Mathinna, choreographed by Stephen Page and performed by Bangarra Dance Theatre, tells the story of a young Aboriginal girl who has been adopted into a traditional western society. Inspired by the ‘stolen generation’, this story illustrates the personal journey of a lost soul caught between two cultures. Throughout this essay, three excerpts, titled Exile 1, Adoption and Nursery will be analysed in relation to how the dance work communicates the true story of how “British settlers relocated the Aboriginal people from their home lands and intervened in their cultural practices”(Mathinna Bangarra Dance Theater). Both movement and non-movement components will be analysed to reveal how Stephen Page’s choreography informed and engaged the audience. …show more content…
Mathinna was dressed in old, ragged and ripped clothes along with a necklace that she grabbed continuously as if she was desperately trying to hold onto her previous life and familiarity. The distinct difference of class structure between Mathinna’s disheveled clothes and the long clean gowns and traditional uniforms of the British females was prominent. The male slaves were dressed in dark brown oversized clothes, and they walked in shackles, signifying the end of their hard labor for the day. The use of eerie music with a single spotlight on Mathinna created an atmosphere of loss and tension - loss of her homeland, loss of her tradition and loss of her family. The single spotlight that was focused on Mathinna revealed a scared, confused and vulnerable child. This was accompanied with a movement motif imitating the collection of dirt in her hands. She gently rubbed her hands together to signify the investigation of her new environment. This is repeated throughout the excerpt along with gathering movements and the covering of her mouth to show her fear. These repetitions help symbolise the long and enduring journey that she has been through. The spotlight fades to the sound of a sewing machine, where Lady Jane Franklin appears at the sewing machine with an extremely large piece of red material. Behind Lady Jane Franklin, other ‘stolen children’ are positioned on the
What would you do for love? Would you break up a marriage or assassinate an Archduke? In the short story “IND AFF” by Fay Weldon the narrator must make a choice on whether or not to continue her love affair while examining the Princip’s murder of the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife. The story is set in Sarajevo in Bosnia, Yugoslavia where the assassination took place. Through irony, symbolism and setting, Weldon uses the parallel between the narrator and Pincip to show that seemingly inconsequential actions of an individual can have great consequences.
Trauma, abuse, displacement, and feelings of alienation have, and is still plaguing the Aboriginal community. Author Eden Robinson and playwright Constance Lindsay Skinner address the displacement, mistreatment, and abuse the indigenous population has faced, and still faces, in Monkey Beach and Birthright. Both Eden Robinson's novel Monkey Beach, and playwright Constance Lindsay Skinner's Birthright deals with characters who are struggling with trauma and haunted with scars from the past. The authors detail these events and bring the reader into the “shoes” of the characters through characterization, imagery, dialogue, and through revealing intimate memories of the characters. These literary techniques enable the reader to see the parallel between the cyclical, ambiguous state of nature, and the ambiguity in humans and how there is a perpetuating, intergenerational cycle of violence caused by abuse and the mistreatment of the Aboriginal.
Written by Katherine Holubitsky, Tweaked is a novel that shows the readers how dangerous drugs are to both the user and their peers. With the two year meth addiction, Chase continues to financially and emotionally drain out his family however; the problems becomes worse when Chase escapes from his dealer's house. Richard Cross, the man Chase attacked, died and as a result, Chase is charged with murder. His mother secretly proceeds to monetarily support Chase but when she was caught, the bond between the family members exacerbated. Time elapsed and Chase was finally caught when stealing a car however, he dies shortly after and overdose and becomes brain dead. Tweaked shows us the reality of how hazardous drugs can be through the physical
In conclusion, Aminata is working for the Abolitionists in London, England, when she is older. She is able to dress herself now however she sees fit and this seems to represent the freedom that she has won. On the other hand, does she really possess freedom, since she is still being used and manipulated for a cause, this cause being the end of the slave trade routes in Britain, and not the end of the practice of slavery? In telling her story, Hill makes the reader understand how dehumanizing slavery was and that it started with nakedness.
The East Kimberly region of Western Australia has been depict as a place of ‘grinding poverty, violence and racist exclusion in which so many Aboriginal people in the east Kimberley live, and yet at the same time through art it communicate the beauty and grandeur of their lives. ‘For those trying to communicate through art with the issue of death, harsh, pain and even compassion, were seen as necessary to maintain memories and record of Aboriginal historical events. The thirst for telling such companionate story is not easily interpreted, however, if we look at history we could see the influence of real tradition of aboriginal art emerge.
