At first they appeared, seagulls in the distance

A pleasant white bird flying high, slowly coming closer

We all stood upon the shore with eager eyes, watching, just watching

And then they came.

They swarmed like bees  onto our land and set up camp.

A strange man covered in plain white cloth stood before the humongous crowd

“Uncivilized ” he sneered as he looked my bare body up and down.

 More boats arrived that afternoon, it was then we knew they were staying.

A few weeks passed and they had left us alone, but not their spirits.

Strange dots appear on my husbands’ leg and he slowly gets weaker and weaker.

We did not understand what was happening. My tribe was failing.

What had we done to deserve this?

The white men roamed all over our land scurrying like ants.

The waterhole my tribe used to drink from was surrounded

We got weaker and weaker, no water to drink.

The ghosts kept taking and taking.

I feel a hand upon my back, I smile and turn. My smile fades.

A white man stands before me, my beautiful baby boy in his arms

His screams were muffled by the white mans hand like a child slowly suffocating underneath a blanket. Then he was gone, gone forever.

So we run, run from the white men and their “civilization”

Run from their poisonous spirits back to the red earth of the dreaming

Back to fix our broken hearts and mend our broken spirits

Back to the peaceful lives we lived before.