Despite being set during different historical periods both 'The Secret River' and 'Rabbit Proof Fence' present values pertaining to what it means to be Australian.
Both Greenville and Noyce represent characters who have the relationship with the land that is uniquely Australian. In 'Secret River', Thornhill felt threatened by the Aboriginal people as he's seen them dancing every night, which it made he thought the Aboriginal people were planning to attack the white settlers, "For every night of that week, the blacks danced and sang." In the same way, in 'Rabbit-Proof Fence,' the elder women engaged in a ceremony and sang in order to will the girls home. This clearly shows that there is a sense of strong connection between the land and the Aboriginal people. Even though the white people felt threatened and strange in both texts, but they did not know what to do or trying to stop them because of the lacking knowledge of the Aboriginal culture. However, Thornhill believed …show more content…
In 'The Secret River', Thornhill sees ownership of the land as a short and simple process. This contrast to the Aboriginal views of ownership who saw their humanlike statues as being below that of the land - the land was something that owned him. "Mine..." Like 'The Secret River', 'Rabbit-Proof Fence' shows a scene when the children are taken the police is extremely dramatic and intense. The scene of screaming of the children and the mother, her repeating the word "Mine" showing her ownership of her children and the outburst feeling created through the hand-held camera. Although, there are two different feeling on these examples. To Thornhill, the land belongs to nobody, or either the Aboriginal people. This shows how the white settlers understanding of ownership of the Aboriginal conception that they and the land are
Both Greenville and Noyce represent characters who have the relationship with the land that is uniquely Australian. In 'Secret River', Thornhill felt threatened by the Aboriginal people as he's seen them dancing every night, which it made he thought the Aboriginal people were planning to attack the white settlers, "For every night of that week, the blacks danced and sang." In the same way, in 'Rabbit-Proof Fence,' the elder women engaged in a ceremony and sang in order to will the girls home. This clearly shows that there is a sense of strong connection between the land and the Aboriginal people. Even though the white people felt threatened and strange in both texts, but they did not know what to do or trying to stop them because of the lacking knowledge of the Aboriginal culture. However, Thornhill believed …show more content…
In 'The Secret River', Thornhill sees ownership of the land as a short and simple process. This contrast to the Aboriginal views of ownership who saw their humanlike statues as being below that of the land - the land was something that owned him. "Mine..." Like 'The Secret River', 'Rabbit-Proof Fence' shows a scene when the children are taken the police is extremely dramatic and intense. The scene of screaming of the children and the mother, her repeating the word "Mine" showing her ownership of her children and the outburst feeling created through the hand-held camera. Although, there are two different feeling on these examples. To Thornhill, the land belongs to nobody, or either the Aboriginal people. This shows how the white settlers understanding of ownership of the Aboriginal conception that they and the land are