English settlers
English settlers
The long challenge of indigenous people has been overcome by not only their feeling of dispossession of their land but also that dispossession of being emotionally hurt through that of indigenous culture and family. Passage one Red Indian Heritage is my reading of a plea by Chief Seattle to keep his peoples land and this their way of life; it informs my reading of Garry Foley’s article White Myths Damage Our Souls which was writing over one hundred years after Seattle’s. Both texts explore similar ideas of dispossession within indigenous people. Foley’s article informs the reader of that forced assimilation of Koori people in Australia has cost them their Aboriginality which is also something Chief Seattle mentioned in his speech as to what…
Noel Pearson’s ‘An Australian History for us all’ discusses his approach to trying to solve some of the most systemic problems facing Australian Aboriginals today. Through the uses of various language techniques and context, Pearson’s speech details the struggles of the relationship between the first European settlers and Aboriginal Australians.…
Characterization, Ivan Sen invites the viewer to ponder the issues that young Indigenous people face in contemporary Australia.…
Rejection and its resultant anger are two pillars around which East of Eden’s plot is built. The story is heavily influenced by these two principles, and they constitute the vast majority of thematic and pivotal plot points in the novel. The overarching theme is illustrated in its majority through Steinbeck’s repeated instances of rejection and anger. Steinbeck illustrates these emotions most clearly in the characters of Charles, Cathy, and Caleb. Their characters are wildly different, but their emotions and reactions are remarkably alike.…
One of the main structural themes in this novel is racism, discrimination and stereotyping of Aboriginal Australians in society. Indigenous Australians are one of the most disadvantaged communities in Australia and they are subject to many racist stereotypes in everyday life.…
The unbalanced superiority that white males in authority exert over the Aboriginal community is distressingly evident in this realist play. Davis has succeeded in revealing to the viewer the way in which marginalised groups are forced to collude with the individuals in dominance. Those characters that consent to this collusion, such as Sam Millimurra and Billy, survive; yet lose something else that is of equal importance their voice and their cultural identity. The character of Jimmy Millimurra, in contrast, shows how those who refuse to conform and risk losing their freedom and way of life, pay the ultimate price; a downfall which is brought about because of the world of unequal power relations in which they…
They placed children under the care of Europeans because they thought this would mean “advancing” the aboriginal children. However, many Aborigines are still searching for their children, mothers and other family members. Through this forced separation many aboriginal people have struggled in life, experienced low-self esteem, feeling of worthlessness, social dysfunction, high rates of unemployment and ongoing health issues. This loss if identity can result in depression and other mental illness (Creative Spirit…
Throughout Australian history a racist attitude towards Aboriginals has been a significant issue. From the moment the early settlers arrived on our shores and colonised, the Aboriginals have been fighting for the survival of their culture. The Aboriginals haven been take in and dominated to bring them in line with an idealistic European society. These themes have been put forward by Jack Davis in his stage play, No Sugar, the story of an Aboriginal family's fight for survival during the Great Depression years. Admittedly Davis utilises his characters to confront the audience and take them out of their comfort zone, showing them the reality of Aboriginal treatment. This is an element of the marginalisation that Jack Davis uses through out the play this starts from the beginning where he discomforts the audience by using an open stage. One character that Davis uses through out the play is A.O. Neville, Davis uses him to portray the issue of power, this is a very important issue that is carried through out the play.…
The strong presence of racism among Australian communities as depicted in the film caused such events, namely the Stolen Generation, to occur. This significant event was a period in late 1800s-1960s where children from both Indigenous, and non-Indigenous (i.e. ‘white’) origins were forcefully taken away from their families as a result of official Australian Government policy. In relation to the film, Gail’s recall of a bitter memory associated with Kay particularly sheds light upon this key historical event.…
In his speech, Noel Pearson addresses the need to acknowledge the past mistreatment of Australian Aboriginals. As an Indigenous Australian politician, Pearson gave his speech at the Chancellor’s Club Dinner in the University of Western Sydney to advance equality of Aborigines. Pearson quickly introduces his purpose, “our popular understanding of the colonial past is central to the moral and political turbulence we are still grappling with as Australians”. The illustrative use of turbulence is used to highlight the prevalence of past disharmonies and he uses the inclusive pronoun “we” as a synecdoche for all Australians to unify the audience. By directly quoting authorities such as John Howard and Bill Stanner, Pearson supplements his ethos and strengthens his case by evaluating both sides of the situation. The metaphor, “cult of forgetfulness” has negative connotations in order to challenge the common social mindset regarding the recognition of the past and induce a desire for change. Pearson effectively uses a cumulative list, “You have taken from us not just our land and not just all of the icons of Indigenous Australia…” to illustrate past injustices. The diction is divisive between Indigenous and European Australians, but deliberate emphasis is placed on the past tense to suggest hope for the future. Thus Pearson…
“The Black Drunkard” By Kevin Gilbert uses the context of Australian Aboriginal History to effectively portray the man’s belief that he no longer feels he is connected to his cultural identity because of societies treatment towards him and his people. Gilbert’s use of metonyms to class the Caucasian race as “whites” expresses centuries of suppression and conveys the emotional attachment the man has to his lost cultural identity. The use of repetition is also prominent throughout the poem. “It only hurts when I’m sober “; this communicates the drunkard’s loss of will to fight society’s grip on his identity. Although he despises what has happened to him and his people he does nothing proactive to fight it, rather, he uses the recurring motif of his flagon to escape from society’s grip block out reality. Through Gilbert’s use of techniques his portrayal of identity is one of cultural and individual suppression. It expresses the notion of identity being susceptible to society’s manipulation.…
Indigenous Australians are a prominently disadvantaged group that are subject to extreme discrimination impacting on their life’s. The Stolen generation had severe negative impacts on the victims of the stolen generation and has continued to negatively affect future generations. Further negative implications have stemmed from this extreme action. And it is the cause of many issues of inequality today among Indigenous Australians. This essay will define the stolen generation, outline and discuss the negative impacts that have stemmed from it and then link the impacts of assimilation to theories such as functionalist theory, structural, etc.…
The Main aim of the Article is to show the readers how aboriginal people were being defined by the early settlers. There are several discourses which are explored in the article. The first is the Prison knowledge Built which gives the image that Aboriginal people are seen as objects and have been imposed with labels through the coloniser’s gaze. Also the United nations study which was the emergence of the Aboriginal people in the international area and commissioned a study on the problem of Discrimination and examined the situation of Aboriginal people throughout the world. The second are the twin projects, which are the self identification and the mirroring image which talks on how essential it is that Aboriginal people need to develop a sense of identity for themselves and to be free from the control of and manipulation from the colonisers, Michael Dodson is trying to tell the Aboriginal people to actually take control on their own lives and to try and use their voice and speak back to break away from all these labels and stereotypes, The Mirroring…
This song tells the story about the stolen generation. A male aboriginal, who feels heartbroken about the aboriginal children being stolen, has properly written it. The song criticize the white mans methods, and he thinks they have been robbed of their children. This song is probably been written some time after the first children being “stolen”, I think it’s written in year 1875 or later.…
The Stolen Generation was a time of grief, sorrow and sadness for many indigenous people. To say that it is something of the past would be distorting the seriousness of the issue, the Stolen Generation was and always will be a contemporary issue affecting indigenous people. Although race relations in Australia have been signified for many decades there still remains a historic distinction between ‘black’ and ‘white’ people and this is why Australians are faced with the implications of recognizing the need for national healing.…