Lyrics Little Things - Ziggy Ramo, Paul Kelly

Little Things

Gather 'round, people, and I’ll tell you a story
Two hundred years of history that’s falsified
British invaders that we remember as heroes
Are you ready to tell the other side?
We start our story in 1493
With a piece of paper called the Doctrine of Discovery
Invoked by Pope Alexander VI
Without this good Christian, our story don’t exist
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
Captain James Cook, he boarded a fleet
And he was armed with the Doctrine of Discovery
The same tactics were used by Columbus, it’s
How today Australia claims Terra Nullius
'Cause on that paper, the pope did write
That you’re only human if you’ve been saved by Christ
And if there are no Christians in sight
The land you stumble on becomes your God-given right
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
Is that your law?
'Cause that’s invasion
That’s the destruction of five hundred nations
The genocide of entire populations
Which planted the seeds for the stolen generation
And grew into my people’s mass incarceration
Now we pass trauma through many generations
The lord can’t discover what already existed
For two hundred years, my people have resisted
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
The wars continued since Captain James Cook
And this side of history, you don’t write in your books
You don’t want the truth and you don’t want to listen
But how can you stomach Australia’s contradiction?
'Cause we went to war in 1945
We were allies against a terrible genocide
And I know it’s uncomfortable but the irony I see
Is that you fought for them, but you don’t fight for me
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
We should move on, move on to what?
I still remember, have you forgot?
That Vincent Lingiari knew others were rising
Gurindji inspired us to keep on fighting
So call it Australia, go on call it what you like
I just call it how I see it and I see genocide
Now that you hear me, can you understand?
There will never be justice on our stolen land
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
This is the story of so called Australia
But this is the story of so much more
How power and privilege cannot move my people
We know where we stand, we stand in our law
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
Since 1991
Four hundred and forty-one
Indigenous Australians
Have died in custody
The casualties of a war that never ended
But we are not yet defeated
Always was, always will be
Sovereignty was never ceded