"...Sikh...We have a lot of hair." At that point, I started giggling. Listen on. She's like no one you've heard before. Australian attitudes look a lot like the attitudes in the USA. Canada's a kinder, gentler country, I guess.
Now say THANK YOU to me. I tracked down the words to her poem and cut them to her performance here.
“If you’re not in Australia, where the bloody hell are ya?”
Remember the Bingle jingle?
Inviting the world to mix and mingle?
Where ‘a fair go’ was your welcome mat,
Unless you’re of caramel descent,
Then ain’t NObody got tiiiime for dat!
You see, rockin’ up for my first job at Coles,
Was like a scene from Border Patrol.
“We don’t want no illegal workers here in Straya."
What makes you Australian?
Is it a Southern Cross tattoo?
Or wombat stew crumbled with a dunkaroo?
Do you think of a time
When Australia has learnt to share and care
And dare to wear its heart on its face
Fully aware that most of us in this place
Are far from fair
But brown and black and slow to attack
But quick to embrace.
A warm Australia.
I’m confused as to why
On Australia Day when the night sky spews bigot bile - I’m left traumatized.
When a teen rips off my Uncle’s turban - I’m an enraged flame of pain and shame,
and sorrow.
For tomorrow, when a hooning Ute throws a rotten peach at my Dad and screams
‘GO HOME YA BLOODY TERRORIST’:
I will plead to you Lara: where the bloody hell are we?
My people the Sikhs came here in 1860
With camels and carts and courageous hearts
And look at the maxi taxi
We’re still driving and steering this country
In offices and hospitals….. even on stage
So when people tell me and my family
To go home to where we came from
I reply with a smile, tongue in cheek
Mate, we’ve been right at home for the past 150 years
I’m not the one who’s the freak, I’m fully Sikh!"
If you want the whole poem, go to http://www.trove.arts.uwa.edu.au/advance-australia-fair
Now say THANK YOU to me. I tracked down the words to her poem and cut them to her performance here.
“If you’re not in Australia, where the bloody hell are ya?”
Remember the Bingle jingle?
Inviting the world to mix and mingle?
Where ‘a fair go’ was your welcome mat,
Unless you’re of caramel descent,
Then ain’t NObody got tiiiime for dat!
You see, rockin’ up for my first job at Coles,
Was like a scene from Border Patrol.
“We don’t want no illegal workers here in Straya."
What makes you Australian?
Is it a Southern Cross tattoo?
Or wombat stew crumbled with a dunkaroo?
Do you think of a time
When Australia has learnt to share and care
And dare to wear its heart on its face
Fully aware that most of us in this place
Are far from fair
But brown and black and slow to attack
But quick to embrace.
A warm Australia.
I’m confused as to why
On Australia Day when the night sky spews bigot bile - I’m left traumatized.
When a teen rips off my Uncle’s turban - I’m an enraged flame of pain and shame,
and sorrow.
For tomorrow, when a hooning Ute throws a rotten peach at my Dad and screams
‘GO HOME YA BLOODY TERRORIST’:
I will plead to you Lara: where the bloody hell are we?
My people the Sikhs came here in 1860
With camels and carts and courageous hearts
And look at the maxi taxi
We’re still driving and steering this country
In offices and hospitals….. even on stage
So when people tell me and my family
To go home to where we came from
I reply with a smile, tongue in cheek
Mate, we’ve been right at home for the past 150 years
I’m not the one who’s the freak, I’m fully Sikh!"
If you want the whole poem, go to http://www.trove.arts.uwa.edu.au/advance-australia-fair
Attachments
Last edited by a moderator: