Union Songs
Strangers on the Shore
A song by Mike Murray and Lesley Silvester©2000 Mike Murray and Lesley Silvester- [play]
Long ago the elders say, there came a sign from over the sea
Big bird came on a moonless night, laid dead on the rocks in the morning light
Then out of the sea the white ghosts came and they fell on their face in the sand
They were strangers, stranded in a land unknown and faraway
Searching the horizon each and every day
They were strangers, strangers on the shore
Running from a storm on the Java run, our ship ran aground on a hidden reef
Wrecked on the rocks of this Southern Land, in dawn’s grey light we were lying on the sand
Found on the beach by the native men we were taken to their homes faraway
We were strangers, stranded in a land unknown and faraway
Searching the horizon each and every day
We were strangers, strangers on the shore
Many years on the pearlers came, plundering the coast for profit and gain
Luggers drop anchor in a sheltered bay, to steal us before we could run away
They took us from our land in the far Gascoyne and they sent us to the depths of the sea
We were strangers, stranded in a land unknown and faraway
Dreaming of our family so faraway
We were strangers, strangers on the shore
In hundreds and thousands from Europe we came, to the promise of freedom in a new country
We worked in your mines and your factories, to build a new life for our families
Looking for an end to hunger and wars we came and you opened your doors
We were strangers, welcomed in your land unknown and faraway
Living out a new life each and every day
We were strangers, strangers on your shore
Now we come from Iraq and Afghanistan, looking for freedom for our families
We reached this land so far and remote, braving the journey in a leaky boat
On Ashmore Reef we were left in the night then like criminals are locked out of sight
We are strangers, locked up in a land unknown and faraway
Longing for our freedom each and every day
We are strangers, strangers on your shore.
Notes
Many thanks to Mike Murray and Lesley Silvester for permission to add this song to the Union Songs collection.
They write:"This song is for all those who have come as Strangers to the shore of WA. It begins with the early shipwrecked Dutch sailors, who were thought to be white ghosts by the Aboriginals. Their ships were seen as stranded big birds. One verse tells of inland Aboriginals from the Gascoyne, who became strangers in their own land when they were captured by pearlers to work on the luggers. Most had never seen the sea until then. Then there were the post WW2 migrants who came here to get away from the chaos of post war Europe and were welcomed. The last verse shows how things have changed, and instead of welcoming those who want to come to our shores, we treat them as criminals".
Mike and Lesly have a website at www.timetrackers.com.au/strangers.html
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