How Not to Die
Mandawuy, given,
of Yolgnu people,
his skin name ‘Gudjuk’,
writing songs for his nation;
he was labelled, briefly,
‘Australian of the Year’,
his coronation late –
Gubba man’s idea.
Ill, but on stage,
with his band Yohtu Yindi,
his crown re-found,
in the grace of singing;
his voice, so loud,
again dream-gripping,
with a re-cast lifeline,
thrown by performing.
He said: “I am not dying”,
his beliefs in living,
he went, a sorry business,
to the Eternal Dreaming,
‘The Healing Song’ – incomplete
but he always sung the words
long-connected “to mother earth
and the universe”.
“Racism is a disease… We’re all equal..
I don’t care what their colour is,
or religion….as long as they’re human..
they’re my buddies.”
Mandawuy Yunupingu
17 September 1956 – 2 June 2013