The Fire Knows No Boundaries

This picture is not from the fires, but of a sacred place, Mt Yengo. It’s where Biame [a creation ancestor] stepped back into the sky. That’s why the mountain is flat. It was part of the bushfire story and is part of our Story that will outlast these times. (Source: Rob Waters)

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By Rob Waters

The fences catch the kangaroos, cage the koalas, trap the echidna, goanna and the emu too, but not the fire.

The fire knows no boundaries.

Those fences were originally laid as a point of demarcation between them, and the rest.

To try to claim ownership over this land, to claim ownership over those that know what’s best, to claim ownership over a land that has always longed for fire.

She taught our old ones how to belong here;

How to live, how to love, and how to treat her with respect but now that fire grows…

And as the fires rage above, she still sits below the fences they laid;

Angry; Waiting.

The fires rage and the poor kangaroo gets caught up in those stupid points of difference.

But the fire knows no boundaries.

Houses fall and people die, the animals run and run until they can’t run no more, until those fences burn just enough to stop them in its path…

It may not seem this way, but she cries for you too, and cries for your hurting too, but she longs for you to listen,

Let her teach you how to belong;

How to live

How to love

How to treat her with respect.

Because this fire knows no boundaries…

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Biography

Rob Waters is a Gomeroi Man. He is a storyteller, poet, and spoken word artist. He has been sharing Story and poetry for over 20 years and has a passion for using Indigenous Storytelling Methodologies to examine the true histories of Aboriginal experiences in contemporary ways.