Australia Day 26th January

I'm not alone in believing that we live in an amazing place!! Australia's natural environment, the cities, east and west, the laidback approach etc etc.

Whenever I travel I am struck by how much lower the sky feels and generally how much thicker and more grey. I travel to NZ for the first time later this year [did I mention I'm going to the Rugby World Cup Final!!] and so I look fwd to the delights of Auckland and beyond...

I am struck by the radio debate today about: who we are? whether Parky should be doing our NSW Aussie Day address; and whether it's rehash of Clive James or an contemporary view we need to hear.

There's echoes of: our jingoism; Cronulla beach riots; the "F&^%$ off, we're full" racist stickers/shirts; and the chain store adoption of popular flag surfwear or undies.

There are also average boomers, families and the WW2 generations wondering what all the fuss is about...

All this alongside the debate about whether we should move the day away from a commemoration of the European invasion of the great southland and the beginning of the destruction of precious indigenous culture which despite our 'sorry' we are yet to truly deal with....

Anyhow, heavy stuff ahead of a day we celebrate and appreciate all things Aussie!! I used to enjoy 'Survival Day' concerts at La Perouse [koori revenge making us sit in 36 degrees on a treeless oval listening to great music] ... I used to wonder how it felt for Yothu Yindi, Paul Kelly and Christine Anu to drive across town and include a Darling Harbour appearance in their day? I felt especially motivated having chosen the 'Survival March' in 1988 and sat in the Park listening to many indigenous and anglo speakers lay out a vision for what could be and is still possible...

Anyhow, reflective 'toss' or otherwise I have penned a poem for the day [part procrastination from a household reno and part response to the radio chat, the boardies and the flag adorned cars everywhere]!! It might be a little familiar... and comes ahead of my obligatory youtube song of choice for this year...

My Country

The love of field and pruning

Of green tree shaded lanes

Of pommie woods and gardens

Is the backpackers domain

Putting up with grey-blue distance

Brown streams and that low sky

Is nice to sometimes visit

But we could pass it by

I love a sunburnt country

Across the great western plains

Of bushwalkers mountain ranges

Of droughts and flooding rains

I love our far horizons

I love the Bar Beach sea

The beauty and the terror

The wide brown land for me

A stark white ring-barked forest

The loggers lop in tune

The sapphire misted mountains

The midday sun breaks through

Annoying spikey shrubs

Lantana and pesky weeds

A bunch of 40 dollar natives

A protea is all you need

Core of our soul, our country

The levelling blue sky

One minute cattle are dying

But then the grey clouds gather

And we can dance again

That sound on tin roofs clapping

The steady soaking rain

Core of their soul, their country

Land of the Rainbow snake

For flood and fire and famine

The dreaming stories make

Sand through the hand is poured

Lingiari was his name

The greenness will return

When they the land can claim

An opal hearted country

A willful, lavish land

We celebrate Australia

With coasters and board shorts

The flag we hold in hand

Brawls, beer and Hot 100

Disrupt our reflective or family time

We revel in the ANZAC

And sadly 'turn the boats around'

Rob Hanks [adapted from the poem by Dorothea Mackellar]

And the lyrics for 'My Country' Midnight Oil can be explored here

If I wasn't there this night I was at one just like it and can still recall that feeling!!