Australian History and English

Discuss the social justice issues that are evident in “Time is running out”, “Then and Now” BY Oodgeroo Noonuccal and the visual text The Conciliation” by Benjamin Duterrau, 1840 and “The National Picture” by Geoff Parr, 1985 by referring to both the poetic and visual techniques used by composers.

Social justice is an essential form of justice in several societies. Social Justice involves the action of setting a system of laws established by the society itself, usually benefitting the people but a major problem stands clear in this concept. The system allows dominating figures such as government officials and groups to create these laws which put to disadvantage the people under these figures. This concept is evident in the texts “Time is running out” and “Then and Now” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal and the theme is also apparent when comparing the two visual text “The Conciliation” by Benjamin Duterrau, 1840 and “The National Picture” by Geoff Parr, 1985.

In the poem “Then and Now” the composer Oodgeroo Noonuccal states “In my dreams I hear my tribe/Laughing as they hunt and swim/ But dreams are shattered by rushing car”. In the first 2 lines of the first stanza she utilises positive diction ‘dream’ and ‘laughter’ this implies her desire to live an Aboriginal lifestyle and for it to be like it was before white colonisation. Continuing into the third line of the first stanza she states “But dreams are shattered by rushing car” her tone becomes harsh as she abruptly utilises negative diction such as ‘shattered’ to describe her state of mind. Shattered means to break or cause to break suddenly and violently into pieces, which brings us to the theme of social justice. Before Europeans settled in Australia, Aboriginals had rights to their land and they were free. The settlement of the Europeans in Australia affected the Indigenous Australian population greatly as from the composer’s historical context we are able to understand that she had been subject to racial abuse during her schooling because of her ethnicity. During this time these actions where permitted as society created the laws. This continual abuse led the poet to leaving school at the young age of 13 and becoming a domestic maid. Social justice comes to play as the poet herself was an Indigenous Australian, and was ostracised due to her colour only because society had deemed it acceptable. The segregation of her kind led her to feel shattered as she states in the poem. Social injustice is present as the rightful owners of the land, were told to remove themselves again because society deemed it acceptable. The poet then further states in the third stanza “No more play about/No more the old ways/…/children of nature we were then” the continual repetition of ‘no more’ emphasises on the fact that what she writes about is now the past, she then states “children of nature we were then” this refers to her cultural belief as being descendant to all living things on earth, she again reminds us that this was in the past by stating ‘then’. After settlement of Europeans, Aboriginal were not allowed to, practise their beliefs, alienating the many Aboriginals from their own culture and religion, in order to bring them to the “white ways” by doing so many Aboriginals had lost almost all ties to their dream time, and the Europeans were able to succeed as society reasoned this acceptable. Social injustice is present as society and officials of the British Government accepted and allowed for the religious ties between the Aboriginals of the land to deteriorate, and considered it acceptable to ostracise and segregate on the basis of ethnicity.

Within the composition “Time is running out” Oodgeroo Noonuccal formerly known as Kath Walker states “The miner rapes/The heart of the earth” utilising kinaesthetic imagery and negative diction ‘rape’ to emphasise on the pain and the “emotional scarring” that the earth has been through whilst personifying the