Song of Hope by Kath Walker Essay Example

also has a rhyming pattern of ‘not rhyme line’, B, B, C lower case. Also, there is intertextual referencing to the ‘Dream Time’.

This poem is much like a story, and very symbolic. In the first verse if you should call it that, it is symbolizing the act of looking up to explain hope. It questions us, why were they looking down? Also, it talks about the dawn breaking which literally means the beginning of a new day but symbolizes a new beginning. The next verse is made to symbolize the new day, Walkers use of the word brood add quotation marks tells us that she believes her people were keeping the deeds of the past in their minds and not trying to get up and start anew.

Another use of quote ? cultural reference ? in the poem is when Walker says ‘point the bone no longer’ which means to sentence one to death. So she is saying let there be no more violence. In the lines that follow ‘till hate be hated’ she means that she is so sick of hate that she has learned to hate hate. She talks about doors being opened symbolizing the freedom which they have long yearned for come, and ‘dark freedom lover’ toosymbolize the mere colour of the Aboriginals skin, to show her belief that dark is not anti-happy, and free etc.

Some good ideas here This text portrays the Australian Aboriginal identity in both negative and positive ways though you have to know what went on with the Aboriginals and the white Australians to understand the negative connotations. For the purpose of this

text however, it is very effective in its purpose which is to uplift the Aboriginals spirits and to impart the dawn of their rebirth into freedom. Maintain a formal tone Develop your analysis further. You have some interesting comments.

Mrs Gravina ‘Song of Hope’ s a poem written by Oodgeroo Nuccal (Kath Walker) an Aboriginal Australian. The piece is classified as Aboriginal Australian literature. It was published in the 1960’s. The purpose of the text is to give hope in a new beginning after the events involving the racial tension between the Aboriginals and the white settlers. The poem is directed to the Aboriginal people of Australia who suffered from these events 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. 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.

Kath makes the poem very personal by the use of words like I and we for example, she begins the poem by saying, “Look up, my people”.

This makes it feel more tailored for whomever the poem is directed to. The poem also has a rhyming pattern of ‘not rhyme line’, B, B, C. Also, there is intertextual referencing to the ‘Dream Time’. This poem is much like a story, and very symbolic. In the first verse if you should call it that, it is symbolizing the act of looking up to explain hope. It questions us, why were they looking down?

Also, it talks about the dawn breaking which literally means the beginning of a new day but symbolizes a new beginning. The next verse is made to symbolize the new day, Walkers use of the word brood tells us that she believes her people were keeping the deeds of the past in their minds and not trying to get up and start anew. Another use of quote in the poem is when Walker says ‘point the bone no longer’ which means to sentence one to death. So she is saying let there be no more violence. In the lines that follow ‘till hate be hated’ she means that she is so sick of hate that she has learned to hate hate.

She talks about doors being opened symbolizing the freedom which they have long yearned for come, and ‘dark freedom lover’ too symbolize the mere colour of the Aboriginals skin, to show her belief that dark is not anti-happy, and free etc. This text portrays the Australian Aboriginal identity in both negative and positive ways though you have to know what went on with the Aboriginals and the white Australians to understand the negative connotations. For the purpose

of this text however, it is very effective in its purpose which is to uplift the Aboriginals spirits and to impart the dawn of their rebirth into freedom.

Fully initiated aboriginal tribal men, bound about the neck and wrists with chains to inhuman for even a dog. An unnamed photo taken by Josephine Flood in 1906. The purpose of the photo is to give an outsider a perspective on the treatment of aboriginal Australians. Though the photographer may have an opposite perspective to what the viewer might gain. The photo is directed towards non –aboriginal Australians and was most likely to be directed at white Australians. The photo relates to Aboriginal Australians because it shows the harsh treatment they had to endure during that time frame.

The photo itself is very emotive. I believe it stirs emotions that can’t be resisted whether they are emotions of pity or emotions of pride. This photo is also quite confronting for some whom are ashamed of this era. In this photo, the aboriginal women’s perspective is silenced. We are drawn to look at the middle man’s neck which is chained. We are drawn here first because it is in the middle of the page. The aboriginals are all of male gender and are fully initiated tribesmen who have been taken from their homes and families.

The photo portrays Aboriginal Australians as helpless. It portrays them in a negative and positive light depending on whose perspective you look at it from. The inhabitants of this country are the miserablest people in the world. The Hodmadods of Monomatapa, though a nasty people, yet for wealth are gentlemen

to these; who have no houses, skin garments, sheep, poultry, ostrich eggs, and fruits of the earth as the Hodmadods have . . . Setting aside their human shape, they differ but little from brutes. They are tall, straight-bodied, and thin, with small long limbs.

They have great heads, round foreheads, and great brows. Their eyelids are always half closed, to keep the flies out of their eyes. . . . . . They have no houses, but lie in the open air without any covering, the earth being their bed and the heaven their canopy. They live in companies — twenty or thirty men, women, and children together. Their only food is a small sort of fish, which they get by making weirs of stone across little coves or branches of the sea. Every tide brings them in and leaves them as a prey to these people, who constantly search for them at low water.

They have no instruments to catch large fish, should they come, nor could we catch any with hooks and lines all the while we stayed there. In other places at low water they seek for cockles, mussels, and peri-winkles, of which there are fewer still, so that their chief dependence is on what the sea leaves in their weirs. At their places of abode the old people and infants await their return; and what providence has bestowed on them they presently broil on the coals and eat it in common. Whether it be much or little, everyone has his share. When they have eaten they lie down till the next low water, and then all that are

able march out.

Be it night or day, rain or shine, ‘tis all one; they must attend the weirs or else they must fast, for the earth affords them no food at all. There is neither herb, root, pulse, nor any sort of grain for them to eat, that we saw, nor any bird or beast that they can catch, having no instruments wherewith to do so. -William Dampier (Excerpt from William Dampier Journal) This text is a diary or journal entry by William Dampier. It was published in 1776. This is considered to be in relation to Australian aboriginals as it is a description of them through the perspective of a white settler.

Its purpose was to relieve Dampier’s stress and perspectives on the aboriginals and keep record of his experiences in Australia. The piece of writing was not intended to be directed at anyone. If it were however, it would be directed at the white settlers. This text relates to Australian Aboriginals as it is a description of them through the eyes of a white settler. It is a very opinionated description which stirs multiple emotions from disgust and sadness if you disagree, to perhaps support and pride if one were to agree.

This text also has a great deal of stereotyping, on many occasion he calls the aboriginal miserable, brutes, nasty, and all round uncivilized. The aboriginal perspective is silenced as well as women settlers. Dampier, as one would expect in a journal or a diary, vexes over the ways of the aboriginals that he simply cannot understand. He speaks of them as if they are to be pitied

for their low standard of living. This text portrays Australian aboriginals in a negative light. It is saying that they are low living, and barbaric, and that they can barely survive with their undeveloped tools and hunting methods.