When writing the "big picture" histories, historians often overlook or exaggerate certain aspects of Australian history to make their point. Discuss with reference to one the recommended texts. The book "The Australian Legend", written by Russell Ward and published in 1958 speaks mainly of "Australian Identity". It looks at nationalism and what has formed our self-image. There are many aspects that are left overlooked however, as the Authour makes his assumptions. Significant parts of society are neglected consideration, these include those that weren't from the bush, non-British immigrants, the Aboriginal people and women. Also the use of romanticised and exaggerated evidence causes an imbalance in his conclusions. Ward's main reason for writing "The Australian Legend" was to portray the typical Australian's perception of himself. He admitted that the book was not intended to be a history of Australia, and it wasn't. What the narrative does do however, is trace and explore the source of what he referred to as the "national mystique". Ward bases his work on the opinion that the 'Australian spirit' is somehow intimately connected with the bush and that it derives rather from the common folk than from the more respectable sections of society. He treats this assumption methodically, using literary and historical evidence. The majority of the evidence, are extracts taken from the Sydney Bulletin, a paper edited by J.F Archibald. Writers included "the three greatest 'nationalist' writers of the 'nineties", as Ward called them. They were Banjo Paterson, Henry Lawson, and Joseph Furphy. Ward believed that their works were hard fact - a reflection of the emergence of a distinctively Australian way of life in the outback. This evidence however is rather selective. It appears that Ward has only chosen to include the works that support his version of the 'Australian identity', intentionally leaving out works by the aforementioned writers that gave reference to anyone not fitting his description of 'typical', ie. women, foreigners, aboriginals and city-dwellers. The Australian bush legend, Ward believed, came to its climax in the 1880s. He mentions that it was during this time that the majority of the population were native-born, white males who enjoyed the works of writers such as Paterson and Lawson. It w... ... middle of paper ... ... Although partially true in its time, the Australian bush legend fades more and more as time progresses. The Australian identity of the 1890s was not the same as it was in the 1950s, nor do we have the same self-image today, as portrayed in 'The Australian Legend'. Recent statistics show that we work longer hours and drink far less then we used to. Many more Australians go to the beach than to the bush and despite the iconic male bushman, for most men and women in Australia the beach is far more central to our identity and lives, as the majority of the population lives closer to our coastal shores. 'The Australian Legend', in itself is an acurate portrayal and recount of one part of society, from a specific era, ie. the Australian bushman of the 1890s. Its exaggerations, however, such as the romanticism of the bush ethos by Australian writers, the unbalanced use of evidence, and the neglect to acknowledge the contribution to our national identity from certain sections of society, ie. aboriginal people, city-dwellers, women, and non-British immigrants, render this book to be flawed. For these reasons, it cannot be regarded as a complete and balanced account of Australian history.
The repetition of the word, 'bush' in, " Bush all round - bush with no horizon.." creates a vivid visual image of the bush setting and emphasises the loneliness experienced by the drover's wife and her family. The family's loneliness is reinforced in, "...The everlasting, maddening sameness ...longs a man to break away and travel as far a way as trains can go...". This juxtaposes the traditional perception of the bush,which is that of beauty and pleasure, and depicts a tedious environment incapable of nurturing curious thought,an another hardship on the family. This is ironic as this iconic story symbolises Australia, it does this by portraying the country side in a negative light. Therefore, the harsh environment highlights the determination of Australians in the face of
In Reading Tim Wintons hopeful saga, Cloudstreet, you are immersed in Australia; it is an important story in showing the change in values that urbanisation brought to Perth in the late 1950’s such as confidence and pride. But it was also a very anxious and fearful time period in terms of the Nedlands Monster and his impact in changing the current comfortable, breezy system Perth lived in. The role of women changed significantly with more women adopting more ambitious ideologies and engaging in the workforce something never seen before. But most of all it was important because it changed Australia’s priorities as a nation, it shaped the identity of individuals that we now see today, and it created a very unique Australian identity.
Australia is a very unique place, along with our multiculturalism there is also a strong heritage surrounding us. At first thought of Australian heritage we think about such landmarks as Uluru, The Sydney harbour bridge and The Sydney opera house, The Great Barrier reef and other internationally recognised places. But our heritage goes much deeper than that; it is far more than outstanding icons. Along with these icons there are also unsung places like the old cattle stations, Aboriginal missions, migrant hostels, War memorials, our unique wetlands and the towns and cities we have built. Adding all of these things together, helps to tell the story of who we are and how we have shaped this land in the unique identity it has today.
