States of Poetry - Poems

'Cult-charr Jammer' by Paul Collis

by Paul Collis •

States of Poetry ACT - Series Three

States of Poetry - Poems

'Cult-charr Jammer' by Paul Collis

by Paul Collis •

States of Poetry ACT - Series Three

Yo!

Whitefullas got no cult-charr!
– Only me
With my arm fulla tatts, up my sleeve.

– Only Us Mob!
Only us
Got cult-charr.

Don’t tell me! I lived it, man. Us bruvas, we live it –
Everyday man. We fuken live it.
Blak and Proud. Deadly, un’a?

Always was
Always will be
ABORIGINAL LAND.

Colonisation is YOURS whitefulla.

Blak, proud and deadly …
King Billy,
Queenie,
Grandfather,
Grandmother,
Emu in the sky

– they’re MINE, whitefulla!! NOT YOURS!
What you got, whitefulla?
You git lost. You steal. You kill my country.

You poisoned us.
Kill our water.
Try to wipe us mob out, whitefulla.

Emu in the sky watchin’ all this –
Murrdie kids on the ground, watchin’ all this too.
Always was – always will be –

ABORIGINAL LAND!

Red, Black, Yellow.
Only I can know this country!

‘Un’a?’

Paul Collis

Paul Collis

A Barkindji man, born by the Darling River in Bourke, far north-west New South Wales, Paul is an emerging writer and poet, who works at the University of Canberra, teaching creative writing. Paul holds a PhD in cultural theory and creative writing. Dancing Home, his first novel, won the national 2016 David Unaipon Award for a previously unpublished Indigenous writer and was published by University of Queensland Press in 2017.