"Alice Springs News" issue 1813.28/4/2011
Sir, This is an open letter to those who think they know us better than we do ourselves.
We are Warlpiri people from the communities of Yuendumu, Wirliyajarrayi, Lajamanu and Nyirrpi
as well as the town camps of Alice Springs.
Bess Nungarrayi Price is with us today
to say goodbye to one of our lost children.
We are sorry and in mourning.
Bess Nungarrayi is one of us.
She was born here at Yuendumu and grew up here.
We are all family to her.
It makes us sad and angry when we hear that
white people and town Aboriginal people in Sydney
and in Alice Springs are insulting Bess
and telling lies about her.
When you insult her you insult all of us,
we are her family.
Nungarrayi lives in Alice Springs
but she talks to us all the time.
She listens to what we tell her.
Many of our people
also live on the town camps in Alice Springs.
Barbara Shaw does not lead them,
she doesn’t speak our language.
Nungarrayi always does her best
to help any of us when we are in trouble.
We support her in her struggle
to make life better for us.
We are hurt and angry now
by the things that these people have been saying.
Aboriginal people should know better
than to hurt people who are in sorry business.
No white person knows us better than Bess does.
We don’t know who this Snowy River woman
who calls herself Nampijinpa.
We don’t know Marlene Hodder.
They don’t speak our language like Nungarrayi does. They don’t know what is in our minds
and hearts like Nungarrayi does.
These people should apologise to her and to us,
her family, for the things they have been saying.
( More than 120 signatures are in the possession of the Alice Springs News )
They are available from piiji@bigpond.net.au