It is different here: extreme,
A place apart, unique, special.
Yes, we have blue skies, green trees,
Flowers, grasses, and bees;
We also have spiders and snakes
And other nice nasties
Living together in great diversity.
A land of contrasts is my land—
A desert continent, an ancient place
With a history reaching back
Many thousands of years of occupation
In harmonious partnership, successful,
Symbiotic between flora and fauna.
Man is a relative latecomer
To its wide-open spaces.
My people have shared this land, our land,
For several thousand years now—
A short period in the history of this place—
Successfully sharing in its bounty,
Husbanding, nurturing its resources,
In partnership with the land, comfortable
Until just more than two hundred years ago,
When the invaders came.