Ancient One

Aah Ancient One

I see you

I hear the children of the First Nations

playing under your shade.

I see the grandmothers holding ceremony

Deciding who goes to hunt

And who stays to protect the women and children who remain.

Aah Ancient One who has lived across so many generations.

Witness to the joy of indigeneity.

When human and animal communes

The streams brought crystal water from the mountains.

And the salmon to feed the people.

And the wild berries kept hunger at bay.

Oh those times Ancient One

Before the terror arrived.

The iron pipe which spoke fire

And brought death to innocent ones.

What demon brought these mercenaries

Who pillage, plunder and rape.

Aah Ancient One who speaks to all ancestors.

The time has come for reconciliation.

But the truth must first be heard.

And the Other embraced.

So we cleanse

We purify our humanness

We apologise.

We make reparations.

We are all wounded.

Wounded by the spectre of slavery and colonialism.

Aah the Renaissance may have freed Europe.

But it enslaved the world.

And now we must heal

From a foundation of Supreme Truth

We are all One.

We are the Divine Grace.

But so is all we co-exist with

The trees and forests.

Rivers and oceans

Mountains and valleys

Our birds, animals and All Life.