For the past of 85 years, the poem “Waltzing Matilda” has been the core of Australian national identity. The hero in this song is a swagman who steals a sheep, when the authorities committed suicide. It believes that Waltzing Matilda was an early political protest song – it was a song about freedom. The term ‘Matilda’ is an old Germanic name meaning of the term ‘mighty battle maid’, although more likely to be referred to as ‘Mathildas’. It was originally for women camp followers, but finally changed the meaning ‘to be kept warm at night’. For most soldiers, they wrapped themselves in their large gray coat. These coats were rolled up and marched on their shoulder when walking.
Banjo Paterson (poet of Waltzing Matilda) lived in Sydney, this poem
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The poem is based on an actual incident, which happened during a depression during 1895. During this phase, the work was scarce and the poem talks about a swagman who was looking for work. He was called swagman as he carried his swag on his back. The Swagman build a camp for all night near a billabong, below the shade of a coolibah tree and put tea to boil for himself on the campfire. A sheep came down to drink from the billabong and the hungry swagman caught the sheep in the intention of eating it for diner. The swagmen shove the sheep into his tucker-bag to restrain and stop it from running away. Nevertheless, a squatter witnessed and brought three troopers with his own to arrest the swagman. The troopers tell the swagman that they had come to arrest him for stealing the sheep and now he will have to accompany them to the jail. The swagman, who was aware of the penalty for sheep stealing was execution by hanging, dives into the billabong to swim away and escape arrest. Not being a strong swimmer, the swagman drowns and dies.
Waltzing Matilda briefly said that a poem about a swagman that camps by a creek then the swagman steals a sheep. Three policemen arrived the place rather than submit to capture, the swagman suicide and drown himself in the creek. It's the song about Australians who had tears when they hear it played a long way from home. Waltzing Matilda become a nationalist song
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Remember that Australia was occupied by offenders then sentenced to "transportation" from the United Kingdom, often for trivial property crimes; Australian is still suspicious of authority, thus cynical of vanity and hypocrisy of the judicial and police system.
Waltzing Matilda in 1915 is bring Australian arms thoughts of the massacres at Gallipoli (Turkey). Massive unskillfulness British in terms of politicians (chiefly Winston Churchill) and generals resulted in the death toll that knockout every town and every city, even the place is a small country at that time.
That’s why the song became Australia’s National song. There are other strong emotions connected with this Australia’s unique poem; like always supporting the underdog; like a healthy doubt the authority of our motives and our support for the lovable rascals that agree with them; like a general privilege disdain, ‘silver-spooners’ and unfair unique talent don’t have to work for a living like the rest of us did; and trivial set up that can condemn a man putting a sheep in ten thousand, as the English judges made a man of Australia’s criminals to steal a loaf of bread to provide for hungry
The 2014 Walkley Award winning documentary, "Cronulla Riots: the day that shocked the nation" reveals to us a whole new side of Aussie culture. No more she’ll be right, no more fair go and sadly no more fair dinkum. The doco proved to all of us (or is it just me?) that the Australian identity isn’t really what we believe it to be. After viewing this documentary
Another reference that could be skipped over, is the mention of the ‘ute’. Even though this is undoubtedly an Australian car, it is what it represents that matters to the poem and also is slang; something that a person not local would be confused by. In the poem it is simply a car, which is a way of transport, that the family are driving away in, from the place they had likely been in for a while, as the ‘oldest daughter is close to tears’ when told; meaning memories were able to be formed where they were. Another poem that is indefinitely Australian, as it only chooses to name a single, not well known, place in Australia, is ‘Reverie of a Swimmer’. A one stanza poem that's strong voice goes through the story of a man who may or may not has purposefully drowned in
One of the many factors that have contributed to the success of Australian poetry both locally and internationally is the insightful commentary or depiction of issues uniquely Australian or strongly applicable to Australia. Many Australian poets have been and are fascinated by the issues relevant to Australia. Many in fact nearly all of these poets have been influenced or have experienced the subject matter they are discussing. These poets range from Oodgeroo Noonuccal Aboriginal and women’s rights activist to Banjo Patterson describing life in the bush. Bruce Dawe is also one of these poets. His insightful representation of the dreary, depressing life of many stay at home mothers in “Up the Wall” is a brilliant example of a poem strongly relevant to Australia.
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
Tribal Voice by Yothu Yindi is a song which incorporates perspective about how aboriginals were treated badly and cast out and that they should all stand up to take back what is theirs . This song is an aboriginal perceptive that they were treated badly though they gave the people of Australia home, even though they get no rewards or thanks. This song represents the aboriginal thinking of colonised Australia saying it wasn’t fair to themselves and their children as they took care of the land and it was just taken away and they were cast out. The indigenous people are still dreaming for a day that they can be fully welcomed back into society, but they now are going to speak for themselves and do whatever it takes so that the future generation of aboriginal culture have a better future.
