My task is to kiss the land
My love my soul
Roam and hunt with my band
Of blacks
Whilst forever
The kangaroo fears your white skin
But will stand in my shadow
With a crocodile
Behind any anthill
When the land swallows your white arse
You will call me as you have always done
The blacktracker
Heatwaves are bandwidths to my freedom
Out here
Where I talk to the spirits
Where I feel my aboriginality
Where I am the guardian of all
That is really Australian
A
White death knell
Our sacred interior
Our black space
No technology
No water
And
No Blackman skills
You will take your chance without me
My land tells me all I need to know
And has done for forty thousand years
So I ask
What have you brought to this land
That would make me change my mind
Or
My Aboriginal purpose
Dear Paul,
My name is Ali and I’m writing on behalf of Education Queensland. I am an assistant to our Copyright Officer Karen Cave for Brisbane School of Distance Education (BSDE) in Queensland, Australia.
Currently Education Queensland is developing resources for Years Prep to 10 for the National Curriculum for all Education Queensland students, including distance education students who are in remote locations, travelling, home schooled or classified as medically unable to attend mainstream schools.
We are seeking permission to use your poem ‘Aboriginal Purpose’ to be used a resource for Queensland state schools. Could you please email [email protected] with a contact email and we’d be more than happy to send through a permission request form.
Please let me know if you require further information.
Kind Regards,
Ali Harrison