“The more you know, the less you need.” The attitude from White Australians towards Indigenous Australians was extremely unfriendly, and due to the fact that Aboriginal Australians had knowledge about things the European settlers believed did not matter they treated as if they were uneducated nuisances. The aboriginal people believed that the land they had lived on for generations belonged to them; however the White Australians came and took the land. This also means that the Europeans took what the Indigenous people valued most, and that was their land. Authors and directors convey different attitudes, values and beliefs in different ways, however it still has the same impact.
When the Europeans first colonized Australia their attitude towards the Indigenous Australians was hostile. In the film Mabo by Rachel Perkins the main character Edie Mabo fights for the equal rights, however the lawyers believe that Eddie is more like the White
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Rachel Perkins, director of the film Mabo, highlighted the fact that Aboriginal Australians value their land. In this film Edie Mabo says “We've been farming this land since before you set foot on it, passed down from father to son, how can we not own it,” during this time the background speeds up and becomes more dramatic as he becomes more angry. This is because the director is trying to convey the message that the Aboriginal people are passionate about their land and how they believe it is one of the most important things to them. Also in the poem We are Going, written by Oodegeroo Noonuccal, one of the lines are is “We belong here, we are of the old ways”. This line is used to show that the Aboriginal Australians have lived in Australia for many generations, and also that they belong on that land, not the White Australians who colonized it. Both of these quotes convey the Aboriginal Australians value, which is
From an early age, Mabo was taught about his family’s land. In 1959 he moved to Townsville and settled down with his wife and children. He started becoming more involved in the community around Townsville, becoming an activist in the 1967 Referendum campaign, helping to found the Townsville Aboriginal and Islander Health Service and co-founding and directing Townsville’s black community school. Mabo’s motivation towards land rights didn’t start until 1974, when he was working as a gardener at James Cook University. Two historians, Noel Loos and Henry Reynolds recall a
Eddie Mabo was a recognised Indigenous Australian who fought for his land, Murray Island. Mabo spent a decade seeking official recognition of his people’s ownership of Murray Island (Kwirk, 2012). He became more of an activist, he campaigned for better access for indigenous peoples to legal and medical services, to house, to social services and to education. The Mabo case was a milestone court case which paved the way for fair land rights for indigenous people. The Merriam people wanted to ensure its protection. Eddie Mabo significantly contributed to the civil and land rights of Indigenous people in Australia due to his argument to protect his land rights. In a speech in 1976, at a conference on the redrawing of the Torres Strait border, Mabo articulated a vision for islander self-determination and for an independent Torres Strait Island (Stephson, 2009).
Eddie Mabo’s success at land rights has reshaped and rewrote Australian society and history. Mabo was born a Torres Strait Islander and a member of the Meriam people on Murray (Mer) Island, 1936. He went on to be an Indigenous community leader and human rights activist after marrying Bonita Nehow in 1959 and joining the Torres Strait Islander community, consequently becoming director of the Townsville Black Community School in 1973. Patrick Hatch, reporter for Herald Sun Newspaper 2013, reiterated Mabo’s reaction once told his land on Mer belonged to the Crown and not his family by Professor’s Noel Loos and Henry Reynolds, co-workers from James Cook University where Mabo worked as a gardener in 1974. “Everybody kn...
...sed in the first scene; the white family appear more superior over the aboriginal family, music, such as the Celtic music used in early scenes to foreground the idea of white settlement and the reluctantcy to incorporate any values or ways of life that the original inhabitants had. Her powerful dialogue seen in ‘this land is mine’ scene, which significantly empowers to audience to question whether the white settlers have failed to incorporate any of the ways of life and values of the Indigenous people. Finally, Perkins’ fine editing skills allows audiences to physically see the contrasts of the two families and their beliefs, values and ways of life. From the film, audiences can learn, and also forces them to question whether they have failed to learn from the original habitants of the land they live in today.
The idea that indigenous Australian communities are underprivileged and do not receive the same justice that the white community accrues is represented through Jay Swan and his interactions with the corrupt white police officers and the indigenous locals of the town. My empathetic response to the text as a whole was influenced directly by way the text constructs these ideas as well as my knowledge of the way indigenous Australians are represented in the mainstream media and the behaviour of the police force as an institution. These contextual factors and the way Sen has constructed ideas influenced me to empathise with the indigenous
The Indigenous youth of Australia still face many challenges growing up in a world dominated by white Europeans. This essay will discuss the stereotypes and marginalisation that young Indigenous teenagers must face. After viewing Yolngu Boy and Black Chicks Talking, there will be examples from the two movies on the stereotypes, marginalisation, interdependent and the connection the characters of the movies have with the Aboriginal culture and the dominant white culture.
