Modern Aboriginal Poetry of Australia
The songs and oral poems of the aborigines of Australia have been passed down for thousands of years. The poems explore their historical and spiritual connection to the world. Today, some aboriginals have used poetry to describe the frustration of losing their traditions and culture to the modern world. The following poem is by Oodgeroo Noonucal, the first published Australian aboriginal woman:
Understand Old One
What if you came back now
To our new world, the city roaring
There on the old peaceful camping place
Of your red fires along the quiet water,
How you would wonder
At towering stone gunyas high in air
Immense, incredible;
Planes in the sky over, swarms of cars
Like things frantic in flight.
- Oodgeroo Noonucal​
The other two photos depict life in Australia, in the form of a gunyah and a downtown area.
A gunyah is a traditional Aboriginal hut made of bark and boughs.
