The Squatters' Thesaurus By Geoff Page

TRANSCRIPT The Squatters' Thesaurus By Geoff Page

The frontier runs are cleared by language. Myall niggers are dispersed. The Bible and Charles Darwin both declare the sons of Cain are cursed. 

Two squatters on a front verandah put their feet up to relax and talk of last month's dressing down or proper thumping of the blacks.

That lad of mine, one squatter smiles, is much too keen on rushing gins. We had a parson by last month pronouncing on the seven sins.

Vigorous measures must be taken. Outrages are up again. Time, it seems, to be doing the needful. They need a dusting now and then.

Bodies strewn about like saplings are dragged into a pile and burnt. The future talks of settlement … and murder is a language learnt.

From book: The great forgetting http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poems-book/the-great-forgetting-0440000 - 'The great forgetting' by Geoff Page is based in Canberra and has published 21 collections of poetry and five verse novels. An abiding theme in one book was Aboriginal dispossession on the Australian Frontier Wars,

More: http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poems-book/the-great-forgetting-0440000

Audio: ABC RN 'Earshot'