English Essay Ali Cobby Eckermann (CE), an Australian poet of Yankunytjatjara/Kokatha heritage, possesses a literary prowess that transcends mere verses. Her poetry, characterised by its emotional power and cultural richness, serves as a profound exploration of identity and culture. Within the lines of her impactful works, such as "Leaves," "Eyes," and “Keys,” Cobby Eckermann employs language not only as a means of expression but as a vehicle for revelation, challenge, and disruption of assumptions surrounding these intricate themes. In delving into the nuances of these pieces, we unravel the layers of meaning woven by Cobby Eckermann's linguistic tapestry, shedding light on the complexities of identity and culture. Through this exploration, Cobby Eckermann emerges as a poetic …show more content…
The rhetorical question in "Which eyes will she need today?" prompts reflection on the choices individuals face in adopting perspectives. The use of antithesis in "Will she choose eyes of wonder or contempt?" highlights the dichotomy of human perception, challenging stereotypes about Indigenous emotions and spirituality. Vivid and evocative imagery in "Eyes" compels readers to engage with the depth of Indigenous spirituality, countering exoticized portrayals.Cobby Eckermann's linguistic choices encourage a more nuanced understanding, challenging assumptions about Indigenous cultures being static or confined to specific emotional states. In "Keys,"Cobby Eckermann disrupts cultural narratives, exploring displacement and the impact of colonialism on Indigenous identity. The metaphor of keys symbolises control over one's culture, with the lines "Painted blue with a speck of gold" introducing vivid imagery and symbolism. The absence of a keyhole to the future and a vision to the past metaphorically expresses the unknown nature of what lies ahead and the limitations of revisiting the
Trauma, abuse, displacement, and feelings of alienation have, and is still plaguing the Aboriginal community. Author Eden Robinson and playwright Constance Lindsay Skinner address the displacement, mistreatment, and abuse the indigenous population has faced, and still faces, in Monkey Beach and Birthright. Both Eden Robinson's novel Monkey Beach, and playwright Constance Lindsay Skinner's Birthright deals with characters who are struggling with trauma and haunted with scars from the past. The authors detail these events and bring the reader into the “shoes” of the characters through characterization, imagery, dialogue, and through revealing intimate memories of the characters. These literary techniques enable the reader to see the parallel between the cyclical, ambiguous state of nature, and the ambiguity in humans and how there is a perpetuating, intergenerational cycle of violence caused by abuse and the mistreatment of the Aboriginal.
So, on Australia Day we often neglect the very different experience of Indigenous people whose land was invaded and cultural integrity stolen by ignorant ideologies of white supremacy. Their perspectives expressed through literature powerfully protests the silenced voices. From evaluation, Dawe’s Beggars’ Choice elicits a colloquial and relaxed mood, as the message is indirect and addressed in a satirical manner, while Sykes’s Ambrose is direct; its shorter sharper sentences underlining its provocative tone. Ultimately, this alters the mood of the poems even though both share the theme of the loss of tradition, depreciation of life and the social ramifications foisted on our indigenous people by their white
Eckermann’s poem, ‘Ngingali’, conveys an Aboriginal link to the land and Country. Furthermore, Eckermann utilises the simile through the line, “my mother is a granite boulder”. This demonstrates that the connection to the land and Country as well as it being hard to shift. Eckermann using narrative perspective through “my mother” appears deeply personal and further depicts an Aboriginal connection to the Country. Additionally, through the line, “gulls nestle in her eyes” Eckermann conveys the utilisation of both, metaphor as well as imagery
Although the author’s words are simple, they create a mood into the illustrations that truly emphasise the emotion of the indigenous point of view. Viewers can than feel more of what they can see, an example of this is when the authors used different sized text in “stole our children.” This text with the illustration can truly create an effect on the way it is read and viewed by, making viewers feel empathy as the size of each words shrinks defining the children’s positon as they get further away from their parent. This attains the Europeans guilt on the choices they had made as the story is seen in the indigenous point of view on how they suffered due to the past horrendous choices made by the Europeans at that
Just as Fools Crow reaches back to the past in an effort to provide for Yellow Kidney's family, he looks to the future near the end of the novel and tells the survivor of the massacre at Marias River: "It is good you are alive. You will have much to teach the young ones about the Napikwans." He remembers Feather Woman's vision of Pikuni children, "quiet and huddled together, alone and foreign in their own country" and says, "We must think of our children." Transcending time through imagination leads to a unification of past and present, and reflecting on the roles women fulfilled in the past and their relative position of balance in contemporary Blackfeet society leads to the conclusion that it is the day-to-day functions they performed that enabled cultural survival. Tribal world-view demands attention to everyday tasks to achieve the balance needed for survival and it was the women who were grounded and provided the center for the community. The theme that James Welch has presented to us about a Blackfeet world "endangered but intact where men and women know who and where they are." Plays a big part in our own lives; we all need to find our self in this world and act upon it.
