Cultural belonging in Genocide is Never Justified by Romaine Moreton and Women’s Liberation by Lisa Bellear
1. How are ideas of cultural belonging explored in your chosen poems?
2. Discuss representations of masculinity in your two texts.
3. How do your two texts explore issues of violence in nineteenth-century Australia?
The idea of cultural belonging refers to the feeling of belonging to a specific culture or a cultural group. This might refer to a part of the self-conception or the self-perception of the concerned individual in the matters that pertain to the ethnicity, generation, locality, nationality social groups, social class and the religious group that might bear its own cultural aspects. The following essay deals with the concepts of cultural belonging as depicted in the poems Genocide is Never Justified by Romaine Moreton and Women’s Liberation by Lisa Bellear. The poems majorly deal with the racial discrimination that had been profound in the areas within the Australian territories that had been colonized by the European light-skinned people.
The major issue that is discussed by the celebrated poet, Romaine Moreton in his poem, Genocide is Never Justified is the issue that refers to the issues of the racial discrimination among the various members who have been living in the same area. The fair-skinned colonizers of the area were described to be tyrannical and abusive to the indigenous people who have been living in the colonized areas of the country. The poem in discussion, Genocide is Never Justified by Romaine Moreton majorly deals with the oppression and the victimization that is faced by the indigenous people of the country (Cerce 2018). The poet states that the indigenous people who had been the residents of the land for a longer duration of time as compared to the colonizers are being mistreated and oppressed by the colonizers. The poet further suggests that the original residents of the area should be provided with at least the acknowledgement of their existence and thereby helping them to establish an identity of their own in the given cultural environment that has been existent within the Australian territories since the area has been colonized by the European members. The major distinguishing factor that helps the concerned people to differentiate themselves from the other members of the society is the emotional and the spiritual depth that is depicted by the concerned indigenous people.
The other poem that is being discussed in this essay, Women’s Liberation by Lisa Bellear further elaborates the factors that are pertinent in the distinction that exists within the residents of the colonized Australia (Heiss and Minter 2014). The poet in this poem focusses on the oppression that is faced by the indigenous Australians who have been a part of the population of the country from the times before the area had been colonized by the European light-skinned people. The poems in discussion discuss the encroachment of the colonizers on the cultural practices that are followed by the concerned colonizers. The colonizing of the territory has resulted in the perceived changes in the cultural factors that are prevalent within the concerned society.
Masculinity in The Drover’s Wife by Henry Lawson and No More Boats by Felicity Castagna
Thus, from the above discussion it might be concluded that the poems, Genocide is Never Justified by Romaine Moreton and Women’s Liberation by Lisa Bellear, majorly focus on the cultural belonging that is present among the indigenous members of the society that exists in the colonized Australia.
The concept of masculinity might in a broader sense of the term refer to the characteristics and the qualities that are depicted by the male members of the society. These qualities might include the matters such as the depiction of the boldness and the strength on the part of the concerned member. The following essay deals with the depiction of the masculinity in the two pieces of literature, The Drover’s Wife by Henry Lawson and No More Boats by Felicity Castagna. The selected texts in this case, The Drover’s Wife by Henry Lawson and No More Boats by Felicity Castagna is observed to have dealt with the themes of masculinity in a manner that helps the reader to understand the facts and the concepts that were dealt with during the time of composition of the stories.
In The Drover’s Wife by Henry Lawson, the female character is observed to be portrayed in a very convincing manner. The female protagonist of the play is seen to be stronger than her male counterpart, her husband. The protagonist displays all the required feminine characteristics and is observed to be playing the role of a very dutiful mother to her children (Lawson 2015). She is observed to have been prioritizing the needs of her children as well as performing every duty and action that is possible on her part in order to ensure the healthy living of her children. The female protagonist is also observed to be possessing all the desires that is present within the other females contemporary to her. She is depicted as someone who likes to deck herself up even when there is no one in the vicinity to praise her dresses and compliment her on her looks. On the other hand, however, the lady is observed to be independent and capable of handling all the odds that are found to be stacked against her. The male counterpart of the protagonist, her husband, however is often perceived to be a useless person who lacks that strength that is depicted by the protagonist of the play.
