Oppression And Inequality In Oodgeroo's Poem

What is poetry? Is poetry about your feelings? Is poetry meant for you to deliberate or read between the lines? Elizabeth Alexander, a black educator that teaches poetry, believes that poetry is where you are your true self and finding yourself. In 2005, she published one of her poems called “Ars Poetica #100: I Believe.” She constructed the poem to speak to her students about her meaning of poetry. Poetry causes various emotions, various content, and based on various forms of realities.

Frances E.W. Harper and James Whitfield are two of the most influential anti-slavery poets of all time. Both individuals use poetry as a form of resistance and as a way to express themselves during a time of great racial tension. Their poems reach out to many different audiences, shedding light on racial injustices that were present in America. Harper’s and Whitfield’s poetry, like many other works that were written during this time, help us to better comprehend the effects of slavery on African Americans.

A main concern of the poet, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, is that during the white civilisation the aboriginal culture will vanish completely. Noonuccal states in We Are Going, We are as strangers here now, She also states in this poem, Notice of the estate agent reads: 'Rubbish May Be Tipped Here. ' Now it half covers the traces of the old bora ring, which indicates that there was already just traces of the bora ring but now it is barely there, the bora ring was a sacred ground to the aboriginals and now it is not being respected by the white people. In Then and Now, Noonuccal writes, Where that factory belches smoke; here where they have memorial park. One time lubras dug for yams; one time our dark children played, there where the railway yards are

Oodgeroo Noonuccal is considered as one of the most influential voices of the Aboriginal people through the European Settlement Era in Australia in the early to mid-20th Century and ideology and political movement. Despite the act of the government threatening the practice of international law resorting to force short of war in vengeance, Noonuccal continued to peruse her writing career. These provocative poems explained the societal differences and experiences she had gone through for the minority of her life. Social justice and human rights is a life full of opportunity and dignity, free from discrimination and disadvantage and at the time of the European settlement was an ideal not a basic human right. Aboriginal society was the consequence of collaboration between economic, ecological, social and religious forces. Traditional Aboriginal family life and the supporting kinship structures have taken the maximum disruptive impact by the European invasion. In comparison to the ‘whites’, indigenous were seen to be less superior and treated of minimal value. As a result of her ongoing work, Oodgeroo Noonuccal is seen to be one of the most influential ladies in Aboriginal history for the freedom and opportunity she provided for her people.

For my first event requirement, I attended the 27th annual African American Read-In. During the read-in, students and professors from Columbia State read poems and short stories written by African Americans. As a senior in high school, I had never heard many of the pieces read, and I had never heard about most of the authors.

In the poems “Frederick Douglass” by Robert Hayden and “I, Too, Sing America” by Langston Hughes, both authors engage in the common themes of race, oppression, and freedom, but Hayden contextualizes the theme in a wider mindset instead of narrowing it down to just black oppression, while Langston contextualizes the theme with a direct approach to black oppression and freedom. Not only are the approaches to the topic different, but they also relate through the messages that they are conveying about freedom. Both authors’ way of engaging with the themes alters and enrich the understanding of the issues at hand. They broaden the reader’s scope on race, prejudice, and freedom while informing the reader that it will take time.

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

In this poem last of his tribe. (Kath Walker) Oodgeroo Noonuccal talks about an older aboriginal gentleman and describes the loss aboriginal culture in modern times. There is admittedly sadness he is:’ lonely and lost here’ and:’ Left only with your memories’.

Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s We are Going, portrays the deep feelings of loss shown through the poem towards the aboriginal culture. The poem is written from a straightforward point of view that is easy to decipher. As the poem progresses it goes through what the aboriginal community has lost because of the settlers and how they are strangers to their land, ‘we are as strangers here now, but the white tribe are the strangers'. Noonuccal begins the elegy in the third person explain the loss, ‘they came into the little town’, however as the poem proceeds

Indigenous people claim a powerful voice. A powerful voice is when one speaks out against the norm for what they believe is right. As a society, it is important to have a powerful voice, that persuades others of one’s opinions and judgements to help better the world. This concept of a powerful voice is strengthened furthermore, when we consider the context for which they are speaking. Poetry is one of the strongest contexts, through which Indigenous people have claimed a powerful voice. This essay will examine two particular poems by Oodgeroo Noonuccal, All one race and Let us not be bitter, both of which convey contrasting meanings and expressions exhibiting that Indigenous people claim a powerful voice, specifically through the use of poetry techniques.

Oodgeroo Noonuccal was an Australian poet, activist, artist and a campaigner for Aboriginal rights. Her poems ‘We are going’ and ‘Let us not be bitter’ conveys the loss of the Indigenous culture and how much they suffered because of this. Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s perspective on Aboriginal rights is impassioned, concern and worry for the loss of her family and home. She expresses these emotions using imagery, poetic structures and poetic techniques, such as inclusive language and symbolism, to strongly represent what she is feeling and how much the Indigenous people have suffered through.

This poem however can be indirectly confronting to those who don’t share the same viewpoints as Walker. The also poem has a degree of stereotyping in the sense where ‘love your people, freedom to the end’ takes place however there none that really strikes out as it. The white Australian perspective above all is silenced in this text, marginalized are her perspectives of the coming days which may well be shared by many like her.

This poem is written from the perspective of an African-American from a foreign country, who has come to America for the promise of equality,

Poetry is considered to be a representational text in which one explores ideas by using symbols. Poetry can be interpreted many different ways and is even harder to interpret when the original author has come and gone. Poetry is an incredible form of literature because the way it has the ability to use the reader as part of its own power. In other words, poetry uses the feelings and past experiences of the reader to interpret things differently from one to another, sometimes not even by choice of the author. Two famous poets come to mind to anybody who has ever been in an English class, Robert Frost and E.E. Cummings. Both of these poets have had numerous famous pieces due to the fact that they both

Poetry is a varied art form. Poetry is expression with words, using aesthetics and definition. Word choice in poetry is the single most important thing. Devices such as assonance, alliteration and rhythm work in a poem to convey a certain image or to facilitate understanding. Similes and metaphors can take two unlike objects, such as a potato and cinderblock, and if done the correct way use them to describe how Abraham Lincoln dealt with scoundrels. Poetry is beautiful. One of the best genres in poetry, let alone a great literary movement is Romanticism or the post-enlightenment Romantics.