Oodgeroo Noonuccal's 'No More Boomerang'

Australia has been depicted through several different artforms – paintings, songs, poems – in order to reflect the multicultural national identity of Australia. These artforms in particular, had influenced the nation and advanced thought provoking ideas during the era of the oppressed indigenous people. Indigenous authors enlightened the hardships they faced, through artforms such as poems and contributed greatly to the Australian national identity. Oodgeroo Noonuccal, was the first Aboriginal woman to be a published author, and her poem “No More Boomerang,” highlights the impact the white settlers had on the indigenous community by showing the contrast in their daily lifestyles and the affect of the loss of their culture. These are revealed, through poetic techniques, imagery and symbolism, in order to deliver the subject matter to the audience. The message of the forced cultural differences the indigenous people faced was emphasised boldly and marked the white settlers as thieves of their land and culture.

In the first stanza, for instance, “No more boomerang / No more spear; / Now all civilised - / Colour bar and beer.” The loss of their weapons, symbolises the deprivation of their culture caused by the settlers. The line ‘now all civilised’ brushes off with a monotonous tone, and comes across sarcastic, depicting the ignorant insight of the white settlers’ views on their culture. “No More Boomerang” tells a story of the white settlers marking the land as theirs, and forcing the Indigenous people to live with their white standards and lifestyle. Throughout the poem, the poet constantly juxtaposed both standards of living and cultures, in order to communicate the deprivation of the