Australia Day 2023

What does being Australian mean It seems there’s no answer now that’s clean There have been different people over years That have come to the land some in tears The First Australians walked onto the land Through Southeast Asia in their plan Were they pursued we don’t know Perhaps the land put on a show So these people made it their home And there’s enough evidence for it to be known We consider what happened next Is where the question becomes perplexed The British took the land by force then As they were doing in other places seemingly without end In an empire where the sun never sets Money and power seemed heaven sent So what of us now in our modern Australia way When Empires and people faded away We have apologised for wrong done to the First Nations Whether some agreed with this oration Does that now extend to Australia Day Does the National Day now need to go away The people of Australia have bled for this ground Some making the ultimate sacrifice when wars come around We have as much right to this land And to celebrate Australia when it’s time in the plan There are things in family histories that cut deep But denigrating Australia will not make conciliation complete. © Paul Warren Poetry