Cover

Dedicated to my son Kabul
of the tribe Noonuccal
Custodian of the land Minjerribah
(Vivian Charles Walker)

All One Race

Black tribe, yellow tribe, red, white or brown,

From where the sun jumps up to where it goes down,

Herrs and pukka-sahibs, demoiselles and squaws,

All one family, so why make wars?

They're not interested in brumby runs,

We don't hanker after Midnight suns;

I'm for all humankind, not colour gibes;

I'm international, and never mind tribes.

Black, white or brown race, yellow race or red,

From the torrid equator to the ice-fields spread,

Monsieurs and senors, lubras and fraus,

All one family, so why family rows?

We're not interested in their igloos,

They're not mad about kangaroos;

I'm international, never mind place;

I'm for humanity, all one race.

Let Us Not Be Bitter

Away with bitterness, my own dark people

Come stand with me, look forward, not back,

For a new time has come for us.

Now we must change, my people. For so long

Time for us stood still; now we know

Life is change, life is progress,

Life is learning things, life is onward.

White men had to learn civilised ways,

Now it is our turn.

Away with bitterness and the bitter past;

Let us try to understand the white man's ways

And accept them as they accept us;

Let us judge white people by the best of their race.

The prejudiced ones are less than we,

We want them no more than they want us.

Let us not be bitter, that is an empty thing,

A maggot in the mind.

The past is gone like our childhood days of old,

The future comes like dawn after the dark,

Bringing fulfilment.

An Appeal

Statesmen, who make the nation's laws,

With power to force unfriendly doors,

Give leadership in this our cause

1. That leaders owe.

Writers, who have the nation's ear,

Your pen a sword opponents fear,

Speak of our evils loud and clear

1. That all may know.

Unions, who serve democracy,

Guardians of social liberty,

Warm to the justice of our plea,

1. And strike your blow.

Churches, who preach the Nazarene,

Be on our side and intervene,

Show us what Christian love can mean

1. Who need it so.

The Press, most powerful of all,

On you the underprivileged call:

Right us a wrong and break the thrall

1. That keeps us low.

All white well-wishers, in the end

On you our chiefest hopes depend;

Public opinion's our best friend

1. To beat the foe.

The Curlew Cried

Three nights they heard the curlew cry.

It is the warning known of old

That tells them one tonight shall die.

Brother and friend, he comes and goes

Out of the Shadow Land to them,

The loneliest voice that earth knows.

He guards the welfare of his own,

He comes to lead each soul away –

To what dim world, what strange unknown?

Who is it that tonight must go:

The old blind one? The cripple child?