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 22 May 202522 May 2025 · Reviews Limited hangouts: a review-interview of John Hughes’ Twilight Time Cher Tan Released in 2024 and screened for the first time at the Melbourne International Film Festival, Twilight Time charts Des Ball’s life and work. Yet it is also about one of the biggest elephants in Australia’s room: its close ties with the United States of America. 21 May 202521 May 2025 · Kashmir The imperative to condemn and the politics of appeal: from Palestine to Kashmir Azadeh and Heba A Liberation for Kashmiris, as with Palestinians, can only come through reclaiming the right to a political existence that encompasses the full spectrum of human response to oppression. This includes memory, grief, rage, and the refusal to perform docility.