ABC journalist Stan Grant formally addresses his resignation from the QandA program for mental health through a message. Grant is a Wirudjuri Indigenous Australian and has connections with Indigenous culture, such as connection to land and spirit. The message was made after Grant was abused and experienced racism, and serves an emotive function. Through the message, he reaffirms his Wiradjuri identity, his identity as a family-focused and caring person, encourages Indigenous and Wiradjuri solidarity, clarifies reasons for his resignation, and promotes social harmony against racism. He intends to formalise stepping away from the program to QandA listeners. Grant establishes an Indigenous Wiradjuri identity. He does this through code-switching from English into an Indigenous language, “Yindyamarra” (22) and “Baiame” (30). Grant also uses the demonym “Wiradjuri” (26) to describe himself, and the nouns “earth” (29) and “spirits” (47) which demonstrate his Indigenous culture through the connection to land and spirit. …show more content…
This creates a varying tenor throughout the text. Grant uses the first person personal pronoun “I” (6) which creates a more personal, direct tenor. He also uses elevated lexis nouns “endurance” (6), “strength” (6) and “privileges” (13) which indicate a formal register with a high degree of social distance. Additionally, Grant creates an oppositional tenor between him and those who mistreated him using the negatively connotated verb “abused” (14) to describe them, evoking a sense that they are evil and against him and his family. However, he makes this oppositional tenor respectful by directing the blame onto himself, through adjective “sorry” (17), aligning with his Wiradjuri values of “respect” (28) to better suit the context, and to create a more formal