For to have survived European colonization for them worth a boast <br />To the first Australians we should drink a toast <br />Anthropologists claim their ancestors reached the southern shores sixty thousand years ago <br />And maybe even further back in time for of that how would they know <br />Captain Cook's arrival brought them no joy but tears <br />In twenty with two centuries of years <br />They are pushed to extinction's brink by the colonizing race <br />And in their own Country demoted to a minor place <br />For two hundred and twenty years racism they have known <br />And respect to them it never has been shown <br />Treated as second class citizens in their own Homeland <br />That does seem rather hard to understand <br />The first Australians their praises we should sing <br />As a race they have survived and that is an amazing thing.<br /><br />Francis Duggan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-first-australians/
