Belonging in Aboriginal Poetry: Oodgeroo Noonuccal's The Dispossessed and We Are Going
“Peace was yours, Australian man, with tribal laws you made, Till white colonials stole your peace with rape and murder raid;”
Hello everyone, my name’s ----- and today I will be exploring the particular aspect of Australian belonging or rather, not belonging, found in aboriginal poetry. The two poems where this lack of belonging is evident are both by Oodgeroo Noonuccal are The Dispossessed and We are Going.
The dispossessed by Oodgeroo Noonuccal gives a nihilistic representation of the past and current treatment of aboriginals and insight into the ever-present feeling of not belonging in Australian society. The poem itself depicts the suffering and loss the aboriginal people were subjected to upon the arrival of the first fleet following though to present day Australia. Through Noonuccal’s insight, the reader is able to establish the fact that by treating the aboriginals the way they have been and are being treated, Anglo-Australia is ignoring many key Australian values such as equality, mateship and giving someone a fair go. Having been an aboriginal rights activist and acclaimed aboriginal poet, Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s approach is consequently a political one. Her intention is to give insight into the almost departed aboriginie culture as well as attempting to better educate White Australia on the subject of aboriginals. Now, let’s look at some of the devices used in the poem The Dispossessed.
The nihilistic attitude of not belonging in Australia is represented throughout The Dispossessed, illustrated by the author’s use of diction. Noonuccal uses powerfully aggressive words and phrases in an attempt to illustrate the pain and suffering felt by the aboriginal people from the arrival of the English Colonists to Australia’s shores in 1788, all the way to present day Australia. Her use of this technique is evident in lines such as “Till white colonials stole your peace with rape and murder raid; they shot and poisoned and enslaved” The use of violent
Hello everyone, my name’s ----- and today I will be exploring the particular aspect of Australian belonging or rather, not belonging, found in aboriginal poetry. The two poems where this lack of belonging is evident are both by Oodgeroo Noonuccal are The Dispossessed and We are Going.
The dispossessed by Oodgeroo Noonuccal gives a nihilistic representation of the past and current treatment of aboriginals and insight into the ever-present feeling of not belonging in Australian society. The poem itself depicts the suffering and loss the aboriginal people were subjected to upon the arrival of the first fleet following though to present day Australia. Through Noonuccal’s insight, the reader is able to establish the fact that by treating the aboriginals the way they have been and are being treated, Anglo-Australia is ignoring many key Australian values such as equality, mateship and giving someone a fair go. Having been an aboriginal rights activist and acclaimed aboriginal poet, Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s approach is consequently a political one. Her intention is to give insight into the almost departed aboriginie culture as well as attempting to better educate White Australia on the subject of aboriginals. Now, let’s look at some of the devices used in the poem The Dispossessed.
The nihilistic attitude of not belonging in Australia is represented throughout The Dispossessed, illustrated by the author’s use of diction. Noonuccal uses powerfully aggressive words and phrases in an attempt to illustrate the pain and suffering felt by the aboriginal people from the arrival of the English Colonists to Australia’s shores in 1788, all the way to present day Australia. Her use of this technique is evident in lines such as “Till white colonials stole your peace with rape and murder raid; they shot and poisoned and enslaved” The use of violent