Comparing Paul Keating And Noel Pearson's Speech 'Redfern'

Paul Keating and Noel Pearson, both demonstrate the awareness of the long term disadvantages the Indigenous people were confronted with for many years. They speak with passion and enthusiasm of the Australian land and people within it and understand that when it comes to Australians something has to be done in order for there not to have a division between non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal Australians. The two speak with intensity regarding this matter and provide insightful knowledge on our country and what it should be, they relate back to Australia’s history to illustrate what the Indigenous people have done for us and the land and create a vision of what our lives would be like if it wasn’t for them. These speeches mark a turning point in Australian history; they recognise the importance of Aboriginal culture …show more content…
Keating’s speech takes place in Redfern. Redfern is just a short distance from where the first European settlers landed and is now home to the first urban Aboriginal community. Keating was the first Australian prime minister to publicly acknowledge to the Indigenous that the European settlers were to blame for the misery they survived and continue to live in today. Pearson spoke at the university where he had once studied. As a university is a place of education and Pearson’s speech was given to develop his audiences understanding about Australian and Aboriginal history, as he was an active member of the Indigenous community and high profile Aboriginal law graduate. This speech was given 4 years after the Mabo decision rejected the theory of Terra Nullius and just a few days after prime minister John Howard criticised the ‘black armband’ view of history, which then caused a debate over how Australians should respond to their past. This was a time of social and political anxiety in Australia’s history as the population come to understand its brutal