Tanya Heaslip

They hadn't yet been sufficiently impacted, I guess, at least the older ones who knew a little bit of English.

And they wanted to know stories.

And I just felt this extraordinary kinship with them because they reminded me of me growing up in the outback.

where I too was completely innocent of the outside world.

And when people came to visit, so curious, so interested, who were they?

So I had that, I felt like I really understood them.

They were wonderful kids.

There was a culture there of making your own fun too, when only there were only certain kinds of approved entertainment and approved culture that you could go into.

So did you relate to that as well?

Totally.

So luckily for me, growing up with all those stockmen sitting around a campfire, playing guitar, singing songs,

The first idea I had was to pick up a guitar because they all played music.

The school was full of instruments.

So I got a guitar and I taught them all Waltzing Matilda because I thought that's a way to connect with them, tell them about this, you know, all the curious animals of our culture and thinking that, you know, Jumbuck and Swaggy and Billabong might be useful terms when they grew up and got to the West.

And through that music, we just connected, you know, heart to heart because music does that.

You don't need words.

And so all the kids who couldn't speak English joined in and then it grew and it grew.

And so I started teaching them songs and they started teaching me songs.

Is there a particular quality to the way friendship works in such a place that you recognised?

Yes, I think so, and that's what made it so dear.