Dark Cloud

The "Small Black Notebook" was founded in 1788, January 26th on the shores of Weé-Rong, Gondwanaland, from the final leg of the voyage through War-ran. A leather-bound book wrapped in a Moleskine cloth to protect its thick ivory pages from the salty conditions of the exploration vessel's diminishing environment. By order of His Royal Highness King Terra Nullius III, within it's pages a petition of regulations Lieutenant Jacob Cookiecutter was to alter under his own volition and quill. Perhaps the datum for the ensuing innuendos that any black book would come to endure.

Ever evolving, ever changing, the English language seems to consistently morph into a sense of its own self-importance. Having a rule, exception to the rule, acronyms, phrases, paraphrases, sweeping across the European continent through the ages from Medieval, Old Norse, French and into its respective colloquialisms. English has come to be recognised as the global language to learn. A hollow victory if you ask me.

Explorers ventured far and wide from English shores to divide and conquer. Of course not exclusive to the English given histories pages. The Portuguese, French, Dutch and Spanish were also but to name a few of the spirited folk that took to the waves to embark on adventures and come back with stories yet untold.

However, English, the language most 'prized' across the globe is written and rewritten to appropriate the times. Scribing the documents for which the most collective laws are written in ways that befit ambiguity for deception and, at worst, lies.

So when did the English language turn itself to weigh in heavily to dictatorial intent and encapsulate the darkness that I speak of? Has the origin of this language always been brandished by those that sought to defeat and overpower? Was the first and most consistently leather-bound little black book 'The Bible'? Not meaning to imply that all forces of evil were beset upon this text as within its pages much wisdom is held. However wars have begun from the disputes of religious origins and what other description can be given than that of the gloomiest pressures of ill intent that are in keeping with the inferences of a black book.

Purposefully metamorphosed, the 1788 document was developed to deceive the reader into assumed truths and go on to become law. Surely far inferior to the lore of our global sovereign nations. How could one possibly look into the faces of true sovereignty whose ancestors have survived millennia in harmony with nature and be arrogant enough to reach out with their believed document of answers?

Recognising the irony of the English language and its uses has been brought to light by sovereign nations leaders before. Among them the Oglala Lakota that made a point of describing the myriad of colours the skin of a white man takes with its variations in health and all the while sovereign nations skin maintained itself as black. "...and you dare call me coloured." So too, when pondering the context of this piece of writing, nor are sovereign nations people black. An artisans decree is that black is not a colour and therein lies the true ambivalence of the language which may largely be left up to interpretation.

Surely it is a baseline measure of respect to seek to understand customs, dialect, the origins of peoples ways when you are a visitor to their shores, a newcomer with little knowledge of the land and how to survive; humility the key. Abandon the perception of appearances and subsequent assumptions. Listen and learn.

Thankfully today we are witnessing the peoples vote under which author Honey Rum's sovereign nations document of lore has been unanimously approved by the people of Australia with very little reticence. Built around the idealisms of her award winning text "Dark Cloud" and thus becoming entrained under the modern vernacular as "The New Black", Sovereign Lore - Our Country has been submitted to parliament and entered into legislation. Replacing the aforementioned law of "The Small Black Notebook".

As a member of the selected team of writers and editors to the text, I have been awarded a 'prize' of $20 000 that I was not expecting to receive. Although the real fortune has been to participate in facilitating the implementation of Sovereign Lore to the contemporary government and find myself on the right side of history.

By M J Hanly © February 25th 2021.

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