In No More Boats by Felicity Castagna, the protagonist of the story is a patriarch who has been rendered disabled as well as unemployed after an accident that had taken away from him his closest friend (Brown 2017). The existential crisis as faced by the concerned protagonist is observed to get merged into the concept of the conditions wherein the nation is found to be in a war with its own self due to some perceived threats to the island borders of the nation. The author of the novel attempts to discuss and reflect upon the self of the identity of the nation. The author in this novel put across the masculinity that is depicted by the protagonist towards his own family. The rage of the protagonist is observed to stem from the sense of self as depicted by the author.
Violence in The Chosen Vessel by Barbara Baynton and The Drover’s Wife by Leah Purcell
Thus, from the above discussion it might be pointed out that the theme of masculinity has been depicted in a vivid manner in the pieces of art.
The acts of violence refer to all the acts that result from any relationship that deals with the power that rests with one of the parties involved in the act. The acts of violence might include the acts of omission, intimidation, neglect as well as physical violence. The violence meted out might be of two types, physical and non-physical. The following essay deals with the exploration on the issues of violence as is put forth by the two literary compositions in discussion, The Drover’s Wife by Leah Purcell and The Chosen Vessel by Barbara Baynton. The latter deals with the depiction of the extremes of the physical violence unlike the former, though both are set against similar backdrops in terms of the area that is described.
In The Chosen Vessel by Barbara Baynton, the reader is brought face to face with the harsh realities that might have to be faced by the concerned residents of the Australian Bush, a rugged and mysterious frontier within the political territories of Australia. The novel opens with a mother who has been living in the Australian Bush area with her child (Krueger 2014). The timeline in discussion observes the entry of a swagman, a transient laborer who had been travelling from one farm to the other in search of a job. The swagman is found to have come up to the door of the lonely woman in search of some food that might help him to spend the night and then move along in search of work. The swagman is observed to be breaking the door of the house and forcefully entering the house that leads the mother to leave the house in search of help. However, she fails to arrange for the help at the right time and thus is found to be raped and murdered by the swagman. The story then proceeds to the description of the next day wherein the lady is found dead by Peter Hennessey who had been on his way to the town to vote. He considers this to be a vision and decides to change his vote and abide by the choice of his mother. However, when he later visits the church and talks to the priest about this, he is made aware of the violent crime that had taken place.
On the other hand, The Drover’s Wife by Leah Purcell is a play that deals with the ways in which the wife maintains both the resignation to the life as well as the acceptance of the same in the matters that deal with the violence that is meted out in these cases (Connor 2017). The violence in these cases generally refer to the depiction of the weakness of the protagonist in the matters that she had possessed in the past. However, the protagonist depicts a huge amount of strength in the matters thereby leading the protagonist to accept the life that she is leading in a positive manner.
Thus, from the above discussion, it might be said that the literary works in discussion have depicted the then society in a very vivid manner, especially the violence that had been taking place within the country during those times.
References
Brown, L., 2017. Australia day [Book Review]. Southerly, 77(2), p.243.
Cerce, D., 2018. The Aboriginal Intervention in Colonial Discourse: Challenging White Control of Cross-Racial Intersubjectivity. GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies, 18(1).
Connor, M., 2017. Revenge lit and the Mummy-Western. Quadrant, 61(11), p.96.
Heiss, A. and Minter, P. eds., 2014. Anthology of Australian Aboriginal Literature. McGill-Queen’s Press-MQUP.
Krueger, K., 2014. Baynton and Mansfield’s Unsettling Women. In British Women Writers and the Short Story, 1850–1930 (pp. 142-189). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Lawson, H., 2015. The Drover’s Wife. Arsalan Ahmed.
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