From the earliest days of our civilisations
The Indian Ocean had stories to tell
With hundreds of languages trades and religions
And echoes of empires that flourished and fell

There’s an ocean of sailors of pilgrims and pirates
Merchants and fishermen scholars and slaves
Who traded their knowledge their ideas and customs
And wagered their lives with the wind and the waves

Chorus
On this Indian Ocean this tropical ocean
This maritime crossroad of culture and trade
Ruled by the seasons of wind on the water
Where legends of Monsoonal Sailors were made

2
They sailed through the centuries steered by the heavens
Watching the ocean and reading the signs
They followed the fragrance of land on the breezes
And carried the maps of the stars in their minds

They traded their cargos in havens and harbours
Ivory porcelain spices and gold
Woven silk garments in colourful markets
Oceans of luxuries bartered and sold

Chorus

And the ocean is calm
And the ocean is cruel
It breaks the unwary
It suffers no fools
It holds many secrets
In the flow and the swell
It knows but it never can tell

Long before this land was known as Australia
Islander fishermen came to our shores
They shared all their secrets And traded their treasures
And pushed out the boundaries of culture once more

And time hasn’t altered the wind on the water
The same breezes blow on our coastline today
And the breath of the ocean still conjures the stories
Where legends of Monsoonal sailors were made

Chorus

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