Poems

Songlines

A poem by Nola Gregory, Western Australia.

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Come with us on a journey
Through land and sea and time
Follow down our dreaming tracks
Listen carefully, look for signs.

You will feel them in your spirit
As they weave into your soul
Songlines, our Ancestral story
Are alive and strong and bold.

They created for us the rivers
The trees and all their girth
Spreading out our storylines
As they walked upon the earth.

They are for us a legacy
Our connection to our land
They are seen through our existence
As we walk upon ochre and sand.

So listen very carefully now
As you walk upon our land
Let it seep into your spirit
As we take you by the hand.

We’ll lead you to our dreaming
And sing you songs of old
As through dance and art recorded
Our Ancestral story is told.

For 60,000 years it’s been
Our heart, our spirit, our song
Something for us to be proud of
It’s our existence, it's where we belong.

We follow in the footsteps
Of our Ancestral beings
We follow along our Songlines
And our journey to our Dreaming.

Nola wrote this poem for NAIDOC Week 2016 which had the theme of the same name.

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Cite this page

Korff, J 2020, Songlines, <https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/arts/poems/songlines>, retrieved 4 November 2024

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