Critical Analysis Of Colleen Davis's 'Australia Day'

769 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: strengths and weaknesses of critical analysis

Australia Day Analysis:

Recently the highly controversial date of Australia Day has been garnering much media attention after the decision by the Fremantle council to cease its celebrations on January 26th due to it being culturally insensitive. Supporters of having Australia Day on the 26th of January argue that it is merely a patriotic declaration of pride, whilst others condemn the date as a celebration of the massacre of a culture and its people.

In response to this issue, an opinion piece entitled ‘Australia Day - Celebration of the birth of a nation or a day of mourning for genocide?’ by Colleen Davis was published in The Fremantle Foghorn on the 26th of September. Using an proud and aggrieved tone, Davis compelled the residents of …show more content…

This can be seen when she opens her second paragraph, with her tone changing from pride to a more somber and regretful tone, which adds impact when she discusses how Australia Day ‘won’t be the same for my family’. This causes the statement to be emphatic, and the negative connotations that are implied by the tone shift enable the reader to see that Davis views the cancellation of the events as something to be lamented. Davis’s true stance on the issue is further reiterated when she discusses the ‘even lower blow’ of cancelling ‘our’ annual fire works, with the use of inclusive language encouraging the Fremantle residents to see that they personally are being affected, which makes the overall issue of the Australia Day date much more close to home. It further identifies how the residents are meant to have reacted to the cancellation of the fireworks, and positions them to feel that as they have been negatively affected by this one event, that they should oppose the changing of the date of Australia day completely. At this point in her piece, Davis counterbalances article by providing an expert opinion from the Mayor that supports changing the date of Australia Day. In this way, Davis builds up a cumulative effect of manipulating the opinions of her readers without expressly

Show More
Related

  • Analysis of The Redfern Address

    1832 Words  | 4 Pages

    Summary of Text: ‘The Redfern Address’ is a speech that was given to a crowd made up of mainly indigenous Australians at the official opening of the United Nations International Year of the World’s Indigenous Peoples in Redfern Park, New South Wales. This text deals with many of the challenges that have been faced by Indigenous Australians over time, while prompting the audience to ask themselves, ‘How would I feel?’ Throughout the text, Keating challenges the views of history over time, outlines some of the outrageous crimes committed against the Indigenous community, and praises the indigenous people on their contribution to our nation, despite the way they have been treated.

    Read More

  • Cronulla Riots: Film Analysis

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    The 2014 Walkley Award winning documentary, "Cronulla Riots: the day that shocked the nation" reveals to us a whole new side of Aussie culture. No more she’ll be right, no more fair go and sadly no more fair dinkum. The doco proved to all of us (or is it just me?) that the Australian identity isn’t really what we believe it to be. After viewing this documentary

    Read More

  • Australian Poem Analysis: Andy's Gone With Cattle '

    922 Words  | 2 Pages

    There is a reference to our multiculturalism in the lines ‘All cultures together as one. Yet, individual until the game is won’. These lines acknowledge the fact that even though Australia is an increasingly Multicultural society, all Australians, regardless of their ethnic backgrounds, share the same values, principles and national identity.

    Read More

  • Maestro: an important influence on Australian society

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy provides an insight into 1960s/70s Australia and helps reinforce common conceptions about Australian culture. One common conception Goldsworthy reinforces in this text is Australia’s increasing acceptance of multiculturalism. Maestro, set in the 1960s to 1970s, shows Australians growing more accepting and tolerant of other cultures. This shift in perspective was occurring near the end of the White Australia/Assimilation Policy, which was phased out in the late 1970s/early 1980s. An example of this shifted perspective in Maestro is Paul’s father’s opinion about living in Darwin:

    Read More

  • How Did Charles Perkins Affect Civil Rights?

    598 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many events during Charles Perkins life contributed to his values and beliefs encouraging him to embark on the fight for Aboriginal rights and thus helping to shape Australian society. Growing up he suffered racial vilification and was treated as a second-class citizen. Charles show...

    Read More

  • Which Policy Had the Largest Impact on the Indigenous Australians

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    “We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians. We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country. For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.”

    Read More

  • Gallipoli: The defining moment in Australian National Identity

    907 Words  | 2 Pages

    Australia is a relatively young country; only becoming a unified nation in 1901 (Commonwealth of Australia, 2012). A young country is no different from a young person; identity is an issue. Questions of who am I and where do I fit in the world are asked, and unfortunately not often answered until a tragedy occurs. National identity is a sense of a nation and its people as a connected whole. This feeling of cohesiveness can be shaped by many events in a nation’s history but none more so than war. War is a stressful, traumatic affair that changes forever, not only the people that go to it but the nation as a whole. Many consider the Great War Australia’s tragedy where we became a nation (Bollard, 2013) with our own modern identity.

