Based on Psalm 137
By the waterholes of Mother Country we slung down our yidakis, and cut our bodies and drugged our minds in grief, as we remembered the dreamtime.
And the settlers demanded from us a corroboree performance and a jail sentence, mutual obligation and a souvenir boomerang for the gift shop.
How could we dance and perform sacred traditions for their markets? We have become aliens and inmates, invisible in this eternal land.
If I forget the traditions of the elders, then will the brightly coloured birds fade to gray. Then will the rainbow-serpent permit the sun to dry up all the waterholes, and droughts and floods will come.
Baiame will remember those white settlers — invaders, will bless those who pay you back for the small-pox and the hangman’s noose.
And you, Daughters of the British Empire — ravagers, will be destroyed, for you stole our children, and you smashed their heritage against the jagged reefs.
*a midrash is an interpretation or reworking of an ancient scripture text, which applies it to contemporary situations.