Tens of millennia ago
They came - the First Peoples
of this land
to a place similar, but not quite the same.
They learned
and sang the songs of this place;
They shared tasks
and made new things
- new tools, new ways,
to nurture this land,
and share it for all.
They watched it change
- waters rose, volcanoes blew, climate changed
and animals too;
and they learned anew
each time
how best to nurture this land,
and share it for all.
But, just of late,
in the blink of a geological eye,
strangers came
- people who did harm
to land and people both,
and grasped the land to claim
“this is mine - I will take it
and share with none
- and leave none to share with” ...
nor to learn from.
Written after watching “Jim Berg [Gunditjmara] poem submission to Yoorrook Justice Commission” https://youtu.be/rjfz6mLSmBM?si=8AbFXaedzEBzKjGF
I am a Wiradjuri-Widjabul Wiabol woman who was adopted out of culture, but has not yet found a way back.
Copyright © Kayleen White, 2024 (where this date is different to the year of publication, it is because I did the post some time ago and then used the scheduling feature to delay publication). I take these photographs and undertake these writings – and the sharing of them – for the sake of my self expression. I am under no particular illusions as to their literary or artistic merit, and ask only that any readers do not have any undue expectations. If you consider me wrong, then publish me – with full credit and due financial recompense, of course :)
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