by Esther Managku as told to Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow for Lonely Planet Guide for Aboriginal Australia.

We still use that bush medicine sometimes. We go in that forest to pick mangumberre (Acacia sp.) leaves, flowers and seeds. Break them up and cook in little bit water till they turn soapy. Then you rub that soap on your sores many times a day. For skin rash you can use mangol (Cocky Apple, Planchonia careya) and mandjalem (Woollybutt- Eucalyptus miniata). That mangol you take skin (inner bark) from anywhere, but with mandjalem you cut hairy skin (bark) low down. You break (shred) the skin in little pieces and boil in water. Then it turn soapy and when it's cool you can use it for sores like prickly heat. I boil this in a milk tin and use for sore finger and sore hand when I was scratching. My auntie taught me that. Mangol also good for bandage. Just break it up and put it on. Or you heat that leaf for mosquito bite. One old lady tell me that. Then there's that other tree in the rocks, manbufara (Emu Apple-Owenia vernicosa). We cut off that skin and sometimes that fruit and put it all in the billycan to boil, We won't let the kids take that medicine - it very strong, but number one bush medicine for skin.

Gabo (green ant) is good bush medicine too. They build nests in trees. If we have bad cold and coughing or ache a little bit, we can use that ant. First put that nest in cold, fresh water. Smash them like that (rubbing hands together) or squeeze him tight. I been watching my grandmother, my mother - they been drinking those ants. Eggs and new green ants coming in November. And then we eat those eggs and those new ants too, That's the strongest medicine. Gabo too strong for me now. Gabo also good for headache, or we tie mandjol (bush string) around our head.

We go look around for sugarbag (native bee's nest), just watching to see if those little bees go into a cave or maybe a tree. They cut that nest when it fat (has lots of wax), clean it and put that fat one in billycan. Drink the sugarbag eggs for tummyache. All the old people they been taste 'em and drink. Oh good! When we used to live in bush - I seen them, all those old people drinking that sugarbag.

One old man he been broke his leg long time ago while hunting with other men. Maybe him jumping or been chasing kangaroo out in the bush. They didn't have any doctor. They been thinking, 'What we do?' Then they remember that timber skin (bark) of manlara (native cypress). They been cut that skin and put it around that old man's leg high up (around the femur) and tie it with mandjol. They leave it on for many weeks until it got healed.

If people have diarrhoea you can use mandjodmi (Grewia retusifolia). You dig up many roots and take off that skin. Then you wash it, smash it up and boil it and you drink.

Esther Managku, Denise's oldest sister, was born Esther Maralngurra at Gudjekbinj about 1926, and is the oldest living member of the Nalangbali clan. She went to school for a few years in Gunbalunya. Esther was married three times, but is now widowed.

Esther knows the baby spirits well and intercedes with them for young women who want to become pregnant.