Lionel Fogarty is a renown Murri Poet, is a great friend to this blog.

Earlier this year he and others, including Joe Geia ran a series of workshops at a residential diversionary program for young male Aboriginal offenders, Balund – a. The program operates from land overlooking the Clarence River near Tabulam in northern NSW.

The poem chosen is Bundjalung Bigambul

You call me Aborigine but I am the original Aboriginal
of this land you call Australia
When I say let me go walkabout back to the land
Where my ancestors roamed long ago, hunting and dancing
Sitting round the campfire listening to elders talking
Of how things were when they grew up
And that’s why I’m the ORIGINAL ABORIGINAL.  My oath.

Balund – a – you can’t break me
As you are built on the land of the Whalubul tribe
As I came here to free my mind
Of the bad things that put me here
And I will change into the proud man I know
I can and will be
Balund – a – I am a proud BUNDJALUNG man of the
WHALUBAL TRIBE

My Rose may not float like a butterfly
and sting like a bee
But he will do the shake a leg
Around you and hit like a roo
That’s what he will do to you
As he is the Original Aboriginal
My LIONEL ROSE, my OATH

CLINTON T. A.