Dollars Spent
By Hamda, Year 8
My father,
I call him Babaa, he’s not always right but
he’s like no other.
Black shirt,
blue jeans and all,
I love him
And that’s my call.
‘No one’s perfect,’
And neither is he.
This is one of the things,
he taught me.
Babaa has high standards
for his daughters.
And expects me to be perfect.
But he works hard for his kids
and that’s his aspect.
Babaa tells us,
‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,’
and sometimes that makes me wonder.
His deep voice is what I miss,
when he’s not here.
The one that tells me I’m ‘worth the world.’
That’s what he likes me to hear.
Yes, we went through hardships
but Babaa tells me,
‘You’re worth every dollar I spend to get you back.’
Dollars Spent by Hamda is an excerpt from Deadly Writing. Deadly Writing explores significant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices. Each week, students explore a range of texts crafted by First Nations artists and use them as inspiration for their own writing. They learn about Indigenous cultures and languages from diverse communities around Australia, and explore their own experiences and values as they write a series of short pieces of writing, producing a personal anthology. Students learn about and experiment with a variety of editing strategies as they prepare their own writing for publication. Deadly, unna?