I still call Australia home!

 

My place, my home!

Neera Handa

(The poem was presented in 2018 SWF)

Each place has a name given by those who call it home

Does the place ever answer to the name? Let me try and call out

… Aie eee? –       Alumuna…aaaaa!! [1]

…. Oh, but stop!  

What’re these sounds, who’re these people? What’s the matter?

They are running and shouting “They’re coming, they are coming!” 

They’re plundering our world, they’re destroying what we had built, stop them!”

And those who are chasing them are shouting “Run! Kill them”!

But listen to what they are saying please! listen!

“Buddham Saranmam gacchami; Dharnam sarnam gacchami; Saṅghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi” [2] ……….Oummmmmmmmm!

We were here before you! much before you. We built it, we built it all!

we built this and you came and took it!  

Go away, leave us!  

This was a temple, no, this was a mosque, you are joking, “this was my church”

Stop it you all, this was my home! I want to say, my ‘country’!

But my voice drowns in the mayhem of slogans

 “Move forward”; 

“Go back, where you came from”;

 “Reclaim”;  

“Reconciliation”; 

“Love not war”;  

“I have a dream”

 …  ngala  ulaustralia moo….[3]


[1] Alumuna means My home  http://www.grandpapencil.net/austral/abword/aba.htm

[2] Buddhist Pali chant the Vandana Ti-sarana “I go to Buddha, I go to Dharma, I go to sanaṅgha!”

[3] Kala Lagaw Ya language version ngala-yi nga-buga-ndi moo taken from Qantas tune 'I Still Call Australia Home'

 https://sydney.edu.au/arts/linguistics/research/wagiman/dict/dict.html 

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