On friday night Tony and I went to see Bangarra Dance Theatre, Australia's leading indigenous performing arts company. Their latest production, Terrain, is dedicated to the spiritual resonance of Lake Eyre and the story of resilience and connection to the land. If you get a chance, please go to see this mesmerising performance. I read yesterday that Terrain premiered just days after the Arabana people won non-exclusive native title to 69,000sq km of South Australia around and including Lake Eyre. The power and magic of art.
The Past
Let no one say the past is dead
The past is all about us and within
Haunted by tribal memories….
Here I sit in easy-chair before electric heater,
The chair and heater are but since yesterday
But a thousand camp fires in a forest are in my blood.
Let no one tell me the past is wholly gone
Now is so small a part of time
So small a part of all the race years that have moulded me.
The past is all about us and within
Haunted by tribal memories….
Here I sit in easy-chair before electric heater,
The chair and heater are but since yesterday
But a thousand camp fires in a forest are in my blood.
Let no one tell me the past is wholly gone
Now is so small a part of time
So small a part of all the race years that have moulded me.
Oodgeroo Noonuccal (KathWalker)
