Protest Poetry And Indigenous Rights Movement

The most effective poems convey the poet’s idea and influence the Reader’s Response. This is certainly true when considering the poetry of John Foulcher is a contemporary Australian poet who writes about his observation of everyday life, people and places, as well as religious history. The poet’s voice is distinctive and he writes in a condensed style where each word and image is very important and has layers of meaning. He also often uses very harsh and violent imagery in his poems, which can be very shocking to the reader. Foulcher uses a range of techniques in his poems to communicate meaning, including similes, metaphors, personification and onomatopoeia. The poems that will be discussed in this essay are Martin and the Hand Grenade

A voice of protest is important as it brings out a voice for the voiceless. This is evident in the quote “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty, truth and compassion against injustice, lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth” and in the poems ‘My Country’ by Dorothea Mackellar and ‘The New True Anthem’ by Kevin Gilbert.They show a voice of protest through the use of poetic techniques which show the importance of a voice of protest.

Within the two passages, two Native American writers, N.S. Momaday and D. Brown, deliver two contrasting views on the Native American landscape and experience. Momaday’s awestruck diction and peaceful imagery revel in the seclusion of a scenario which promotes creation. On the other hand, Brown’s forlorn diction and passive tone mourn the lifeless landscape and loss of people forcibly detached from their land. While Momaday writes to explain the admirable beauty of Rainy Mountain, Brown writes to mourn the loss of life stripped in the barren landscape.

Before we pass on from this world it would be nice if we had left our mark, given our contribution, made our claim in the history of human civilization. Wouldn't it be wonderful to achieve such a goal? Wouldn't it be horrible to have attained that level of recognition and yet be recognized for things you deemed inferior? In the poem "The Poet", Paul Laurence Dunbar expresses his remorse at having written superior Standard English literature and yet only be known and praised for his Dialect works.

In a time when Africans were stolen from their native lands and brought through the middle passage to a land that claimed was a free country, a small African girl, who would later be known as Phillis Wheatley, was sold in Boston in 1761. In the speech, “The Miracle of Black Poetry in America”, written by June Jordan, a well respected black poet, professor and activist, wrote the speech in 1986, 200 years after Phillis walked the earth, to honor the legacy of the first black female poet for the people of the United States. Jordan, passionately alludes to the example of Phillis Wheatley’s life, to show the strength and perseverance of African-American people throughout difficult history and how they have overcome the impossible.

Flashback to the 15th century: Puritans protest against religious persecution. Flashback to the 20th century: African Americans protest against racial segregation. Currently in the 21st century: people protest against police brutality in the United States. Flash forward to the future, Clarisse McClellan, a character from Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 individually protests against what she believes is corrupt in the world. Protesting is a symbol of strength and power within a group of people who are exhausted of inequality. Without protest, our civilization would lack the necessary balance between people and government, which is why it is such a crucial aspect of society.

Charles Perkins played an extremely significant role in the struggle for rights and freedom of Aboriginal people. He was born in 1936 and was an Australian Aboriginal activist, the first Australian Aboriginal to graduate from university, and he also led the freedom ride in 1965. He was a manager of the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs, an organisation that took a key role in getting a 'Yes' vote for the 1967 referendum regarding Aboriginal rights. His controversial actions allowed him to successfully reduce discrimination against aboriginals. He has also exposed the discrimination and segregation that existed in Australian society, he then tried to educate the Australian society to reduce racial discrimination and get greater equality or indigenous Australians. Perkins was later elected as the deputy chairperson of the Australia and Torres straight islander commission.

Individualism refers to the pursuit of individual rather than common interests, otherwise, egoism. In the novella, “Anthem”, Equality 7-2521 is constantly persecuted by the society that he has lived and grown up in for twenty years. Likewise, Neil from Dead Poet’s Society has grown up under the oppression of his father, whom never allowed Neil to make his own decisions. Both characters faced many obstacles to reach what they considered to be a happy life, but they both eventually escape their lives of oppression and persecution by different means. Equality 7-2521 (or Prometheus) and Neil were both unfairly held back and persecuted by their leaders.

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson (17 February 1864 – 5 February 1941) was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Bin-along, New South Wales, where he spent much of his childhood. Banjo Paterson’s, ‘We’re all Australians now’ was published in 1915. His largely optimistic and patriotic poem inspires readers of the Australian community to embrace unity.

Charles Perkins is a half Aboriginal man who was born in Alice Spring. Father Smith took him and other Aboriginal boys to Adelaide and brought them up in boys’ institution (Source1). When the Church decided to close it because of financial difficulty, Charles Perkins felt dejected as he stated “Which was a real tragedy”(source1) since the boys’ institution was producing some good results from the kids. However, he still faced the toughness in that time because technically he is in the term Stolen Generation and he had his own responsibility to look after himself (Source1). When he grew up, he continued his study in Sydney University (Source 3). Charles Perkins played a key role in Aboriginal right issues through very successful campaign in

Reflections Within is a non-traditional stanzaic poem made up of five stanzas containing thirty-four lines that do not form a specific metrical pattern. Rather it is supported by its thematic structure. Each of the five stanzas vary in the amount of lines that each contain. The first stanza is a sestet containing six lines. The same can be observed of the second stanza. The third stanza contains eight lines or an octave. Stanzas four and five are oddly in that their number of lines which are five and nine.

Jack Davis, Noong-ah, was born in 1917 in Perth. His mother was taken from her tribe in Broome and reared by a white family, his father, William Davis was also removed and reared by whites. Davis grew up in Yarloop in a big family of 10. According to Aboriginal poet Kevin Gilbert, Davis’s mother displayed grace and courage and self-sacrificing spirit. Jack had eight years of education in public schools, then worked as a mill-hand, an engine driver, boundary rider and drover which brought him into contact with the tribal people and afforded examples of the everyday treatment and victimisation of the First Australians. “No Sugar” by Jack Davis was first performed as part of the Festival of Perth in 1985 to great acclaim. Throughout the play, Davis depicts the First

“What I’m about to tell you, Corporal, cannot leave this room. Under no circumstances can you allow your code talker to fall into enemy hands. Your mission is to protect the code… at all cost.” In the movie, Windtalkers, this is how a commander wants his marine to treat the paired Navajo code talker. That is, if it’s necessary, his marine could kill the Navajo, just like abandoning one of his properties. Even in the mid 1900s, the Native Americans were still treated not as human beings, but rather, machines; therefore, it is not hard for us to imagine how even more frightening the Native Americans’ circumstances were in the early days when they were first colonized by the western settlers. In Deborah Miranda’s “Indian

American Racism Exposed in Langston Hughes' "Let America Be America Again" and Sherman Alexie's, "Capital Punishment"

“All literature is protest. You can’t name a single literary work that isn’t protest” was a quote said by Richard Wright. My interpretation of this quote is that through all of literature, there is protest. There is protest from the protagonists and even the antagonists. I agree with this quote because in every piece of literature there is a conflict that one faces, and characters show their dislike towards something in different forms of protest. This quote is proven to be true in “Screeno” and “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities”, both of which are short stories written by Delmore Schwartz.