other food. The little kids would stay home and hunt for small lizards. Then wewould all travel together to another place. My grandparents really loved and cared for me whenI was a little girl.They took good care of me. I was growing bigger at thattime. When I grew bigger, I was able to go hunting on my own. I hunted cats and goannas. My parents still went hunting for meat for us all then. [Later] I lost my mother and my grandmother, and then my father leftus and walked into a station, but my other grandmother kept looking after me. I was still travelling with my mother’s mother when I got married [became second wife to the father of Yuwali Janice Nixon (dec.)] and had my daughter, Barli. When I was travelling with my husband and all the family we went south to Wirnpa and Kurturrara. We stayed around there for a time and then went northeast, on the tableland. During the wet season we would travel out from the yinta (permanent springs) across the tableland. I would travel with Yuwali’s mother [the first wife of Yikartu’s husband]. We would walk together, hunting as we went. During a rainy season we were staying in one place for a while and we had a visitor from Bidyadanga. There was one missionary [Father McKelson] and two Martu men travelling withhim. They asked us who we were and wrote it down on a piece of paper. Then he told us to sit down and wait for them to come back with a vehicle. From there we went into the mission.”-Yikartu Bumba, as translatedby Ngalangka Nola Taylor.