How do the episode 'Redfern Now': Stand Up and the poetry of Ali Cobby-Eckermannn (Circles and Squares and Table Manners) explore the idea of belonging in modern Australian society?
Humans are made to want to belong and fit in with each other, however, it is not as easy as it seems. ‘Redfern Now: Stand Up’ was directed by Rachel Perkins in 2012. It revolves around the life of Joel Shields, an aboriginal teenager who is given a scholarship to a prestigious school, Clifton Grammar. ‘Circles and Squares’ on the other hand is an autobiographical poem about Ali Cobby-Eckermann, an aboriginal who writes about her upbringing. Both texts explore the idea of belonging in modern Australian society by expressing the inequality and discrimination they …show more content…
The whole episode of Stand Up showcases Joel who refuses to sing along to the Australian National Anthem and the principal forcing him to sing with the threat of expulsion. Likewise, in Eckermann’s poetry, she emphasises the rigid and stiff life “in a Square house” in which she was forced into. She repeatedly describes her life in squares and explains how unnatural it is in contrast to her aboriginal beliefs that “Universal Life is Circular”. Both film and poem look into the disregard of Joel and Eckermann’s own beliefs and ideas. They are not allowed to be themselves and essentially, belong. Furthermore, in Joel’s principal’s office, a captain cook painting can be seen in the background. Perkins has placed the painting there specifically to highlight the concept of colonisation. Captain Cook took the land that belonged to the indigenous population and turned the people into slaves. This is alike Eckermann’s experience as she “picked fruit and vegetables from a neatly fenced Square plot” and “kept animals in Square paddocks”. Aboriginals live wildly and instead ate “bush tucker, feasting on Round ants and berries” and “ate meat from animals that lived in Round burrows”. White and Aboriginal lives contrast each other greatly; Eckermann was forced to live a life so different from what she is supposed to. Both texts reveal that aboriginals are forced into doing things. Modern Australian society has not changed much from the past and continues to allow aboriginals to be discriminated and be forced into things despite their
Humans are made to want to belong and fit in with each other, however, it is not as easy as it seems. ‘Redfern Now: Stand Up’ was directed by Rachel Perkins in 2012. It revolves around the life of Joel Shields, an aboriginal teenager who is given a scholarship to a prestigious school, Clifton Grammar. ‘Circles and Squares’ on the other hand is an autobiographical poem about Ali Cobby-Eckermann, an aboriginal who writes about her upbringing. Both texts explore the idea of belonging in modern Australian society by expressing the inequality and discrimination they …show more content…
The whole episode of Stand Up showcases Joel who refuses to sing along to the Australian National Anthem and the principal forcing him to sing with the threat of expulsion. Likewise, in Eckermann’s poetry, she emphasises the rigid and stiff life “in a Square house” in which she was forced into. She repeatedly describes her life in squares and explains how unnatural it is in contrast to her aboriginal beliefs that “Universal Life is Circular”. Both film and poem look into the disregard of Joel and Eckermann’s own beliefs and ideas. They are not allowed to be themselves and essentially, belong. Furthermore, in Joel’s principal’s office, a captain cook painting can be seen in the background. Perkins has placed the painting there specifically to highlight the concept of colonisation. Captain Cook took the land that belonged to the indigenous population and turned the people into slaves. This is alike Eckermann’s experience as she “picked fruit and vegetables from a neatly fenced Square plot” and “kept animals in Square paddocks”. Aboriginals live wildly and instead ate “bush tucker, feasting on Round ants and berries” and “ate meat from animals that lived in Round burrows”. White and Aboriginal lives contrast each other greatly; Eckermann was forced to live a life so different from what she is supposed to. Both texts reveal that aboriginals are forced into doing things. Modern Australian society has not changed much from the past and continues to allow aboriginals to be discriminated and be forced into things despite their