2002 The Post-Colonial Virtue of Aboriginal Art Zeitschrift für Ethnologie , Bd. 127, H. 2, pp. 223-240 http://www.jstor.org/stable/25842867
The story begins with the narrator’s description of the physically confining elements surrounding her. The setting is cast in an isolated colonial mansion, set back from the road and three miles from the village (674). The property contains hedges that surround the garden, walls that surround the mansion, and locked gates that guarantee seclusion. Even the connected garden represents confinement, with box-bordered paths and grape covered arbors. This image of isolation continues in the mansion. Although she prefers the downstairs room with roses all over the windows that opened on the piazza the narrator finds herself consigned to an out of the way dungeon-like nursery on the second floor. "The windows in the nursery provide views of the garden, arbors, bushes, and trees”(674). These views reinforce isolationism since, the beauty can be seen from the room but not touched or experienced. There is a gate at the head of the stairs, presumably to keep children contained in their play area of the upstairs with the nursery. Additionally, the bed is immoveable " I lie here on this great immovable bed- it is nailed down, I believe-and follow that pattern about by the hour" (678). It is here in this position of physical confinement that the narrator secretly describes her descent into madness.
The concept of discovery is a manifold notion. It comprises exploring something for the first time or it could be rediscovering something has been faded or lost, forgotten or concealed. People may experience different types of discovery which could be sudden and unexpected. However it may affect them physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. This response will focus on the idea discovery that relates to the themes of aboriginal connections to their family, place and culture and also the discrimination upon them. This well demonstrated thought the texts “Rainbow’s End” by Jane Harrison, the two poems “Son of Mine” and “We are going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal as well as my chosen related text, the film “One night the moon” by Rachel Perkins. Each text presents a variety of discovery aspects that allows a deep understanding of the concept of discovery.
Ayiti, by Roxane Gay, is a collection of fifteen short narratives about Haiti and its people, which gives the readers insights into the complex Haitian diaspora experience. The novel seeks to offer a deeper view into Haitian society and covers an array of themes such as the politics of survival, resiliency, and feminist culture in Haiti. Throughout the novel, Gay is highly critical of mainstream media because of how they depict and silo Haiti as a poor and helpless country. Haiti’s historical stance on censorship is well documented, and as a Haitian writer living in America, Gay is successful in giving agency to the voiceless by chronicling the stories of the Haitian diaspora. Ayiti explores stories that explain what it is like to be a Haitian
In Murakami’s “Kino “the Image that made me piece the puzzle together was when the woman that Kino sleeps with reveals her cigarette burns, and later in the story Kino imagines the same cigarette burns on his wife’s body. Page 20 really shows the main idea of the story, which is about self-discovery, the human condition, and complacency.
“It was a large, beautiful room, rich and picturesque in the soft, dim light which the maid had turned low. She went and stood at an open window and looked out upon the deep tangle of the garden below. All the mystery and witchery of the night seemed to have gathered there amid the perfumes and the dusky and tortuous outlines of flowers and foliage. She was seeking herself and finding herself in just such sweet half-darkness which met her moods. But the voices were not soothing that came to her from the darkness and the sky above and the stars. They jeered and sounded mourning notes without promise, devoid even of hope. She turned back into the room and began to walk to and fro, down its whole length, without stopping, without resting. She carried in her hands a thin handkerchief, which she tore into ribbons, rolled into a ball, and flung from her. Once she stopped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet. When she saw it lying there she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it. But her small boot heel did not make an indenture, not a mark upon the glittering circlet.
In conclusion, Jane has been through oppression and depression but she stands up for what she believes in. Jane gains her femininity, socialization, individuality and freedom. Her husband, who has been oppressing her for so many years, is no longer her prison guard. Jane defies her husband, creeps right over him and claims her life” so, that I had to creep over him every time” (Gilman 1609). Jane is now her own personal freedom through perseverance.
The story of “Life in the Iron Mills” enters around Hugh Wolfe, a mill hand whose difference from his faceless, machine-like colleagues is established even before Hugh himself makes an appearance. The main narrative begins, not with Hugh, but with his cousin Deborah; the third-person point of view allows the reader to see Deborah in an apparently objective light as she stumbles tiredly home from work in the cotton mills at eleven at night. The description of this woman reveals that she does not drink as her fellow cotton pickers do, and conjectures that “perhaps the weak, flaccid wretch had some stimulant in her pale life to keep her up, some love or hope, it might be, or urgent need” (5). Deborah is described as “flaccid,” a word that connotes both limpness and impotence, suggesting that she is not only worn out, but also powerless to change her situation; meanwhile, her life is “pale” and without the vivid moments we all desire. Yet even this “wretch” has something to sti...
In the beginning of Jane Eyre, Jane struggles against Bessie, the nurse at Gateshead Hall, and says, I resisted all the way: a new thing for me…"(Chapter 2). This sentence foreshadows what will be an important theme of the rest of the book, that of female independence or rebelliousness. Jane is here resisting her unfair punishment, but throughout the novel she expresses her opinions on the state of women. Tied to this theme is another of class and the resistance of the terms of one's class. Spiritual and supernatural themes can also be traced throughout the novel.
It is a serious and quiet event. She sees the boys as "short men" gathering in the living room, not as children having fun. The children seem subdued to us, with "hands in pockets". It is almost as if they are waiting, as the readers are, for something of importance to take place.... ... middle of paper ...