Analysis Of Lantana Directed By Ray Lawrence And The Novel Biten Back Written By Vivienne Cleven Essay

Australian people and culture are often stereotyped in the media in different forms, one of them being film. The two films being examined, ‘Red dog’ (2011) and the ‘Sapphires’ (2012), are an example of the Australian identity but from different points of view. ‘Red dog’ shows the kind and positive side which exemplifies mateship and loyalty. The film ‘Sapphires’ ,which takes place in the 1950’s through to the 1960’s, shows a negative and racist view towards the indigenous people. Both the films show different aspects of the Australian identity, not all insights of the films accurately represent contemporary Australian identity as the Australian identity has changed by the evolution of people and their lifestyle.

This work examines the past and also imagines the future by using references of past racial murders and the way they coincide with the present context and explore Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous culture in the present-day. Ah Kee created this series of artworks in response to the apparent police cover up of the death of a young man in their custody, for protection of

Australia is filled with many different aspects in which makes it the country it is today. I believe it is important to study texts that explore aspects of Australia by studying texts such as ‘The Club’, by David Williamson, a play written in 1977 about an Australian football club and movies such as “The Castle”, directed by Rob Stitch in 1997, about the daily life of an Australian family when their happiness is threatened when developers attempt to buy their house to expand the neighboring airport. Both these texts show us what Australian life was like in the past. By us looking at themes such as language, tradition and the mateship shown we are able to explore different aspects of Australia that make it what it is today.

Included in the film are the vast and open outback landscapes which signifies the freedom of aboriginals land and how they belong to it as the are physically and emotionally affected when they are taken away from it. The rabbit fence was built to keep the Aboriginals in one place, therefore symbolising the division between the Aboriginals and the Europeans. Also a

Australia’s identity has always been a complicated one. Starting with Aboriginal genocide, 1800’s cowboys and villains, two world wars and a bunch of poems describing them, it makes it difficult to conclude on what being an ‘Aussie’ really is. Thankfully, the two thought-provoking poems Nobody Calls Me a Wog Anymore by Komninos Zervos, and My Country by Dorothea Mackellar both use their discerning selection of themes to reflect modern attitudes in some extent. Along with their themes, Nobody Calls Me a Wog Anymore and My Country both use their story to capture the attributes modern Australians possess to some degree.

“Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free” I lulled the words over in my mind as I stared out at the bulga (mountains) from inside my car. The view of the mountain range was captivating beyond expression- the mellow, yellow rays of the setting guwing (sun) shed a soft light over the beautiful landscape. Clear grassy plains contrasted with the dense green shrubbery of the bush, this was my nura (country)- I loved it. Into the opening stumbled a young gubba (white man). He carried a rifle and prowled the area waiting for a dingu (dingo) to hop past.

Words are powerful tools that can be used to represent people and shape opinions about others. In a similar way, certain actions and our treatment of other cultures demonstrate our understandings and acceptance of, different beliefs and cultures. Two texts that support these statements and include representations of Indigenous Australian culture and beliefs are: ‘Riding the Black Cockatoo’ by John Danalis and ‘Company Sin’ by John Butler Trio.

Australia has a prolonged tradition in portraying and illustrating the complex and breathtaking landscape which surrounds it. The landscape representation has been extrapolated along time in different backings as painting, literature or cinema and embodies the post-colonial performances. According to the Tweed River Art Gallery (2009), Macleod is influenced and astonished by the greatness and sharpness of the Australian landmass and this is what he intends to represent in his pieces. His sources of inspiration embrace such impressive dissimilar environments as New Zealand, the central Australian desert, and Antarctica. Euan Macleod’s work suggests an utopic world where the countryside is prosperous and wealthy and the human manifestation is

By addressing the unspeakable horrors committed against Indigenous Australians and pointing out that Australians today “[benefit] from violence towards Indigenous Australians” (Weaver-Hightower 137), Grenville admits the Australian collective guilt in her novel. According to Weaver-Hightower, “reading the novel could act as an apology” since the expression of collective guilt serves “as a sort of cleansing ritual for readers who identify with characters and experience catharsis” (138). As a consequence, Grenville`s novel can serve as a means for admitting and managing postcolonial, collective guilt and offering an apology. However, as Weaver-Hightower recognizes, The Secret River “presents an ambivalent view of Non-Indigenous Australian collective guilt, admitting it in places and defending against it in others by showing the Non-Indigenous settler as a victim and distinguishing between 'bad' and 'good' colonizers” (143). As a result, the reader is left with an ambivalent feeling about apology and excuse and has to decide individually which side predominates for him.

