Cover photo used with permission © Sebastian Reategui. You can see more of his work here.
Clear black bodies off black land
Clear black voices off of air
No airtime for these black mouths to breath
No TV time for these black eyes to see
No contribution to this morning’s national story
No presence in your history
You been dictating what happens to our mob
Since your boats arrived
No mention of murder or genocide
Assimilation works to institutionalise
Leaving out stories of violence
Media erasing our voices of defiance
Green screening the protests
Fuck Sunrise
So the country hears your lies and believes
Like that task force for the Sudanese
Like a cop gonna know the difference between
Sudan, Ethiopia and Mozambique
Like leaving refugees drowning out at sea
But fast tracking white South African visas—please!
Like this government ain’t racial profiling
We are living under White Supremacy
Erasure is the tool of the colonial
Fool everybody into believing a misconstrued
Lie so we can’t see what going on inside
Clear black bodies off black land
Now the land, air and sea is for the white man
As though all our loss wasn’t enough
Don’t talk about us
Without us
This piece was read by the poet on JOY FM. To listen, click here (worth listening to the whole episode, but if you’re short on time skip ahead to 47:11).
About the author
Laniyuk was born of a French mother and a Larrakia, Kungarrakan and Gurindji father. Her poetry and short memoir often reflects the intersectionality of her cross cultural and queer identity. She was fortunate enough to contribute to the book Colouring the Rainbow: Blak Queer and Trans Perspectives as well as winning the Indigenous residency for Canberra's Noted Writers Festival 2017 and Overland’s Writers Residency for 2018. Laniyuk currently lives in Melbourne but is hoping to one day return to her home town Darwin.