MY BEAUTIFUL ISLE OF SOMEWHERE

Episode-8 

Well, here we are all sitting round with cup of tea and bickie
there’s sister Sue and my friend Gert
with Harry, Tom and Dickie

You were right, to get them here was not an easy matter
They said they’d rather go to golf
than join in idle chatter

I don’t know who you’re talking to, said Harry looking surly
but Gertie giggled, I can hear
it sounds like hurley burley

I asked them all to quieten down, it must be taken seriously
then sister Sue began to shake
as Salty said imperiously

You’d better cut the cackle or we’ll leave right here and now
Poor Tom shot up and said in shock
Oh Christ, Oh Holy Cow

Did I hear what I just heard, and is this all fair dinkum?
I would have bet on all I owned
including one year’s income

That all of us and Dickie too were victims of a shakedown
and poor old Lou, for all we knew
was headed for a breakdown

Then Salty said, It’s up to you, to teach we are quite happy
but understand, no muckin’ round
or I can get real snappy

So Tom and Sue and Gert and me with Dickie and with Harry
promised not to waste their time
with questions they could parry

They all sat silent as Black Elk began to tell his tale
My life was changed forever more
when men with faces pale

came exploring to our lands without a sense of fairness
we were all too trusting then
of Fives we lacked awareness

There is very little mention in your history’s resources
of how we traded furs and meat
for whisky, guns and horses

What better way to ‘set up’ tribes and brothers against brothers
because Fives knew we’d go to war
among ourselves and others

Now several hundred years have passed and time has changed the rules
The Indians now seek redress
from Residential Schools

For there Fives carried out their plan for mass extermination
by relocation and disease
they would destroy a nation

That’s not the reason we are here, we’re looking towards the future
for if the Salties will agree
we could return to nurture

Episode 7

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