Published in Overland Issue The 2017 Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize Uncategorized Highly Commended: An Arrival Grace Lucas-Pennington We came across water made shore in darkness woke on sand. We saw strong young men, warriors. They came towards us, pointed their weapons at us. They asked us who we were, why we had come. Sat us down on the earth to wait. They gave us water. We were weak from travel, exhausted. News spread. They came, the delegates. Stern folk who smiled cold like the ones we ran from. Healers came. They had travelled overnight to reach us. The nurses, the doctors they closed their mouths. Their lips did not know the shape of the desperation they saw in bodies, in faces. Their hearts did not know the strange strength of the hope under our flesh. But their eyes knew the stories of the scars. Their bones had not known the weight of those who had died on the journey. Their hands did not know the shape of the fears we carried. But they saw the long shadows stretching out behind us. They did not understand us, or we them. But to hope is to open and through it we are opened. So it began. Image: Brisbane Waters sunset Grace Lucas-Pennington Grace Lucas-Pennington is a Bundjalung/European person living on Yugurapul land. She grew up mostly between Bundjalung country on the NSW north coast and the greater Logan/Brisbane area. Grace is currently the Editor for State Library of Queensland’s black&write! Indigenous Writing and Project. More by Grace Lucas-Pennington 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 First published in Overland Issue 228 7 February 2023 Aboriginal Australia Victoria police back down, is this a case for defunding? Crystal McKinnon and Meriki Onus After three arduous years, Victoria Police have today withdrawn their charges against two organisers of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protest. Whilst we welcome their decision, we note that their mediocrity gave them no other option. Emboldened by their state-sanctioned impunity, Victoria Police’s ineptitude hit a dead end. Pigs cannot fly. First published in Overland Issue 228 6 February 20237 February 2023 Aboriginal Australia Winaga-li Gunimaa Gali: listen, hear, think, understand from our sacred Mother Earth and our Water Winaga-li Gunimaa Gali Collective To winaga-li, Gomeroi/Kamilaroi people must be able to access Gunimaa. They must be able to connect and re-connect. Over 160 years of colonisation has privileged intensive agriculture, grazing and heavily extractive water management regimes, enabled by imposed property regimes and governance systems. Gunimaa and Gali still experience the violent repercussions of these processes, including current climate changes which are exacerbating impacts, as droughts become longer, floods and heat extremes become more intense, and climatic zones shift, impacting on species’ viability and biodiversity.