Oodgeroo Noonuccal Hardships

Hardship is inevitable in life and Maya Angelou and Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s poems “Still I Rise” and “We Are Going” respectively demonstrates this reality. Where Angelou’s poem focuses upon an African-American woman who refuses to be disrespected, Noonuccal’s poem criticises the loss of Indigenous culture.

The initial stanza of “Still I Rise” explores how white men have tried to discredit the narrator by telling metaphorical “bitter, twisted lies”; however with her steel-like determination and belief that she will overcome such hardships, as described by the use of simile in “like dust, I’ll rise”, the narrator knows that she will survive and create another version of herself which will not be belittled or oppressed. Additionally, Angelou’s narrator speaks directly to those who demean her because of her race or gender, when she says “You may trod me in the very dirt”. In contrast the narrator of “We Are Going” is omniscient and conveys how ancient culture is being disrespected and gradually eradicated just like the alliterative “semi-naked band subdued and silent” who visit the town and

Similarly, the Indigenous tribe of Noonuccal’s poem is forced to watch as their sacred land is disrespected by the white people who say “Rubbish May Be Tipped Here”, thus covering “the traces of the old bora ring”. Just like the sacred land is stripped of its importance, so too are the Indigenous tribe stripped of their dignity and identity. Where the narrator of Angelou’s poem is metaphorically attacked, “You may shoot me with your words” and “You may kill me with your hatefulness”, the Indigenous tribe of Noonuccal’s poem is being metaphorically and progressively eliminated because where they were “nature and the past, all the old ways” sadly they are “Gone now and