Cross Country Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poem Analysis

White Australians state “shame when [their] kids they die from colds or from sheer neglect. Shame when [they] live on the river banks. While collectin' [they’re] welfare cheques. Shame when [they’re] blind from trachoma. Shame when [they’re] crippled from blights.” The rhyming scheme in the stanza makes poem flow seamlessly constructing a conversational tone as if the narrator is speaking directly to the audience. This feature purposefully lulls the reader into agreeing with the white Australia’s arguments as it constructs an image that the Indigenous people are refusing to integrate themselves with modern society and suffering the consequences of those decisions. The mention of welfare cheques also contribute to the perspective that white Australians are attempting to mend the lives of Indigenous individuals, however this could not be further from the truth and message of this

Oodgeroo Noonuccul’s ‘The Last of His Tribe’ challenges the traditional values of society by displaying the loss of tradition and culture through the use of contrast, first person narration and truncated sentences. The poem contrasts and compares the sorrow and melancholy of the loss of the man’s tribe’s past with cultural disposition and the impairment of personal identity. This is presented when the poem says; ‘And think of the gay throng, the happy people,” and later says; “And I feel, the sudden sting of tears, Willie Mackenzie in the Salvation Army home. Displaced person in your own country”. First person narration is used to allow the audience to relate to the emotions of the last man of the tribe. The poem also uses truncated sentences to make the point of dispossession bolder and stronger. This is displayed in the sentences; ”I asked you and you let me hear” and “No more forever. For me.” The poem “Last of His Tribe” uses

Many songs have deep and emotional messages throughout them, but few can match the aptitude portrayed in “The Dead Heart” This is depicted with the help of the text structure. “The Dead Heart” was made up of 8 stanzas. The rhyme pattern is ABCC, and changes throughout different stanzas this is to show the displeasure of the Indigenous people, when white men came and took their land. Indigenous people felt many things during this time period, happy and satisfied weren’t what they felt, instead they felt: hopeless, depressed, unfortunate and miserable. There are constant slant rhymes in the song, an example includes: Know your custom don't speak your tongue, white man came took everyone” The pure reason why “Midnight Oil” made these two sentences slant rhyme opposed to normal rhyme is to show the discomfort and distress when the British took their land, their most prized possession and their home. The structure used throughout “The Dead Heart” is phenomenal and truly captivates the true emotion the artist’s intended. Not only is the structure used extraordinary, but the poetic devices used truly entice the audience and elicit an emotional response.

Our knowledge of the generic conventions used in poetry influences our understanding of the text. “The Firstborn”, a poem by Aboriginal author Jack Davis, enables the reader to determine the poem as a graphic protest about the extinction of and discrimination against the Australian Indigenous people, and the loss of their ethnicity, as their world collides with the Western culture. By focussing on my understanding of both generic conventions and author’s context, I am able to conclude that the poem concerns a tragedy within the Aboriginal community.

Mulga Bills Bicycle was written by A.B. “Banjo” Paterson. It is a humorous poem about a man who believes he can ride anything from Bull to Bike. He has never ridden a bike and thinks that he is the best rider in the world. Mulga Bills Bicycle is a poem with verse of irregular lengths. It uses simple language and imagery to generate strong dramatic action and dialogue. The poem has a regular rhythm in rhyming couplets which adds momentum and humour to the story.

Oodgeroo Noonuccal is an Australian poet who wrote the poems ‘We are going’ and ‘Let us not be bitter’. Her perspective on Aboriginal rights is concern, passion and worry for her people and land. Using vivid imagery, poetic structure, enjambment for example, and poetic techniques such as inclusive language and symbolism conveys these feelings to her audience clearly. Oodgeroo uses vivid imagery to show her despair and misery towards what had happened to the treatment of the sacred land and the Aboriginal people. She uses a poetic structure called enjambment to help convince the Indigenous people to continue to move on like the flow of her poem. An Oodgeroo Noonuccal uses poetic techniques such as inclusive language and symbolism to explain the Aboriginal people’s connection

Dorothea Mackellar’s ‘My Country’ is a poem expressing Mackellar’s deep passion and love for her country, Australia. The whole poem’s intention seems to evoke the sense of praising for the country and express Mackellar’s deep relationship and passion with her land. Mackellar attains this response from the audience by using numerous language techniques such as; Juxtaposition, personification, sound patterns including alliteration and assonance, imagery, and paradox. The use of first person throughout the whole poem suggests that the theme of this poem has been evoked by personal experience.

