Francis Duggan - The First Australians

For to have survived European colonization for them worth a boast
To the first Australians we should drink a toast
Anthropologists claim their ancestors reached the southern shores sixty thousand years ago
And maybe even further back in time for of that how would they know
Captain Cook's arrival brought them no joy but tears
In twenty with two centuries of years
They are pushed to extinction's brink by the colonizing race
And in their own Country demoted to a minor place
For two hundred and twenty years racism they have known
And respect to them it never has been shown
Treated as second class citizens in their own Homeland
That does seem rather hard to understand
The first Australians their praises we should sing
As a race they have survived and that is an amazing thing.

Francis Duggan

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-first-australians/