Published in Overland Issue The Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize · Uncategorized Highly recommended: A poem about community John Graham The braille of our nation’s Soul Like someone putting their hand up Like someone digging deep The braille of our nation’s Soul You feel it across all communities And all communities feel it Feeling our way, young and old We’re all feeling our way, For a feeling called home The nature of our tears, is to find a home in each other’s eyes, find some reason, some way, between the tides The nature of our blood is to find, every other heart that’s not our own, and still recognise home Image: ‘Braille’ / flickr John Graham John Graham is of Aboriginal and European blood, namely Kombumerri, Waka Waka, Gamilaroi and Irish, Scottish, English blood. The affirmation ‘Stories make us and Stories keep us’ helps John navigate the interesting times we all live in. Everyone is free to touch the ground and start from there. More by John Graham › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 10 April 202610 April 2026 · open letter Open letter: RMIT staff and students oppose disciplinary action against Gemma Seymour over video opposing links to weapons ties RMIT University Staff and Students Freedom of speech and expression is absolutely vital in academic institutions. Students who engage in activism should not be punished for doing so, and discipline procedures are not there to be abused as a tool of intimidation. We call for the disciplinary process against Gemma to cease immediately. 9 April 202610 April 2026 · CoPower Against the will to engineer: Richard King’s Brave New Wild Ben Brooker The response demanded of us in the twenty-first century must operate at the level of metaphysics as well as the material, addressing our underlying assumptions about the instrumentalisation of nature and what constitutes a meaningful life in the face of technology’s relentless advance. To neglect that deeper terrain is to concede, in advance, the very ground on which our resistance to the machine must stand.
