Metaphors In Primary Education

For this task, I worked with Sophie Davidson to create a digital story for the poem Primary Education By Yvette Holt. The poem was quite literal and did not make use any metaphors in the written work. However, after further analysis and use of creative thinking, we conjured many metaphors to add a deeper meaning to the words in the poem. I drew on my knowledge of the Aboriginal culture that I have encountered on my travels, both the beautiful culture and the modern corruption of the culture in rural communities. This poem drew on a peaceful beginning of life for the author. This was depicted in out movie by the calm and serene imagery of children at the beginning on the movie. The children represent the purity and the first clip that shows a white boy as well communicates to the audience that there was no barrier between the opposing skin colours in the young ages.
As the author gets older, her heritage becomes more and more of a novelty, in the end becoming the subject of racist comments.
I wanted to communicate the widening gap between the white and black cultures as the world become more prejudiced and small-minded. Using powerful imagery such as the person standing against the flow of the crowd and the monkey in the cage spoke to the separation that the white people’s comments forced the author into.

I choose to put the money into the video as it is a metaphor for the old insult that was used on Aboriginal people in early Australian times. Aboriginal people were sometimes insulted using monkey. The poem reads “”but you look so clean””, a comment from a white co-worker about her Aboriginal heritage. This speaks to the preconceived opinion of Aboriginal people and so the monkey in the cage, supposedly being looked on by Caucasian onlookers, was the perfect fit as it demonstrated the blatant segregation that comment
created.

The less literal videos used such as the pencil and painting of the brick wall were all metaphors for the suppression of her Aboriginal culture in a white man’s world. For a viewer, content such as this evokes thought which is the desired effect. The pencil being crushed is a way of showing the degrading effect that constant discrimination had on the author throughout her life. The poem slowly builds to a breaking point at which the author ‘snaps’ and has had enough of white people not respecting her. The brown being stripped off the pencil as the pressure builds is also a metaphor for the way the white world can strip Aboriginal people of their culture to fit in with their social norms.

The brick being painted white fits in well with the themes, showing the way that the original base can so easily be replaced. Just like this brick wall, Aboriginal culture was painted over with white culture. The author of this poem experienced this and slowly becomes increasingly less compliant with the white Australian’s opinions.

During the video, the aboriginal flag is shown multiple times. The first time the audience sees the flag, it is completely white but each time it is shown, colour starts to flood back into the flag. This is a metaphor for the white washing that Australian society places on Aboriginal peoples. As the author becomes more outspoken about her heritage, the flag reverts to normal colours to communicate her pride in her heritage and her unwillingness to change just to fit in.

The audio over the video is of major significance also. The increasing volume of a white noise is a way of further communicating to the audience the reality of the suffocating opinions forced on Aboriginal people in modern society. The increasing volume creates an air of chaos and adds to the angry feeling at the end of the poem. This audio cue is very important to the overall video. The aboriginal music increases in intensity towards the end of the video, perfectly aiding the frantic nature of the end of the video. The overwhelming noise makes the audience feel like they want to break free from the pressure, just as the author feels in the poem.