As a small child Merle Stevenson (parents Cleo Jonas and Robert Stevenson) returns with her family to her Spirit Home, Allworth on the Karuah River. Nearly 80 years later, she recalls this moment: “My Mother married a white man so for five years we were away from our real Spirit Home. Then we moved back to a small village called Allworth on the Karuah River. It was there where I came alive. I could feel a belonging, this was where my Mother’s family was raised, everything excited me. The river teeming with fish, even the calmness of the water, the high tides of Xmas, and the floods. Bird calls, even now when I hear the rain bird call, my mind goes back. Different animals. Taking us for walks in the bush naming different trees and flowers. Eating berrys, black currants, puddings and wild raspberrys. Sucking honey out of flowers, eating gum from the wattle tree, finding native bee nests, eating the honey and mushrooming after the rain. I loved it when all our relations came together at Xmas time, every cousin, uncle, aunt knew each other. I still get a feeling of belonging when I go back, even though things have changed. But you can’t change the Spirit”. (2014 Merle McEntyre)