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ever-present eucalyptus trees, which rustled their top branches in the evening air. Jack looked around him. In the gathering darkness he seemed to have become more native than when they had set out. ‘This will do.’
    Ralph sat down with some relief. It had been a hard climb, even though he thought himself to be fit. Jack searched around amongst the trees until he found what he was looking for: an old tree with its grey bark hanging off in strips. He sought for a foothold in its trunk and, reaching as high as he could and taking a loose edge of the bark, he tore it until it hung down in sheets. Then he moved out of the clearing and Ralph lost sight of him for a few minutes until he reappeared dragging a thin branch from a sapling and two forked branches from a larger tree.
    Ralph started to get to his feet to help him. ‘No. I’ll do it,’ Jack insisted. ‘I shall forget the knowledge like so many of my people have done. We are becoming lazy and getting used to walls and windows. We shall forget our ancestry, those of us who are left.’
    Ralph sat down again. He understood Jack’s needs. They had known each other since childhood. Their parents had been friends eversince Benne had brought his new wife Daisy, pregnant with Jack, to meet Meg and Joe. Daisy had lived all of her life in a stone house. Her white father had thought that he was doing the right thing by bringing her up in the European manner, although her Aborigine mother had taught her the ways of her forebears. Daisy had taken favourably to Meg, who treated her as an equal, and when she gave birth to Jack the two women had called their sons brothers.
    Now Jack was attempting for a few short hours to live as the Aborigines had once done: to walk upon his own territorial land which was his by right, or so his father had told him, as he in turn had been told by his father and grandfather. He had come to commune with his spiritual ancestors in whom, in his role as part white man, he only half believed.
    He placed the forked branches together and held them fast by the branch of the sapling, then draped the torn sheets of bark over them to make a rough shelter. ‘You will need your blanket in the
mia-mia
, white man,’ he grinned, his teeth showing white in his face, and he took off his own cotton cloth and threw it on the ground.
    Suddenly he sprang into the middle of the clearing and with his feet apart he adopted a confrontational stance, his arms held wide, his hands held low and his fingers stretched in a challenge.
    Ralph pulled off his boots and jumped to hisfeet and, pulling his shirt over his head, threw it on the ground next to Jack’s discarded garment. He stood opposite Jack and he too lifted his arms but with his hands held high in a passive manner.
    Jack took two steps forward and bending towards him grabbed Ralph about his lower hips. They stayed locked as Ralph stood perfectly still, offering no resistance, his arms still held high, until he felt himself being lifted up and thrown into the clearing where he landed on both feet. ‘Huh,’ he grunted and now he took the confrontational stance whilst Jack took the passive.
    Jack’s body was firm and muscular and Ralph had difficulty in gaining a grip around him but he did and with a great effort swung Jack off his feet and threw him as he had been thrown, into the middle of the clearing, where he dropped lightly on his feet.
    Now it was Jack’s turn again and Ralph forced his strength down into his legs and feet, making himself heavy so that he was awkward to lift, but Jack’s strength was phenomenal and once more Ralph felt himself lifted and thrown. Again he landed on his feet and became the challenger but he knew who would eventually be the winner, and after several more rounds, Jack threw him and he finally failed to land on his feet and sprawled in the grass.
    ‘I give in,’ he panted. ‘You’re too good for me.’
    ‘I am,’ Jack agreed and went off to find water which he had heard