Swallow the Air: 14. Just Dust Summary & Analysis

At the lake, May meets an old woman named Issy, who lives near the lake and has dedicated herself to protesting the mining company that is intruding on “her mother’s land and [May’s] mother’s land.” She is trying to make enough of a nuisance that the company shareholders get frustrated and back out of the operation, which would be detrimental to the surrounding environment. According to Issy, the mining companies can’t grasp that “just because you can’t see something, don’t mean it’s not there.” This is the land that created the Wiradjuri, who are “powerful people, strong people.” Even though the name Wiradjuri comes from the words for “no” and “having,” Issy believes that the people have plenty.

Issy tells May that the lake “works like a heart, pumping its lifeblood from under the skin.” Everything is part of the life of nature, and if they listen closely they can feel it around them. The mining company wants to “dig up the hearts” and destroy nature’s life in order to increase their own life. Eventually, she says, they will always fail in this quest.

Issy draws a circle in the ground and tells May that everything is sacred, both inside and outside the circle. Both areas should be cared for in the same way. She draws several other circles inside and outside the original circles. Issy advises May that if she wants to find her family, the other Gibsons, she should follow the Lachlan river to Eubalong. May asks her about the meaning of her drawings, but she cryptically says they’re “just dust.”