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from the editor's desk

‘Naysayers’ by Cindy Solonec

This poem by Cindy Solonec was published in Westerly 69.1 and we’re thrilled to make it freely available for everyone to read here on the Editor’s Desk.

Cindy is Nigena (Nyikina) and author of Debesa: The Story of Frank and Katie Rodriguez (Magabala Books, 2021). Based on her PhD thesis, Cindy’s book encapsulates a quintessential social history in the West Kimberley. Born in Derby and schooled in Geraldton, she is a late comer to the literary community, and now enjoys dabbling in short stories. She has obliged in undertaking several book reviews with Aboriginal themes. Cindy has lived off-country in Boorloo for 25 years.

Naysayers

Pt.1
The Referendum shattered me
 I wanted to say to Naysayers
 go get fucked
 I wanted to say
 you know Jack shit about the marginalisation of Australia’s first
peoples and
 you don’t care
Naysayers  they don’t listen
 I  have been silenced
My countrimin mostly voted Yes
 Yes meaning their voice would be heard on matters that affect
them
Naysayers sat high on their moral perch and squawked
 No you cannot  speak on your own affairs
Naysayers stooped low to protect their sense of superiority over
our people
 the most vulnerable people
Say what you mean Naysayer admit your  discomfort
 your bias unconscious is terrible yet powerful
 that sixty-forty split troubles my spirit

Pt.2
I walk among a majority who couldn’t care less
 Blakfullas that’s them over there
 a nuisance
 abetted
 annoying
Naysayers wish we would just go away
Why should Naysayers care? Why should they bother?
Naysayers rest easy in their privilege
 first world troubles no trouble at all
 no compassion
 no empathy
 no joy
 in the oldest living cultures in the world
Our song lines our stories embedded in this land
Naysayers are adrift most have no roots to this place
no critical thoughts
 not their fault they don’t know Australia’s Blak history
 not their fault they don’t know the consequences of
colonisation
 not their fault they thumbed their noses at mob who voted
Yes Yes Yes to a Voice overwhelmingly

Pt.3
Naysayers haven’t learned their history
 books are white washed
Today’s sorrows go unknown while the ink bleeds and dries
 from yesteryear’s sins
 they are ignorant of our past
We know We remember
 the myth of terra nullius that spoke this land into the taking
White man’s law claiming Australia was to be
 white
 English
 imperial
 superior too so they thought
 half-caste
 quarter-caste
 full-blood
 pure bred dirty words for us
 superior
 white
 good
 race
 eugenics words for them
Let Australia rejoice one and all

Pt. 4
In their pulped minds a newborn nation thought us a dying race
 theories metastasised into cancerous assimilation
 policies to improve future generations they said
1905 Aborigines Protection Act mutated into 1936 Native
Administration Act
 a rot grew a damp sickness segregation for black and
white
Protection? ha! We were
 controlled
 oppressed
my ancestors laboured as slaves
Still my ancestors rejected inferiority their bias unconscious
 was powerful too
Small campfires became trail blazers for our rights demanding
recognition
1944 Western Australia Citizenship Act Ha!
 after 65,000 years we stood straight  knowing full well our
own sovereignty
Vote No if you don’t know
 spewed conniving influencers a smorgasbord of lies offered
What of the billions? Naysayers cried
 ask Deloitte PwC KPMG Ernest & Young
 public servant parasite stealing $27.4m racehorses
mansions gambling

Pt.5
Immigrants from abroad told
 don’t worry about Blakfullas mate they’re in your way
My hubby born a refugee fancied
 while Blakfulla tormented
Refugees fleeing
 invasion
 massacres
 genocide
 stolen children
Welcomed on to Whadyuk sanctuary
 Their’s same kine like Blakfulla history
 yet no empathy
Facebook friends excited by smorgasbord of lies keyboard warriors
friend or foe?
Naysayers wallow in self-pity at what?
 their privilege denied to Blakfullas?
 they cuss our First Peoples someone to blame
Naysayers will overcome racism and smugness
one day
Naysayers will overcome marginalising Blakfullas
 one day
 long after I’ve perished
The Referendum revealing!

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