Texts presently are able to offer audiences modern perspectives on old ideas, this technique is presented in Andrew Bovell stage play adaptation of Kate Grenville’s original novel The Secret River (2005, 2013). This representational, realistic play offers modern perspectives on ideas which have been current since the early 19th century. The morally complex history of the colonization of Australia, is explored in the 2013 stage play The Secret River. The Secret River, follows British convict William Thornhill’s journey to new found land Australia with his wife Sal and two son’s Willie and Dick. The play explores the struggle for power between the white British settlers and the Aboriginal Dharug tribe. Through the use of historical knowledge …show more content…
Since the dawn of time humans have always feared the idea of difference, that anything different from you must be evil in some shape or form. This is not just seen in history, the old idea that different is bad can be seen in the children’s Disney film Pocahontas (1995) by Eric Goldburg. Where history has been seen to repeat itself, British troops set out to take new found land, but there are already indigenous people living there, but as they are not civilized the land can be taken and the White settlers must civilize these people ‘who don’t know better’. But are they really helping? “Here’s what you get when races are diverse …they’re savages…barley even human…they’re not like you and me which means they must be evil”[4]. Therefore, this idea of “civilized” is presented to children at such a young age, even after most of these events have occurred. The Aboriginals were seen as ‘uncivilized’ and dehumanized because of their appearance and way of life. This meant that the Aboriginals had no rights, no dignity, no identity as shown as Will and Sal rename the members of the Dharug tribe with English names such as “Jack” for Ngalamalum, “Meg” for Buryia and “Polly” for Gilyagan. By degrading the Aboriginals, the white settlers are basically stating that they are of a higher status, automatically degrading them “they’re vermin same way as rat is vermin”[8]. This is shown through the paternalism presented in the epilogue of The Secret River. As previously shown in act 2 scene 18, Thornhill and the other white settlers have massacred nearly all of the Dharug tribe and then feel an overwhelming sense of paternalism to look after surviving member
Her book focuses on the myriads of issues and struggles that Indigenous men and women have faced and will continue to face because of colonialism. During her speech, Palmater addressed the grave effects of the cultural assimilation that permeated in Indigenous communities, particularly the Indian Residential School System and the Indian Act, which has been extensively discussed in both lectures and readings. Such policies were created by European settlers to institutionalize colonialism and maintain the social and cultural hierarchy that established Aboriginals as the inferior group. Palmater also discussed that according to news reports, an Aboriginal baby from Manitoba is taken away every single day by the government and is put in social care (CTVNews.ca Staff, 2015). This echoes Andrea Smith’s argument in “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy: Rethinking Women of Color Organizing” that colonialism continues to affect Aboriginals through genocide (2006, p. 68). Although such actions by the government are not physical acts of genocide, where 90% of Aboriginal population was annihilated, it is this modern day cultural assimilation that succeeded the Indigenous Residential School System and the Indian Act embodies colonialism and genocide (Larkin, November 4,
The characters of White Australian descent tend to speak with pompous language, disguising their evil deeds behind kind phrases. The most obvious example of this is the character Mr. Neville. He states, with refined language, in (Act One Scene Two), that: …"if you provide the native the basic accoutrements of civilization, you’re halfway to civilizing him." This reveals a belief that Whites are unquestionably superior and that any previous Aboriginal civilization was irrelevant. The pompous statement of the Whites are juxta-posed against the more crude and blunt comments of Aboriginal characters .to show the audience the belief that whites are superior.103
Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma, provides a vivid and brutally honest account of the atrocities committed against Pocahontas and her people, unlike the popular animated film released by Disney. We will never know the absolute truth behind Pocahontas and her people, or the early settlers who emigrated to Jamestown, but one truth, however, remains evident. The English had succeeded in destroying an entire culture, rich with diversity. This may not have been what the English had intended at first, but it untimely was the result of their actions against the Powhatan people and the other tribes of the surrounding region. They imposed harsh conditions which included abduction, conversion, violence, and tributes which practically impossible to
In the book “Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma” the author is trying to give people a more realistic and factual based outlook on the actual story of Pocahontas. The author’s book is very different from all the other biographies of Pocahontas. It shows us, as the readers, how much the seventeenth-century Native Americans were alike. In the film Pocahontas that was created by Disney it is said that many of the English were trying to enhance the lives of many of the savages. The movie leaves us with the feeling and impression that the New World English settlers were here just to educate and Christianize the Native Americans. However, in this book, it is very evident that this is not the truth. Through the perception that Townsend show her readers
“The more you know, the less you need.” The attitude from White Australians towards Indigenous Australians was extremely unfriendly, and due to the fact that Aboriginal Australians had knowledge about things the European settlers believed did not matter they treated as if they were uneducated nuisances. The aboriginal people believed that the land they had lived on for generations belonged to them; however the White Australians came and took the land. This also means that the Europeans took what the Indigenous people valued most, and that was their land. Authors and directors convey different attitudes, values and beliefs in different ways, however it still has the same impact.
