The Guardian by Rebecca Fraser

I am a Guardian. Like my mother and her mother, and her mother before;
Nurturing, protecting, weaving
the tapestry of family and community with small, tight stitches.

I am the keeper of time and secrets and memories; the protector of my home, my heart, your heart.
I am the guardian of all that is taken for granted – the space and place of my gender.

I am the crier and wiper of tears of love and joy, and laughter and loss.
Salt water streams
Where the Boonwurrung women fished and swam and wove their own rich tapestry;
Custodians of land and kinship and ancestral culture.

I am as stalwart as the Peninsula, forever reaching for new horizons, yet permanently attached to my mainland;
I navigate the moods of the waters in which I have learned to swim, balancing the calm serenity of the bay
with the turbulent chaos of the ocean of life.

And as enduring as the relentless tides that batter and shape me,
remake me;
I will protect all that is important, fierce and fearless.
As will my daughter, and her daughter after that.

This is my voice …