Published in Overland Issue 231 Winter 2018 · Uncategorized from ‘People of the River: 1. Deerubban’ Brenda Saunders The lighthouse turns, blinks a steady eye, warns of steep hills, unknown shores, channels moving with the tide. No one knows how deep it is Daylight draws in the far-off headland as I cross still water, drag my skiff to a beach, deserted now Stories rise from these drowned valleys fold into pockets of rainforest, left untamed Families camped here, fished from bark canoes Built stone traps to catch the prized garuma coming in to feed on sea grasses. Smoke from their fires would drift upriver, signal a welcome, for clans to come, join the feast Footfalls mark their winding journeys, each path a trace left from earlier times. Generations of the Kuringal walking gently on their land I step in footholds cut in sheer rock, climb high above the beach to a cave bleached by wind and brine, a look-out shelter open to the sky Handprints span a ledge of pristine rock, calara piled on the dusty floor, a sure sign of feasting A dry camp for tribes passing through Tools lie exposed, forgotten on a rock platform scattered flints, grinding stones discarded as if left only yesterday by a group disturbed Cries from the look-out. White clouds floating up river. Ghost strangers come to offer exchange Change by gunfire along their River Country Deerubban: Hawkesbury River garuma: blackfish the Kuringal (tribe) : People of the River calara: large mussel from the river River Country: Hawkesbury River Image: Deerubban/Hawkesbury River (by Jason Armstrong) Read the rest of Overland 231 If you enjoyed this poem, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four outstanding issues for a year Brenda Saunders Brenda Saunders is a poet and visual artist of Aboriginal and British descent. She has published three collections of poetry and her work has appeared in major anthologies and journals, including Australian Poetry Journal, Overland, Southerly, and Best Australian Poems in 2013 and 2015 (Black Inc). She has received numerous prizes including the Mick Dark Varuna Environmental Writers’ Fellowship, the Banjo Patterson Poetry Prize, and was a finalist in the prestigious Aesthetica Prize (UK) and the International Vice-Chancellors Poetry Prize (University of Canberra). She is a member of DiVerse Poets who write and perform their ekphrastic poetry in Sydney art galleries. More by Brenda Saunders › 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 5 February 20255 February 2025 · Art A poetic argument for restitution: Isaac Julien at the MCA Sarah Schmidt Once Again... (Statues Never Die) invites viewers to engage deeply, rewarding those willing to invest time contemplating its layered narratives. Transformative in its complexity, seductive in its visual literacy, it offers a space for empathy, education, and debate, emphasising how museums can serve as platforms for confronting contested histories and inspiring social change. 4 February 20254 February 2025 · Indigenous Australia Teaching Palestine on stolen Indigenous lands Charlotte Mertens Refusal is not only possible, it generates different worlds. Refusal insists on the possibility of alternative anti-colonial futures and ways of being. Refusing the University’s erasure of Palestine involves a collective effort in thinking on how we will teach Palestine, the ongoing settler colonial violence and what this means for a place like Australia.
