All I'm wishing, is that you take a moment to listen...
One of the books we've recently added to our collection is Common Wealth, by Gregg Dreise.
This is a brilliant book that is well worth making a visit to the Curriculum Collection (or placing a hold on) to read - a lavishly illustrated slam poem that calls for all Australians to work together for shared growth and improvement.
Dreise takes the idea of a "Commonwealth" and points instead towards a "Common Wealth" - working towards a future version of Australia where we take care of each other and the environment, share our prosperity to lift each other up, and foster a culture of inclusion and respect.
It's a powerful poem, and it's easy to imagine that hearing it read aloud would be a stirring experience, but the illustrations are magnificent and also help to convey both the problems faced by Australian Aboriginal people over the past 200 years, and a great sense of hope for a better tomorrow.
Dreise has created a very uplifting book - one that doesn't shy away from noting that Australian history (since colonisation) has often left the original inhabitants (and other minority groups) of this country out of the "common wealth" - but never throws blame or shade. Instead, it says "we are all better than this, and we'll make a better tomorrow if we work together".
A bird can't fly with just one feather; they need to work together. When we do this too, our future will soar forever.
In the course of this book, Dreise makes a case for replacing the words "Young and free" in the Australian National Anthem with "Proud and free" to include the oldest civilisations in the world, and replacing the Union Jack on the flag with Australia's floral emblem, the green and gold wattle (his wattle motif looks pretty cool, and this reviewer wants to get it on a T-Shirt), and suggests making the 1st of June (when the wattle normally starts blooming) as our new Australia Day.
He makes a pretty persuasive argument, and if you listen (as he's wishing) you might find yourself sharing his vision.
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| Wattle Motif by Gregg Dreise |
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