'Lucky Country' Another View from 1982

Check out the lyrics for 'Lucky Country' Midnight Oil here for a more 1970s/80s viewpoint

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!!

'Rebuilding Afghanistan' at the Lovatt Gallery

I mentioned this the other day and had some space in the shadows of my holidays to actually get there myself!! It's a great upstairs space above Newcastle Regional Library. The stark white walls were ringed by a series of A3 photoboards with brief descriptions!

They were great: water wells, reconstruction, school outdoors, soldiers doing everything from carpentery to light fittings, providing whiteboards and setting up medical supplies. I found the pictures of obviously 'wise' and 'senior' locals in friendly or significant conversation with soldiers the most striking.

Inauguration Benediction

I suppose if I were doing something in worship this Sunday I could do worse than craft a version of Rev Lowery's Benediction into a suitable piece for the Australian context [especially with Australia Day on Monday!!
Remarkable to hear the spirit, wisdom and deep faith of someone there when Dr King and others were drawn into the civil rights movement by the actions of Rosa Parks. It mostly left me reminded that for all the cr#p in the church there is still an everlasting God who inspires, connects and loves and who drives a deep sense of connectedness and purpose in the minds and hearts of those who choose to try to follow!! A remarkable moment in a remarkable day!!

AND THE TRANSCRIPT:

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far along the way, thou who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path, we pray, lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee, lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee. Shadowed beneath thy hand may we forever stand — true to thee, O God, and true to our native land.

We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we’ve shared this day. We pray now, O Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant, Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States, his family and his administration. He has come to this high office at a low moment in the national and, indeed, the global fiscal climate. But because we know you got the whole world in your hand, we pray for not only our nation, but for the community of nations. Our faith does not shrink, though pressed by the flood of mortal ills.

For we know that, Lord, you’re able and you’re willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor or the least of these and from favoritism toward the rich, the elite of these.

We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that, yes, we can work together to achieve a more perfect union. And while we have sown the seeds of greed — the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.

And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.

And as we leave this mountaintop, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques, or wherever we seek your will.

Bless President Barack, First Lady Michelle. Look over our little, angelic Sasha and Malia.

We go now to walk together, children, pledging that we won’t get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone, with your hands of power and your heart of love.

Help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid; when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around — (laughter) — when yellow will be mellow — (laughter) — when the red man can get ahead, man — (laughter) — and when white will embrace what is right.

Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen.

AUDIENCE: Amen!

REV. LOWERY: Say amen –

AUDIENCE: Amen!

REV. LOWERY: — and amen.

AUDIENCE: Amen! (Cheers, applause.)