Nuclear tests, missionaries displaced the Spinifex people. Now they’re back and relearning from the elders
Landline / By Emily JB Smith and Giulia Bertoglio, ABC, 13 March 2023
The sun sits low on the horizon as Maureen Donnegan searches the cool outback sand.
She bends near a scrubby bush, lifts one end of a stick and kicks down on its middle, snapping it in two.
A creature – creamy yellow and wriggling – spills onto the ground of Australia’s largest desert.
Ms Donnegan grins, triumphant.
Her friend Shona Jamieson plucks the squirming lump from the dirt and sets it over the coals of a small campfire, before cupping it in her hands and blowing gently.
“It’s got protein in it,” Mrs Jamieson says.
“Really healthy.”