in 'piyuwiki'/'buick' pp 50-1, by wirrkaru jingkiri, there is (because of the grammatical structure) the same ambiguity that was in the koolinda poem (pp 40-1) with regard to gender and pronoun. the 'he' in the poem seems to refer to the car, then the meaning slides to the referent of the driver. im assuming that theres something of this aspect in the ngarla also. the effect is not just to gender & anthropomorphise the car, but to suggest that there isnt a limit to the driver or car, that they are one.

this five line poem is a belated refreshing anecdote to a terrible poem we did in class about a car being a woman? some well known american (novelist i think) dickey? one of those. (cummings has one also -- its sheer offensiveness somewhat redeems it.)

the drivers name in the ngarla is given as ''Ngarlu Jurrkanalu' -- in the english its 'Alec Beeton' - the notes dont explain why?

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