The notions of the Australian voice as multifaceted and diverse, is insightfully expressed in Tim Winton's short story anthology The turning and the Drover's wife by Henry Lawson. Australian voice in literature often explores the quality inherent to the Australian identity of overcoming hardships. The stories Fog, On her knees, and The Drover's wife explore these hardships through the notions of mateship,and the importance of family in facing these challenges.
Throughout our rich history, we have overcome these issues by making great changes in our country by promoting multiculturalism and giving everyone a fair go which means giving everyone chance to live a healthy and prosperous life. But, even with these changes, Australia once was plagued with injustice. Australia now has a good reputation, but our horrid past will never be forgotten.
Nearly four decades after the events at Eureka Stockade, Henry Lawson marked the death of the battle's leader, Peter Lalor, with an anti-establishment piece of verse, 'Eureka!'. In this and other poems such as his first, 'The Republic', 'The Fight of Eureka Stockade' and 'Freedom of the Wallaby', Lawson may well have been trying to light the fire of Australian nationalism and a move to independence with our own flag, The Southern Cross.
Peter Weir’s 1981 film Gallipoli can in every sense of the phrase be called an ‘Australian classic’. The impact and effect this film has had upon the psyche and perspective of several generations of Australians has been significant. Whilst it can be argued that every Australian is aware of the ANZAC legend, and the events that occurred on the Turkish beaches in 1915, Weir’s film encapsulates and embodies a cultural myth which is now propagated as fact and embraced as part of the contemporary Australian identity. The film projects a sense of Australian nationalism that grew out of the 1970’s, and focuses on what it ‘means’ to be an Australian in a post-colonial country. In this way Gallipoli embodies a sense of ‘Australian-ness’ through the depiction of mateship and through the stark contrast of Australia to Britain. A sense of the mythic Australia is further projected through the cinematic portrayal of the outback, and the way in which Australia is presented in isolation from the rest of the world. These features combined create not only a sense of nationalism, but also a mythology stemming from the ANZAC legend as depicted within the film.
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
But as will be discussed, there are major flaws in the Australian criminal justice system with issues focussing on three main concerns: (i) lenient sentencing in the criminal justice system particularly with white-collar and blue-collar crimes (i) recidivism and lack of support for offenders (iii) public safety concerns. This essay will examine issues with the Australian prison system, and explore the punishment of shaming and if it is an effective method in preventing general and specific deterrence using sociological frameworks and theories.
The gross over representation of indigenous people in the Australian criminal justice system (CJS) is so disturbingly evident that it is never the source of debate. Rather it is the starting point of discussions centring on the source and solutions to this prominent social, cultural and political issue. Discourse surrounds not only the economic and social disadvantage of indigenous communities, but also the systemic racism and continuing intergenerational trauma resulting for the unjust colonisation of a nation which has profited whites at the detriment to indigenous people throughout history. In respect to the currently CJS, trepidations are raised by indigenous communities around the lack of culturally diverse laws and punishments within the system. The overtly western system does not provide a viable space for indigenous
Australia is a very unique place, along with our multiculturalism there is also a strong heritage surrounding us. At first thought of Australian heritage we think about such landmarks as Uluru, The Sydney harbour bridge and The Sydney opera house, The Great Barrier reef and other internationally recognised places. But our heritage goes much deeper than that; it is far more than outstanding icons. Along with these icons there are also unsung places like the old cattle stations, Aboriginal missions, migrant hostels, War memorials, our unique wetlands and the towns and cities we have built. Adding all of these things together, helps to tell the story of who we are and how we have shaped this land in the unique identity it has today.
Throughout both ‘Rainbow’s End’ and ‘The Rabbits’, the audience discovers the plights that the Aboriginal Australians faced, due to discrimination and assimilation, in intensely confronting, yet intensely meaningful ways. We see how the discrimination and forced assimilation of cultures was common in the lead up to modern times because of composers like Harrison, Marsden and Tan reminding us of these events, allowing us to discover and rediscover our past wrongs through their works, in order to pave the way for a brighter, harmonious future. Without these documentations and retellings of events such as these, history would repeat itself, conflicts would be more apparent and we as a species would not be able to thrive and prosper due to our prejudices and superiority complexes.
Through numerous poetic techniques Paterson has shown that the Australian diversity is as diverse as the country itself. The Australian identity concerns the way Australia is viewed by other people. There are a variety of different aspects that contribute to this identity of Australia which include historical icons. Paterson recognizes how lucky we are to live on a land notorious for its diverse landscape. He is signaling that we are missing out and we need to cherish the great land we were given.