Chords for Troy Cassar-Daley - Shadows On The Hill (CMC Songs & Stories)

This song Shadows on the Hill was born out of a couple of things.
We had a cousin of mine back home in Grafton
Who'd been battling cancer, so we decided we pulled together
My first cousins and my uncles and do a men's weekend with him
We hadn't done that for quite a while
and we wanted to go to the traditional grounds of where we used to go and hunt turtles and fish and
Celebrate his life.
So [D] we sat around the fire
We talked and we
Really really loved the time of a bit of a debrief
I guess for everyone to be able to tell stories talk about our past
But also talk about where we are in our lives at the moment as grown men instead of being tiny kids
So from my first cousins in their 20s right through to my uncles who were just about in their 60s
We got together to honor Matthew's life, and he's since passed away
and on my way home to Brisbane I
Thought about one of the stories that my uncle's told us there was a huge massacre of Goombaynga people
Just further up the river from where we were camped and we always wondered why our
Grandparents didn't let us go across to this one spot all the time
My nan would always say don't go across there.
Just stay this side of the river
you can go for turtles and fish down here, but not over there and
It ended up being one of those things that stuck in my mind from the trip all the way home
And I thought well, it's been a part of my education
I'd like to make it a part of what I share with with people who listen to my music, too
So I call it shadows on the hill because up behind these granite stones is apparently where they were buried
So I'll do my best to get through it without thinking of my cousin
_ _ And all that family up there in Grafton
_ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ I
See shadows on the hill
[G] Beside the [Dm] old sawmill [D] where my people were killed
I see shadows on the hill
I see shadows on the ground
Up side with a boat no sound hidden so they can be found
I see shadows on the ground
On [G] the old land in its [D] road where the great man a river flows
men women children
Slain buried up there on that range _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ I
Woke up in the dead of night
Saw two men in the fire light they had [G] scars upon their chest
[D] Said this spirits could not rest
They spoke to me in tongue and said back at a very once
Never spoke that way before I am [A] not a [D] man by law
But I see shadows on the hill
Beside the old sawmill where my people were killed
I see shadows on the hill
Where the catfish makes its ring and the birds refuse to sing
Voices follow family lines as they [A] whisper [D] through the pine
In around the granite stones
[G] They'll forever be alone
[D] Their killers got all free, but their shadows never leave _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ [D] _ _ Mmm
I see shadows on the hill
_ [G] Beside the old [D] sawmill [E] where my [Dm] people were killed
I see shadows on the hill
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ [Dm] _ [D] _
[Dm] _ [D] _ [Dm] _ _ _ [A] _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _