I still call you, my home!

 

I still call you, my home!

 

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? –are you still there Tabulum …? *

 

Oh, but stop! What’re these sounds, who’re these people?

What’s the matter?

There are people running and shouting?

“They’re coming, they are coming!” 

They’re plundering our world, stop them!”

 

And those chasing them are shouting “Run! Chase them out, take it all back”.

But listen to what they are all saying,  please! Listen!


“Buddham Saranmam gacchami; Dharnam sarnam gacchami; Saṅghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi”**

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

We had built this and you 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! 

My ‘country’!

But my voice drowns in the mayhem of slogans

 “Move forward”; 

“Go back, where you came from”;

 “Time for action”; 

“Reclaim”;

 “Reconciliation”;

“Make love not war”;

“I have a dream”


And I try to sing my song in their tune … ngala  ulaustralia moo….***

 


* Tabulum my native country or home in the Ulmarra district. Yugambeh-Bundjalung Dictionary (dalang.com.au)

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

***Qanta's famous ad 'I Still Call Australia Home' - Aboriginal - Kala Lagaw Ya- language version first stanza sung by 13 year old Torres Strait Islander Tyus Arndt (614) I Still Call Australia Home (2009) - YouTube

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