04. Lament for Lost Names

Many indigenous people of this land now known as Australia have Scottish and Irish names. Some may have chosen to take those names, but many were ‘given’ it. . History shows that there is something in human nature that causes the oppressed to become the oppressors given a change in circumstances.

Being of Scottish/Irish heritage, I have used the term ‘Celtic’ and a lament format to express my sorrow and the taking away of a person’s name as a metaphor for the taking away of a people’s way of life, by those who might have been expected to be more aware and compassionate – through their own or their forebears histories – of how they were affecting Aboriginal peoples.

Song sample

Lament for Lost Names – Lyrics

If it was laid on you by one who knew loss and deprivation
If bestowed by those whose ways were destroyed by ‘a parcel o’ rogues in a nation’
If imposed by one who knew the hunted fugitive’s pain
Then I’m sorry you have a Celtic name

If it was laid on you by one who knew the bitterness of invasion
If bestowed by those whose fate was decreed by foreign legislation
If imposed by one who knew the cut of Their Majesties’ chains
Then I’m sorry you have a Celtic name

If it was laid on you by one who knew the joy of God’s salvation
If bestowed by those whose lives were pledged to honour their vocation
If imposed by one who knew the hurt of rejection and shame
Then I’m sorry you have a Celtic name

If it came to you through cruel jest or careless patronisation
If not given in love and accepted in the same
Then I’m sorry you have a Celtic name
Then I’m sorry you have a Celtic name

© Words and music by Grace McC. B. Reid