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English Assignment

Oodgeroo Noonuccal was an Australian poet who used her poetry to explore Australian culture from both Indigenous and white perspectives. Her poems focused on the racial discrimination faced by Aboriginal people and their spirituality. In the poems "No more Boomerang", "Son of Mine", and "We are Going", Noonuccal employs techniques like colloquial language, repetition, metaphor, and juxtaposition to convey these themes. "No more Boomerang" contrasts Indigenous and white cultures through the repetition of "No more..." and "Now...", while "Son of Mine" uses alliteration to depict the heartbreak of racism. "We are Going" emphasizes Aboriginal identity and spirituality through repetitive metaph

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Nina Tran
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19K views

English Assignment

Oodgeroo Noonuccal was an Australian poet who used her poetry to explore Australian culture from both Indigenous and white perspectives. Her poems focused on the racial discrimination faced by Aboriginal people and their spirituality. In the poems "No more Boomerang", "Son of Mine", and "We are Going", Noonuccal employs techniques like colloquial language, repetition, metaphor, and juxtaposition to convey these themes. "No more Boomerang" contrasts Indigenous and white cultures through the repetition of "No more..." and "Now...", while "Son of Mine" uses alliteration to depict the heartbreak of racism. "We are Going" emphasizes Aboriginal identity and spirituality through repetitive metaph

Uploaded by

Nina Tran
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Nina Tran, 9G

Oodgeroo Noonuccal, an Australian poet, uses her work to convey the aspects of Australian
experience. Noonuccal’s poems mainly focus on her own perspective of the culture and beliefs of
the both the Indigenous people and white Australians, the racial discrimination that the Aborigines
suffered and the Indigenous people’s spirituality. Oodgeroo uses language and poetic techniques
such as colloquial language, metaphor and repetition, to portray these aspects.

‘No more Boomerang’ compares the differences between the two unlikely cultures of the Aborigines
and the white Australians. The composer uses colloquial language along with many Aboriginal terms
and slang, for example, “No more corroboree, Gay dance and din,” to create a closer relationship to
the reader, allowing them to relate to the text as the language is familiar to them. Readers can
differentiate between the two cultures with the repetition of the two juxtaposing phrases, “No
more…” and “Now…” which emphasises the Aborigines’ culture vanishing while the white
Australians’ culture rising. “And work like a nigger / For a white man meal,” uses enjambment to
highlight the juxtaposing ideas, “and work for a nigger”, conveys the low standards of living of an
Aborigine using colloquial language while “For a white man meal”, portrays the high standards of
living of a white Australian using formal language. Noonuccal uses a variety of language and poetic
techniques in this piece to convey the culture of the Australian experience.

Racism is conveyed in ‘Son of mine’, it implies of the ungrateful deeds which the white Australians
have committed. The alliteration of the ‘h’ sound in this context, “I could tell of heartbreak, hatred
blind,” creates a mood of sadness as the ‘h’ sound creates a soft and silent sound, which symbolises
how the Aborigines felt when they were victims of racial discrimination. Oodgeroo uses juxtaposition
in the phrase, “When lives of black and white entwine,” to contrast between the Indigenous and the
white Australians, in terms of their race and colour. The idea of “black and white” which refers to the
Aborigines and white Australians juxtaposes with the idea of these two cultures being able to
“entwine,” meaning creating peace with each other, this emphasises the poem’s underlying
message, which is for a world of equality. In this poem, Noonuccal uses poetic techniques to portray
the racial discrimination of the Australian experience.

‘We are going,’ conveys the spirituality of the Aborigines. It lists the many belongings of the
Aboriginal culture that make up their identity. “We are the old sacred ceremonies, the law of the
elders. / We are the wonder tales of Dream Time, the tribal legends told,” the metaphors used,
compares the Aborigines to the sacred objects that define them, this conveys the strong connection
between the Indigenous people and their spirituality. The repetition of “We are…” emphasises that
all the objects listed, create the identity of the Aborigines. The phrase also uses inclusive language,
making the reader feel connected and able to relate to the text. A repetition of the word “…gone”
juxtaposes with the repetition of metaphors, it highlights the Aborigines identity being taken away,
as all the metaphors listed are said to be “gone,” it symbolises the Aborigines becoming insignificant.
The Aborigines’ spirituality is portrayed in this poem, ‘We are going’ using poetic and language
techniques.

Oodgeroo Noonuccal uses a variety of both language and poetic techniques, such as, slang and
symbolism to portray the aspects of Australia. The aspects conveyed, are the culture of both the
Indigenous and white Australians, the racial discrimination of which the Indigenous people
undergoes and the spirituality of the Indigenous people.

Nina Tran, 9G

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