3 No More Boomerang OODGEROO NOONUCCAL
No more boomerang
No more spear;
Now all civilized
Colour bar and beer.
No more corroboree,
Gay dance and din.
Now we got movies,
And pay to go in.
No more sharing
What the hunter brings.
Now we work for money,
Then pay it back for things.
Now we track bosses
To catch a few bob,
Now we go walkabout
On bus to the job.
One time naked,
Who never knew shame;
Now we put clothes on
To hide whatsaname.
No more gunya,
Now bungalow,
Paid by higher purchase
In twenty year or so.
Lay down the stone axe,
Take up the steel,
And work like a nigger
For a white man meal.
No more firesticks
That made the whites scoff.
Now all electric,
And no better off.
Bunyip he finish,
Now got instead
White fella Bunyip,
Call him Red.
Abstract picture now
What they coming at?
Cripes, in our caves we
Did better than that.
Black hunted wallaby,
White hunt dollar;
White fella witch-doctor
Wear dog-collar.
No more message-stick;
Lubras and lads
Got television now,
Mostly ads.
Lay down the woomera,
Lay down the waddy,
Now we got atom-bomb,
End everybody.
from Contemporary Australian Poetry (Houghton Mifflin, 1990), edited by John Leonard.
Used and reprinted by permission.
Click here for a reading of this poem by Jordie Albiston, followed by one of her own.
Click here for a video of the Melbourne premiere of Leonard Lehrman's setting, Jan. 5, 2002.