Our Hearts Are Breaking - Invasion, Conflict and Resilience

As I sit on the wall by the lake’s edge,

and gaze across the water,

I do not see the speeding boats

and other foreign matter.

Instead I see camp fires,

and dark skin people on the other shore.

My people that have gone

a long time before.

I feel my heart swell with tears of sorrow,

for my people’s land was stolen.

And for them there was heartbreak,

and no more tomorrow.

I feel their spirits beside me,

like a soft breeze that suddenly entwine.

Their sad tears forever

will mingle with mine.

For thousands of years they roamed this land,

My people, creators of Dreamtime

and happy sound,

sharing a freedom no other race can define.

It took only a few years of white man’s invasion,

the land he claims he found,

to take away the dignity and sharing

of Aboriginal people, Black man,

My people, first born of this land.

RACHEL MULLETT Gunai/Monero