Australian Indigenous Culture

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

In the poem, Cobby Eckermann often refers to her adoptive and indigenous families. This is a major concept as Cobby Eckermann was separated from her biological mother and instead adopted by a white “Square” family. Her early dislocation has had an indelible impact on her, the “Square stopping” her in her “entirety.” The prose is sincere and honest and recounts her life without reservations. In the Heywire article, Richard Barba must also live away from his family, but can contact and visit them often, and is by choice to gain access to an education. Barba struggles with the long distance and unfamiliar environment before coming to terms with it and keeping them inside his heart as he meets new people and makes friends. His new friends, from all over Australia, comfort him and make him feel more at

Some of these texts include the Heywire article, Sydney Morning Herald article, and the accompanying visual text. In the Heywire article, Barba cannot fully adjust to boarding at Djarragun College as he misses the Torres Strait. He learns to cope with this by knowing that even though his family is far away, he can “feel their presence” within his heart. By meeting new people and making friends, he now has “family members” all over the country, and can manage the long distance away from home. Another example of an issue resolved in a text is the Sydney Morning Herald article, in which the issues of indigenous unemployment and lack of cultural awareness training are raised. Mr Packer is helping to resolve this by setting targets in these areas in his own company, Crown Casino, and encouraging others to do the same. Mr Packer galvanises others to follow his example when he says that “We need to address this as a nation… the sooner it is addressed the better.” In the visual text, Aboriginal dancers are performing at the opening of Crown Casino’s official launch of their second Reconciliation Action Plan. They are fostering awareness of Mr Packer’s solution to the issue of indigenous unemployment and lack of cultural consciousness training. This promotes the solution and would encourage other business owners to adopt a similar programme. Several texts such as these place an emphasis