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Story behind the song
This is a protest song against the slaughter of dolphins.
Beginning every September 1st, in an annual event, over 20,000 dolphins are slaughtered in Japan's highly inaccessible (to the public) Taiji Cove. These are the dolphins left behind after others have been selected to be sold globally for captivity in theme parks and "swim with the dolphins" programmes.
The Western Australian town of Broome is a sister city to Taiji. Residents include a number of Aboriginal people, whose ancestors had a deeply significant relationship with dolphins, both in practice and in their Dreamtime legends.
Broome residents are insisting that the sister-city relationship be stopped until the live trade and slaughter ceases.
Lyrics
The Dreamtime Is Past
V1
She runs to the beach
And calls to the dolphins
Hitting the water
With a piece of flat wood
Just like her ancestors
Long years before her
Somehow she knows that
She stands where they stood
Chorus
But the dreamtime is past
We've shattered the bond
That once held us fast
Humans and dolphins
Bound in mystical ways
No mythologies last
The Dreamtime is past
V2
She weeps as she shouts
The grim warning she sends
Calling the dolphins
And hoping they'll hear her
Some have come leaping
In silvery splendour
They know her of old
And there's no need to fear her
Chorus
But the dreamtime is past
We've shattered the bond
That once held us fast
Humans and dolphins
Bound in mystical ways
No mythologies last
The dreamtime is past
Bridge
Each first of September, a day to remember
But not for dolphins doomed to be slaughtered
Every year thousand are destined to die
Shocked and confused in the grim crimson water
The dolphins, once known as a symbol of love
Murdered by whalers in Japan's Taiji cove
V3
She sinks to her knees
And grieves for the dolphins
Then draws with her finger
Their story in sand
This woman of Broome
Has much loss to mourn
The dreamtime, the dolphins
Her history, her land
Chorus
But the dreamtime is past
We've shattered the bond
That once held us fast
Humans and dolphins
Bound in mystical ways
No mythologies last
The Dreamtime is past
© 2009 Donna Devine (lyrics) / Billy Playle (music & vocals)
