I saw lines running down my face

Charmaine Papertalk Green

I lifted my head the other day

And looked at myself in the mirror

I saw lines running down my face

I did not become alarmed because

Racism in Australia is alive and well

I knew my soul had been outside

the lines were etched not by time or age

but by a long line of grief and sorrow

memory lines of the many who had left

Aboriginal Suicides higher than others

This earth to go ahead to our Ancestors

It doesn’t matter how they left because

It is their narrative and story but back

here we cried and cried and cried and cried

Aboriginal Deaths in Custody have not stopped

We wailed to the Ancestors trying to

Understand and reconcile together

Knowing that everything is connected

Knowing that colonisation and its ugly

34% of incarcerated females are Aboriginal

Social injustices paved many pathways

Like a trickster with a bottle of something

Luring many mobs into the abyss of no hope

I saw my family leave in ways I don’t know why

Aboriginal prison rates 35% higher than others

We pick ourselves up and kept living and living

And our spirit comes outside to soothe us

Leaving its presence of remembrance

Through those lines running down my face

Why does resilience & colonisation hold hands?

CHARMAINE PAPERTALK GREEN is a Wajarri, Badimaya, Wilunyu (Southern Yamatji) woman of the Yamaji Nation of Western Australia. Charmaine describes herself as an artist, poet and storyteller who privileges Yamaji storytelling and Yamaji worldviews. She has written five books winning several awards including the prestigious 2020 Australian Literacy Society Gold Medal. Charmaine’s visual art mediums include 2D acrylic paintings, multimedia collages and print making.