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Terra Nullius






Listen to the Poet Read
 An empty land, a vacant land, unpeopled, uninhabited;
No fox, no sparrow, goat or horse, uncamelled and unrabbitted!
And then the white man came and stayed, and lived their meagre history,
Not recognising those before, whose origin is mystery.
The aboriginal, the black, was not considered one of us,
And so the land was thus declared unpeopled - "Terra Nullius".

The aboriginal is lost when they are dispossessed of land;
For their existence, heart and soul, is bound in rock and earth and sand.
Two centuries on, their Dreaming fades, their fire of hope now but a spark;
But then a judgment handed down revives the flame and sheds the dark.

For court of law has now proclaimed that "Terra Nullius" is wrong;
The aboriginal has rights to where he's dwelt for ages long:
"To use, possess and occupy, to once again enjoy the land,"
From which for twenty decades long he has been so unjustly banned.
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