David Camp – Head of English

Year 12 English Extension 2 2017

Congratulations to Karen Davids, Year 12 2017, for her recent nomination for the Young Writers Showcase, a book published each year that includes the best English Extension 2 Major Works. Karen’s poetry, Goorialla’s Journey, is an exploration of the impact of European colonisation on the Aboriginal people and spans the years from colonisation to today. Originally inspired by her trip to Jilkminggan with Emanuel School, Karen conducted research and wrote numerous drafts in the development of her final suite of poetry.

Below is the opening poem of her Major Work:

Goorialla’s Birth, through the Heart of Australia

50,000 – 65,000 years ago (Part 1)

“We are all variations of those same modern humans who first walked out of Africa…We are not separate species. What divides us is our history – what we have done to each other in the name of race.” – Stan Grant, Talking to My Country

I stretch out my rattling tail

And peer through

Australia’s warm and red

Pumping heart

To see Yhi’s rays

Project light onto

The barren desert

And the calm seas

Before me.

As she rubs the heart within

Her warm and protective

Chest

I push through,

Making my first slither

Onto the dry, cracked soil

Of Australia.

I slither from right

To left,

The slime that once stuck

To my green scaly skin,

Shedding onto the soil

Below me,

Until I become covered

In dirt and dust.

My underbelly tingles

With each new twig

I slide over

And beetle that crawls

Beneath my scales.

I was born into the

Land of Australia,

Through the heart

Of Australia

For my people.