Published in Overland Issue 219 Winter 2015 · Uncategorized Terra nullius Reihana Robinson for Joy Harjo We are less than a sliver. Our bilge keel chipped, we travel back in time, bend to the forest, curtsey to the trees. In the forest we do not lose identity. We see past we see future. We open our mouths. Are we mad? Are we on the eve of the end? Is this the reading of Revelations? Or are we in prayer? Singing to forest deities, to water sprites to the fire gods honouring terra celestial. We come from darkness— Ephesians says it all and Euripides before. Into the world of light we are flung courtesy of the vast dark hole. If we are lucky— a tiny toehold Reihana Robinson Reihana Robinson is a writer, environmental activist, and organic farmer living on the Coromandel in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Her work is published in the USA, the Pacific and Asia. Auckland University Press published a collection of her work in 2008 and her first solo volume, Aue Rona, was published by Steele Roberts in 2012. reihanarobinson.co.nz More by Reihana Robinson › 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 31 January 202531 January 2025 · Racism The QUT Symposium: holding the line against rising racism Elizabeth Strakosch, Jordy Silverstein, Crystal McKinnon, Eugenia Flynn, Natalie Ironfield, Holly Charles, Priya Kunjan, Roj Amedi and Lina Koleilat Last weeks's QUT Symposium met in the staunch tradition of the Brisbane Blacks, who have fought for sovereignty, land rights, liberation and an end to racial violence for decades. It was a gathering of Elders, academics, organisers and frontline community workers who speak, theorise and embody the truth about race and racism in this place. It refused to clothe itself in multicultural platitudes about tolerance, or to speak about racism only in terms of individual prejudice. 29 January 202529 January 2025 · Palestine The demonisation of the Palestine movement fuels anti-Muslim racism Mariam Tohamy and Miroslav Sandev The spate of anti-Muslim racist attacks around the country are being fuelled by the anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian policies of mainstream politicians. Political attempts to undermine the Palestine movement and bipartisan support for Israel’s genocide are causing this.
