Happy Australia Day!

"This is an old land For ever nurtured and nourished by the spirit of the Rainbow Serpent.

The land of the Darug people, of the Darginung and the Dharawal, the Gundungurra and the Guringai.

An old land.

This is the new land of the convict and the refugee, of the European settler, of the Asian and the African, the American and the Islander.

It is the golden hope-filled land. A hope-filled land?

This is the silent sun-baked land, of the gibber plain and granite outcrop, of the waterhole and the rain forest, of native title and pastoral lease, of skyscraper and empty reservoir.

A golden land?

This is a land battered and blackened by bush fire, but look!

A land of grass trees green-shooting in the still dark-smouldering ashes;

Of wildflowers in the sun-heat-blighted desert, and of cities glistened smog-free by an autumn wind.

A sacred land!

This is the Dreaming land, the land of spirit ancestors, of campfire and corroboree, of rock art and cave painting.

A land of mosque and temple, of prayer book and philosophy text, a land of tribal elders and politicians.

And how slowly we have learnt, 60,000 years slowly, how to live with this land.

And how slowly we have learnt, 200 years slowly, not to abuse this land.

And how slowly we are learning, day-by-day slowly, how to share this land.

We who are black of skin, and white and brown and yellow, and sunburnt pink. Native and newcomer blue-eyed and brown-eyed and black-haired and fair-haired.

We will live in harmony in this land, because this is the Land of the Rainbow Serpent And we are the Rainbow People."

- RAF via Inspire Your Day

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