26 Ross Watson’s ‘Song of a Rainbow Warrior’
Gaala Watson
Seeing this wealth of knowledge and history is overwhelming. Knowing that so much of our community’s history is retained in the Fryer Library invokes mixed feelings. While it is fascinating that so much is held and maintained within these walls, I can’t help but ponder the sophistication of Aboriginal knowledge keeping. No walls, no boxes, no gloves, no need. Just the songs, the stories, the language, and the meaning.
This poem by my father, Ross Watson, evokes so much in me, first grief, remembering he is no longer with us and all that was lost when he passed on. But these feelings are swiftly replaced with a sense of pride and strength, remembering the fortitude, grace and wisdom of our old people. Our Elders are so generous with their wealth of knowledge, their time, and they have left behind so much for us and for future generations.
The poem, ‘Song of a Rainbow Warrior’, speaks to the strength of those who have come before us, but it also speaks to that grace. In a time and space where choices were limited and dire, many of our old people chose for ‘life to be a song’. It’s that pursuit of joy that Aboriginal people were so often denied and deemed unworthy of, a joy that is distinctly ‘ours’, unfamiliar and unfathomable to colonial standards.
This poem reminds us that while our old people were robbed of so much, they stood grounded in themselves, their Country, their culture and their people, striving to ‘create a world that’s proper, along with other children of the sun’. And it is these meanings that you won’t find in the Fryer collection. These meanings remain with us.
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Link to the Fryer Library Collection
Ross Watson (Gungalu), ‘Song of a rainbow warrior’, (undated), Lilla Watson Papers, UQFL576, Box 4, Folder 13, Fryer Library, The University of Queensland.
Biography
Gaala is a Gungalu and Birri-Gubba (Wirri) woman and graduate of the Murri School. She holds a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Australian History from Deakin University’s Institute of Koorie Education, a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from Griffith University and a Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Research from the University of Melbourne. Gaala has been involved with the Queensland Social Enterprise sector for the past 3 years, and was appointed a Griffith University Yunus Centre Fellow. She is a former Chair of the Board of the Food Connect Foundation and Co-Chair of the Queensland Social Enterprise Council. Gaala is currently an associate lecturer at UQ’s Business School within the discipline of strategy and entrepreneurship, and a PhD candidate where her research is investigating Aboriginal Governance in South East QLD.
