The Bridge (This Tree)
Words & Music: Pat Drummond.
For the Bundjalung people on whose Traditional Land this song was written and for the Darug (Daruk) and Gundungurra peoples on whose traditional lands, in The Blue Mountains, Karen and Marty, Carol and Pat live.
Dateline: 28/08/2007 : Bar Mountain, Border Ranges National Park,
near Murwullumbah, NSW

This is a song written on the southern rim the great Caldera of Wollumbin (Mt Warning) after a night camped at the base of an Antarctic Beech tree some 2000 years of age. It is a song in praise of the 'bridge builders' who have reached out between Aboriginal and Settler cultures. It also a statement of hope in our shared future.

Upon this Hillside in the morning light

Two Thousand years ago

A single tree lay down it's seed

on the forest floor below

The Roman Empire faltered

Charlemagne appeared

through all of modern history

This wondrous tree stood here


This is my Bridge to when the Earth and Sky

looked down the day that Jesus died

This is my Bridge through Irish/English History

This is my bridge to my Grandfather's hands

Who tilled the soil and worked the land

My history is embraced within this tree

From the firelight of my camp tonight

I reach out with my heart

To all of those forced from their homes

When worlds were torn apart

I ask their grace to be here

I pray one day we'll see

A future bright when

black and white hands

link around this tree


This is my bridge to where it all began

Where the Rainbow Serpent formed the land

And laid the rivers down for all to see

This is my bridge to Tribal Law and men

Who loved this Mother Country when

The White Man still lived far beyond the sea

This is my Bridge to better days to come

When Black and White Australians

Take pride in one united history

Of Yari of Wiradjuri, of Andrew Hobbs of Myall Creek

All builders of The Bridge that's yet to be


This is my bridge to better days to come

When dreams are dreamed and songs are sung

When Black Man's wisdom guides the White Man's ways

And if we yet learn to protect this earth

And teach our children what it's worth

These wondrous trees may live to see

such days

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