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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