The documentary film, In My Blood It Runs, explores the journey of a 10 year old boy named Dujan, capturing from his perspective, his life as he balances assimilating his traditional agrarian culture and upbringing, alongside grappling with the state education system he is forced to participate in. Director Myer Newell successfully encapsulates the themes of education impacting self determination, through film techniques capturing the emotions of Dujan and his family, providing the audience with a full understanding of the issues that Aboriginal people face. Having the ability to self-determine provides better outcomes for students, and aboriginals who have been marginalised through colonisation, making this a striking topic that the community …show more content…
A fair education is currently not witnessed, and as a result targets Aboriginal students through the absence of choice and self determination in the subjects covered in schools. As seen in the film In My Blood It Runs, even as an Aboriginal specialised school, at the Yipirinya school the school only consisted of white teachers, alongside the history of their country is only taught through the perspective of a white person. Students are more engaged and likely to learn when topics of interest and relevance to them are covered in schools, consequently, resulting in better academic outcomes. This theme is vilified when they are learning the history of Australia through the book ‘The Australia Book’, which only describes the English version of Australia's history. Following that scene, a close up shot of Dujan captures the disengagement, and the aloof demeanour of Dujan. Paired with this, the diegetic sounds that Dujan makes, of him singing distractedly, provides evidence on how the …show more content…
Language is more than a means to communicate; rather it is also used as a method to connect more deeply to your culture, to learn and connect to the past and past indigenous peoples. This idea is integrated when the grandmother says “There are words used to describe the features of a country, like a human spine. A hill or mountain is a backbone. Because that’s the part that holds you together.” Which is why the current schooling system is taking away the Aboriginal students’ self determination by cutting them off from their culture, being given only 30 minutes per day of their traditional language Arrernte. Words like these build a deeper connection to culture as the definition similarities between varying words differ drastically to the English language, as the meaning of words relate to their culture. Research suggests that teaching and learning in the mother tongue has led to greater achievements especially for those who learn through different mediums.Therefore, not only is learning traditional languages important to the survival of critically endangered languages, it also provides improved learning skills, ultimately enhancing academic
The movie educates people on the fact of inequality back in the 1900’s between Indigenous Australians and white Australians and about the biggest case in Australia which has changed our history. This movie shows the viewers about some of the injustice the Indigenous Australians suffered due to white Australian people's actions because of their colour and race. The response that was intended was to feel bad for all of the constant injustice that the Indigenous Australians were receiving due to the actions of white Australian
Teaching world languages is a very specific, extensive field, and it should be noted that the texts presented here are only a small sample of what is available. Though it has long been known that language, culture and identity are interwoven, and extensive research to this effect has been presented, there exists an enduring trend to teach language solely as language. The texts presented within this annotated bibliography make it obvious that, as language is the main conveyer of culture, opportunities are being missed to help students develop their cultural understanding, and thus, their own identities, through the acquisition of second, or subsequent, languages.
In My Blood It Runs portrays the challenges Indigenous children like Dujuan face within the Australian education system to the viewers through the use of dialogue, close-ups and facial expressions. A focal point in the documentary is Dujuan’s experience in the Western education system. The scenes that depict Dujuan at school highlight his struggle to navigate between his Indigenous identity and the Western education system. The scenes within the classroom convey Dujuan’s feelings of alienation and disengagement with the curriculum. This positions the audience to also question the current education system.
This essay will focus on the good intentions of the white Australians, the objective of which was to incorporate these Aboriginal children into the white Australian culture, as well as the reasons for such a drastic failure of this effort. This effort caused families to be torn apart and children to grow up in a culture that was not naturally their own. From the late 1800’s until the practice was officially ended in 1969, Indigenous children were taken from their families to be raised by white Australians. This was a common occurrence in every Australian state and could generally be separated into three forms: some children were placed into Government run institutions, others were adopted into white families and the remaining children were fostered into white families (Stolen Generation [accessed July 2003]).
