On a visit by the Cape York Peninsula, journey author Susan Elliott meets Harold ‘Mooks’ Tayley – a Kuku-Nyungkul elder, Conventional Proprietor, bush drugs knowledgeable and healer sought out by travellers from world wide. He’s additionally known as ‘Kuku bugga’. However no, he ain’t cuckoo!
Travellers scoff schnitzels the scale of their 4WD wheels, locals are dressed like extras on a Mad Max set and pub workers stretch their vowels soooooo faaaaaar their sentences may lap Australia.
My smile couldn’t be wider, nor my joyous roar louder on the Lion’s Den Lodge south of Cooktown, an outback tavern that’s a thirst quencher for individuals who have conquered the bumpy drive alongside the Bloomfield Monitor from Cape Tribulation, north of the Daintree River.
Watching from his favorite seat is Mooks – who, like a chameleon, is unseen till you see him. Then he pops. His signature twirls of black hair loop behind his ears and curl down his chest, and with wisps of whiskers, he’s a prize-winning portrait pleading to be painted. Mooks, nonetheless, is extra into the artwork of strolling and speaking.
‘Kuku bugga’, I be taught, is the native lingo for somebody who likes to speak, and Mooks may in all probability try this underwater, as that’s the place he was born.
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‘Mum was working in a cattle station in Laura, and when she couldn’t get to the hospital, she known as my grandad and grandma to the homestead and she or he had me within the Laura River,’ he says.
‘Mum wanted to maintain working and couldn’t take care of me, so I lived in a bark shelter by the river with my grandparents.’
The city of Laura is 130 km from the place Mooks now lives and works at Rossville Retreat, a property the place you may camp, or ‘glamp’ in lovely bush lodges. However not all who keep are merely passing by. Many individuals go to to spend time with Mooks, to stroll his Nation, find out about bush meals and drugs and, in some circumstances, to be healed. Regardless of the cause, all the things begins with a smoking ceremony.
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‘Get some smoke on you!’
I’m on Intrepid’s Cape York & Torres Strait Explorer journey, travelling overland from Cairns to ‘The Tip’, the northernmost level on mainland Australia. And assembly Mooks is an unforgettable stopover on the journey.
‘Smoking ceremony is sort of a barrier for you,’ he says. ‘So, when you undergo that smoking ceremony, you change into one in every of us.’
Doused in smoke, we ‘head bush’ alongside a dusty, scrub-lined monitor that appears unremarkable, however is quickly revealed to be a residing grocery store and a free-for-all pharmacy.
‘That is our bush shampoo,’ says Mooks, as he tears leaves from a scrubby bush, scrunching them in his arms and including water to make a foamy, soapy froth.
‘My grandma used to wash me with this once I was a bit child. It’s good for the pores and skin, good for the water, doesn’t hurt the fish or something, you need to use the leaf for rash, sunburn, it does make your pores and skin smooth, like a sponge.’
From the identical plant, the bark is used to alleviate muscle ache, and from one other tree, the leaves are plucked and crushed, releasing a menthol scent – and can be utilized to deal with quite a lot of illnesses. Subsequent, we snack on lemony inexperienced ants with a snake weed chaser, a fragile purple flower that tastes like a mushroom. It’s good and could be the star of a salad.
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The present of therapeutic
At 15, life modified for Mooks.
‘My grandfather all the time mentioned to me, “In the future you’ll be serving to many individuals”. I checked out him and mentioned, “No, I don’t assist anyone. I don’t need to assist individuals.”‘
Fifteen-year-old Mooks wasn’t , however teen spirit couldn’t struggle it. Younger Harold had been born right into a household of healers.
‘I knew that I had the ability. After which at some point, my grandfather and uncle mentioned, “We’re going to take you to the ritual.” I ended up going bush with them and handed the therapeutic.’
Years on, there’s a protracted listing of people that have sought out Mooks for his therapies.
‘I helped a younger woman from Belgium, a nine-year-old,’ says Mooks. ‘She had a mind tumour and from what I’ve heard, she is doing effectively. There was a younger woman from Sydney with cystic fibrosis, she’s 21 now, a younger boy from Texas with autism and a younger woman in England had a mind tumour. I’ve been engaged on her for a couple of years, and she or he’s doing very well. I feel she’s nearly 20 now.’
Healers harbour their secrets and techniques, although Mooks does share that he makes use of his arms and his didgeridoo to attract sickness from individuals. I believe his form eyes and smooth voice are additionally an integral a part of his therapy.
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Misplaced for phrases
Mooks is without doubt one of the few who communicate Kuku Nyungkul, a dialect that’s endangered. UNESCO has listed it in its Atlas of the World’s Languages in Hazard, however Mooks is doing what he can to maintain his language alive. A single dad of 4 kids, he’s educating his 18-year-old son Aziah their dialect and believes he would be the subsequent of their household line of healers.
‘If I’m therapeutic somebody who’s household, I’ll get Aziah to position his hand on that individual, however I’ll maintain one in every of his arms, and I ship my vitality by him. He’s going to be highly effective, he speaks my dialect, he is aware of about crops and he’s doing very well. His ritual is coming quickly.’
We be taught to throw boomerangs and deal with artefacts that Mooks has made: a hook woomera (spear-throwing device), clapsticks, a stone axe, however most surprisingly, a ‘laptop computer’. Properly, that’s what Mooks calls it. It’s the form and the scale of a laptop computer, however a seemingly strong block of wooden, with nothing however two open holes on one edge. Mooks challenges me to seek out the ‘on’ button, however I’m stumped. He picks it up and blows into one of many holes.
‘That’s my didgeridoo!’ he says. ‘And if it doesn’t work, it’s a didgeridon’t.’
We’re laughing as we board our Intrepid 4WD truck to go away Rossville Retreat, and if laughter is the very best drugs then we’ve got overdosed with Mooks.
Smiles are broad, laughter is loud and after two days in Rossville, my vowels are undoubtedly longer. The place slows you down, and it feels good. Again on the Lion’s Den I don’t scoff however savour my schnitzel and lean again into my chair for a protracted yarn with my new pal, ‘Kuku bugga’.
Susan travelled with Intrepid on the Cape York & Torres Strait Explorer journey. Discover out extra about First Nations experiences in Australia with Intrepid and ebook an Australia journey.
