Figured someone would this of some interest.
When I was living up in the Straits, I was just a kid. (11, 12). My old man was largely in charge of a regional office of a rather large ATSI affairs dept at a Commonwealth level. My mum was just below him, employed by the same mob.
Most govt staff on TI (Thursday Island) were in "gubment housing"... which down here means the Commish, but up there means being lucky enough to be in a regularly repaired, up to date home.
Strange story - a lot of locals (or pseudo locals) ended up on the books, as advisors on this or officers of the other. Yknow how the govt does things. A job for everyone, and noone gets paid
A lady that was taken on board was in fact a TS Islander / Malay, which is quite a common mix up that way. (great cooking! it left me with a lifetime addiction to chicken, chilli and FRESH seafood). She was tertiary educated, experinced in life and all that rest of that credibility-weighing stuff.
Anyways... time comes for her to be assigned some govt housing. A reasonably schmick timber place, nice verandas, decent yard.
Couple days later... she fronts up to my old mans office looking nervous. Making small talk. Passing the time.
Now, my old man is pretty much a Boomer clone of my 30yo self. Gabs, notices, cares. So, he asks her whats up.
She replies, after some to-ing and fro-ing, that shes worried. He asks why. She replies that " it sounds stupid but theres a frangipani in the yard of the new place and it / the she demon has me worried". "Either make me feel better, or I'm moving out".
Should mention that the locals assume all mature frangipanis are inhabited or near enough by both the Pontianak, and another spirit that i cannot for the life of me remember the name of. the white sap, like milk, is assumed to mean that it'sa feminine/mothering tree but with a dark aspect.
So. My old man looks into his options. Either remove the tree, at great expense and it reduces the appeal of the place to non-local staff (white ppl, I suppose I mean) or just make her feel better.
Thus... a couple of weeks later a debit appears on the ledger of the Comm. Govt. of Aus. itself.... for a 20kg bag of salt, used to make a circle around the ENTIRE property, with local spirit lodge types in attendance, as well as Bah'ai, Christian and Catholic ministers... just to kind of rule this tree, and it's influence out of her life.
Couple weeks later... many programs, projects and some policy dictated/supervised/spearheaded by an otherwise intelligent uni graduate.... and there is a mark, forever, on the Federal slate for "20kg sea salt..... deleted.... TI".
Incidentally many locals of NON malay descent also have another female demon, the name escapes me (was just a kiddling then ,,,can ask though, my old man remembers a lot of kalu mayagi yu, and Meriam. Me, I just happen to be fluent in the local Creole) that had ears large enough to use one as a bed, and another as a blanket, and phenomenally large breasts for feeding her spawn and enticing the odd wandering local. She apparently could sing her heart out, as the classical Sirens did... and thus draw lost seafarers or fisherman to her less than tender embrace.
Eh... figured someone may not have heard of this one yet
Actually a bit of strange stuff up there. the Hammond Is ghost train (no trains up there ever. but thered be 200 plus people who have seen it steaming across a local flat spot), the medicine man valley on TI (frogs holla!) where traditional spirit lodge men / shamans would conduct necromantic and necro-fetishist rites amongst the swampland. ... to this day it's a strangely quiet spot where NO local will go for fear of the" typical" wasting curse....or just being hacked into pieces, which is nearly as effective a warning!
I went to school up there for a bit, catholic school at that (not bad, for an agnostic-Baptist family) and even the nuns (sisters of mercy) from the convent had different names for everything ("we offer these blossoms to the Black Virgin, she of darkness and sunrise...") and on my year 6 camp, the ideal fun was to be had watching the kids of local shamans mess with the minds of other kids , reducing them to a trance like state where they would just tramp around the island muttering to themselves.
Odd spot. Lovely, though. Even if every few steps someone is hassling you about "debil-debils" or "dogabaras".
