Monday, June 30, 2008

44. Dreamtime


Here, in Newcastle, we rarely see a full-blood Aborginal person. No doubt we see many people of Aboriginal descent, probably from our local Awaba tribe, but we don't recognise them as such. The plight of the truly Indigenous people in Australia is dire and no-one seems to know exactly what to do about the problem. We all fantasise about the 40,000 years during which various Indigenous tribes held sway over this country, and, no doubt, we tend to romanticise their lives. By the law of averages they must have been as flawed as human beings as we are, but, as my poem suggests, they did seem to inhabit a Paradise.

DREAMTIME
We intend to master
Everything that's faster,
Wider, taller, bigger, more bombastic.
We have set our sights on
New ways to turn our lights on
And technology grows more and more fantastic.
But there was once a race
Who had regard for place;
For whom the laws of nature still held sway.
They live among us yet
And we must not forget
The lessons that they still teach us today.

Took a walk one sunny Saturday, through Awabakal Reserve
And the gums were cool and shadowy where the bush-track made a curve.
And it seemed that I was all alone like a Koori from the past,
With all the world my oyster, before the die was cast.
There were fruits and nuts surrounding me, there were insects by the score,
And I had no need of credit cards: I could just take more and more.
And the sea was full of fish for me, and the rivers ran so pure,
And the laws were just and certain and the way of life secure.
Should the winter winds assail me, there were furs to wrap me round,
There were native birds to call to me and make a cheerful sound.
And the rubbish in my middens soon returned back to the earth,
And my 'place' was all I needed and I understood its worth.

But I came back to reality! Once again I was just me,
And I missed the great tranquility of the days that used to be.
Though I'm wedded to my way of life and I know I can't return,
In my heart there is affinity with the bush-track and the fern.

We all know the world's gone mad
And we yearn for what they had,
And we can't help thinking back to way back then.
In Awabakul a stroll
Has the power to ease a soul.
In Awabakal we learn to live again.
*

13 comments:

Janet said...

This is beautiful and very powerful. It reminds me of our Native Americans and their way of life. We're losing our contact with the natural world and mostly living in technology now....how sad.

Rinkly Rimes said...

Today it's my Wedding Anniversary (43 years!). Malcolm and I aren't at all sentimental but we're very good friends. So imagine my joy yesterday when I entered my study to find he'd bought me a new big-screen computer monitor to help me with my newly-cataracted eyes!!! How thoughtful. But the link to you is that you're the first person I've put a shortcut to on my new screen. You're years younger than me, but I feel we're on the same wavelength. I've been searching the Blogs and 95% of Bloggers 'don't fit'. Do you find that?
Brenda

Kat said...

So nice of Malcolm to have got you the big screen. (pssst.. you didn't buy him anything? :))))

A cute poem capturing the freshness of yester-years as well as Awabakal. In next 50 years would people then wonder that the present times were Rosy?

I am glad I am not in the same wavelength as you Brenda :-)))))
I belong to the audience tribe who claps in appreciation of your lovely works..!!!!

Brian Miller said...

i think there is much we could learn from those that came beofer us...nice write, esp that last line. happy tt!

Leeuna said...

Lovely poem with a fabulous message.

Maxwell Mead Williams Robinson Barry said...

beautiful, glad to see you share.

:)

Anonymous said...

Important message beautifully expressed

Marbles in My Pocket said...

This is so true, and we all tend to look back and wonder what it would have been like to live in the times where it was all about survival--the next meal, and shelter. Very nice write!

http://charleslmashburn.wordpress.com/2011/10/23/the-wolf-and-the-rose/

Tigerbrite said...

This is lovely and so true.

Kay said...

This was extremely philosophical and that made me love it! This evening, I was speaking with a scholar and he said that if the greediest man was left to inherit everything on the earth and he stood alone with it all, would he be happy in his solitude?

davidrheins said...

Very Rinkly Rime!

Mystic_Mom said...

Wonderful poem, and having worked with our Aboriginal people (and marrying one too!) I know we have lost so much. Thanks for this poem. Will be sharing.

Ann LeFlore said...

wonderful poem. This is so true of the islands where I live. We are not saddled with the loss of knowing how to enjoy nature and what a family is we do not have to worry for this one. but to go back to learn to live again this is excellent and more of us should consider this and go back to a simpler life with more family unit and love
http://gatelesspassage.com/2011/10/25/changing-lands/