Through the use of poetic devices, the author has successfully encouraged the audience to explore their thoughts on Australian identity and to reflect on our nation’s history.

Gilbert’s poem portrays many Aboriginals plight’s within Australia and conveys notions of despair, anguish and anger for his fellow Aboriginal comrades. Again, Gilbert uses strong visual imagery in “the anguished death you spread” which helps convey the persona’s feeling of horror and anger at the Europeans. This is further emphasised through the poet’s vehement and repetitive use of second person pronouns in “you” which conveys a sense of blame and accumulates into an accusatory tone and generates a strong sense of detachment between the author and the European settlers. Furthermore enjambment enhances the accusatory tone in “you pollute all the rivers and litter every road” because the lack of punctuation and pauses makes the lines sharp and quick, creating a sense of anger in the author. In addition the author’s use of metaphors in “humanity locked in chains” creates a sense of struggle and inability to escape the oppression the Aboriginals are in, whereby the word “chain” is symbolic for trapped and lack of freedom. Kevin Gilbert’s emotional poem brings light to the pain and suffering Aboriginals are going through, which is a stark contrast to the image of Australia, being a free and accepting

The poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal, draws the realistic image of the confronting realities of alienation and displacement of Indigenous Australians. It is because of such experiences that has empowered Noonuccal to express and advocate learning from experiences by positioning the audience to view the horrors that occurred, creating a platform for her poetry. Through the emphasis of identity, it allows the audience to deeply connect with the past, determining and illustrating a profound link between the ancient past and contemporary present. Oodgeroo’s deep connectivity with art and poetry highlights the importance of learning from experiences, for not only the Aboriginal culture but, for all cultures, and that colonisation does not destroy self-identity. Through the poems The Past and China…Woman, it has allowed the individual to promote change, encouraging the survival of cultures through learning from past experiences

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.

In “Monkey Hill,” Stan Rice writes about the speaker of the poem who sits at a zoo with his friend observing the spider monkey exhibit. The two stay the whole day to observe these monkeys. The speaker becomes envious of these monkeys and their ability to be confident with exactly where they are and with who they are. Rice argues that our minds imprison us when we are worried about judgment from others. The monkeys in the exhibit felt free and at ease while the two observers were trapped in worrisome about the outside world in fear of how others would perceive them.

Where we love to be is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts. Home is where happiness is established and shared between by many. Additionally, the Australian Indigenous songwriter, Archie Roach experienced a heart-breaking past in Australia’s history; which successfully captivated the hearts of many through his lyrical poem, Took the Children Away. Archie Roaches’ lyrical poem develops a powerful voice for many Indigenous Australians, it considers an event that shadowed Australia’s History with gloominess and isolation. (‘Stolen Generation’)

Sorrow for the Aboriginals is seen through displacement of their people, and invasion of their land. This is seen in both poems. In “Then and Now” sorrow is displayed white civilians changed the way the Aboriginals dressed and lived. This is seen clearly when the poet situates that she is “civilized and work in the white way” (line 22), wearing a dress and owning shoes, and speaking the language of the white colonists. Sorrow is placed in front of the Aboriginals, as they are displaced from their own land, and feel as if they can not assimilate with everyone else, seen extremely evidently, as the poet walks “alone in the teeming town” (line 6), also showing displacement.

Also, I felt grateful for what I know about my heritage, the family I have and the right to speak my opinions aloud. Moreover, I felt inspired by how determined and persistent the aboriginal people were to imprint their existence in Australian history. This is reflected in lines 14 and 15 of the poem which says, “We shall leave no stone unturned, our souls carry the imprint of our existence.” Therefore, I felt motivated by this poem to never give up and to always fight for what is right-like the