Big Canoe - Tim Finn

Hurled me a rope around the sun

Pulled her hot through the distant day

Cast the nets out into the blue

Caught me the islands fresh with spray

Then I came to the virgin rocks and sandbars

Shored the boats from the dancing waters

There in the shadow of the Tokelau hills

Burned me the fish for the moon gods daughter

Big canoe, oh, cut me through, oh

Thin white cloud of the Archipelago

Eye of the hunter on the shadow trail

Caught me the eel in the mountain stream

Marked the spot where the Moa fell

Sweat on the hands of my giant dreams

Then we dragged the hardwood down to the shore

Feet for the huts in the river’s mouth

Ploughed for the spice and the sweet potato

Build me the tribes of the distant south

We are the myths in the children’s eyes

We are their hope when the future lies

The white ships came from tall lands far

Full of the sword and the crucifixion

I traded my heart for a tank of gas

On a road of tarmac with new intentions

Stared me up at the moon gods daughter

Laughed she did at the fat man’s laws

Felt me the earth through three dollar shoes

Heard the roar of a thousand oars