Truganini - poem by Wendy Rose

Subject: RE: Truganini - poem by Wendy Rose
From: GUEST,Paula
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 10:06 AM

This was so helpful. I came across Wendy Rose whilst looking for some spiritual poetry. I was watching a youtube video about the recent atrocities committed upon the indigenous people of Vancouver and was horrified of the cover ups and abuse of so called 'Christian' people. Kevin Arnett is the guy exposing the corruption at the detriment of his own life. I was horrified at the story behind Truganinni and can't comprehend the way people treat each other. Wendy Rose and others are at the forefront of highlighting these facts to the general public through poetry and other mediums. Much love and sacredness for their journeying.

Subject: RE: Truganini - poem by Wendy Rose
From: Red and White Rabbit
Date: 18 Apr 04 - 01:43 PM

SRS - looks like you have helped a lot of people learn a bit more about this lady and perhaps the atrocities she and her kind suffered.

A couple of lines in this poem inspired me to write a song about her but I am galnd i have read the full poem now - thanks again

R&WR

Subject: RE: Truganini - poem by Wendy Rose
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Apr 04 - 09:01 PM

Wendy Rose, mixedblood Hopi, Miwok, and anglo, is a poet and activist here in the U.S.

SRS

Subject: RE: Truganini - poem by Wendy Rose
From: Helen
Date: 17 Apr 04 - 08:47 PM

Thanks heaps, SRS, I had never heard that poem about Truganini even though I was taught - very briefly - about her at school.   There was always an extreme lack of social consciousness in what we were taught at school.

Helen

Subject: RE: Truganini - poem by Wendy Rose
From: ranger1
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 09:11 PM

It's amazing how often I learn something from a song reference. I first heard the name Truganini from the Midnight Oil song Amos gave the lyrics to. Being insatiably curious, I set out to discover what or who Truganini was. Thank goodness for the internet, 'cuz I couldn't find a thing in my extremely outdated set of encyclopedias! Thanks for the poem, SRS, it adds another dimension that the brief bio I read never could.

Subject: RE: Truganini - poem by Wendy Rose
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 02:27 PM

Maybe a joe clone will come along and fix both of our typos.

Subject: RE: Truganini - poem by Wendy Rose
From: Red and White Rabbit
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 05:42 AM

that should have read 'knew' I really should read my messages before submitting them

thanks again

Subject: RE: Truganini - poem by Wendy Rose
From: Red and White Rabbit
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 05:38 AM

Many thanks I new Mudcat would come up trumps

I cant believe how quickly people come up with these answers

cheers

sue

Subject: RE: Truganini - poem by Wendy Rose
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 06:24 PM

in the italics above stuff should be corrected to stuffed-- "she was nevertheless stuffed and mounted"

SRS

Subject: RE: Truganini - poem by Wendy Rose
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 02:29 PM

That's not it, Amos.

"Truganinny." Wendy Rose. Harper's Anthology of 20th Century Native American Poetry, ed. Duane Niatum. HarperCollins: New York, 1988. 240-241.

Truganinny

"Truganinny, the last of the Tasmanians,
has seen the stuffed and mounted body of
her husband and it was her dying wish that
she be buried in the outback or at sea for
she did not wish her body to be subjected to
the same indignities. Upon her death she
was nevertheless stuff and mounted and
put on display for over eighty years."
----------------Paul Coe, Australian Aborigine
Activist, 1972

You need
to come closer
for little is left
of this tongue
and what I am saying
is important.

I am the last one.

I whose nipples wept
white mist
and saw so many
daughters dead
their mouths empty and round
their breathing stopped
their eyes gone gray.

Take my hand
black into black
as yellow clay
is a slow melt
to grass gold
of earth
and I am melting
back to the Dream.

Do no leave me
for I would speak,
I would sing
one more song.

They will take me.
Already they come
even as I breathe
they are waiting
for me to finish
my dying.
We old ones
take such
a long time.

Please
take my body
to the source of night,
to the great black desert
where Dreaming was born.
Put me under the bulk
of a mountain or in
the distant sea;

put me where
they will not
find me.

Subject: RE: Truganini - poem by Wendy Rose
From: Amos
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 12:48 PM

Is this it?

TRUGANINI
W - Hirst/Moginie
There's a road train going nowhere
Roads are cut, lines are down
We'll be staying at the Roma bar
Till that monsoon passes on

The backbone of this country's broken
The land is cracked and the land is sore
Farmers are hanging on by their fingertips
We cursed and stumbled across that shore

I hear much support for the monarchy
I hear the Union Jack's to remain,
I see Namatjira in custody
I see Truganini's in chains

And the world won't stand still

Blue collar work it don't get you nowhere
You just go round and round in debt
Somebody's got you on that treadmill, mate
And I hope you're not beaten yet

I hear much support for the monarchy
I see the Union Jack in flames, let it burn
I see Namatjira with dignity
I see Truganini's in chains

Subject: Truganini - poem by Wendy Rose
From: Red and White Rabbit
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 12:36 PM

I am trying to get hold of a poem about Truganini ( last Tasmanian) written by The Hopi Wendy Rose anyone help me?