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Wednesday 28 January 2009

Australia Day Yesterday, Holocaust Day today.

Australia Day yesterday, which for me was always a mournful time thinking of the impact European arrival had on Australian land and people, seemed a fit preambule to today Holocaust day. Words are few at the end of these hours of thinking. Noonuccal'poem will clear the skies.

Noonuccal, ‘Then and Now’, in My People, (Milton, 1981), p. 91

No more woomera, no more boomerang,
No more playabout, no more the old ways.
Children of nature we were then,
No clocks hurrying crowds to toil.
Now I am civilized and work in the white way,
Now I have dress, now I have shoes:
‘Isn’t she lucky to have a good job!’
Better when I had only a dillybag.
Better when I had nothing but happiness

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