Stolen Australia

26/01/2021 – Poem a Day Compilation



My white skin burns in the sunlight

That has graced this land for millennia

Far longer than my meagre history

Longer than those first peoples



        This light shines brightly now

        On the dark past

        We’ve had hidden from us

        For so long



        Never taught in classrooms

        The blood-stained pages

        Of colonial history

        Finally glowing before my eyes



The knowledge of my privilege burns

Scorching its way through my heart

Hotter than the summer here

More fierce than those raging fires



        It is a privilege born of a sacrifice

        Not my own

        That I must still live with

        As my national shame



        The many who had their lives stolen

        Simply for existing

        The generations stolen

        And traded like cattle



The sting of history burns my soul

A past that I cannot change

Yet cannot accept

While its truth is whitewashed



        The massacre after massacre

        Their lives deemed worthless

        Against the value to a motherland

        Intent on exploitation



        A legacy of children

        Ripped from their parent’s arms

        To be denied their culture

        Their future and their identity



Bridges burnt are slow to rebuild

Generations upon generations

Separated from each other

By more than time



        Covered up by power and greed

        At all levels of society

        Denied by those set to lose

        All they had gained by those misdeeds



        The stench of dishonesty

        Slowly seeping out of the pores

        Of the institutions and associations

        That benefited from those crimes



Would the burning of this candle

Erase the wrongs

Of the country I love

I would light it a million times



        Would it bring back Pemulwuy, 

        The Bediagal killed and maimed

        Or the Awabakal men butchered

        And the nine Yuin people slain?



        Would it resurrect the Dharawal?

        Sixteen shot on site

        Dozens more driven over cliffs –

        The slaughter of men, women an children



There is no cleansing fire that burns

Hot enough to erase the past

And we all must remember

Lest history repeat itself