Sorry Day falls on the eve of Reconciliation Week, giving us the chance to ask whether we are making progress in the wider challenge of reconciling Indigenous and other Australians.
quote by Malcolm Fraser
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
Conversations (AKA Unfinished Business)
Conversations through the phone
raises issues that still impact
on indigenous Australians. There
is also a message of hope!
Imagination, creativity, art, dance,
music, and inventive conversations.
Positive expressions of Indigenous
survival.
Mr Prime Minister, The Mayor,
young folk, warriors without
treaties, the wider community . . .
The message as always,
even though we smile.
Land Rights, sovereignty, no more
crap, ignorance and unabated racism.
poem by Lisa Bellear
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Health economists have estimated that an injection of $250 million per year in Indigenous clinical care, and $50 million in preventative care, is required to provide services at the same level as for any other group with the health conditions of Indigenous Australians.
quote by Malcolm Fraser
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Message Failed
INDIGENOUS: Our lands are here to welcome
PARLIAMENTARIAN: We do not come in peace
INDIGENOUS: As long, as long ago we offer welcome
PARLIAMENTARIAN: We do not come in peace
INDIGENOUS: An offering from within deep within
PARLIAMENTARIAN: We do not come in peace
INDIGENOUS: Who are your people?
PARLIAMENTARIAN: We do not come in peace
INDIGENOUS: Our custom, begins like this
PARLIAMENTARIAN: We do no come in peace
INDIGENOUS: From the tops of the gum trees, too
PARLIAMENTARIAN: We do not come in peace
INDIGENOUS: Beneath the earth our mother
PARLIAMENTARIAN: We do not come in peace
INDIGENOUS: If you share with our traditions
PARLIAMENTARIAN: We do not come in peace
We do not come in peace
Die just be gone
poem by Lisa Bellear
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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On the same line of reasoning, if Australians were to be Australians, or rather if Australians were as separate from any other nation as Australia from any other land, there would be no jealousy between them on England's account.
quote by Henry Lawson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Thanks
Thank you,
Thanks for looking after me
Thanks for having someone to look upto and admire
Thanks for giving me time
Thanks for giving me space
Thanks for giving me advice
Thanks for making me laugh
Thanks for making me cry
Thanks for making me sing
Thanks for making me sigh
Thanks for giving me everything you can
Thank you
poem by Lucy Vernezze
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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For My Grandma Jean (whom I miss so much)
Thank you,
Thanks for looking after me
Thanks for having someone to look upto and admire
Thanks for giving me time
Thanks for giving me space
Thanks for giving me advice
Thanks for making me laugh
Thanks for making me cry
Thanks for making me sing
Thanks for making me sigh
Thanks for giving me everything you can
Thank you
poem by Adam Owens
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First Week/last Week... Carefree
Can we run that again
Is that a womans voice I hear?
I said, lets wait and see. Ill see for myself
Thats a phrase I repeat
To myself
Made a reference to me and
Thats myself too
What progress I have made the first week
First week
First week
First week
Every sentence I use
Refer to women and their names
I heard the voice first last week
I heard it myself
Made a reference to me
Thats myself
This reports incomplete
I see for myself
Every appointment has been moved to last week
Last week
Last week
Last week
Oh...
Ah...
Oh...
I heard the voice first last week
I heard it myself
Made a reference to me
And thats myself
This reports incomplete
I see for myself
Every appointment has been been moved to last week
Last week
Last week
Last week
Oh...
Ah...
Oh...
song performed by by Talking Heads
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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We are all one - or at least we should be - and it is our job, our duty, and our great challenge to fight the voices of division and seek the salve of reconciliation.
quote by Roy Barnes
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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For us Australians, Singapore also represents sacred soil. Almost 2000 Australians died here in the defense of your island country and our neighborhood.
quote by Michael Jeffery
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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If we had, we would have realised sooner that Indigenous organisations are sometimes not the appropriate channel for programmes to help the stolen generations, because many of them play little part in Indigenous associations.
quote by Malcolm Fraser
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Vicious Cycle
Taking life and feeding death
a broken path, a fork in the road.
