The Truly Blessed Poem by Francis Duggan

Before Cook's arrival their ancestors had lived here for thousands of years
Yet they are the victims of our derision and sneers
And we've grown prosperous from living off of the best of their land
Yet their culture and way of life we do not understand.

We call them drunkards and lazy and things worse than that
Yet off of the best of their lands we've grown wealthy and fat
In our Government and law making they do not have a say
Reconcialition with them does seem so far away.

And we only did what for ourselves was best
We took all of their good land and left them with the rest
The Nation's first people are the dispossessed
And we the invaders are the truly blessed.

The one we elected as our Prime Minister disrespect to them show
Of them and their culture so little he know
For past Governmental wrongs to them he won't say sorry how little is he
And we who empowered him how ignorant are we?

Of this great southern Country the only Indigenous race
Yet an uncertain future 'twould seem they must face
The old history of this Nation is their history
Yet they are outsiders in their own Country.

The last link to the Dreamtime and the distant past
But the changes keep happening and nothing does last
The descendants of those by our ancestors dispossessed
And we in their Country are the truly blessed.