Still not done

Reconciliation is different from NAIDOC 

Reconciliation started in 2000 and died in 2023 

It started with a thunder of 250,000 people 

Walking across the Sydney Harbour bridge 

It ended with a piece of paper 

Too many crosses next to ‘no’ 

Made you check your shoulder 

Every friend, family and stranger were suspects 

Statistically, most of them did 

Statistically, you don’t matter 

Yet too many of them fought 

To be given up by some colonial ink 

Statistically, most of us marked yes 

Statistically, we call for more 

My mother was born in 1970 

Three years after tick boxes marked us human 

My mother didn’t live through that promise  

Just to watch those same boxes take it away 

She’s worked too hard, lived too hard 

For me to call it a day 

Reconciliation started long before 2000 

Reconciliation will end when it’s done 

Words by Nadia Metzger