Poem: A Black Armbanded History

Issue 

A Black Armbanded History

Roll Up! Roll up and see the show,
armbanded historians in a row,
spreading revisionism as they go,
weaving distortion to and fro.

Saying Robert Menzies was the greatest
— greatest liar:
that he never set the world on fire.
Got us involved in the Vietnam war
and falsified what we were fighting for.
Unemployment then was one per cent;
but you never paid Aborigines rent
— for land you stole.
You never paid a god damn cent
claiming intervention,
heaven sent.
missionaries christianised, without repent.
I wish to Christ you'd paid the rent.

Rewrite history if you must
but you know we will not trust
the things you say that used to be
if they don't concur with our memory.
Take us back to the 1960s
to the lies we told back then
when girls were wives and lovers
and boys were fighting men.
Greed was just a word we used
— that we applied to others —
girls were everything that's nice
they were just wives and lovers.
When White Australia set the pace
poor and Black knew their place
they knew that they were a disgrace
that they had failed the human race.
Aborigines understood their shame
they knew why we apportioned blame.
That we placed their kids in institution
to prevent their destitution:
that we took their land for development,
progress was god's commandment.
We knew that come what may
we would have to wait another day
before we dreamt of equal pay.
Take us back to that time when
girls were wives and lovers
and boys were fighting men.

John Tomlinson

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