Actor Discussion About a Representation of Justice with Relation to the Character of Ned Kelly
By Oliver Friendship and Ella Dittmar
Actor 1 (Oliver): Right then Ella, let’s just make sure that we are on the same page here. Our company, ‘Unearthed Voiced’, tours around secondary schools, adapting texts, and their characters, into contemporary plays. The current work we have been tasked with, is Peter Carey’s ‘The True History of the Kelly Gang’. The book is written by Carey from the perspective of the main protagonist; Ned Kelly. It is in the form of parcels of fictional letters ‘written’ by Carey’s Kelly, to the character’s young daughter; detailing his perspective on the major events of his life.
After reading through this work, and looking
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Carey shows his Kelly attempting to find some form of justification for his actions. He depicts him as someone who uses the supposed unjust acts committed against him, as validation and mitigation for what should only be described as heinous and unjust …show more content…
Ned Kelly’s pleas for true justice to end discrimination against poor Irish settlers eventually opened the eyes of people, and he came to symbolise a fight by a flawed hero for justice, liberty and the innocent. Images of Ned Kelly were even projected to a global audience during the opening ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Therefore, showing Carey’s Kelly as an everyday man who was the victim of the unjust powers that be, is only logical. By doing so, we can harness and perpetuate the existing love and admiration for Ned Kelly’s legend that is present among the contemporary Australian populous. We must definitely show Carey’s Kelly, and this particular representation of justice, within a modern adaptation of the work. It’s a representation of justice that many nowadays Australians want to hear, and will therefore connect
Celebrating the launch of the "International of the World's Indigenous People" in 1992, Keating addresses the "White-Australians" failure in recognising the injustices embedded within Australia's colonial past. Keating highlights the plight of Indigenous Australians through the use of highly evocative alliteration "devastation and demoralisation" to expose White-Australian's "failure". This reflects his condemnation of the "Great Australia Silence" proposed by Professor Stanner 1968, underpinning the prevailing social inequity that has been subdued and unrecognised by many Australians, compelling his intended and the future audience to revalue their preconceived understanding of Australia's colonial past. Furthermore, He skilfully employs logos to reinforce his argument in "the Report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody showed… past lives on inequality, racism and injustice", emphasising the social disadvantage faced by the ATSI community. Through the use of cumulative listing, "inequality, racism and injustice", Keating accentuates the importance of learning and recognising our past injustice to catalyse social progression towards reconciliation, constructing a sense of pathos that emotionally prompts the audience to sympathise with Aboriginal
Shame is defined as a missed opportunity but the word itself holds a weight that differs in each individual’s story. Kevin Gilbert’s poem ‘Shame’ seeks to explore aspects of white Australian identity while capturing a powerful perspective that forces the disturbing question concerning the discrimination of Indigenous Australians.
Edward Ned Kelly was Australia’s most famous bushranger; regarded by many as a hero who fought “for the rights of the battler.” Whether Ned Kelly was a hero, however, has been debated throughout Australia’s history. Evidence shows that Ned was a murderous villain who terrorised towns and robbed wealthy pastoralists; a man who broke the law and committed an array of crimes that were both evil and immoral. Ned Kelly was a villain; an outlaw and thief who is wrongly immortalised as an Australian hero.
Charlie articulates how he “never understood why you would ever feel the need to shoot the fish in the barrel… (if) they’re in a barrel, you’ve already caught them… they can’t escape... why bring guns into it?” Silvey’s use of characterisation and first person point of view portrays Charlie’s realisation of the community’s racial prejudice towards ‘the other’. The “fish” is symbolic of Charlie and how he is different to the people of Corrigan; who are like vultures – constantly seeking the chance to attack those that are considered the ‘minority’. Charlie’s close friend, Jeffrey Lu, is a gifted and committed cricket player who persistently tries to get himself in the local team, however, due to his Vietnamese background, “he’s ruthlessly bullied and belted about by the boys at school.” The emotive imagery and alliteration of “bullied” and “belted” further depict Charlie’s internal conflict in addition to his realisation of the community’s racial prejudice towards the peripheral of society. The use of emotive imagery positions readers to realise the extent to which powerful words can have; causing readers to recognise how crude and harrowing humankind can be towards the marginalised. Thus, Silvey effectively conveys to the reader how the indigenous race were isolated from ‘white Australian’ society; how intelligent individuals were ostracised; and, how groups of people with racially different backgrounds were isolated from mainstream Australian society.
