Donna Devine songs
This is a protest song.
In an annual event that begins each September 1st, over 20,000 dolphins are slaughtered in Japan’s highly inaccessible (to the public) Taiji Cove. These are the dolphins left behind after others have been selected to be sold globally for captivity in theme parks and “swim with the dolphins” programmes.
The Western Australian town of Broome is a sister city to Taiji. Residents include a number of Aboriginal people, whose ancestors had a deeply significant relationship with dolphins, both in practice and in their dreamtime legends. Broome residents are insisting that the sister-city relationship be stopped until the live trade and slaughter ceases. The slaughter was postponed, but still took place
a couple of weeks later. Perhaps 2010 will see a more satisfactory result.
Music/Arrangement/Instruments/Vocals: Billy Playle
Lyrics: Donna Devine
The Dreamtime Is Past
(v1)
She runs to the beach
And calls to the dolphins
Hitting the water
With a piece of flat wood
Just like her ancestors
Long years before her
Somehow she knows that
She stands where they stood
Chorus
But the dreamtime is past
We’ve shattered the bond
That once held us fast
Humans and dolphins
Bound in mystical ways
No mythologies last
The dreamtime is past
(v2)
She weeps as she shouts
The dire warning she sends
Calling the dolphins
And hoping they’ll hear her
Some have come leaping
In silvery splendour
They know her of old
And there’s no need to fear her
Chorus
But the dreamtime is past
We’ve shattered the bond
That once held us fast
Humans and dolphins
Bound in mystical ways
No mythologies last
The dreamtime is past
Bridge
Each 1st of September, a day to remember
But not for dolphins doomed to be slaughtered
Every year thousands are destined to die
Shocked and confused in the grim crimson water
The dolphins, once known as a symbol of love
Murdered by whalers in Japan’s Taiji cove
(v3)
She sinks to her knees
And grieves for the dolphins
Then draws with her finger
Their story in sand
This woman of Broome
Has much loss to mourn
The dreamtime, the dolphins
Her history, her land
Chorus
Oh the dreamtime is past
We’ve shattered the bond
That once held us fast
Humans and dolphins
Bound in mystical ways
No mythologies last
The dreamtime is past
© 2009 Donna Devine
In an annual event that begins each September 1st, over 20,000 dolphins are slaughtered in Japan’s highly inaccessible (to the public) Taiji Cove. These are the dolphins left behind after others have been selected to be sold globally for captivity in theme parks and “swim with the dolphins” programmes.
The Western Australian town of Broome is a sister city to Taiji. Residents include a number of Aboriginal people, whose ancestors had a deeply significant relationship with dolphins, both in practice and in their dreamtime legends. Broome residents are insisting that the sister-city relationship be stopped until the live trade and slaughter ceases. The slaughter was postponed, but still took place
a couple of weeks later. Perhaps 2010 will see a more satisfactory result.
Music/Arrangement/Instruments/Vocals: Billy Playle
Lyrics: Donna Devine
The Dreamtime Is Past
(v1)
She runs to the beach
And calls to the dolphins
Hitting the water
With a piece of flat wood
Just like her ancestors
Long years before her
Somehow she knows that
She stands where they stood
Chorus
But the dreamtime is past
We’ve shattered the bond
That once held us fast
Humans and dolphins
Bound in mystical ways
No mythologies last
The dreamtime is past
(v2)
She weeps as she shouts
The dire warning she sends
Calling the dolphins
And hoping they’ll hear her
Some have come leaping
In silvery splendour
They know her of old
And there’s no need to fear her
Chorus
But the dreamtime is past
We’ve shattered the bond
That once held us fast
Humans and dolphins
Bound in mystical ways
No mythologies last
The dreamtime is past
Bridge
Each 1st of September, a day to remember
But not for dolphins doomed to be slaughtered
Every year thousands are destined to die
Shocked and confused in the grim crimson water
The dolphins, once known as a symbol of love
Murdered by whalers in Japan’s Taiji cove
(v3)
She sinks to her knees
And grieves for the dolphins
Then draws with her finger
Their story in sand
This woman of Broome
Has much loss to mourn
The dreamtime, the dolphins
Her history, her land
Chorus
Oh the dreamtime is past
We’ve shattered the bond
That once held us fast
Humans and dolphins
Bound in mystical ways
No mythologies last
The dreamtime is past
© 2009 Donna Devine
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