Dear Paul,

I'm going to share with you a poem by Al Zolynas,
an American Lithuanian poet whose work I love, and
I think you may enjoy:

"I come from a tribe
of nature worshippers
Pantheists, believers in faeries,
forest sprites, and wood nymphs
who heard devils in their windmills,
met them in the woods, cloven-hoofed
and dapper gentlemen of the night,
who named the god of thunder,
who praised and glorified bread,
dark rye waving,
waist-high out of earth,
and held it sacred, who spent afternoons
mushrooming in forests
of pine, fir, and birch,
who transferred Jesus
from his wooden cross,
transferred Him
into a wood-carved, worrying peasant
raised Him on a wooden pole above the crossroads
where He sat with infinite patience
in rain, and snow, wooden legs apart,
wooden elbows on wooden knees,
wooden chin in wooden hand,
worrying and sorrowing for the world...
these people who named their sons and daughters
after amber, rue, dawn, storm,
are the only people I know who have a diminutive
form of God Himself - "Dievulis" "God-my-little-buddy."
No wonder I catch myself speaking
to trees, flowers - these eucalyptus, so far
from Eastern Europe - or that I bend down to the earth,
gather pebbles, acorns, leaves, boles, bring
them home, enshrine them on mantelpieces
or above porcelain fixtures, any wonder
I grow nervous in rooms
and must step outside and touch a tree,
or sink my toes in dirt, watch the birds fly."

Foxy,
Wow ! How high do you think Aboriginal health is lifted by such poetry ?
They must be running your door down for more !

individual,

This land began as a dumping ground
Of British crims and the unsound
History has written in our books
Here's where Imperial Britain sent its crooks

No mention was made of our native people
Who some described as primitive and feeble
Who's to blame for this dilemma
The White Man's Law and his Systema?

Frankly though it's not too late
We can make changes and navigate
Righting the past in our Constitution
Correcting the history of total exclusion

Generations of many nations
Are now a part of our population
Equal and free, surrounded by sea
Is the way this brown land should now really be!

_________________________________________________________________

I firmly believe that the present is linked to the past.
That people need to be proud of their ancestry and to
support their communities. I believe in telling the true
story of a nation's history and I fully support the Uluru Statement From The Heart.

___________________________________________________________________

Thanks Foxy,

A very nice poem, with a lot of deep meaning.

The White Man's Law and his Systema?
Foxy,
Yes and, by those who believe two wrongs make a right !

Hi Foxy, some news,

The family have had great success in fund raising for a Te Puna Reo, a pre-school for handicapped children, in Kaikohe NZ. With our nephew and his wife donating a house, their son Mungzy will be one of the first to make use of the new facility, and with $900K from the NZ government the 'Mungzython' has raised nearly $100k, and the Te Puna Reo is a reality, now well advanced and will be opening soon.

http://ms-my.facebook.com/MangaTangaroa/videos/mungzysong-concert-part-2/515035016842397/

Our two nieces in Australia, one in Brisbane and one in Sydney, have raised about $10k between them, we are so proud of them all, young indigenous people doing wonders.