Kevin Rudd’s Apology to the Stolen Generation. This was a very big step in the right direction for those who were effected by past Governments mistakes, by taking Aboriginal children from their parents.
A Video about the stolen generation
Added 20/2/08
Assessment poem
City Blacks
Stand at the end of your street
Proud
Ignore all the city folk
The whites, the cosmopolitans the Asians
Ask
Why my black son is not there with them
There must be a reason
Somewhere
Why black is so hard to see
This poem is about the oppression of the Aboriginals within society. The fist two lines suggests the feelings before the settlements arrived, the Aboriginals were proud of their land, their ’street’ in this poem. Then the next two lines invoke the emotions when the first white settlers came, the Aboriginals thought they could be ignored. Then the next two lines tell us how the Aboriginal people were completely left out of society. The last lines tell the reader how the Aboriginals feel oppressed, and how they don’t understand why they are any lower to the rest of society. The view point in this poem is from an ancestor’s point of view, someone who experienced the conflicts between the Aboriginals and the Settlers. The reason for this is that the word ’son’ is used, which tells us the author is talking about a younger generation, with the further questions of why he is not with the rest of society proving they have little knowledge of what has happened since the settlers moved in. The mood in the poem is very gloomy, and the same goes for the atmosphere, which also incites tension.
By Steven Zeater
Added 27/2/08
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/2f762f95845417aeca25706c00834efa/c30f8e402d86745bca2570ec000ace70!OpenDocument
Australian Bureau of Statistics Report about how the Aboriginal Life expectancy is unusually lower compared to other Australians.
Added 4/3/08
Little Bright Eyes
Her blackest face a picture waiting
A portrait
Of sadness
Her broadest smile a treat
A delight
Her age just a guess
A smaller issue
For her
Her future so unknown
Today
A shameful day
And
Her father is just a memory
Of metal bars
Cold words
And
Her mother so depressed by alcohol and despair
Confirms
She has lost a confidante
A family
And love
A tragedy
But still she smiles
In hope
Of a chance
Her courage so immeasurable
Her heroism beckons
That
Will one day save her people?
Little bright eyes
This poem is about a aboriginal girl who is very sad and she probably doesnt know her real age. She is all alone because her father is behind bars in jail and she has remembered about him and her mother is depressed by acohol. She also doesnt know her future any more. She doesnt know what to do. Her day today is the same as the other days, just stressed and ashamed. She has nothing left in her life. She has lost her family, and her love for her family. Her life goes by without nothing, just a tragedy but yet she is still smiling. She smiles because she is hoping of another chance and that one day she will save her people. This poem is a sad one because an aboriginal girl is all alone and she has no one to support her any more.
By Matthew Vitale
The Next 200 Years
You need not be sorry
In your heart
You were’nt there then
That’s your belief
Your
Whiteman quest
But
Saying sorry must
Surely
Not be that hard
You only need to shake my hand
Or
Give me your best smile
On both your good
And
Your bad days
And
Be my friend for free
Offer
Me your thoughts
Then
Welcome my black spirit into your life
And
I will welcome you
With all my black heart
To my tribe
You will lose nought
And
We will both gain much
For our children
And
They will never need to be sorry
Again
About the next two hundred years
the analysis
sorry is the key word in this poem it seems that sorry is what this poem is about they ask for an apology it says “You need not be sorry In your heart You were’nt there then That’s your belief” they know it the australians today but the whitemen the people who came here and took over and we could not stop it so they so you don’t have to mean it just say it its also says “ Saying sorry must
Surely Not be that hard” saying sorry can be hard sometimes but in this case it shouldn’t be. It says “ You only need to shake my hand Or Give me your best smile On both your good And Your bad days And Be my friend for free” they ask for an apology and all is forgiven be friends become one being able to talk and shake each others hand without having to make it into a big scene even if its a good or bad day they want to know that we are someone that aboriginals can trust, there friends then it goes “ Welcome my black spirit into your life And I will welcome you With all my black heart” they want you to welcome them with open arms do not treat them different and they will open there arms for you after it says “We will both gain much For our children” there children have been hurt bullied and pushed because they are different and people who stick up for the aboriginals are also being bullied and when the aboriginal kids grow up they will hate us they will do things out of the oridinary because of there experiences and finaly it says “They will never need to be sorry Again About the next two hundred years” meaning they know something like this may happen again but at least you said sorry now.
By Mark Espinola
Anthony Takchi, and Chris Attard are yet to hand in their own analysis as of 7/3/08 12:00pm.
