Yorta Yorta Culture

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Aboriginal author and Yorta Yorta woman Hyllus Maris (1934-86) expressed connectedness with the land beautifully in her poem Spiritual Song of the Aborigine.

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Spiritual Song of the Aborigine
I am a child of the Dreamtime People
Part of this Land, like the gnarled gumtree
I am the river, softly singing
Chanting our songs on my way to the sea
My spirit is the dust-devils
Mirages, that dance on the plain
I'm the snow, the wind and the falling rain
I'm part of the rocks and the red desert earth
Red as the blood that flows in my veins
I am eagle, crow and snake that glides
Thorough the rain-forest that clings to the mountainside
I awakened here when the earth was new
There was emu, wombat, kangaroo
No other man of a different hue
I am this land
And this land is me
I am Australia.

Poem by Hyllus Maris.

CULTURE