In order to maximize clarity, she chose to dissect these articles one at a time, and in order of how she presented her thesis points. For instance, she discusses a photo essay entitled “Revolution on the Prairies,” and argues the first point in her thesis: that the Still Photography Division’s portrayal of Canadian landscapes as economically prospective effects national identity . She again mentions that camera angles make the land feel vast and plentiful, but also create a powerful gaze of ownership over the land. She likewise furthers a previous point made about how this possessive gaze on the landscape is Euro-centric by using the portrait of a Euro-centric farmer, the photo-essays narrative subject, as evidence. He “gazes” over the farmland from a powerful angle, and implies that his gaze is specific to his position as a colonial-settler farmer . The author continues to present evidence for the second part of her thesis, in which the NFB representation of landscape is racialized, and the landscape’s meaning transforms depending on who the subject of the photo-series is. To illustrate this, she discusses a different article published by the NFB that is specific to an Aboriginal narrative. The photo-essay, entitled, “Age-Old Hunt For Fabled Fish of Canada’s North: SAPOTIT – Where the Char Run Big,” helps illustrate the author’s issue that in contrast to the open, plentiful relationship that Euro-centric people had with Canada’s landscapes in the Still Photography Division’s work, Aboriginal people did not have any power. Instead, Payne argues that photo-essays on Aboriginal subjects changed the way the Still Photography Division shot and displayed the landscape. With respect to the Aboriginal subjects, the Aboriginals were displayed with friendliness and child-like interaction with land that made the groups appear primitive and like “Others” or “outsiders” to a

However, there are moments where the Indigenous characters are inadvertently associated with the negative stereotypes which existed at the time. An alternate viewing of Australia could observe Luhrmann’s portrayal of Indigenous characters as condescending, their vulnerable nature constantly dependent on the actions of the Anglo-Saxon characters. Despite his best intentions, Luhrmann’s work could also be criticised for presenting the struggles of Indigenous identity as nothing more than a sub-plot to a romantic relationship, exploiting the issues of the Stolen Generation for his own commercial gain. However, the events which witnessed Daisy and Magarri sacrifice their lives for the benefit of others and Nullah’s strong stance against Neil Fletcher better exemplify Luhrmann’s interpretation of the selfless and loving nature of Indigenous

Unlike Life Cycle, Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s Municipal Gum is more intriguing and passionate as it reveals the reader the true feelings of the Indigenous people. She exploits, how they no longer belong, and how the White Australians have scarred and urbanised the place they once called home. The Gum tree symbolises the Aboriginal people, who are stuck in the middle of a suburb, surrounded by “bitumen”, and cannot escape. They do not belong here like the tree does not belong too. Compared with Dawe’s, Noonuccal’s word choice and tone is more sorrowful and tormented. “Castrated, broken, a thing wronged, /Strapped and buckled, its hell prolonged”. She

In the late eighteenth century prior to the arrival of the first European settlers, Australia was once believed to be a terra nullius, an uninhabited “nothing land.” The European colonizers of Australia sought to make something of this land they believed they had discovered. Operating under this false notion, colonizers systematically invaded and conquered Australia, imposing their own ways onto the land and its original custodians, the Aboriginal people. The introduction of western settlements disrupted much of Aboriginal life. In a publication titled, Is it in the Blood? Australian Aboriginal Identity, author Myrna Ewart Tonkinson discusses Western imperialism and its implications on Aboriginal identity.

Therefore, the use of visual art to portray ideas is more connected to Indigenous cultures than imposed western political and academic settings. This essay will critically discuss the work of Carl Linnaeus, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach and Charles Darwin in defining race and its application to Indigenous Australians. Followed by, analysis of the works of contemporary artists, Richard Bell, Bindi Cole, Bronwyn Bancroft, Daniel Boyd, Michael Riley, Gordon Bennett and Lin Onus in challenging the effects social constructions of race have had on Indigenous peoples. These issues include authenticity, homogenous stereotyping, racial hierarchy and discrimination.

Distinctive images created by Henry Lawson in ‘In a dry season’, allows individuals to establish new perceptions and values of the natural world. In the short story, Lawson brings his experience to life, a journey from Bathurst to Bourke, exploring the inhospitable setting of the outback. He emphasises on the emptiness of the Australian bush through the distinctively visual, allowing the responders to empathise with the desolated outback. The imperative voice Lawson adopts in ‘Draw a wire fence, a few ragged gums and add some scattered sheep running away from the bush’ invites the audience to visualise an empty, remote setting of the outback. This creates a connection between Lawson and the responders, enriching them with provocative insight