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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