Page 128 - moondani kyema
P. 128
ndani kyema, My Story - Ray Moore 128
I chipped away at the board with a hammer and chisel, concentrating on a job with
which I was not really familiar. The board was lying flat on my work bench in my
shed at Snake Valley where we lived, and had a fine grain. It was about one and a
half metres long by 400 mm wide and 40mm thick. On it I had carefully transcribed
in pencil, a name. Now I was chipping out each letter with great care so that I could
paint the board black and pick the letters out in white. Then we would hang it at the
front entrance to our 5¼ hectare (13 acre) property.
Later, with pride, I carried the completed project up to the entrance. There was no
gate and no fence around the property as it was situated along a gravel track in
forest country. So there were plenty of trees and I hung it on one of these facing the
direction from which most people came to visit us. Then I stood back and admired
my handiwork with satisfaction.
It was a significant name because the last couple of years had been a bit rough. We
had been an untroubled family and Bev and I had been happily in love, but our
relationship had cooled. And then, about 18 months previously I had an affair, and
did all the denial and justification stuff that people do when they know they are in the
wrong. We had then separated and I moved out into a flat. It was a bad time for the
children. The two oldest were bewildered and probably angry in a deep, unexpressed
sort of way, and the two youngest were at that age where they didn’t really know
what was going on and in recent years have said they remember little of it.
It was a bad time for Bev and she went to a retreat centre to try and find some
answers. It was also a bad time for me, attested to by the fact that I lost weight and
was the lightest I had been for years. I only ever lose weight for emotional reasons or
when I have been in hospital, until a recent change of diet based on the Tony
Ferguson Weight Loss Program which has seen me lose 20kgs.
We struggled through the year that we were separated and I saw the family regularly
and Bev quite often. Then towards the end of the year things had improved between
us and we decided that we would have a holiday together at Mildura as a family.
Our feelings for each other were changing and we felt that we could handle that sort
of time together. In fact it turned out to be so good that, on the way up the highway,
somewhere past Ouyen, after we had stopped because the family couldn’t wait any
longer to disappear behind trees and shrubs, I said to Bev as we walked back to the
car, “How would you feel if I moved back home again?” She immediately expressed
delight at the idea and before we drove away from the spot, she told the family.
That, of course, changed the whole tone of the holiday and we had a wonderful time.
After returning home we worked at falling in love again, and such was our success
that we decided to start a new life in the country, so we bought this 5¼ hectare
property in the bush about 35 kilometres from Ballarat. The place had a special
ambience as it had been built and developed as a commune. We loved it and hoped
that it would be a place where we could start again and leave the mistakes and the
pain behind.
Our new home had to have a name – but what? Finally we got out the aborigine
word book and found what we wanted. The word “Moondani” we read, means
I chipped away at the board with a hammer and chisel, concentrating on a job with
which I was not really familiar. The board was lying flat on my work bench in my
shed at Snake Valley where we lived, and had a fine grain. It was about one and a
half metres long by 400 mm wide and 40mm thick. On it I had carefully transcribed
in pencil, a name. Now I was chipping out each letter with great care so that I could
paint the board black and pick the letters out in white. Then we would hang it at the
front entrance to our 5¼ hectare (13 acre) property.
Later, with pride, I carried the completed project up to the entrance. There was no
gate and no fence around the property as it was situated along a gravel track in
forest country. So there were plenty of trees and I hung it on one of these facing the
direction from which most people came to visit us. Then I stood back and admired
my handiwork with satisfaction.
It was a significant name because the last couple of years had been a bit rough. We
had been an untroubled family and Bev and I had been happily in love, but our
relationship had cooled. And then, about 18 months previously I had an affair, and
did all the denial and justification stuff that people do when they know they are in the
wrong. We had then separated and I moved out into a flat. It was a bad time for the
children. The two oldest were bewildered and probably angry in a deep, unexpressed
sort of way, and the two youngest were at that age where they didn’t really know
what was going on and in recent years have said they remember little of it.
It was a bad time for Bev and she went to a retreat centre to try and find some
answers. It was also a bad time for me, attested to by the fact that I lost weight and
was the lightest I had been for years. I only ever lose weight for emotional reasons or
when I have been in hospital, until a recent change of diet based on the Tony
Ferguson Weight Loss Program which has seen me lose 20kgs.
We struggled through the year that we were separated and I saw the family regularly
and Bev quite often. Then towards the end of the year things had improved between
us and we decided that we would have a holiday together at Mildura as a family.
Our feelings for each other were changing and we felt that we could handle that sort
of time together. In fact it turned out to be so good that, on the way up the highway,
somewhere past Ouyen, after we had stopped because the family couldn’t wait any
longer to disappear behind trees and shrubs, I said to Bev as we walked back to the
car, “How would you feel if I moved back home again?” She immediately expressed
delight at the idea and before we drove away from the spot, she told the family.
That, of course, changed the whole tone of the holiday and we had a wonderful time.
After returning home we worked at falling in love again, and such was our success
that we decided to start a new life in the country, so we bought this 5¼ hectare
property in the bush about 35 kilometres from Ballarat. The place had a special
ambience as it had been built and developed as a commune. We loved it and hoped
that it would be a place where we could start again and leave the mistakes and the
pain behind.
Our new home had to have a name – but what? Finally we got out the aborigine
word book and found what we wanted. The word “Moondani” we read, means
