Unit: The Changing Australian Voice ('The Man from Snowy River' and 'Municipal Gum')

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

Discuss how your investigation of the generic conventions of poetry has influenced your understanding of at least one poem that you have studied in this unit.

Australia is filled with many different aspects in which makes it the country it is today. I believe it is important to study texts that explore aspects of Australia by studying texts such as ‘The Club’, by David Williamson, a play written in 1977 about an Australian football club and movies such as “The Castle”, directed by Rob Stitch in 1997, about the daily life of an Australian family when their happiness is threatened when developers attempt to buy their house to expand the neighboring airport. Both these texts show us what Australian life was like in the past. By us looking at themes such as language, tradition and the mateship shown we are able to explore different aspects of Australia that make it what it is today.

This poem relates to Aboriginal Australian as it was written by the hand and views of one, and was written for the Aboriginals. The text itself is very emotive and powerful and I personally was unable to resist the emotions it reverberates however I cannot say whether it would be the same for anyone who could read it.

Mateship. Adventurous. Loyal. Free. Proud. These are the typical words Australians use to describe themselves, to identify themselves as different from the rest of the world. But who is an Australian? Someone that was born in Australia? Only people we choose to call Australian? People with great achievements that we choose to take credit for? Only people that love sport and vegemite? Or maybe only people with ‘Aussie’ accents? The Australian population is a proud one indeed, proud of their nation, their achievements and their own independent way of life, but sometimes us Aussies, forget about the rest of the world and all those other people that make us, who we are.

This text response will be looking the comparison of the two poems, ‘Drifters’ by Bruce Dawe, And ‘In the park’ by Gwen Harwood under the name of Walter Lehmann. Drifters is about a seemingly constantly moving family, it describes the process the family will go through leaving their newest home. In the park is about a seemingly single mother raising her children, it describes the mother sitting in the park with her children when a previous lover comes by and talks about the children. With in each poem, the form and structure, language techniques and the tone and message will be analysed and compared with the other to gather a grater understanding of the Australian voice.

Using you knowledge AND the documents provided, write a well-reasoned essay on the following prompt:

Paterson’s other purpose of this text is to promote nationalism amongst Australian men, persuading them to enlist. He deliberately emphasises on how everyone in Australia is an Australian, through this line ‘English, Scotch, and Irish-bred, They're all Australians now!’ This would make everyone at the time feel obliged to join.

Paterson’s Bush Poetry and his love of the bush, seen in his tendency to romanticise rural Australia and the stereotypical outback “Bushman,” assisted in immortalizing many of ideals and values that Australia’s felt they possessed and hence the formation of an Australian identity that people were proud of.

Initial Thoughts: Municipal Gum by Oodgeroo Noonuccal is a poem that interacts with readers emotions and creates a sense of empathy for the audience. The poem directly addresses the gum tree and associates its existing location in the city to its regular surroundings in the bush/forest. She uses emotive language and sight, sound and touch imagery to make the readers identify with the trees situation, which also relates to the situation of the Indigenous people. This poem represents how Oodgeroo Noonuccal feels about the way that the white men have constrained the Aboriginal people and made them feel as though they can’t be themselves in the world of the white men. An example is ‘O fellow citizen, what have they done to us?’

Australia has always been centered around diversity and change, specifically with the vast multiculturalism and migrant culture throughout the nation. The specifics of Identity hold an important role in shaping our identity as students and as a nation. Australians pride themselves on being a land of the free and full of diverse culture. This is specifically referred to in our national Anthem; “For those who've come across the seas, We've boundless plains to share; With courage let us all combine,”(McCormick, 1984). Displaying Australia’s open attitude towards immigrants and contributes to the diversity present within our society today. Even before this, much of Australia’s Identity was associated with caucasian culture (Originating from British Settlers). Which is the dominant perception of Australia through the media with australian representation being present through the stereotypes of Bogans, which was made popular through shows like Kath and Kim (ABC, 2007). Also, represented through the popular depiction of Australian people - the bushman made popular by movies like Crocodile Dundee (Faiman, 1986) and through famous real life bushman; Steve Irwin. An important aspect of Australian identity which is consistently neglected is the culture and representation of the initial owners of the land; the aboriginal people. Throughout history the constant mistreatment and neglect of the indigenous, has lead to a massive gap in privilege between the aboriginal people and our

Identify a relevant topic and describe it in detail and how it relates to your context

These words represent her love and patriotism towards Australia. She also personifies the land, referring to Australia as ‘her’, which could

Mackellar and AD Hope use literary devices like imagery, personification and tone to convey their perspective of Australia. The Poem Australia by AD Hope describes his negative opinion of Australia as he looks down on Australians way of life. Contrastingly, the poem My Country was written by Dorothea Mackellar at age 19 in 1904. She wrote while she was homesick in England and she expresses her deep passion and love for Australia as she compares the natural beauty of Australia to the landscape of Britain.

The controversial poem was written by Walwicz in 1981, 20 years after she first migrated to Australia from Poland. She expresses her feeling towards Australian observations, Australians and the overall Australian identity. The poem is most likely to target native Australians. Where in which she effectively rants about how cruel and narrow-mindedness they were to her by continuously using the pronoun