Analysis Of Beds Are Burning

I watched the video and studied the lyrics of Beds Are Burning by Midnight Oil (1983) and I observed that this is a protest song in support of giving the native Australian people their lands back, because some time ago they were forcibly moved from them. The lyrics tell us that it is about time to amend for the mistakes that former governments made. Furthermore, I quite love this song as a piece of music because its rhythm and tempo increase and this makes that you can get its mood, calling you to action, to reveal against abuses and build a better world in which to live. Moreover, in relation to the images, I encounter them useful in order to understand the message they want to share and the display of aboriginal dance clips make it easier.

We cultivated our land, but in a way different from the white man. We endeavoured to live with the land; they seemed to live off it. I was taught to preserve, never to destroy.” (Tom Dystra) these impactful words demonstrate the true feelings of the indigenous people when white men took their land. “The Dead Heart”, is an inspirational lyrical poem by “Midnight Oil” and it was written in 1986 to support the message of, mistreatment of Indigenous people and to raise awareness about the Stolen Generation. “Midnight Oil” is an Australian band who recognised this issue, and the issue of land, and how land has a spiritual, physical, social and cultural meaning, there land is their home and it shows significance. Throughout the song there will

Kevin Gilbert’s The New True Anthem shows a voice of protest through the quote “The scarred black bodies writhing humanity locked in chains which shows the poetic techniques of alliteration. This quote is aimed at the Aboriginals. This quote emphasises that the owners of this land, The Aboriginals are being killed and locked up in prison. Kevin Gilbert is an Aboriginal and is fighting for his people’s rights. This show the importance of a voice as Kevin Gilbert sees how Aboriginals didn’t do anything wrong and are getting treated poorly/ The use of alliteration further justifies that a voice of protest is important in society as brings out confidence for others who want to speak out but just can’t.

The stolen generation Task 1 The song 'Took the Children Away' by Archie Roach is a song about the stolen generation. The stolen generation is a major event that happened in Australian history. This happened between the 1890s and 1970s as many aboriginal children that were 'half-caste', were forcefully taken away from their families, to live in girls and boys houses, missions or foster families. At the age of 18 they were then released, still many didn't find any family or relatives. Some children never learned anything traditional and received little or no education.

In addition to the imagery employed by the poem, Night Racing also utilises the conventions of metaphor and simile to construct the unique perspective of a black Aboriginal being “invaded” by white colonists, working to create a sense of identification with the Aboriginals of the time, which has now carried forward into the modern day context in which this poem was constructed. The manufacture of the car as a “junkyard dingo” and the manifestation of the Earth as having a “dying heartbeat” are two metaphors that are most predominantly important in the construction of the reading that the poem represents an attack on the invasion of Australia. The “reverse colonisation” speaks directly back to a

These philosophical ways of being and abiding by are supported by the Dreamtime. The Dreamtime can be explained as ‘how the world came to be’ for Australia’s First People, centered around ‘how people must conduct their behavior and social relations’ (Broome, 2002, p. 19). There are estimated to be 600 different Indigenous countries that exist amongst the Australian continent, all with different ways of ‘doing’ (Edwards, 1998). The Dreaming is an important way of passing on knowledge, cultural values and belief systems from generation to generation (Australian Government, 2015). The deep connection that Aboriginal people have to their land is also an important concept relation to the concept of The Dreaming. The land is where the events of the dreaming occurred, with the spirit beings of The Dreaming, forming sacred parts of the Australian landscape (Edwards, 1998, p. 81). This spiritual way of being is also linked to elaborate laws of kinship (Phillips, 2005).

If you went out one day and out of nowhere you find yourself in a life-or-death situation would it be your fault? People in a life-or-death situation should be held accountable for their actions because most of the time people know that if they do something that can put them in a life-or-death situation then something bad will happen but they still do it willingly. Another person might not agree with this claim and say that people should not be held accountable for their actions. The reason he or she might think this is because if when a person does face a life-or-death situation it might not be entirely their fault. The following reasons are examples of why my claim is stronger.

