Ms Dhu Testo

Ms Dhu died too young, twenty-two
When they carried her “like a dead kangaroo”
From her cell back to the same hospital
Who’d assumed that her pain must be invisible
But she cried three days bout aching while
Constable Bond said ‘Nah she’s faking it
Just another junkie who’s trying to escape
Another black troublemaker, well I’m not taking it
She’s like a two year old give her paracetamol’
Little did they know a septicemia had taken hold It’s white prejudice digging black holes
Every black death in custody’s a blight on our soul

But we’re not going away
It’s our home, our home
Our heart is breaking in two
But we stand in a row
Said we’re not going away
It’s our home, our home
And we’ve been losing our youth
For too long

Ms Dhu had fines yeah just a few
Three-thousan, six-hundred-and-twenty-two
Got her locked up in the Port Hedland zoo
Where the few rich make millions while they snooze
Still they called her a user until she died
Cold truth in her pain, in her eyes
Racism so deep it’s become institutionalized
What they did to Dhu is the real crime
But we’re not going away
It’s our home, our home
Our heart is breaking in two
But we stand in a row
Said we’re not going away
It’s our home, our home
And we’ve been losing our youth
For too long, too long

Too long, too long
Too long, too long


She comes from the plains where they call up the weather
Horizon so long and a Law without letters
See it come, feel it fall like forever
Did it rain so long all our tears made a river?
‘It wasn’t me, wasn’t me, I’m innocent’
Say the ones who betrayed her in every sense
Now they’re white washing away evidence
Will we ever see a cop locked up for negligence?

Will we ever see the rock turned up on ignorance?
Will we ever see a government who first listens?
Will we ever see the stats fall in black prisons?
Did Dhu die for nothing, no, she didn’t

But we’re not going away
It’s our home, our home
Our heart is breaking in two
But we stand in a row
Said we’re not going away
It’s our home, our home
And we’ve been losing our youth
For too long

Ms Dhu died too young, twenty-two
When they carried her “like a dead kangaroo”
And we wish that it wasn’t true, but it is
So the next question is what are we gonna do?