Tree Grave by Oodgeroo Noonuccal
Listen/Watch poem recited here.
When our lost ones left us For the Shallow Land, In bark we bound him, A weeping band, Our wild death croon To his lonely tree-grave By the Long-Lagoon.
Our wandering fires Are now far away, But our thoughts are turning By night and day Where he lies for ever Under the White Moon, By the lit waters Of the still lagoon.
HIs hunts are over And the songs he made; Poor lonely fellow, He will be afraid When the night winds whisper Their ghostly tune In the haunted swamp-oaks By the Long Lagoon.
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“Oodgeroo of the Noonuccal, known until 1988 as Kath Walker, was born Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska on 3 November 1920 (in Australia)…Her father, an Aborigine, was employed by the Queensland government as part of a poorly-paid Aboriginal workforce; his campaigning for better conditions for Aboriginal workers left a strong impression on his daughter…In 1988, as a protest against continuing Aboriginal disadvantage during the Bicentennial Celebration of White Australia, Walker returned the MBE she had been awarded in 1970, and subsequently adopted the Noonuccal tribal name Oodgeroo (meaning “paperbark”). Read more about Ms. Noonuccal.
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