No claim in the name ‘Jam Tree Gully’ —
rather, a personal and familial association
of presence which is neither assertion
nor acquiescence. There are jam trees.
There is a gully. No names displayed
on gates. Just prior to this configuration,
or approximating, it was named ‘Sleepy Hollow’
by a horse person, a name which could not work for us —
distant literary associations aside (the irony), it was
too abstract, though there is a hollow
in the valleyside, true. But then again,
the name on the gate as we arrived
was hung with animal skulls
as well. Removed immediately. I checked
with Marion Kickett about the boundaries here —
this still-Ballardong boodja close to edges
of Yued and Whadjuk boodjas — and we ‘name’,
or maybe more accurately, ‘term’ our occupation
as ‘Jam Tree Gully’ only to answer for this family’s
presence, not to name over the name, not to delete
true names and the language of here deep in here,
not to rename, not to close off to the names
the valley’s linguistics have worked
with branching and layered consultation.
‘Jam Tree Gully’ doesn’t refer to a house,
doesn’t refer to ways of naming, as ‘jam tree’
is only a rough approximation
of ‘mungart’, not a renaming,
not an alternative name,
not a system of classification.
Read the rest of Overland 243
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