    Read More

  • Anzac Day Persuasive Speech

    1079 Words  | 3 Pages

    Anzac Day. On the 25th of April, 1915 Australian and New Zealand forces formed part of the allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula. Anzac day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand that commemorates the Australia New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) who served in all wars, battles and conflicts. Anzac day is an important day for many Australians and New Zealanders as it is a day where people take time to appreciate the soldiers who risked or gave their lives to represent and fight for our country in all the wars. Since Anzac day is celebrated so widely, there are many opinions that have developed over time. Some Australians and New Zealanders believe Anzac day shouldn’t be celebrated and others believe

    Read More

  • Australia Day Speech

    1155 Words  | 3 Pages

    Thus, this creates connotations to patriotism and pride towards the country the reader lives in. Coupled with the large image of Australia filled with smaller images of people of all ages, and race, sporting the Australian flag, influences the reader to enter the article with a positive attitude towards Australia Day, as it seems to put this day in high esteem, which consequently convinces the audience, before even commencing to read, that the day is about ‘unity’ and not division. The smaller images of a non-traditional and traditional stereotypical Australian prove that race play no part in this celebratory day, creating the sense of Australia being an accepting

    Read More

  • What It Means To Be Australian

    355 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Australia Day

    966 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is impossible to celebrate when it brings to mind the deep hurt born by our ancestors and how that suffering continues to impact today.” According to Richard Weston, of the Healing Foundation. Today, we focus on the partying when instead it should be a day of mourning by all. The strong views of the Indigenous community should be taken into consideration, their views should be made a priority, to reach a resolution that will stop the hurt and anger fuelled protests. Michael Mansell’s suggest “Australia Day is a celebration of an invasion which resulted in the ethnic cleansing of Aborigines. To participate would be to abandon the continuing struggle of my people.” In the hope that we understand that from the landing in Sydney Cove on the 26th of January 1788, only brought misery to the Indigenous communities as trauma was caused by government policies, and conflicts between settlers. In recognition of the events that followed the landing on our beautiful Australian shores, we should be able to acknowledge that all views are as equally important. According to a recent poll, 56%, just over half the nation do not mind when the holiday is held, while only 23% choose the 26th as the best available date. Furthermore, while some say, 'it’s tradition’ and the day should be kept, in reality the public holiday has only been held on the 26th of January, nationwide since

    Read More

  • Essay On Wave Hill Walk-Off

    728 Words  | 2 Pages

    The outcome of the walk off was a great piece of aboriginal history in Australia. Throughout the nation, majority resisted the idea of giving back the land to its traditional owners, the aboriginals (Lawford & Zillman, 2018). In 1967, a referendum was taken for making the Federal Government make laws and rules for the indigenous Australians. In the combined six states of Australia, 90% of non-indigenous Australians voted yes meaning the Federal Government would make laws for aboriginals. This was the first significant event during the strike years of the walk-off and was terrible from the Gurindji’s perspective. The second event started by the Australian-Labor-Party (ALP)

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Redfern Speech

    893 Words  | 2 Pages

    Impassioned orators provoke a strengthen desire for peaceful resolution to a situation that has previously aroused hostility. Two prominent Australians who achieved this are Noel Pearson’s speech ‘An Australian history for all of us’ and Paul Keating’s ‘Redfern Speech’. Both speeches portray the lack of national identity through the unjust treatment of the history of Aboriginal Australians. They also provoke a profound desire to resolve injustice due to one’s realisation of the amounting necessity for change to achieve a more harmonious and socially just society. This is to unite and unify the audience therefore encompassing a better future.

    Read More

  • Exposure of Mistreatment of Australian Aborigines in 'No Sugar' by Jack Davis

    1362 Words  | 3 Pages

    Today, in the 20th Century, it is a commonly known fact in Australia, and throughout the rest of the world, that Aborigines were mistreated from since western culture first settled, and for many years after that. It is the main purpose of stage dramas to bring issues, such as the one mentioned above, and ideas about these issues to life through dramatic performances and the use of a number of various techniques. No Sugar, a revisionist text written by Jack Davis in 1985, is one of these stage dramas. Jack Davis brings issues and even expresses his own ideas about issues such as the injustices of Aboriginal treatment during the 1930's, to life in No Sugar very well because No Sugar is a revisionist text, and therefore offers a new perspective of an Aboriginal point of view, on events which occurred during the time of the issue at hand.

    Read More

  • The Assimilation Policy and Its Impact on the Indigenous Australian Society

    1077 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since the time of federation the Aboriginal people have been fighting for their rights through protests, strikes and the notorious ‘day of mourning’. However, over the last century the Australian federal government has generated policies which manage and restrained that of the Aboriginal people’s rights, citizenships and general protection. The Australian government policy that has had the most significant impact on indigenous Australians is the assimilation policy. The reasons behind this include the influences that the stolen generation has had on the indigenous Australians, their relegated rights and their entitlement to vote and the impact that the policy has had on the indigenous people of Australia.

    Read More

More about Critical Analysis Of Colleen Davis's 'Australia Day'

Open Document