IN THE DRY bed of the Northern Territory's Hanson River, words dance from Clarrie Kemarr Long's fingertips. Her hand signs and facial expressions are as captivating as the hypnotic song she leads while sitting cross-legged in the shade of river red gums. She is accompanied by other senior Aboriginals - Eileen Pwerrerl Campbell and Molly Pwerrerl Presley - and younger women, all of whom speak both the Anmatyerre and Warlpiri languages. To the steady beat of clapping hands, they sing about an ancestral barn owl that turns into a monster and frightens a family group of hunters.
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