My grandmother was born in 1900

On a farm in New South Wales

She wed a dairyman

Who liked to raise a pint of ale

The first child came when she was twenty

Five more babes in seven years

That first daughter was my mother

They called her Guinevere



Little Gwen would play beneath the willow

"Yes the Queen would love some tea"

Helped with chores that never ended

Tried to mind tried to please

Sometimes she heard the music

Wild and strange in the summer night

"They're dirty people" warned her mother

"Never go near their campfire light"



CHORUS:

"Stay away from the camp of the blackfellas

Little white girls have disappeared

They drink and dance when the moon is red

Better never let 'em see your golden hair"



Came the winter of '27

So cold the milk froze in the pail

Her mum hung the nappies by the hearth

Her dad in town for a round of ale

A spark leapt from the fire that night

Wrapped her mother in a gown of flame

Flailing dancing in a frenzy

Falling down in voiceless pain



Stillness and the stench of burning

Then so soft 'twas like a ghost

"Fetch the Cunninghams" she whispered

"Bring me aid or I am lost"

The Cunningham house was not two miles away

And they the nearest whites

Past the camp of the Aboriginals

Past the demons of the night



CHORUS



"I will run to save my mother

I must go now I must fly"

Still she heard her mother's tales

Of the Devil's drums and the evil eye

Her mother's breathing ever fainter

Gwen frozen in her fright

Seven hours till dawn she waited

For the safety of the light



Now she runs till her feet are bleeding

To the house upon the hill

Now comes the doctor's wagon speeding

To her mother cold and still



They laid her down in the Nowra graveyard

From the Bible read a verse

Children sent to aunts and uncles

Some to Melbourne some to Perth

Gwen packed her canvas satchel

Could not hold the salt tears back

Turned to leave her home forever

Faced a woman gnarled and black



"Child our hearts are heavy

Grieving for your loss

We live so close by you

Why did you not come to us?

We hve salves to heal the burning

We hve herbs to stop the pain

We could have helped had we but known

To make your mother whole again"



CHORUS