No more boomerang and Municipal gum
The two texts No more boomerang and Municipal gum written by Kath Walker use language and poetry to construct similar representations of Australian indigenous culture and how invasion of the European force them to give up their culture and land. Both authors give negative representations and thoughts to the European civilized culture, which take over their aboriginal culture. In no more boomerang the author simply contrast difference between two culture and give us examples. It mention what they did before and after the invasion of European. In municipal gum, the author represent that European wants to control everything and change their identity, which affect their life in a negative way.
No more boomerang
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This poem expresses how Australian aboriginal people life has changed after the European people took over. From the first line "Gumtree in the city street", it demonstrate that indigenous people had been displace from their land. Both aboriginal people and gum tree should not be in the modern civilized city but in the forest, that where they belong. The author also uses metaphor in "hard bitumen around your feet", it means that the tree has been displaced and not allow to spread out and be itself just like the indigenous people. The line "its hopelessness", shows that the author feel sorry for their people and culture, and to further emphasize the shame and lack control of the Europeans have inflicted upon the indigenous people. The word castrated is also a very big symbol of how the European have treated indigenous people and their land. Castration also refers to what the European has done is done, nothing can undo the damaged they have caused on both people and environment. The title Municipal gum also is a representation that European assumes that everything is theirs. At last the poem ends with a rhetorical question, "O fellow citizen, what have they done to use?" Is the conclusion of the implications that have been made throughout the poem. Ultimately the
“a verse for the cheated” discusses the effects of colonialism in Australia. The poem suggests the the European invaders or “tourists” arrive and are ignorant in respect to the Indigenous Australians.
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:
“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.
Have you ever wondered who invented bubble gum, or why it’s pink? How do you go about getting the answers to these questions? Easy. Think way, way back, not to prehistoric times but close, 1928.
The Municipal Gum by Oodgeroo Noonuccal portrays the miserable, hopeless and despondent living conditions of the Aboriginal people. It expresses the feelings of the Indigenous people who are deprived and displaced from their native culture and native land by the white people. The general theme and the ideas addressed in this poem includes raising awareness of the tremendous discrimination and prejudice by white Australians against the aboriginal people. The discrimination is developed strongly within the content of the poem, with some imageries holding powerful messages and meanings. It can therefore be seen that the poem is about the tremendous discrimination by the white Australians towards the aboriginal people.
Reynolds, H. (1990). With The White People: The crucial role of Aborigines in the exploration and development of Australia. Australia: Penguin Books
Australian indigenous culture is the world’s oldest surviving culture, dating back sixty-thousand years. Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders have been represented in a myriad of ways through various channels such as poetry, articles, and images, in both fiction and non-fiction. Over the years, they have been portrayed as inferior, oppressed, isolated, principled and admirable. Three such texts that portray them in these ways are poems Circles and Squares and Grade One Primary by Ali Cobby Eckermann, James Packer slams booing; joins three cheers for footballer and the accompanying visual text and Heywire article Family is the most important thing to an islander by Richard Barba. Even though the texts are different as ….. is/are …., while
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 ...
This darkly satiric poem is about cultural imperialism. Dawe uses an extended metaphor: the mother is America and the child represents a younger, developing nation, which is slowly being imbued with American value systems. The figure of a mother becomes synonymous with the United States. Even this most basic of human relationships has been perverted by the consumer culture. The poem begins with the seemingly positive statement of fact 'She loves him ...’. The punctuation however creates a feeling of unease, that all is not as it seems, that there is a subtext that qualifies this apparently natural emotional attachment. From the outset it is established that the child has no real choice, that he must accept the 'beneficence of that motherhood', that the nature of relationships will always be one where the more powerful figure exerts control over the less developed, weaker being. The verb 'beamed' suggests powerful sunlight, the emotional power of the dominant person: the mother. The stanza concludes with a rhetorical question, as if undeniably the child must accept the mother's gift of love. Dawe then moves on to examine the nature of that form of maternal love. The second stanza deals with the way that the mother comforts the child, 'Shoosh ... shoosh ... whenever a vague passing spasm of loss troubles him'. The alliterative description of her 'fat friendly features' suggests comfort and warmth. In this world pain is repressed, real emotion pacified, in order to maintain the illusion that the world is perfect. One must not question the wisdom of the omnipotent mother figure. The phrase 'She loves him...' is repeated. This action of loving is seen as protecting, insulating the child. In much the same way our consumer cultur...
The Anzac spirit is not defined by any simple term; it is defined by the acts of valour and heroism of a person or group of Australians. The first Australian to be recognised with the highest award of bravery was Sir Neville Howse after the Boer war in South Africa (1900). The Highest medal available to troops, The Victorian Cross is awarded to a person who “in the presence of the enemy, displays the most conspicuous gallantry; a daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice; or extreme devotion to duty.” Howse was once again sent to fight for his country in World War 1 where he demonstrated his Australian clout for the second time in war. Howse demonstrated the Anzac attitude throughout his whole life leading him to things like serving as the Commonwealth Minister of Health. Howse demonstrated the values of someone worthy of the Victorian Cross through everything he did, thus allowing a spark of the soon to be dubbed Anzac spirit to be kindled and kept alight throughout the rest of Australian
Australia had been imperialized by the British for their natural resources, and had used the aboriginal people there as well. They took their land, their people’s lives and their way of life, for Britain’s own gain. The aboriginal population has gone down due to these events, but with the help of organizations like NACCHO, and Oxfam Australia, the aborigines are able to make an attempt to regrow their population. They will also, try to keep hold as well as reteach their cultural beliefs.
- What/how does it tell us about living in Australia during times past? (100 - 150 words)
Historical accounts have often overlooked the more violent aspects of Australia’s colonisation (Watson 2002, p. 6). This approach to Australian historiography presents a whitewashed view of the past. Within this essay, is a critical analysis and comparison of two representations of the frontier conflicts of Australia. The historical texts reviewed in this paper, Through Their Eyes (Lakic & Wrench 1994) and Rivers of Blood (Medcalf 1995), examine darker elements of Australia’s history and recognise the experiences of Indigenous people. They belong to a modern historiography that extends beyond the proud, patriotic and pleasantly sanitised view of Australia’s dominant culture to explore how the events of Australia’s colonisation impacted people’s
Since the British settled in Australia, Indigenous Australians have had cultural conflict. The Europeans believed that Aboriginal people were lower than the settlers and that their culture was more primitive to the culture of the British settlers. An example of this is how the Aboriginal people had a very strong spiritual connection to the land. Land could not be owned by a single person but had to be looked after by all of the community. When British settlers saw that the land had no fences they took the land for themselves to be used for farming. Many Aboriginals were losing their land. It made it worse when the Aboriginal believed that to make it fair the Europeans shared their products made from the farm. The Aboriginals then took food from the farm without consulting the British which resulted in violent conflicts between the two. Over time the government began to give the Aboriginals more rights, although still not many. They were given a certain amount of land but were not allowed to leave without permission.
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.