Screaming, beating, defeating,
not making any sense but still vital to life and death.
Whispering cruel thoughts, stealing breath
voicing once hidden intentions.
Taking life and feeding death.
Gentle heat, steadfast heart
killing death to take a chance on life every fourth.
Fighting, winning and losing,
not making any sense but still vital to life and death.
Encouraging and coaxing, giving life
pushing back the darkness until its turn to submit.
Taking death and making life.
Whipped around, a vicious cycle
full of life and death, each vital to survival.
Giving up, making a new start, taking a chance on something new
Still making no sense at all, but perhaps it's not ment to.
Degrading, crushing, Encouraging, freeing
Compromise, age, learning to wait.
Life and death, each vital to survival.
poem by Laura Cummings
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In A Week Or Two
(james house/gary burr)
In a week or two
I would have been ready
I would have known what to say
But I missed my chance
When the words I love you
Came just a little too late
In a week or two
I was gonna bring you diamonds
In a week or two
A long, long string of pearls and
We wouldve run down to the river at night
Sailed away, just me and you
In a week or two
A little more time
Was all I needed
But somehow fall became spring
But put off today
What you can do tomorrow
Sometimes you dont do a thing
In a week or two
I was gonna bring you diamonds
In a week or two
A long, long string of pearls and
We wouldve run down to the river at night
Sailed away, just me and you
In a week or two
These words in my heart never had a chance to be heard
But Im telling you now for all that its worth
In a week or two
I was gonna bring you diamonds
In a week or two
A long, long string of pearls and
We wouldve run down to the river at night
Sailed away, just me and you
In a week or two
song performed by by Diamond Rio
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Franklin Roosevelt said the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance to those who have much; it is whether we provide enough to those who have too little. This reconciliation package fails that test as well.
quote by Patrick J. Kennedy
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The price of progress is trouble, and I must be making a lot of progress.
quote by Charles Erwin Wilson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Reconciliation
The struggle has been fierce
Its aftermath evokes tears
But one thing is crystal clear
Quenching the fire the only thing, right
That will ensure our future, bright
Reconciliation, our arbiter must be
We all deemed the struggle a just fight
You were fighting for your right
We were defending our right
Why were we oblivious of the obvious
Allowing selfishness our master be
Leading us sheepishly to self-destruction
Humans of one nation
People with one destination
This mistake, never must we replay
A new heart we must display
Reconciliation the only way out
Reconciliation, our only hope
poem by Emmanuel Oduro
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To My Unborn
I miss you lil one,
I never got to know you,
You were only in my stomache for only 3 months 1 week,
I felt you moving,
I wish I heard your heartbeat,
This kills me that I never got to know you,
I Always wonder what sex you would be,
I know that you would have been 2 yrs old,
I miss you so much,
It feels like I lost apart me the day you past away that late summer in July,
Never got the chance to cry over you or even got the chance to burry you or give you life,
I miss you so much.
This is to my unborn baby that never got the chance to live or even get to be born. May he/she R.I.P passed away on July 20,2008 at 10AM. I was only 3 months 1 week.
poem by Jennifer Rondeau
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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It's Not Over
Listen
We don't call the shots here
We don't make the rules
We take what we get, get what we can
And it's learning the hard way
Here on the streets
You can't build a dream, without a plan
(passion speaks) let them hear you speak
(play for keeps) they play to win, we play for keeps
Chorus:
It's not over 'til it's over
It's not over 'til we get it right
The odds are against us
They say we don't stand a chance
But there's no giving up, no giving in
When push comes to shove
You got to fight for what you love
You do what you must, do what you can
(passion speaks) let them hear you speak
(play for keeps) they play to win, we play for keeps
It's not over 'til it's over (it's not over)
It's not over 'til we get it right
It's not over 'til it's over (don't go giving in)
It's not over 'til we get it right
The odds are against us
But you know we still stand a chance
But there's no giving up, no giving in
It's not over
It's not over 'til it's over
It's not over 'til we, 'til we, 'til we get it right
It's not over 'til it's over
It's not over 'til we, 'til we, 'til we get it right
It's not over 'til it's over
Don't go giving in now
song performed by by Starship
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Wherever Destiny Falls
(after Hannah Szenes)
One two three and we part
a few strides taken in the dark
and the smell of making love is still strong
and our feelings remain a question mark.
