Kerith Power
Kerith Power has been a songwriter/singer since 1966, performing in Queensland, NSW and Victoria. . As a member of the Nightcap String Band and later with Heroines Riding Bareback, she played at bush dances and folk festivals. Following her leadership of a series of National Women’s Festivals in Lismore NSW starting in 1983, she was sponsored by the Australia Council to edit the First Australian Women’s Song Book, which contains songs by a broad range of women from all over Australia.
Like many women of the 1960s and 1970s, In the wake of the Vietnam War I left the city with my husband to build a new society in the Northern Rivers of NSW. The new society felt in some respects, especially in the division of labour, remarkably like the old one. The women’s movement gave me a way to frame my experience as collective, especially through the consciousness raising and feminist literature afforded by the Lismore Women’s Group. Songs on the cassette Liberation Road came from my life before and after a gradual discovery of feminism.
Listen to Songs By Kerith Power
Women Like That Make Me Strong
Women Like That Make Me Strong
What’s making me so happy? Where is that buzz coming from? You know the world’s in a terrible mess and they’re making a neutron bomb But I met a Fair dinkum, straight talking, clear thinking Sweet loving woman, Women like that make me strong.
Her love is straight from the shoulder, her anger burning bright Willing to work and suffer, ready to stand and fight, I’m talkin ’bout a Fair dinkum, straight talking, clear thinking, Sweet loving woman, Women like that make me strong.
I’m gonna work on my body, I’m gonna think with my mind;I’m gonna feel my feelings and love myself all the time, And grow into a Fair dinkum, straight talking, clear thinking, Sweet loving woman, Women like that make me strong.
Don’t cop the lies they tell you, Work on the truths we share; Share in the pain and the insights, there’s lot of us out there; I’m talkin ‘bout Fair dinkum, straight talking, clear thinking, Sweet loving women, Women like that make me strong.
Liberation Road
Liberation Road
Trav’lling down that liberation road, trav’lling down that liberation road,
I found my sisters all along the way, working for that liberation day.
1. And the first time I heard that liberation song,
From women like me, and together we were strong
My heart cried out I’m working for that day,
When mothers and daughters will all arise and say
I’m trav’lling down that liberation road, trav’lling down that liberation road,
I found my sisters all along the way, working for that liberation day.
2. And the first time I heard that others shared my woe,
And talking together could help us all to grow,
My heart cried out, You’ll never be alone,
To battle their oppression is to fight against your own.
Trav’lling down that liberation road, trav’lling down that liberation road,
I found my sisters all along the way, working for that liberation day.
3. And the first time I found that women could be friends
I thought that my anger would never have an end
My raging fury could tear the world apart
The time I discovered I’d been shafted from the start
Trav’lling down that liberation road, trav’lling down that liberation road,
I found my sisters all along the way, working for that liberation day.
4. And the burning of anger cleared all the lies away
Then working and sharing to find a better way
For many years this work will last, I know
But this I’ve discovered, there is a way to go
Trav’lling down that liberation road, trav’lling down that liberation road,
I found my sisters all along the way, working for that liberation day.
5. For many long years I made enemies of men
I could not believe that my anger had an end
Now I believe should my brothers come along
That we can all together sing that liberation song
Trav’lling down that liberation road, trav’lling down that liberation road,
Sisters and brothers all along the way, working for that liberation day.
Working for that liberation day.
Cassette Cover
My children were grown and launched into adulthood. I became a graduate student in New England. The song below came out of PhD studies with thev director and staff of Minimbah Aboriginal School and Preschool.
Contact Zone
For my dear friend and colleague Dianne Roberts 1947-2021
Contact Zone
You’re such a storyteller, we work together well
And in these seven years, I’ve often heard you tell
Of your grandfather’s land, how he worked it with his hands
Till the time when the fences hemmed him in;
You’re such a visionary, we work to make it true;
I sometimes think we could be sisters, me and you
But I’ve never dared to tell you my grandfather’s story too
In the time when they hunted black men down;
refrain:
You and I walk together in a contact zone
Dangerous ground, dangerous ground.
You’re such a thinker, reading opened up your world
You escaped like I did, when we both were country girls
Into those realms of gold, where we let our dreams unfold
In the times when impossible seemed real;
You had to steal your books, because your skin was brown
Read them on the school bus home, a long way out of town;
And not one book I read told me every step I tread
In my home country was someone’s sacred ground;
refrain:
You and I walk together in a contact zone
Dangerous ground, dangerous ground.
1967 came, I voted with the crowd
Civil rights had been restored, I thought we could be proud
But when your son was born alive, four other babies died
Another generation’s struggle had begun;
You were in the background for me till I was forty-two,
All those years I never met or touched someone like you
And oh, the depths of shame for the deeds done in my name
When the lies and the secrets filtered through
refrain:
You and I walk together in a contact zone
Dangerous ground, dangerous ground.
Elder, teacher, matriarch, I’m proud to be your friend
In our children’s children will we see the story’s end?
Respect and understand each one’s belonging in the land
In the time when they come into their own;
refrain:
You and I walk together in a contact zone
Dangerous ground, dangerous ground;
So they may walk together in a contact zone,
On common ground, on common ground.
Kerith Power 2002