There was not the slightest hint whatsoever in any of the substantial referendum materials placed before this court that what was proposed to the Australian electors was an amendment to the Constitution to empower the Parliament to enact laws detrimental to, or discriminatory against, the people of any race, still less the people of the Aboriginal race. Justice Michael Kirby, reporting on the actual effects, in law, (namely, the power for Federal Parliament to pass laws based on race) of the change to Australia’s Constitution after the May 27 Referendum, 1967.

RESURRECTION

Margaret Metz

With Little or No Expression

This is,
A short message,
A public service announcement,
A letter to your fifth grade teacher,
for free.

It is,
of dubious value,
slightly askew,
imperceptibly out of time,
and off-key.

Its intention is,
to be,
hung from walls,
lost in last year’s diary,
forgotten in moving boxes.

Its point being,
to now and then remind you,
of this and that
& also,
then.

Its content,
suspect,
previously owned,
quality assured,
disposable.

Its reverberations,
of random weight and aim,
set like depth charges,
across earlier
and earlier.

As slippery,
as spontaneous decisions,
made on escalators,
in supermarkets
or underground car-parks.

Alex Hutchinson (For Tal)

Basket

My basket full of
fruit
apple & oranges
mangoes, passionfruit
and papaya

Papua New Guinea weave
each strand a story
belonging to my Grandparents’
time there
an era I see
only in Black & White
Grandma glamorous
Grandpa amorous

The formal photo is taken now
framing our sitting room conversation
still
our pawpaw dessert
leaves a lemon tang
and Grandpa’s dash
of port

Waves

There is no random fruit
in my father's house; here
each banana, apple, peach,
has its place
in the scheme of eating.
My father is so old now
I treasure even
the precision of his personality;
still, strolling long beaches alone,
in the mornings,
I delight to see the random
rolling of the breakers
where sea-gulls freewheel
through unrestraining skies.

 

Kathleen Bleakey and Amelia Fielden

Broome Fringe Arts Festival, WA. Riverland Country Music Festival, Barmera, SA. Madaraka Day, Kenya. Koromo-Gaye, Japan (start wearing your summer clothes - even if it’s chilly). New Australian Migration Act abolishes the use of a dictation (skin colour) test to assess potential migrants to Australia, 1959. Marilyn Monroe born, 1926. Riverland Country Music Festival, Big River, SA. Winter in Paradise Choral Festival, Gold Coast, QLD.