The Effective Living Centre is co-hosting Indigenous arts events this week in support of the proposed First Nations Voice to Parliament.

Tuesday evening, a film screening and conversation with the director; this weekend an art exhibition, its opening, and a concert.

I was invited to offer some poetry at the official opening of the Meiwi Aboriginal Art exhibition for artist Sam Gollan. I composed one piece for the event and one during the event, and offered two others that expressed something of my commitment to listen to First Nations voices.

The first poem I offered was one I composed at the recent Anglican Schools Australia conference in Canberra (Ngunnawal/Ngambri Land). I’d been invited there as co-emcee and poet in residence, to offer poetic reflections to the keynote and other presentations.

This one responded primarily to Thomas Mayo’s discussion of the Uluru Statement from the heart and the Voice, which he showed is not the first Voice to Parliament. Whenever First Peoples have had a voice into parliament’s decision making processes about issues concerning First Peoples, their wellbeing has improved. A certain flavour of government tends to institute such voices, and a different flavour to dismantle them. A ‘yes’ vote in the referendum tells whatever flavour of government that the people of these lands now called Australia want our First Peoples to be well, and to be respected enough to always have a say in that wellbeing.

On counting every blessing

Composed in response to:

Acknowledgement of Country – Andy Gordon and Radford College Students

Morning Prayer – Rev Andy Fleming and Angus McKee

Keynote: Thomas Mayo, ‘The Uluru Statement from the Heart – Saying Yes to Recognition and a Voice’

Presentation: Uncle Glenn Loughrey, Anglican Diocese of Melbourne/ NATSIAC, ‘Voice, Treaty, Truth, Absurd Generosity: The Statement from the Heart as Pedagogy’

Passion, compassion, presence;
purpose, truthtelling, speaking
in language, in sign, with heart,
in song – let all earth revere Holy One;
Rejoice in Holy One always
guarded by Peace and what is true,
guided by love

raw deciduosity exposed
still, waiting, vulnerable, until
the mountains laugh
with re-emergence, with unfurling,
growing the mountains with a deep
breath of joy

this Anglican schools community
raw together, waiting together breathing
with the fulness of life

our First Peoples: raw humanity
exposed, still, waiting, vulnerable
until: the people grow with a deep
breath of joy in each other,
re-emergence, a new day, together

power has disempowered,
choosing silence over reform,
choosing death without resurrection

power seeks now to empower,
choosing to listen, with effect,
choosing to recognise, fairly, with respect

and we are invited to embrace
a Spirit, a hope,
to back ourselves for who we can be,
to see, to show we see,
to meet absurd generosity
with generous reciprocity
wrestling with our past selves
accepting the limp to our walk
for now, invited to receive
this invitation with gratitude,
with grace, inspired by Holy
generosity, Holy grace,
Holy yes!

Then I shared the poem I composed in the summer of 2021, when we’d heard the brilliance of Amanda Gorman at the USA Presidential Inauguration, were still in the midst of Covid, and were on the eve of Australia / Invasion Day …

To finish, the poem I composed for the event, ‘Together’, and the haiku, that I composed as Nathan May sang, and I reflected on Sam Gollan’s artworks around us. The title of the haiku, ‘it’s started’ references Nathan’s song, ‘It’s gotta start somewhere’. (Also check out ‘Fix it up‘ if you like some great fiddle playing’)

Together

for the opening of the Meiwi Aboriginal Art Exhibition, Sam Gollan, on Kaurna Land August 2023 

When you speak, it is
to dream a healing
for us all, a rising
from the ash, the dust,
the death that’s gone before;
you paint a sky to draw
us up, you sing the rain
to wash us home, you
open a gift, a
grace, a love to lead
us into life, to bring us
with you on your re-
emergence, make it our
re-emergence, though we’ve no
right to assume; and when
you speak, I want to hear,
to bid all to listen.
I’m turning to you, our First
Peoples, be our Elders in
the Australia we could become?

it’s started

hands open, you open, my
Spirit, open, butterfly
us on to somewhere