Australian singer-songwriter Katie Noonan commissioned musical settings of poetry by the extraordinary indigenous writer Oodgeroo Noonuccal from several Australian composers. I chose Oodgeroo’s poem Then And Now for its stunning demonstration of forbearance from a woman who had been mistreated for so much of her life, but who decided that racial tensions would only ever improve through reflection and tolerance.

 

A disappointing proportion of white Australians still choose to believe that the mistreatment and denigration of our country’s first nation either never happened or has now evaporated. Oodgeroo’s light but firm tone in this quiet reminiscence is an object lesson in generosity of spirit.

 

Carl Vine, January 2018