According to Keefe (1992:53) “Aboriginality is a complex social reality, only artificially explained by the abstract divisions of resistance and persistence’ and modern history demonstrates the connections between official education policies (or attitudes used by the dominant group) and key events in Aboriginal Australian history.
How can we not own it?’ as a clarification for Mabo when he was deal with the case. After he died the government finally said Merry island is belong to aboriginal people. This is a powerful clue show racialism was a momentous aspect for Mabo fighting for aboriginal people’s rights let everyone turn be
As a result, both films represent Natives Americans under the point of view of non-Native directors. Despite the fact that they made use of the fabricated stereotypes in their illustrations of the indigenous people, their portrayal was revolutionary in its own times. Each of the films add in their own way a new approach to the representation of indigenous people, their stories unfold partly unlike. These differences make one look at the indigenous not only as one dimensional beings but as multifaceted beings, as Dunbar say, “they are just like us.” This is finally a sense of fairness and respect by the non-native populations to the Native Indians.
Australian indigenous culture is the world’s oldest surviving culture, dating back sixty-thousand years. Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders have been represented in a myriad of ways through various channels such as poetry, articles, and images, in both fiction and non-fiction. Over the years, they have been portrayed as inferior, oppressed, isolated, principled and admirable. Three such texts that portray them in these ways are poems Circles and Squares and Grade One Primary by Ali Cobby Eckermann, James Packer slams booing; joins three cheers for footballer and the accompanying visual text and Heywire article Family is the most important thing to an islander by Richard Barba. Even though the texts are different as ….. is/are …., while
Though the film mentioned the impact that residential schools had and still has on the aboriginal people, I felt that this issue needed to be stressed further because the legacy of the schools is still extremely prominent in aboriginal communities today. The film refers to the fact that residential schools harmed the aboriginal people because they were not able to learn their culture, which has resulted in the formation of internalized oppression within in the group. “The...
The characters of White Australian descent tend to speak with pompous language, disguising their evil deeds behind kind phrases. The most obvious example of this is the character Mr. Neville. He states, with refined language, in (Act One Scene Two), that: …"if you provide the native the basic accoutrements of civilization, you’re halfway to civilizing him." This reveals a belief that Whites are unquestionably superior and that any previous Aboriginal civilization was irrelevant. The pompous statement of the Whites are juxta-posed against the more crude and blunt comments of Aboriginal characters .to show the audience the belief that whites are superior.103
The assimilation policy was a policy that existed between the 1940’s and the 1970’s, and replaced that of protectionism. Its purpose was to have all persons of aboriginal blood and mixed blood living like ‘white’ Australians, this established practice of removing Aboriginal children (generally half-bloods) from their homes was to bring them up without their culture, and they were encouraged to forget their aboriginal heritage. Children were placed in institutions where they could be 'trained' to take their place in white society. During the time of assimilation Aboriginal people were to be educated for full citizenship, and have access to public education, housing and services. However, most commonly aboriginal people did not receive equal rights and opportunities, for example, their wages were usually less than that paid to the white workers and they often did not receive recognition for the roles they played in the defence of Australia and their contribution to the cattle industry. It wasn’t until the early 1960’s that expendi...
The poem “We’re not trucking around” by Samuel Wagan Watson presents an Aboriginal perspective on Australian National identity, showing the audience that Australians still mistreat Indigenous people, expressing his perspective through the ideas that white men still mistreat Aboriginals and the marginalization of Aboriginal culture. Watson reinforces his idea through poetic and language
Specific elements of the storyline that display the theme racism include: the display of animalistic treatment, enforced religious practices, and historical comparisons. The film reveals the overarching government belief that the white race is smarter and purer, to the inferior, uncivilized and misguided, darker-skinned, Aboriginals. This belief is demonstrated throughout the film and signifies the government’s attitudes toward the half-caste race as: uncivilized animals that need a trainer to discipline them. For example, the film shows the girls being transported like livestock to th...