In the hush of Everywhen, where time bends like eucalypt in wind,
The land lay flat, a dreaming canvas, vast and unformed,
Ancestors stirred from slumber deep, their spirits intertwined,
To sing the world awake, in harmonies eternal, warm.
First, the Rainbow Serpent uncoiled from earth’s hidden vein,
Goorialla, mighty Wanampi, guardian of the flow,
Carved rivers with a thrash of tail, birthed mountains in the rain,
Filled waterholes with life anew, where sacred waters glow.
From Uluru’s red heart to billabongs that gleam,
It shaped the pulsing arteries, the breath of land and stream.
Then Wandjina descended, cloud-kings of the northern sky,
With eyes like thunder’s gaze, no mouths to speak their lore,
They painted caves with haloed forms, where rain spirits never die,
Brought forth the seas and ancestors, from earth’s deep, hidden core.
Rivers snaked from their command, mountains rose in stormy might,
Plants and beasts emerged in dots of falling rain’s delight.
Baiame, Sky Father, stepped from stars with emu-wife at side,
Birrahgnooloo, fertile mother, and son who shifts his guise,
He etched the laws in stone and song, where human spirits bide,
Forbade the harm of kin and kind, under vast, unyielding skies.
Lakes and caves he hollowed out, rivers bent to his decree,
Mount Yengo flattened as he rose, back to eternity.
Across the velvet night, the Seven Sisters danced their flight,
Pursued by longing hunter, through the Pleiades so bright,
They fled o’er dunes and spinifex, weaving stars in endless night,
Formed gorges, rocks, and dreaming tracks in their celestial light.
Their story whispers in the wind, connecting clan and kin,
A map of survival, where the sacred journeys begin.
And Tiddalik, greedy frog, who gulped the world’s sweet drink,
Swelled vast as ancient greed, till waters vanished, brink by brink,
The animals conspired, with laughter broke his hold,
Released the floods in joyous rush, tales of sharing told.
From Gippsland’s lush to arid plain, this lesson echoes true:
Guard the gifts of earth with care, in unity renew.
These threads entwine in Songlines long, from Kimberley to sea,
Each clan’s unique refrain, a living mosaic.
Not one tale, but many voices, in respect we softly sing,
Of creation’s endless cycle, where all beings take wing.
