Essay On Australian Identity

Is our Australian identity a matter for pride or shame? Is it thongs, the beach, the bush, lamingtons and the sun? Or Flies, kangaroos, wife beaters and the Bunnings sausage sizzle? Depictions like these have been used to describe Australia for decades, however is this the epitome of the Australian national identity? Poetry, a practical and engaging form of language has deepened and challenged my understanding of Australian Identity through the questioning and exploration of the treatment of Australian landscapes in conjunction with the treatment of Indigenous Australians. The poems The Bastards by Barbara Nicholson and Australia by A.D. Hope interrogate and mock Australian culture, our history, our land and they way we live our lives.

The connection between Indigenous people and their country appeared to be beyond the understanding of Anglo Australians, for whom identity seemed to be unambiguously a matter of skin colour. Therefore commencing the mistreatment of Australian landscapes. The Bastards by Barbara Nicholson depicts a sense of anger and sorrow, expressed by the Aboriginal People. “”You don't
A race unwanted in their own country, legacies of genocide passed down through generations, a legacy in which political Australia loathes and fears. This dispossession of Aboriginal people has been harshly criticised in the poem The Bastards by Barbara Nicholson. Nicholson describes inhumane acts which have been materialised by the white men who not only took their land, then their culture and identity, but who refused to pay respect to their prior occupation. “”You don't take my people,” they cried, they yelled, they wailed … “It’s not our law, our law says must not kill, is not OUR LAW.” But they didn't listen, listen to the laws of this land.” Nicholson’s use of conduplicatio and inclusive personal pronoun exaggerate the indigenous voice in the poem which expresses that the laws