"Seeing how disadvantaged aboriginal people are every day makes you want to do something about it," says Aaron Crowe, who does social support for the Purple House. "I just think that it's crazy that this is Australia, and we just have these people living in poverty. And it's really pretty shocking."

The errands, meals and phone calls are frequent, but sometimes the Purple House just needs to be a spot for the aborigines to go. Amenities such as the cabinet filled with aboriginal medicine and the outdoor fire pit provide a few reminders of home that can be a comfort regardless of whether or not a patient has a session scheduled.

"There needed to be a middle place," Brown says. "Somewhere where people felt comfortable that it was their place."

Samuel Nelson at the Purple House in Alice Springs Samuel Nelson at the Purple House in Alice Springs

This comfort is on full display during the morning of September 21, when Samuel Nelson, a 49-year-old aboriginal man who moved from Yuendumu to Alice Springs for dialysis in 2006, decides to stop by the Purple House even though it is not one of his days for treatment. He spends the bulk of his time sitting by the kitchen, snacking, conversing and laughing with three of his fellow patients. When asked what he is doing here, he smiles and holds up his mug.

"Just have a little coffee," he says.

***

The problems of diabetes and kidney disease among the aborigines are not going anywhere. Western Desert nurse Noeline Murray, who works in Kintore, says dialysis patients are increasing at a rate of about nine percent a year, while Brown says the only reason the main renal unit in Alice Springs is not already overflowing is because some patients skip their treatment.

"If everyone turns up to their allotted dialysis," she says, "then there's not enough machines."

People have not settled on one solution to this problem, just as they have not settled on one cause. Randall would like the aborigines to go back to their older and healthier way of living. Murray would like to go through Kintore's community store and remove all the unhealthy foods. Maguire would like to see better education for both the aborigines and health care providers.

All would almost certainly be helpful. And on the night of Sept. 24 in Mutitjulu, an event took place that may have been helpful as well. It was nothing complex -- just a bonfire and a cookout between some aborigines and some young students from Sydney. The two groups appeared to have very little in common, but they spent the dark, warm evening eating, talking and relaxing together by the fire anyway. And at the end of the night, the students gathered together to sing a song to the aborigines, and when they finished, the aborigines responded in kind.

It was a peaceful moment, a happy moment, one that seemed to be blissfully unaware of the complicated and often shameful history between the aborigines and the rest of Australia that has helped create such an unhealthy population in the middle of one of the world's healthiest countries.

The solution lies somewhere in there.

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