Streams in the Desert
1See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
The wild animals honor me,
the jackals and the owls,
because I provide water in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to my people, my chosenthe people I formed for myself
that they may proclaim my praise. Isaiah 43: 19-21
So it rained properly in Alice Springs last weekend. For the first time in a long time.
When I lived in a city, rain was a bit of a nuisance. It made it harder to get places and do things.
Here in Alice it is a major event.
People talk about it with joy both before it happens and for days after.
I walk every day across dry rock and sand landscape.
When it rains it looks like this:
And when it rains enough the Todd 
River (Lhere Mparntwe in Arrente) flo
Wikipedia calls it an ‘ephemeral river’ as it is usually a sandy depression scattered with river red gums and trash.
Alice Springs has an event called the ‘Henley on Todd Regatta’ where people run along the dry bed holding bottomless boats.
When the Todd flows people send text messages to each other. And drop whatever they are doing to go out to see it. Kids play in it.
And if you get the timing right, you can walk along the leading edge of the river.
It is a ridiculously weak trickle – I saw it diverted by a coke can once – that in a few hours can become a deep rapidly moving tea-coloured stream.
People round here say you belong here when you see the Todd flow three times.
There is something endearing about the idea that belonging comes from hanging around long enough to repeatedly witness an entirely uncontrollable weather phenomena.
Rather than, say, from owning property, or gaining work, or the information printed on your licence.
There is, of course, something problematic about it too.
Belonging and ownership are live issues in Alice Springs where people whose ancestors lived here for many thousands of years were displaced at grave and ongoing cost for the benefit of recent arrivals.
Still there is something about rain in the desert that, temporarily, brings people together.
