Of Australia's First People Poem by Francis Duggan

Though respect is a thing they do never demand
They will always be the first people of this southern Land
Their ancestors have lived in Australia for thousands of years
The arrival of our kind in their Country brought them displacement and tears
Of them and their ways so few anything does know
And over the years respect to them and their rights so few ever did show
Many of their ancestors the victims of massacres by those from elsewhere
The new arrivals from the big World out there
Their children taken from them over decades of time
Which was sinful and immoral and a legalized crime
But nowadays many have them in their rightful place
As Australia's first people and only indigenous race
And good to realize that greater recognition and more respect is on the way
For the descendants of the people of the Dreamtime in the Australia of today.