MacDermott, D. (1993). As we see you. In D. Grant & G. Seal (Eds.), Australia in the world (pp. 86-91). Perth: Black Swan Press
Australia Day, celebrated on the 26th of January every year, is a nationally recognised day that signifies the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet. It’s a historic event that also marks the beginning of the oppression of the Indigenous people, that still can occur today, no matter how much the Government has tried to atone for the sins of the past. Australia Day is a day of celebration and mourning, a fact that contributes to the constant bickering between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous. There are many who believe that the meaning behind the modern Australia Day is overshadowed by the past, which will prevent the nation from moving forward, much like Ben Roberts-Smith who published an opinion piece in the Herald Sun on the 26th
Peter Weir’s 1981 film Gallipoli can in every sense of the phrase be called an ‘Australian classic’. The impact and effect this film has had upon the psyche and perspective of several generations of Australians has been significant. Whilst it can be argued that every Australian is aware of the ANZAC legend, and the events that occurred on the Turkish beaches in 1915, Weir’s film encapsulates and embodies a cultural myth which is now propagated as fact and embraced as part of the contemporary Australian identity. The film projects a sense of Australian nationalism that grew out of the 1970’s, and focuses on what it ‘means’ to be an Australian in a post-colonial country. In this way Gallipoli embodies a sense of ‘Australian-ness’ through the depiction of mateship and through the stark contrast of Australia to Britain. A sense of the mythic Australia is further projected through the cinematic portrayal of the outback, and the way in which Australia is presented in isolation from the rest of the world. These features combined create not only a sense of nationalism, but also a mythology stemming from the ANZAC legend as depicted within the film.
Notably, the denotation “romping” can mean, “to play roughly and energetically” (Google), but it can also have a connotation that the boy is hurt or in pain. Furthermore, stanza two also mentions the “mother’s countenance/ could not unfrown itself” (7- 8) which is unusual in the description of playing. While the father and son are playing, the mother is standing aside frowning. Her unhappiness contrasts the playful description of the waltz, which gives the poem its sense of seriousness. In other words, it tells the reader that there is much more happening here than the father and son playing. The drunkenness of the father has caused him to become careless and rough with the boy. The mother is clearly unhappy about the situation, but only watches as the two continue their
Good morning members of the Mt Gravatt show society. Did you know that World War Two is known as the most destructive war in history? It killed over 60 million people and had a lot more far-reaching impacts than any other wars. Published in 1988 in Inside Black Australia, an anthology of Aboriginal poetry, “The Black Rat” by a famous author and researcher, Iris Clayton, was a poem inspired by her father, Cecil, who fought in the war. The poem describes the depressing life of an Aboriginal soldier who helped off the German army at Tobruk at the time. The message in the poem is that the Aboriginal soldiers did not receive the benefits that European soldiers received, like farming lands after the war ended. This tells how unjust the European society was in Australia’s history.
Still even more evidence of these mixed feelings is illustrated in the third stanza. "This love dance, a kind of blood rite between father and son, shows suppressed terror combined with awe-inspired dependency" (Balakian 62). "The hand that held my wrist/was battered on one knuckle;/ At every step you missed/ My right ear scraped a buckle"(Roethke 668). The speaker's father's hand being "battered on one knuckle" is indicative of a man who...
Aboriginal protest served as the motivation for vast ambiguity about the 'Australian achievement', the reason for the Australian Republican Movement (ARM) became on the “traditional axis of Anglo-Australian” competition. McKenna offers a beneficial narrative of the failure up till now of the republic and reconciliation movements.
Jill Ker Conway uses narrative in The Road from Coorain as a reflective expository prose. This memoir most significantly includes detailed descriptions of the land in the Australian outback. For Conway, the land is a character in itself as it builds the foundation of her consciousness, which is later revealed during travel. Her experience and association with the geography helps redress the historical record previously imposed by British imperial perspective, reveals the true self. This essay will discuss how redressing the historical record and giving a true objective voice to Australia’s geography in turn helped Jill Ker Conway reveal her real self. It is through recognizing the non-British imperial experience that Conway is able to let the
- What/how does it tell us about living in Australia during times past? (100 - 150 words)
The bush and its unique landscape was something that distinguished Australia from the European sceneries familiar to many new immigrants. Australians romanticized the bush in their attempt to establish self – identity.
Moreover, then the very thought of a non-Australian fitting that description was then viewed as being very unthinkable in terms of the Australian identity. Secondly, the identity and nationalism idea that Banjo Paterson wanted, was used to create one idea that could be known under the nationalism banner in literature. However, on the other hand, according to R.Ward (1958), argued that the characteristic of the typical Australian society had been forged from the nineteenth century frontier which involved the wars such as the Gallipoli landing that had occurred, which the idea of mateship was first used by Paterson to connect the soldiers together as comrades (1958). Furthermore, R. Ward (1958) also then had argued that the legend of the bush had also been shaped by the many debates that had been happening in other countries such as Europe.(1958). It the idea of mateship that Australia had been shaped by the cultural disposition that had occurred within the nationalism of the country’s history itself.
This is an incredible paragraph extracted from Bora Ring. This poem depicts perfectly of the European invasion of Australia. It shows how the traditions and stories are gone, how the hunting and rituals are gone and ‘lost in an alien tale’, the Europeans being the aliens. This poem also describes that it seemed as if the tradition of Aborigines was ‘breathed sleeping and forgot’. These are powerful words Judith Wright used to show how they Aborigines were quickly invaded and ‘forgotten’. This poem is an excellent example of why Australian students should study her poetry.