"indigenise me"

A poem...

You can come with all your terms You can come with all your definitions Fuddle out my brain With your college style fancy talk.

All I know I am from here The land knows me The land breathes my name It knows my hands It knows me.

It seeps through my blood and veins

The way these baka trees draw life from their roots

The way the rivers carve itself from these mountains The way the waves lap on the seashores The way the dolphins leap through the air The way the trees whisper my name.

I am indigenous to this land My blood breathes and calls out

It does not know black and white ink It does not know hatred and greed It does not know hidden motives The way you want to drive me from this land.

Yet you must know The blood knows his land

As the land knows her people The land has eyes The land has ears The land has a heart.

This is the gift of my forefathers This is the gift of the land to us Our posterity Our life.

Copyright_ Kelera Tuvou Ganivatu