One two three and tomorrow you may see me
not as a lover, or even a friend,
but might be my enemy
and in a week or two I might not still be here
and life is sometimes great, sometimes fair,
sometimes the dice rolls
when it’s cast to another side,
and the end I feel is quite near
and what you mean to me, doesn’t count,
does not matter at all,
what matters most is in the balance
and when the dice falls, you are lost
while the game of life is still on
and for some going strong
while I am trying to play again
somewhere else
and one two three and we part
a few strides taken in the dark
and the smell of making love is still strong
somewhat like new rain on the earth
and I am still gambling and I may be right,
I might be wrong
and we embark on where destiny falls,
rather than on what matters most.
[Reference: The last poem of Hannah Szenes:
:
“One - two - three... eight feet long
Two strides across, the rest is dark...
Life is a fleeting question mark
One - two - three... maybe another week.
Or the next month may still find me here,
But death, I feel is very near.
I could have been 23 next July
I gambled on what mattered most, the dice were cast. I lost. “]
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Joy of Giving (Opinion)
THE JOY OF GIVING
Joy is a much sought after emotion welcomed and cherished by us all. We are joyful when incidents liked by us take place and incidents disliked by us do not take place. And that, persons near and dear to us, and their expression of love and affection, cause joy to us. We feel that joy causing things are outside us in this physical world. This is all a perception of joy.
Spirituality says joy is inherent in us and is our nature; rather we are the form and personification of joy. And joy and cheerfulness are our natural states of mind. Whenever pleasant things happen to us or unpleasant things do not happen, we are joyful, because then we are our Self, released of our ego.
But most of the times we expect others or things outside in the physical world to cause joy to us. Thus we are dependent on outside things and persons for joy to be experienced; and are joyless when such things do not happen. The real joy lies in our giving joy to our near and dear.
If we know that what all we are giving our near and dear is actually we are giving ourselves, we will just do that to be joyful.
In Narada Bhakti Sutras this aspect is very well expressed and highlighted.
The sutra is; “tat sukha sukhitvam”. “finding our happiness in giving happiness to our near and dear”.
This is a spiritual action full of significance. By doing so we are transcending our ego and are absorbing our ego in providing happiness to our near and dear.
Thus Gopikas (shepherd damsels) found their happiness in giving happiness to Sri Krishna. They have been very joyful when giving happiness to Sri Krishna and are thus blissful themselves. This secret of getting joy by giving joy to our near and dear must be noted by us all and make ourselves joyful by making our near and dear joyful.
We normally are intolerant of or indifferent to words, actions or thoughts expressed by our loved ones and are egoistic in our dealings with them. We love ourselves most. It is wise to love our loved ones more than we love ourselves. Actually if we love our near and dear, this happens automatically. Only when we do not love, and try making ourselves joyful all by ourselves, we run into problems and cause problems to our loved ones.
The best and shrewd way of being joyful is making our near and dear joyful by our words, thoughts, deeds and cheering and cheerful spirit and finding our joy in such gestures.
Many also say that contributing to charity, speaking lovingly and without hurting, being compassionate to all living and non-living beings gives happiness. Ordinary human beings may not have such wider horizon. If we find our joy in making our near and dear joyful the world will be much pleasant place to live. Let us practice giving joy and make it the art of living.
poem by Varanasi Ramabrahmam
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Sorry Dad
Sorry dad
For being rude
Sorry dad
For not listening to you
Sorry dad
For making you mad
I know deep down
I shouldv'e made you glad
Sorry for not following you lead
Sorry for not giving you the chance you need
poem by Ferret Girl
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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