Swallow The Air Poem Analysis

All discoveries involve the revealing of previous unknowns and the reconsidering of previously held beliefs. They are all encompassing ranging from the spiritual to the physical. They can be sudden and unexpected or be the result of deliberate planning. Often discoveries cause a person to reconsider their beliefs. The prose fiction novel Swallow the Air by Tara June Winch and the poem we are going by Oodgeroo Noonuccal share this concept. In “Swallow the Air” the protagonist May Gibson travels across Australia in an attempt to rediscover her culture and to discover her place and purpose in life after the unfortunate death of her mother. May is constantly reconsidering what she knows of her childhood and culture and then uncovers the effects of racism on the Aboriginal people. Another text that shows this is the poem we are going …show more content…
This poem is similar to the prose fiction Swallow the Air by Tara June Winch as they both deal with the dispossession of Aboriginal people and the effects of their oppression at the hands of the European Invaders. Both texts follow the lives of two women of aboriginal heritage. The idea that discoveries may lead to the challenging of beliefs is shown through the uses of juxtaposition and metaphors. In the first part of the poem Noonuccal is stating the Aboriginal connection to the land. This is shown through the line “we belong here we are of the old ways.... We are the old ceremonies the laws of the elders”. The idea that the Aboriginal people are connected to the land is reinforced through the repetition of the word ‘we, this allows the reader to discover are the Aboriginal people are connected to the