In today’s modern society where we like to believe that as a nation we are tolerant and indusive it is shocking to see the socioeconomic gap that exists for indigenous Australians and how causal racism is such a common part of society In stand Grant’s 2015 speech delivered at the 1Q2 racism debate on how “racism is destroying the Australian dream” he explains how racism is still prevalent in Australian culture and how it is an intergenerational problem. The ideas that racism is destroying the Australian dream and that causal racism is accepted in this culture, that there is a long history of racism and that they are deeply rooted in the historical narrative and personal experiences. but that we can move forward, but we have to go to the root
People use language as a material object. Language is social in nature and language helps people to convey a message. Language is how humans communicate with each other. Language empowers, language makes the person’s needs known and language expresses what the person wants people to do. Language is how people interact and language makes a person’s identity, emotions and opinions known. Language helps a child to make sense of their world. Language helps older children to interact and belong to a group, Language also helps a child to understand the field, tenor and mode in situations, so that the child can critically evaluate and organize the
Cultural identity and individuality has the ability to challenge a society’s discrimination. Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s poem Son of Mine is an exploration of how hope can inspire future generations to reconcile their differences and heal despite past prejudices. Noonuccal utilises the metaphor of “Puzzled and hurt by colour line” to highlight the segregation akin to that of a dividing line experienced by Indigenous Australians and the confusion this caused children. This emphasises the complexity of discrimination to a child and the detriment of prejudice as it causes individuals to become excluded early in their lives. The rhetorical question “What can I tell you, son of mine?” as posed by Noonuccal examines the disbelief felt by Indigenous Australians as they watched their land be invaded and became victimised by prejudiced barriers. This elucidates the frustration parents have for their children born into a world of discrimination, as they will not be granted certain opportunities and will instead face isolation. Noonuccal’s anaphora of “I could tell you” depicts the choice she has to inform her son of the wrongs and brutality that plagued the Indigenous Australians. This exemplifies the options parents have to teach the younger generations of prejudice and hatred, filling their minds with bias and pessimism from an early age. The enjambment employed by Noonuccal into “But I’ll tell you instead of brave and fine” reveals the decision made to inform her child of hope for the future. This critiques the capacity of hope for a better future as able to inspire change and promote reconciliation among those who have previously known prejudice towards each other. The antithesis of “When lives of black and white entwine” displayed by Noonuccal highlights the ultimate goal of eradicating prejudice from society through hope. This proves that society can reunite their humanity
Adolescence is undoubtedly the hardest time of one’s life and during these years many face an abundance of pressure and want nothing more than to fit in with their peers. In Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part – Time Indian, Junior is no exception to this. In addition to the stereotypical teenager issues that everybody faces, he deals with hydrocephalus, speech impediments that result in bullying, and discrimination against his culture. Throughout the novel Junior is constantly conflicted between staying true to his roots by living out reservation life, and breaking the cycle of poverty by doing what few others dare to and leave the reservation. Junior manages to escape from the cycle of “reservation life” due to both
A simple scheme and dedication of volunteers is helping to improve the futures of young Indigenous Australians throughout the country. Education is the key to imbuing a sense of community and respect throughout people that are Indigenous and non-Indigenous (Jacobs, 2007).
Primarily, language usage is the main tool for learning and expressing one’s ideas or beliefs. Our language is what composes our existence and has been with from the day we were born. In the book, The Skin That We Speak by Joanne Kilcour Dowdy, the author depicts an experience as a young child when she was living in Trindidad. She was speaking the “Mother Language” or the Standard Language. She was instructed by her mother to not speak her own language out in public. So one day she was playing ball and hit the ball over a fence and declared that she hit it “over there”. Here was a time when she felt good about her physical achievement but instead her peers began laughing at her pronunciation of these words. This had a lasting effect on this author’s self-esteem and her place in society. She continues to talk about how the issue is really about getting today’s world to accept others to have freedom to go back and forth from one’s home language to the
One of the most important barriers, with respect to education, to be thought about is Australian Languages, as “Language is a key marker of membership of an ethnic group.” Language allows communication of values and beliefs of a particular culture and allows participation in family and community life. Language is considered to be a greater barrier in achieving the literacy skills. For example, in Australia, there are approximately 250 Indigenous languages with 500
The loss of cultural diversity with the loss of language is evident in this statement from a Nisga man from western Canada, “The Nisga 'a language is very important to talk about — you cannot really, cannot use the English language 'cause meanings disappear in English language. Not like when we use our own Nisga 'a language; meanings come out crystal clear when you are speaking [Nisga]" (Brody 171). This quote embodies the loss of cultural complexity that comes with the loss of language contributing to global homogenization.
It is through inclusivity that teachers can include students with cultural differences, and previous language experiences. Teachers can be inclusive of these students, by involving them in language activities that incorporate their own cultural heritage, and including experiences they have made in their home environment. Goodman (2005) discusses that student’s oral language isn’t learnt by explicit teaching, but instead having students immersed in using language. When including these students, teachers are able to see language as a social pedagogy, and scaffold students thinking to ensure they have power over there already had experiences (Gardner, 2017). Many students with a socio-cultural background will feel powerless, and alienated due to the lack of language understanding. Teacher intervention will therefore, be extremely beneficial to these students as it has the potential to change the students thinking, as well as enable mentoring and modeling to take
Language is central to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. The two are intertwined. Language describes cultural attachment to place, cultural heritage items, and puts meaning within the many cultural activities that people do. Furthermore, language plays a fundamental part in binding communities together as a culture, and individuals to each other in a society.
Language, both literally and figuratively, speaks volumes about a culture. In a very practical sense language is the very basis for communication within any group of people. When discussing culture, it is impossible to disregard the role of language because of the array of necessary functions that it serves in human interaction. Beyond the base role of physically communicating, language also helps delineate cultural boundaries such as ethnic groups or tribes. Upon analysis of the use of language within different ethnic groups and how that interplays with the culture of that group, language can be seen as a mechanism that not only communicates words but also ideas and values. The use of all aspects of a language including the formal, slang,