Notes on "Bora Ring" - Judith Wright
Judith Wright was the author of several collections of poetry, including The Moving Image, Woman to Man, The Gateway, The Two Fires, Birds, The Other Half, Magpies, Shadow and much much more. She was a lover of nature too.
Her work is noted for a keen focus on the Australian environment, which began to gain prominence in Australian art in the years following World War II. She deals with the relationship between settlers, Indigenous Australians and the bush, among other themes. Wright's aesthetic centres on the relationship between mankind and the environment, which she views as the catalyst for poetic creation. Her images characteristically draw from the Australian flora and fauna, yet contain a mythic substrata that probes at the poetic process, limitations of language, and the correspondence between inner existence and objective reality.
A bora ring is a sacred site for indigenous Australians where initiation ceremonies for indigenous males were held. In her poem "Bora Ring", Judith Wright mourns the loss in contemporary Australian society of the culture and traditions of indigenous Australians. She begins with descriptions of Aboriginal culture that has vanished as a result of European settlement. At the end of the poem, Wright recognizes the destruction wreaked upon indigenous Australians by their white brothers and shows remorse for these actions of the past. Through her use of diction, structural devices, and imagery, Wright expresses her sorrow at the disappearance of Aboriginal cultural heritage.
In the first stanza of “Bora Ring,” Wright describes the loss of the songs, dances, stories and rituals of the Aboriginal Australians. Her use of the adjectives “gone”, “secret”, “useless” and “lost” emphasizes Wright’s regret that this ancient culture has disappeared. The poet, through her use of the metaphor “lost in an alien tale”, highlights how Aboriginal culture has been replaced by European culture as a result of white settlement in Australia. Her use
Her work is noted for a keen focus on the Australian environment, which began to gain prominence in Australian art in the years following World War II. She deals with the relationship between settlers, Indigenous Australians and the bush, among other themes. Wright's aesthetic centres on the relationship between mankind and the environment, which she views as the catalyst for poetic creation. Her images characteristically draw from the Australian flora and fauna, yet contain a mythic substrata that probes at the poetic process, limitations of language, and the correspondence between inner existence and objective reality.
A bora ring is a sacred site for indigenous Australians where initiation ceremonies for indigenous males were held. In her poem "Bora Ring", Judith Wright mourns the loss in contemporary Australian society of the culture and traditions of indigenous Australians. She begins with descriptions of Aboriginal culture that has vanished as a result of European settlement. At the end of the poem, Wright recognizes the destruction wreaked upon indigenous Australians by their white brothers and shows remorse for these actions of the past. Through her use of diction, structural devices, and imagery, Wright expresses her sorrow at the disappearance of Aboriginal cultural heritage.
In the first stanza of “Bora Ring,” Wright describes the loss of the songs, dances, stories and rituals of the Aboriginal Australians. Her use of the adjectives “gone”, “secret”, “useless” and “lost” emphasizes Wright’s regret that this ancient culture has disappeared. The poet, through her use of the metaphor “lost in an alien tale”, highlights how Aboriginal culture has been replaced by European culture as a result of white settlement in Australia. Her use