The fundamental characteristic of magical realism is its duality, which enables the reader to experience both the character’s past and the present. In the novel, Monkey Beach, Eden Robinson uses this literary device to address the the trauma and mistreatment of the Haisla community in Canada by unveiling the intimate memories of the protagonist, Lisamarie, and the resulting consequences of this oppression. Monkey Beach illustrates how abuse in the past leads to another form of self-medication in the future - a neverending, vicious cycle for the members of the Haisla community. Many characters in Monkey Beach are scarred from childhood sexual abuse and family neglect, and resort to drug and alcohol abuse as a coping mechanism. These appalling memories are an account of the impact of colonization on the Haisla territory which continues to haunt the Aboriginal community throughout generations.
Neal Shusterman is a famous author,playwright, and scriptwriter. He is known for his great novels that relate to older children and teens around the world. His works include intriguing themes and adventures that keeps readers interest in his creations. Shusterman has been a sensational artist whose books have shaped his life. He is a dedicated writer with talent that surprised his peers and authorities over the years.
The novel “Through Black Spruce”, written by Joseph Boyden, details life of Native Culture and the corruption within its society. Will Bird and his niece Annie Bird alter narrations every chapter telling their individual stories of their struggles to remain pure in Native culture. Both characters experience a detachment from their roots and must learn to rely on each other for the livelihood of their culture. All characters in the novel show negative effects of being impacted by the white culture, seen through the use of drugs and alcohol leading to isolation from the community. Through detailed analysis of both Will and Annie’s narrative, their connections to their Native roots seem to be vanishing and the need to integrate the traditional
Eyes in “The Displaced Person” tend to be illustrated with violent terms. The eyes are harsh and very rarely are they described softly; Mrs. McIntyre has eyes like “steel or granite,” characters’ gazes often “pierce,” and “icy blue eyes” and other similar descriptions are common.
These are needed to draw the reader into the texts and to help them to sympathize with the Aborigines whose land was taken from them and who endure the oppression of living in a culture, whose beliefs and values, the do not share.
First of all, Indigenous people and Asian have different values and means to Australia. The Australian Indigenous people have lived Australia for long time and they have developed their own culture. However, when the British people started to colonise Australia, the British culture was brought into Australia. They have struggled under the pressure of White Australian. Therefore, whatever their identity can be a part of Australian. On the other hand, most of Asian people came to Australia as immigrants to seek better life. Ommundsen states that Asian Australian literatures made by the writer’s identity and life, for example (512). However, he also argues that “Asia”, “Australia” and “Asian Australia” are uncertain categories (512). In “Love and honour and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice”, there are no strong elements of Australia, and even the protagonist, Nam, lives in Iowa (Le 3), the United States. In “The boat”, Australia is just destination of the main character, a girl named Mai (Le 278). Thus, The Boat seems more Asian literature that Asian Australian literature. It is really difficult to find how Indigenous identity narratives affect to such Asian Australian literatures, because they seems really different from each other. If something must be said, Asian Australian literatures have to refer to Indigenous people. Most Asian immigrants regard Australia as a western country, white culture, and well-developed country. They do not think about Indigenous people so much, so but if Indigenous identity narratives’ increase of importance, Asian Australian literature must include them as
In her book American Indian Stories, Zitkala-Sa's central role as both an activist and writer surfaces, which uniquely combines autobiography and fiction and represents an attempt to merge cultural critique with aesthetic form, especially surrounding such fundamental matters as religion. In the tradition of sentimental, autobiographical fiction, this work addresses keen issues for American Indians' dilemmas with assimilation. In Parts IV and V of "School Days," for example, she vividly describes a little girl's nightmares of paleface devils and delineates her bitterness when her classmate died with an open Bible on her bed. In this groundbreaking scene, she inverts the allegation of Indian religion as superstition by labeling Christianity.
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
• AW’s work is deeply rooted in oral tradition; in the passing on of stories from generation to generation in the language of the people. To AW the language had a great importance. She uses the “Slave language”, which by others is seen as “not correct language”, but this is because of the effect she wants the reader to understand.
Eden Robinson is a Haisla writer who was born at Haisla Nation Kitimaat Reserve on 19th January 1968 (“Eden Robinson” 2007). She has a Haisla father and a Heiltsuk mother and spent both her childhood and her adolescence in the Reserve (“Eden Robinson” 2007). Robinson obtained a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts at the University of Victoria and also earned a master’s degree in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia (“Eden Robinson” 2007). Monkey Beach is her first novel and was published in 2000 (“Eden Robinson” 2007).