The Dreaming is communicated through songs, stories and rituals, in which is explains how the “creator ancestors shaped the land and brought it to life” (Gammage, 2011, p. 1419). All of life, from religion, geography, life and more, are explained and connected to the Aboriginal people’s spirituality, land and family through this form of communication. The Dreamtime “shapes the Aboriginal people’s view of the universe and themselves” (Wierzbicka & Goddard, 2015, p. 43). The passing on of the Dreaming stories from one generation to the next was a “most important aspect of education” (Edwards, 1998, p. 83) and is seen as the fundamental reality. Edwards stated that through ritual, humans are able to “enter into a direct relationship with

Throughout Australian history, Aboriginal people have been displaced and mistreated through the course of time, through the separation from their from kinship groups, land and the stolen generation. This has resulted in the connection to their dreaming lost, misconnection and loss of their sacred sites and traditional food from their land. As a consequence of the stolen generation, many aboriginal children were deprived of their parents, families, spirituality, language from their land and their cultural identity. All of these aspects contribute to the continuing effect of dispossession on Aboriginal spiritualities.

Australia’s National Film and Sound Registry is a prestigious collection of media which portrays the zeitgeist of a group of people or time, this registry is updated annually with powerful songs which are considered anthems. Archie Roach’s 1990 folk song ‘Took The Children Away’ has recently been selected for consideration as it eloquently draws attention to an important part of Australian history and is undoubtedly a uniting anthem for the Aboriginal people. There are a myriad of poetic devices successfully implemented in this song which serve to intensify meaning and provoke thought. In addition, there are powerful ideologies subtly woven throughout the lyrics which allow listeners to understand and relate to Roach’s words and feelings. Also,

Barn Burning is a story by William Faulkner, a native of Oxford, Mississippi. The story starts off in a small town court which is also a store. Mr. Harris who owns a barn, is blaming Mr. Snopes for burning down his barn. The judge asks Mr. Harris what proof he has, but he doesn’t have proof that he actually did it. Instead he thinks Mr. Snopes has it out for him because one time Mr. Snopes hog got out in Mr. Harris cornfield. He demands a dollar for his return, but instead Snopes sent someone to get it and warned him that wood is capable of catching fire. And that night Harris barn caught on fire. But this isn’t enough to convict him of this. But this doesn’t stop Mr. Harris, he calls Mr. Snopes son to see what he knows. Nothing happens, but the judge wants Mr. Snopes to leave because he has had nothing but trouble. The family heads home and later that night Mr. Snopes wakes his son Sartoris and claims that he was going to throw him under the table and say he did it. The family then settles in a new location, where they will work for Major de Spain. Snopes being the person he is, walks into Major's house with mud on his boots making a mess. Later that day Snopes is asked to clean the rug he pretty much destroyed. Snopes cleans it like someone that has never cleaned before, making it worse. He returns the rug and the next day is confronted by Major. Major wants to be payed for his destroyed rug. Snopes denies paying and is taken to court. He loses in court and this makes him very mad. Snopes then tries to burn down Majors barn. But Sartoris runs and tells Major. Major comes and kills Snopes before he could do any damage.

The iconic song “Rip Rip Woodchip” was released in 1989 by Australian country musician John Williamson. Williamson is a true blue Aussie who has been a voice for the people of the bush, standing up for our unique Australian bush heritage. “Rip Rip Woodchip”, the anti-logging anthem, was inspired by the campaign of educating people about deforestation and how business men were so destructive, demolishing our precious forests. Williamson wrote this song to create awareness of the mass destruction of vital Australian forests which hold our precious wildlife and Flora. This poem connects with the audience as it makes them feel angry about natural environments are being destroyed.

Elizabeth Tragenza (2010) establishes that the Western Desert, or “Papunya art movement”, fully transpired in 1971 and was a “contemporary Aboriginal art form”. This movement was shared and pertained within language groups, such as the Pintupi, Warlpiri, Arrernte,

Disappearing Spy Paper. Write a top secret note, then drop it in water and it dissolved. Confidentiality assured.

Wright further conveys the poignancy of the Aborigines’ disappearance in the third stanza. Structurally, the third and first stanzas parallel each other; both list aspects of indigenous Australian culture that no longer exist. In the first stanza, Wright highlights the loss of the “song” and the “dance”. Similarly, in the third stanza, she notes the absence of the “hunter” and the “spear”. Wright describes the “spear” as “splintered underground”, giving the reader an image of a weapon broken, smothered in the dirt, lying unseen. Thus, the poet stresses the extinction of the Aboriginal tribal traditions. Wright also notes, through her metaphor of the “painted bodies/a dream the world breathed sleeping and forgot” that rituals such as corroboree are no longer practiced. Her use of the words “dream”, “sleeping”, and “forgot” emphasizes that these ancient rituals, so much a part of Aboriginal culture, have ceased to live on today. Wright then states that “the nomad feet are still”. Here, the word “nomad” refers to the itinerant lifestyle of the Aborigines, “still” now, since the Aboriginal way of life no longer has any value in Australian society.