reading revival 2

the first sequel. reading revival 2 reads ngarla songs by alexander brown & brian geytenbeek: a collection of 20C indigenous songs translated from ngarla into english. for previous revival incarnation hit link below.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

'Wariyarranya Nyurranga Ngurra Pungkarriya'/'Wariyarranya Is Not Your Country Any Longer' pp 44-5 is addressed to sheep, implying theyve been cursed.

'You poor fellows from Wariyarranya,
it's not your country any longer.
He will take you to Port Hedland forever.

The mild humour is gone, but the complexity and identification (with sheep this time) remain. An original song-poem -- it resonates with much beside the ostensible story: of being forced from the land, of genocide. yet even here there is the poetic and sympathetic irony of using sheep as the identification point: a prosaic reading of settlement is that sheep farming was one of the whites' reasons for driving indigenes away. this is not political in a reductive rights-based way but one that refuses to abandon notions of wholeness and integration - & thats radical.

'You are headed for your graveyard' is the final line.

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