Oodgeroo Noonuccal Essay
How the language of ‘We are going and ‘Let us not be bitter’ demonstrates Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s perspective on Aboriginal rights.
Oodgeroo Noonuccal was an Australian poet, activist, artist and a campaigner for Aboriginal rights. Her poems ‘We are going’ and ‘Let us not be bitter’ conveys the loss of the Indigenous culture and how much they suffered because of this. Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s perspective on Aboriginal rights is impassioned, concern and worry for the loss of her family and home. She expresses these emotions using imagery, poetic structures and poetic techniques, such as inclusive language and symbolism, to strongly represent what she is feeling and how much the Indigenous people have suffered through.
Oodgeroo Noonuccal uses vivid imagery to describe the environment around her and how the beauty of the land changed since the arrival of European settlers. The poet described her and her people as part of the land with this quote from the poem ‘We are going’; “ We are nature and the past, all the old ways.” This emphasises that the Indigenous people were one with the land. But Oodgeroo also describes how she felt her people were being treated and how the white invaders took care of the sacred land; “Notice of the estate agent reads ‘Rubbish May Be Tipped Here’”. She says this to convey that the white men are not only treating the land like trash, but also the home of Indigenous people and their livelihood. The use of imagery shows Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s despair and misery towards what had happened to the treatment of the sacred land and the Aboriginal people.
In the poem ‘Let us not be bitter’, Oodgeroo Noonuccal uses a poetic structure known as enjambment. An example of enjambment can be seen here from the poem ‘Let us not be bitter’; “Let us try to understand the white man’s ways / And accept them as they accept us”. The constant flow in Oodgeroo’s poem, ‘Let us not be bitter’, helps influence her people to move on and continue with life. This
Oodgeroo Noonuccal was an Australian poet, activist, artist and a campaigner for Aboriginal rights. Her poems ‘We are going’ and ‘Let us not be bitter’ conveys the loss of the Indigenous culture and how much they suffered because of this. Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s perspective on Aboriginal rights is impassioned, concern and worry for the loss of her family and home. She expresses these emotions using imagery, poetic structures and poetic techniques, such as inclusive language and symbolism, to strongly represent what she is feeling and how much the Indigenous people have suffered through.
Oodgeroo Noonuccal uses vivid imagery to describe the environment around her and how the beauty of the land changed since the arrival of European settlers. The poet described her and her people as part of the land with this quote from the poem ‘We are going’; “ We are nature and the past, all the old ways.” This emphasises that the Indigenous people were one with the land. But Oodgeroo also describes how she felt her people were being treated and how the white invaders took care of the sacred land; “Notice of the estate agent reads ‘Rubbish May Be Tipped Here’”. She says this to convey that the white men are not only treating the land like trash, but also the home of Indigenous people and their livelihood. The use of imagery shows Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s despair and misery towards what had happened to the treatment of the sacred land and the Aboriginal people.
In the poem ‘Let us not be bitter’, Oodgeroo Noonuccal uses a poetic structure known as enjambment. An example of enjambment can be seen here from the poem ‘Let us not be bitter’; “Let us try to understand the white man’s ways / And accept them as they accept us”. The constant flow in Oodgeroo’s poem, ‘Let us not be bitter’, helps influence her people to move on and continue with life. This