NGIYANI WINANGAY NGINDA (We remember you)
Julie Butler
A nation’s pride turned to shame
the pain in life
merged into memories
the blood of the wounds
still weeps
today in history.
FRAGILE TRACES OF THE PAST (written for 180th Anniversary, 10.6.2018)
Julie Butler
Ghosts of Wirrayaraay people massacred
were recorded in lead pencil,
faded photographs, hidden journals,
faded rock art, brush strokes.
Now those left behind through
history’s trails remember
today the 180th anniversary.
SHARED HISTORY
Colleen Keating
History despite its wrenching pain
cannot be unlived,
but if faced with courage,
need not be lived again Maya Angelou
there’s something in the shining light
that lends itself to thoughts of hope
perhaps it is a brashness – the way it glows
so cheerfully in this cloudless winter time
perhaps the way it dresses up the land
catches blue kingfishers on their wing
festoons the leaves the rocks the trees
BURY MY HEART AT MYALL CREEK
Graeme Cordiner
Bury my heart at Myall Creek,
An Australian identity, my own, I seek.
Looking into my nation’s past,
I come face to face with myself at last.
LAND OF MY HEART MY COUNTRY
Graeme Cordiner
Land of my heart, my country
How I wish it were otherwise
Beneath your blue, blue skies
Terrible deeds were done, and denied
Papered over with wafer-thin lies