Poetry: Ambelin Kwaymullina The Cryptic: Mungo MacCallum

Linear time is something Settlers brought here A version of time that creates distance Things that happened a hundred years ago are further away than things that happened yesterday

A version of time weaponised against Indigenous peoples Our life ways called “backward” the past not of the future Our Countries described as “new” and newly discovered despite being known and loved for thousands of years The history of this ancient land said to “begin” when Settlers arrived

A version of time that is always carrying people away from an unchangeable past into an unknowable future Giving the illusion of progress regardless of whether anything has changed

In Indigenous systems time is not linear It moves in cycles It exists in space in Country and is as susceptible to action and interaction as any other life

On such a view the ticking of clocks the turning of calendars makes nothing happen moves nothing closer or further away from anything else How far we have come from the apocalypses and dystopias of settler-colonialism is measured by the degree to which affected relationships have been brought into balance have been healed

To think of time in this way is a gift and a responsibility It is a responsibility because individual actions matter powerfully radiating out across all that would be thought of in a linear sense as past present future

It is a gift because linear years have never moved anyone so far that meaningful action cannot be taken to address the wounds of settler-colonialism The chance has not been lost for justice for change

Life doesn’t move through time Time moves through life

From Living on Stolen Land, Magabala Books.