Introduction: Remembering Alpurrurulam

Abstract

The body of water known in English as Lake Nash is a source of constant water in a dry landscape and has long been a place of importance for the Aboriginal Australians who dwell in the area. In the Alyawarra language² this place is called Alpurrurulam³ and is a potent Dreaming⁴ site for the Antyipere (Flying Fox), Nyemale (Grass Rat) and Kwerrenye (Green Snake).⁵ While Alpurrurulam has long been the Alyawarra name of this site it is now also the name of a town located around 8 km away on the edge of the Barkly Tableland, 18 km from the Queensland border approximately 300 km west of Mt Isa, an important regional centre, and around 650 km north-by-northeast from Alice Springs, from whence most services are delivered. Alpurrurulam sits near the end of the Sandover Highway, a rough, corrugated dirt track which makes travel, essential to the community for social, cultural and practical reasons, difficult and arduous.

Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep. Hotspur: Why so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call them?

William Shakespeare¹