Christine McFarlane
Reflective Journal- Week 3
First, I would like to note that I admire how our lecturers at the beginning of each lecture acknowledge the land of the Eora people in which we currently stand upon. I find it admirable especially because of how it ties into this past week’s topics of land and culture. In recognizing the original inhabitants, it is showing a respect for those who stood before us and lets them know that they are not forgotten.
Understanding Indigenous Land, Culture and how Indigenous people view it, as integral to cultural continuity is important when you are learning about a people other than your own. It not only explains who they are, but also teaches you their worldview and how they see themselves in relation to the world around them. As a First Nations woman from Canada, I can relate with the Indigenous people of Australia and how they see land and culture as being inextricably tied together, because land and culture to me personally is the backbone to your very own identity and who you are.
Our introduction to Module 3: Indigenous Land and Culture reads that “through colonization many Indigenous Australians were removed from their place of origins and the colonists assumed that these ties were broken.” (Course Reader, 2010) However through this week’s lectures and films, it is easy to see that Indigenous Australians are anything but removed from their country, languages and traditions, and their heritage is very much alive and thriving. This was evident not only through the films we saw but also when lecturer Michelle Blanchard spoke about how land can play a huge role in your sense of belonging. Blanchard stated that there can be many things that give you a sense of belonging, but four key areas include “family, language, religion, and health”. (Blanchard, 2010) It is also important to note that the above four areas I have mentioned also can include ‘having a shared history’ with a group of people that can help you experience that sense of belonging that everyone and everything yearns to have.
In the article ‘Country’ it states, “Each country has its sacred origins, its sacred and dangerous places, its sources of life and its sites of death. Each has its own people, its own Law, its own way of life.” (Rose D.B, 1996) This is particularly evident in the movie “Ten Canoes” and in the film “Shadow Sister’ in which we are introduced to the Grandmother of Aboriginal Literature, Kath Walker.
It is through literature that we are witness to the connection of land and culture, and how some authors have been able to address the issues of culture and politics, whereas giving them a voice on paper, where they could not express it in other venues. According to the reading Aboriginal Literature, “Aboriginal literature as we know it today had its origins in the late 1960s as the intensification of Aboriginal political activity posed an increasing range of aesthetic questions and possibilities for Aboriginal authors.”
According to the film “Shadow Sister’ and to some further research Kath Walker, who resumed her traditional name in 1988 to acknowledge her Noonuccal ancestors, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, was a poet, activist and public speaker and was “largely responsible for a change in attitude towards her people.” (http://www.marcom.com.au)
Through her writing, and political activism, Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonuccal) articulated the feelings of Aboriginal people for the rest of Australia in a way that they had not heard before. This is evident in one of her most famous poems and her first book “We are Going” where she states
“They came in to the little town
A semi-naked band subdued and silent
All that remained of their tribe
They came here to the place of their old bora ground
Where now the many white men hurry about like ants
Notice of the estate agent reads “Rubbish May Be Tipped Here.”
Now it half covers the traces of the old bora ring
“We are as strangers here now, but the white tribe are the strangers.”
We belong here, we are of the old ways.”
(http://www.cit.griffith.edu.au/~davidt/redlandbay/oodgeroo.htm)
Kath Walker, through the above noted poem clearly establishes the colonization of her people, how they have been made to be strangers. She also notes that though the old bora (sacred land) ring is half covered, they still rightfully belong to the land and their identity is established through the old ways.
In returning to her homeland of Stradbroke Island, she established a cultural and educational centre and personally undertook educating thousands of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people about Aboriginal culture. This establishes that though she returned to her homeland later in life, her desire to know her cultural roots never left her, and she evidently passed her knowledge onto others so that the history and culture of her people would continue.
Works Cited:
Michelle Blanchard (Lecture) Issues in Indigenous Land and Culture, University of Sydney, July 13, 2010.
Heiss, Anita & Minter, Peter Aboriginal Literature: Macquariem PEN anthology of Aboriginal Literature/edited by Anita Heiss and Peter Minter; general editor, Nicholas Jose. Crows Nest, N.S.W: Allen &Unwin, 2008. Introduction: Aboriginal Literature
Inside Australia: Indigenous Australian Studies-Course Reader, p. 34, 2010
Rose D B, (1996) ‘Country’ Chapter 1 in Nourishing terrains: Australian Aboriginal views of landscape and wilderness, Canberra: Australian Heritage Commission. (pp.7-13)
T, David ( 2007) Oodgeroo Noonuccal biography poetry Publication List. Retrieved July 7, 2010 from http://www.cit.griffith.edu.au/~davidt/redlandbay/oodgeroo.htm
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