Harrison’s Play ‘Rainbow’s End’ follows three brave Aboriginal women from different generations who fight for their right to be appreciated as the owners of the land and how each of them
For example, in the local school, stereotypes such as the image of the ‘wild man’ are consolidated by claiming that there was cannibalism among the indigenous people of the northwest coast (Soper-Jones 2009, 20; Robinson 2010, 68f.). Moreover, native people are still considered to be second-class citizens, which is pointed out by Lisamarie’s aunt Trudy, when she has been harassed by some white guys in a car: “[Y]ou’re a mouthy Indian, and everyone thinks we’re born sluts. Those guys would have said you were asking for it and got off scot-free”
Within Australia, beginning from approximately the time of European settlement to late 1969, the Aboriginal population of Australia experienced the detrimental effects of the stolen generation. A majority of the abducted children were ’half-castes’, in which they had one white parent and the other of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. Following the government policies, the European police and government continued the assimilation of Aboriginal children into ‘white’ society. Oblivious to the destruction and devastation they were causing, the British had believed that they were doing this for “their [Aborigines] own good”, that they were “protecting” them as their families and culture were deemed unfit to raise them. These beliefs caused ...
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.
Throughout both ‘Rainbow’s End’ and ‘The Rabbits’, the audience discovers the plights that the Aboriginal Australians faced, due to discrimination and assimilation, in intensely confronting, yet intensely meaningful ways. We see how the discrimination and forced assimilation of cultures was common in the lead up to modern times because of composers like Harrison, Marsden and Tan reminding us of these events, allowing us to discover and rediscover our past wrongs through their works, in order to pave the way for a brighter, harmonious future. Without these documentations and retellings of events such as these, history would repeat itself, conflicts would be more apparent and we as a species would not be able to thrive and prosper due to our prejudices and superiority complexes.
According to conservative conflict theory, society is a struggle for dominance among competing social groups defined by class, race, and gender. Conflict occurs when groups compete over power and resources. (Tepperman, Albanese & Curtis 2012. pg. 167) The dominant group will exploit the minority by creating rules for success in their society, while denying the minority opportunities for such success, thereby ensuring that they continue to monopolize power and privilege. (Crossman.n.d) This paradigm was well presented throughout the film. The European settlers in Canada viewed the natives as obstacles in their quest of expansion by conquering resources and land. They feared that the aboriginal practices and beliefs will disrupt the cohesion of their own society. The Canadian government adopted the method of residential schools for aboriginal children for in an attempt to assimilate the future generations. The children were stripped of their native culture,...
Throughout Australian history a racist attitude towards Aboriginals has been a significant issue. From the moment the early settlers arrived on our shores and colonised, the Aboriginals have been fighting for the survival of their culture. The Aboriginals haven been take in and dominated to bring them in line with an idealistic European society. These themes have been put forward by Jack Davis in his stage play, No Sugar, the story of an Aboriginal family’s fight for survival during the Great Depression years. Admittedly Davis utilises his characters to confront the audience and take them out of their comfort zone, showing them the reality of Aboriginal treatment. This is an element of the marginalisation that Jack Davis uses through out the play this starts from the beginning where he discomforts the audience by using an open stage. One character that Davis uses through out the play is A.O. Neville, Davis uses him to portray the issue of power, this is a very important issue that is carried through out the play.
The assimilation policy was a policy that existed between the 1940’s and the 1970’s, and replaced that of protectionism. Its purpose was to have all persons of aboriginal blood and mixed blood living like ‘white’ Australians, this established practice of removing Aboriginal children (generally half-bloods) from their homes was to bring them up without their culture, and they were encouraged to forget their aboriginal heritage. Children were placed in institutions where they could be 'trained' to take their place in white society. During the time of assimilation Aboriginal people were to be educated for full citizenship, and have access to public education, housing and services. However, most commonly aboriginal people did not receive equal rights and opportunities, for example, their wages were usually less than that paid to the white workers and they often did not receive recognition for the roles they played in the defence of Australia and their contribution to the cattle industry. It wasn’t until the early 1960’s that expendi...
How does Kate Grenville express the theme of conflict in her novel ‘The Secret River’?
The fact that this film is based on a true story makes it more powerful and real. The film puts a human face to the stolen generation, and the young actress who plays the main character Molly does not disillusion the viewer of the real emotions and disgusting actions taken upon the young half caste children taken from their families. She makes the journey real and her cleverness is created by the need to survive, not as an entertainment construction to make the film more exciting, but to give the viewer an emotional impact. The racial activist, A.O. Neville constantly shows strong discrimination against both Aboriginal culture and half-caste children. He is determined to `breed the black out of them'. "Are we to allow the creation of a third unwanted race?" resembling the cause of World War Two where Adoff Hitler proposed the creation of the `perfect race' therefore killing off over half the Jewish people.