Erasing Indigenous culture?
You’re given two objects to choose from to decide our nation’s future.
A rubber or a pencil. Choose wisely.
Welcome back everybody,
I’m sure you’re aware of the controversy surrounding the removal of ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures’ from our schools’ Curriculum. Myself, I’m strongly opposed for two equally important reasons. Firstly, it’s vital that we continue to identify the truth within our nation’s history. Secondly, we must believe in further reconciliation between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
What are your thoughts?
I urge you to read poetry written by Aboriginal poet and wordsmith, Oodgeroo Noonuccal. Her authentic voice speaks to us all, not only expressing
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Noonuccal expertly conveys the ongoing pain of her people caused by this crime in We Are Going and The Dispossessed.
Symbolism in the line “’Rubbish May Be Tipped Here’. Now it half covers the traces of the old bora ring” emotionally moves us all, evoking guilt of our ancestor’s blind destruction of the Indigenous culture. The final stanza is particularly impactful using a combination of repetition of “gone” and a defeated tone, to evoke great shame within myself and fellow non-Indigenous readers whilst also highlighting the elimination of the Indigenous peoples.
Writing in second-person perspective, Noonuccal deeply involves us in The Dispossessed, evoking empathy within us all. This language choice also contributes to the accusatory tone of poem directed towards the ‘white man’. The juxtaposition of the simple rhyming scheme and the harsh imagery highlights our ancestor’s effortless aggressive behaviour against the Indigenous people which symbolises their insignificance to the white people. Imagery is effectively utilised in the line “A dying race you linger on, degraded and oppressed” to portray the constant suffering of the Indigenous
The poem communicates that the tourists do not recognise the deaths of many Aboriginals, and this may be symbolic for colonialism. At the same time, the poem also depicts the highway as a killer, referring to it as a ‘petulant beast.’
Rituals, teachings, ceremonies and identities of the Aboriginal people were lost and neglected in the past. Even today, those of the culture continue to heal and strengthen from the consequences. In Louise Halfe’s poem “My Ledders,” a native woman addresses the Pope expressing her passionate feelings towards the traditions that were robbed of her culture, while pleading him to change the teachings back to the original way. In the letter the speaker writes as if she was speaking, using phonetic spelling and broken English, asking the Pope if he could use his power to retain the native culture, as the government may listen to him. Directly linking the losses of native traditions, customs and languages to the residential school system, the speaker uses orature combining a native dialect along with satire to express how the losses in one generation continue to affect the aboriginal identity in future generations.
In the poem “The White Judges” by Marilyn Dumont, the speaker is aware of how her and her Indigenous family are constantly being judged by white society. The poem juxtaposes the family with the encircling colonialists who wait to demean and assimilate the group. The family internalizes a sense of shame and guilt while being surrounded by the primarily white population. Consequently, the family faces the pressures of being judged for their cultural practices. Dumont’s use of prose and lyrical voice distinctly highlights the theme of being judged by white society. Her integration of figurative language enhances the Indigenous tradition and cultural practices throughout the poem. As well as her use of anaphora and musicality which amplifies the
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
As majority of the narrative in this poem is told through the perspective of a deceased Nishnaabeg native, there is a sense of entitlement to the land present which is evident through the passage: “ breathe we are supposed to be on the lake … we are not supposed to be standing on this desecrated mound looking not looking”. Through this poem, Simpson conveys the point of how natives are the true owners of the land and that colonizers are merely intruders and borrowers of the land. There is an underlying idea that instead of turning a blind eye to the abominations colonizers have created, the natives are supposed to be the ones enjoying and utilising the land. The notion of colonizers simply being visitors is furthered in the conclusion of the poem, in which the colonizers are welcomed to the land but are also told “please don’t stay too long” in the same passage. The conclusion of this poem breaks the colonialistic idea of land belonging to the colonizer once colonized by putting in perspective that colonizers are, in essence, just passerbys on land that is not
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
The contributions and achievements of Indigenous role models continue to make substantial impacts upon our history in areas such as the arts, sport, education, science and more increasingly; the world of Politics. Modern Australia is recognising and celebrating the achievements of Aboriginal people more than ever before, where the social landscape is changing (albeit slowly) as a result. The gradual change of peoples ingrained preconceptions, unfounded ideas and prejudiced notions are being challenged and ultimately transformed.
The goals and visions behind my reconciliation action plan was to bring the two sides of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians together in equality and harmony. Since the colonisation of Australia there has been a vast divide between the two sides that has caused many serious outcomes for Aboriginal people. My way of contributing to this is to create a better understanding, restore trust and eradicate racism as a positive way to help close the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australia’s.
This essay will discuss the Aboriginal Education policies in Victoria and Federally and how these policies impacted upon the children of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. This essay will further analyse the impact these past policies had on the Aboriginal and Torres strait Islanders’ families and children’s education and how current policies were put in place to assist indigenous students’ access to education. Further to this an analysis of how teachers can implement these changes in the curriculum and classroom.
The Aboriginal Education and Training Policy`s (AETP) (NSW DET 2008) main goal is that “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students will match or better the outcomes of the broader student population” (1.1.2) and includes an explicit focus on developing cultural competencies (NSW DET 2008, p.6). Establishing ‘learning partnerships’ and relationships with Aboriginal communities, including Aboriginal content within the curriculum (NSW BOS 2008, p. 2), and engagement are advocated as necessary elements to achieve this edict. Racism has been proven to be an extremely detreimental factor on all fronts, especially within the education context. To address this intolerance the Anti-Racism Policy (ARP, 2005) is committed to eradicating all forms
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 article by Erica Neeganagwedgin she examines aboriginal education from pre contact, through the Residential Schools and concludes with contemporary issues in education, focusing on women in multiple sections. Neegangagwedgin argues how colonial education curriculum in Canadian schools are marginalizing and oppressing aboriginal students by rarely including their history, heritages and cultural antecedents therefore creating a ‘denial of the selfhood of aboriginal students” (p.28). She starts by comparing the pedagogy differences between Aboriginals and Eurocentric students the stem of differing worldviews which have created this problem as Canada denies to recognize the Aboriginal worldview as legitimate. Bringing light to the idea that
For First Nations youngsters, relevant education should include education about their heritage. Where Aboriginal children are in school with other Canadians, this part of the curriculum needs to be shared generally, as self-esteem grows when an appreciation of one’s background is shared by others.
“Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human History. We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations—this blemished chapter in our nation’s history. The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future. We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians” (apology by Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, 16th November 2009, Parliament House, Canberra.)