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 1 First published in Overland Issue 228 26 May 202326 May 2023 · Fiction Fiction | garramilla/Darwin Lulu Houdini We sit in East Point Reserve and look at how the gidjaas, green ants, make globe-like homes out of the leaves — connected edges with fibrous tissue that I later learn is faithful silk. Safe inside. Why isn’t it safe outside? I pick up the plastic around this circular lake cause this is the way […] First published in Overland Issue 228 25 May 202326 May 2023 · Main Posts The ‘Chinese question’ and colonial capitalism in New Gold Mountain Christy Tan SBS’s New Gold Mountain sets out to recover the history of the Gold Rush from the marginalised perspective of Chinese settlers but instead reinforces the erasure of Indigenous sovereignty. Although celebrated for its multilingual script and diverse representation, the mini-TV series ignores how the settlement of Chinese migrants and their recruitment into colonial capitalism consolidates the ongoing displacement of First Nations peoples.
