ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Sad news to hear this morning.


TREATY MAN

Mandawuy Yunupingu - 17 September 1956 – 2 June 2013

A great Statesman and singer and a proud Yolngu man



See you later Treaty Man, somewhere in the dreaming.
Sad we are to have to say goodbye.
Hope that you are singing songs now surrounded by Angels
and Ancient Ones, from your stage in the sky.
In your life you built bridges and helped people to cross them
you were indeed the rock that stands ‘gainst time.
The Hawk whose vision saw so many wrongs and helped to heal them
who put the child and woman into rhyme.
Today a country mourns your loss as likewise does your clan.
You shared your wisdom – over time found fame.
You earned respect as statesman, teacher, singer -Yolngu man
today our world is darker since it extinguished your flame.

Maureen Clifford © 6/13

So called 'Aboriginal culture' always amuses me, if it suits them you can't take their photo because it is stealing their spirit....unless of course they get paid for it... in the twenty years I lived in the Territory, if a blackfella got killed or died it was taboo to use their name, they have to be referred as Kumanji...unless they are famous...very confusing...

Hi Ross and Maureen and yes Maureen it is not good that Mandawuy Yunupingu died splitting a group that made it in a hard world but these things happen.

And yes Ross in their own culture it was good and clean until so-called civilised people spoilt it like cross breeding and freedom cash hand outs. In the years that I was mixed up with them a dead person man woman or child was called Yunga or spirit people.

bill the old battler

My best memory of 'Treaty' is from the Christmas party of the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service in Fitzroy sometime in the early or mid 90s. We all just formed a big circle and danced/jigged our way to the music. The song had a great beat, and certainly helped bring black and white together - at least it did on that night.

Another year we spent most of the night dancing to the Nutbush - but that's another story.