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Set during the Vietnam war and at a time where the White Australia policy was not completely dismantled, prejudice is a key

However, the poem explores this notion from the perspective of migrants. Vietnamese born Uyen Loewald, wrote the poem in 1986, sixteen years after immigrating to Australia. Consquently, the climate that allowed for the creation of Loewald’s sardonic poem that expresses her aversion to the treatment of migrants, constructs a unique insight into Australian society. Loewald highlights the marginalisation of migrants, specifically those of Vietnamese heritage through her interesting use of the speaker, the Australian Government. Like Women’s Liberation; Be Good, Little Migrants provides, though not explicitly, a view of Australian society that stems both from Loewald’s alienation as a migrant but also as a

Migrants and immigrants are from a whole different world, although many authors in Growing up Asian in Australia were born in Australia and while their customs and traditions are seen as the norm to them they are seen as different by many Australians. These cultural traditions and practices are far from what the majority are used to and so are neither known nor understood. This result usually in people misunderstanding migrant’s individuality and can cause unfair exclusion. Governed was horrified when the school bully accused her of wiping her “butt with her hands” on the terms of her Indian background and as a result had to deal with constant teasing and taunts

She was motivated to write this poetic critique by her experiences and observations of power relationships between ‘mainstream’ Australians and refugees. I found that the poem seemed to imply that Australia is trying to whitewash their society to make everyone adhere to what seems to be the Australian ‘norm’ by taking away their culture and

The Craig Silvey novel ‘Jasper Jones’ tells a story set in the late 1960's about a young man named Charlie Bucktin who lives in Corrigan, a little Australian town in West Australia. Charlie is presented with issues of racial prejudice, shamefulness, and moral dishonesty and is tested to address the idealism of right from wrong ,acknowledgement that the law doesn't generally maintain equality amongst all. The thoughts are depicted through Silvey's use of story traditions which either challenge or reinforce our values, states of mind and convictions on the issues brought before us, particularly racism The 1960's appeared to be an extremely dull period for quite a number of people whose race was recognizably unique - different to that of the

‘Australia’ also showed how the government controlled how children of Aboriginal descent were brought up with language used such as “The mixed raced children must be dislocated from their primitive full blooded Aborigine, how else are we to breed the black out of them”. This presented again the reason as to why the Aboriginal children were taken away from their own cultures to be raised in something completely different.

‘We’re all Australians now’ draws the reader to see the war from a positive Australia home front perspective. Texts from

Due to the diversity of Australia, the definition of the true Australian identity has changed over time. However, there are several main attributes that have been embedded into the modern Australian identity, mate-ship, courage, resilience and acceptance. The theme in this anthology is war, this has been selected as Australia has been through several wars and, it is in these times where the true Australian identity stands out. It was during several wars where Australia’s national identity was developed and several significant, everlasting attributes were formed, such as, mate-ship, acceptance, courage, resilience and a never giving up attitude. In addition to that as a result of Australia’s diversity and increase in multiculturalism,

The immigration policy of Australia has been in a constant state of flux ever since Federation in 1901, when the first legislative piece, the Immigration Restriction Act, was introduced. The Immigration Restriction Act has become infamous in Australian history and throughout the world, more nefariously as the ‘White Australia Policy’. The White Australia Policy was Australia’s seemingly indestructible way of ensuring a White Australia. However, the immigration of European refugees after World War II, which aimed to defend the nation from Japanese invasion, challenged this policy. From 1901, Australia held a strong belief that coloured people, specifically Asians, were inferior and detrimental to the Australian way of life, and did all in it’s

The Vietnamese communities have played a significant role in broader engagements in Australian politics and society. The Vietnamese were used as the trigger for the real end of White Australia in the late 1970s.

Melina Marchetta’s Looking for Alibrandi compared and contrasted to Simone Lazaroo’s The Asian Disease exhibited in Alice Pung’s anthology Growing up Asian in Australia both explore the cultural expectations which subsequent to behaviours of detachment from tradition evidenced in the children of migrant families. Since complying to such unreasonable conditions is arduous for the protagonists in both texts, teenage girl Josie and the ill father are both victims to the loss of their individual identity in consequence to their traditional expectations. Such bereavement of personality is depicted throughout the texts when both characters undergo the harsh criticism of others which defines racism, the lowering of their self-esteem in result of the oppression they endure and the substantial struggle of Josie and the father having to establish a fulfilling life for themselves.

Central to Bird’s argument for the importance of reconciliation is the structural organization of the book. It is this that allows her to compare and contrast convergent and divergent views on the stolen generation and, convey the diversity of Australian voices from the personal to the official.

This novel asks a very simple question. What if, at first contact between native Australians and the British colonisers, things were different? What if the two groups worked together with mutual benefit, rather than be a story of domination and destruction? What if true friendship could be formed between the two groups, and by extension what lessons could we possibly take from this example

Home is about a Korean War veteran named Frank Money who needs to save his sister from dying. The story starts with Frank describing a scene from his childhood with his sister. They were in a field with horses he describes the horses being beautiful and brutal, but on the other side some men were burying a dead African American in a hole. When Frank becomes an adult he is soon committed to a mental hospital after his time in the war. Frank soon gets a letter stating that his sister was in danger and could die if he did not hurry to save her. Then he remembers his family being evicted and not being able to take any possessions. Frank then escapes the bastion of the

Hong Kong occupies a unique place in history; it exists as a city with an expiration date. In his films, Wong Kar-wai is known for exploring the idea of deja desparu—the already disappeared. In the Mood for Love was his first film following the 1997 transition, when the city changed from being a colony of Great Britain to the Special Administrative Region of China. The film explores the post-1997 mood and experiences a true sense of nostalgia, not for the past, but for that which could have been. The film follows Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow as they come to realize that their spouses are having an affair. In an attempt to process, the two attempt to act out how they imagine the affair must have unfolded. Although feelings start to develop between the two of them, they keep their relationship platonic—not wanting to stoop to the level of their cheating spouses. Additionally, they must navigate their neighbors prying and judgmental eyes. The film, hauntingly beautiful as it is, is an allegory for Hong Kong’s “national” history and its relationship with Britain and China—in an attempt to answer the question what will happen to Hong Kong come 2047. Different characters in the film represent different countries as the film follows Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow—who together represent Hong Kong—attempt to navigate the complex world and figure out where they belong.