Stan Grant’s speech ‘Racism and the Australian Dream’ (2015) effectively reminds the Australian population of the racism and harsh inequalities indigenous Australians have faced in the past and still face today. In reminding us of this reality, Grant engages us to discover issues of civic participation in Aboriginal people and in doing so perpetuates a need for social change. More?
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
Ned Kelly was certainly a villain due to his violent and bloodthirsty behavior throughout his life. Even as a child, Ned was involved in trouble and developed an early life of crime. To contribute to the crimes, Ned Kelly is to blame for infamous attack at Stringybark Creek. Finally Kelly was the gang leader in the merciless shootout of the Glenrowan Siege. Kelly’s trouble with the law quickly escalated through indecent behaviour, assault and stock theft to police killer.
In recent years’ opinion has become much more divided on the issue of Ned Kelly a villain or victim. There is no doubt that Ned was a victim there are many reasons to this. Firstly, when Ned was just a boy his father died so as the oldest in the family he took the role of head of the family for some years. Secondly, Ned was a bank robber and a thief, but do you know why? He was a bank robber and a thief for his family, his mother who was put in jail
After this time, many atrocities occurred, such as the fact that Aboriginals were often killed for sport, and massacres such as Myall Creek were occurring, where 28 Aboriginal men, women and children were murdered near Myall Creek Station in 1838. There was also the problem of the Stolen Generation, when Aboriginal children were forcibly taken from their homes to be raised as though they were white. It was only recently in 2008, that Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister of Australia at the time, apologised for the actions that the government had undertaken. In another apologetic move, Prime Minister Paul Keating delivered a powerful speech regarding the fact that Aboriginal Communities were still segregated despite the fact that laws had been changed a number of years ago. This shows that the idea of atonement by Australia is quite a new topic. Does this prove the challenges that Aboriginal’s faced nearly 200 years ago are still present in today’s society? It was enough to force the Aboriginal men, women and children to begin act in support of their rights.
The representation of Indigenous Australians in fiction and nonfiction texts are influenced by a range of factors. In the contemporary world of multicultural Australia, there has been a variety of ways groups of people are represented in texts. The Indigenous population is often portrayed in ways that strengthen harmful stereotypes. However, there are also a variety of positive outlooks and portrayals expressing their strength and achievements. In texts studied in year 8 English, the representation of Indigenous Australians in Crow country are characterized as outcasts and reflect cultural distinction. Newspaper articles regarding “Adam Goodes” demonstrates how preconceived thoughts from many Australians destroys sporting stars outlook upon
Why do Australians idolize Ned Kelly? Ned Kelly wasn't a man to be idolized, he was a villain disguised as a vigilante, An unearthly, inhumane and devilish man. He committed his first crimes at the age of twelve by stealing a horse from his neighbour, displaying downright harassing behaviour. Not only harassing people, he also took to a life of crime at an early age by teaming up with a known bushranger, a bushranger who spent thirty-two years of his life in jail. The poor choices Ned made, not only harmed ordinary townspeople but also harmed his own family. The harassing he did, and threatened to do was downright deadly. Ned Kelly would stick-up innocent hawkers who are just trying to do their jobs, he had the choice to be a good man, but he turned to the life of crime and robbery. No hero would ever dream of doing that. All of these facts further go to support my argument as to why I think Ned Kelly wasn't an Australian legend, but an Australian Villain.
In ways he is a hero and in ways he is a villain. Ned Kelly robbed banks which made him a villain/criminal. But he didn’t use the money, he gave it to friends and family. He killed 3 officers which is the worst crime you can make in Australia because it’s taking someone's life. He also tried to kill some police. He only became a criminal because of the police they kept annoying his family for mischief that they couldn’t solve. Ned Kelly was more of a villain than hero because he stole horses, murdered and lied. But his ‘prison’ wasn’t to hurt people but keep them entertained so he wasn’t so much of a criminal. He also was a family man so he loved his family and would do anything even robbing banks for their freedom, that’s how he got into this
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