She Is From Up North

She is from up north south of Darwin somewhere The young brown skinned woman with wavy dark hair Far distant from home and from her tribe far away But I'm happy for now east of Melbourne she say. With lovely dark brown eyes and a beautiful smile And untouched by conceit or pretence or guile A woman of twenty with a winning way And her future looks bright as she nears her prime day. She belong to Australia's Indigenous race The truest of Aussies if history we trace The ancient stories of the Dreamtime she know Her Grandfather told her thirteen years ago. And she'll tell her children in story and rhyme The myths and the legends of her Peoples Dreamtime The stories of emu and wombat and roo And rosella and platypus and cockatoo. She is from up north where the camel range free A lovely young woman who smiles easily To an old race of people young Kathy belong And her bond to her culture remains very strong.