Went streaming off along the empty creek

Towards the great red caves of sandstone where

They sheltered at night in the worst wet weather.

Oi! Oi! Good playabout that time!

Oi! Oi! A night to be remembered.

Namatjira

Aboriginal man, you walked with pride,

And painted with joy the countryside.

Original man, your fame grew fast,

Men pointed you out as you went past.

But vain the honour and tributes paid,

For you strangled in rules the white men made;

You broke no law of your own wild clan

Which says, 'Share all with your fellow-man.'

What did their loud acclaim avail

Who gave you honour, then gave you jail?

Namatjira, they boomed your art,

They called you genius, then broke your heart.

The Dispossessed

For Uncle Willie Mackenzie

Peace was yours, Australian man, with tribal laws you made,

Till white Colonials stole your peace with rape and murder raid;

They shot and poisoned and enslaved until, a scattered few,

Only a remnant now remain, and the heart dies in you.

The white man claimed your hunting grounds and you could not remain,

They made you work as menials for greedy private gain;

Your tribes are broken vagrants now wherever whites abide,

And justice of the white man means justice to you denied.

They brought you Bibles and disease, the liquor and the gun:

With Christian culture such as these the white command was won.

A dying race you linger on, degraded and oppressed,

Outcasts in your own native land, you are the dispossessed.

When Churches mean a way of life, as Christians proudly claim,

And when hypocrisy is scorned and hate is counted shame,

Then only shall intolerance die and old injustice cease,

And white and dark as brothers find equality and peace.

But oh, so long the wait has been, so slow the justice due,

Courage decays for want of hope, and the heart dies in you.

Interlude

Their conversation arrested me. There I was, turned off, relaxing on a garden chair, watching early night swallow the last of the daylight.

In the dusk, two forms came into focus. One was shaking his head and his long hair and beard were outlined against the fading light. He was wearing a long gown. He was telling the other shade where he came from. The other shadow had a beard too. They both looked like socially deprived dropouts. One even poorer than the other. He was naked.

Their skins were dark like they must have got an over-exposure of sun. One was dark dark and the other sort of not-so-dark dark.

The not-so-dark darkie was talking and using his hands to make a point. The other dark darkie noticed the holes in the palms of his hands and asked him, how come.

The not-so-dark darkie dropped his hands and frowned, as though he wasn‘t sure he should tell the dark darkie his story.