Flags waving,

birthday cakes,

BBQs,

jingoistic celebrating

of national pride and beginnings

and all that stuff of

patriotic feelings,

serves some need to

call us One Australia,

and affirm

this diverse land,

this multifaceted people,

this grand nation.

 

Yet in the forgotten history

of vague colonial dates

and rememberings,

stands the fact

of the flag,

that, once planted,

grew to capture

the land,

like an imported

exotic plant,

strangling the native

fauna and flora.

 

Few remember,

but some will not forget,

this moment

in the victor’s history,

this British beginning

in a land of ancient dwelling

and stories of identity,

a place of dreamings

and of life lived

before the flag

struck a blow

for civilised society.

 

Will now the flag be limp

on which the Union Jack

sits proudly

and speaks out our history

and defines us as Australians?

How will the flag now fly

in this great land in the south?

 

26/1/2016