Cronulla

text reveals a plan by Surf Lifesaving Australia to introduce new uniforms that conform to the guidelines of Muslim culture regarding women’s modesty. This was created by a program named “Call the Same Wave”, which was established after the 2007 Cronulla riots. Both texts cause the responder…

Political or social cartoons that often appear in our papers, use imagery and satirical text to comment on a contemporary social issue. They may contain a caricature of a well-known person or an allusion to a contemporary event or trend. By examining the pictorial elements of the cartoon, along with the textual elements, you can start to understand the message of the cartoon. This will lead you to understanding the cartoonist’s goal in persuading the reader to think a certain way about a…

challenges what I think about Australia and its people. The media itself reveals incidents of racism. Headlines or newspapers quite often discuss about disputes between different ethnics and culture, which mostly results in riots and fights. The Cronulla riots were an absolute classic act of racism in Australia. There was huge conflict between Australians and Middle Eastern youths. The animosity and the rampant violence that both the groups manifested clearly reflects that racism still exists in…

This book review is published in Teacher’s Weekly, a Western Australian magazine for teachers, to encourage their high school students to read the novel The Book Thief for them to gain an understanding of the importance of words and knowledge. This book review is targeted towards English and History teachers. Markus Zusak is an Australian award-winning author, having written two international bestselling titles, The Book Thief and The Messenger, and is the recipient of the 2006 Printz Honour…

Self-discovery transforms an individual to develop improved attitudes and perspectives which alter their previously held beliefs towards a social group. Through the process of self-discovery an individual is able to contradict and challenge prejudice and stereotypes. SBS’s constructed documentary Go Back To Where You Came From, follows six ordinary Australians as they embark on a reverse refugee experience; encountering the perilous and risky journey faced by refugees in Iraq, Malaysia and…

Discoveries lead to new perceptions of the world, new values and new understandings of ourselves and others. Ivan O’Mahoney’s Go Back to Where You Came From, 2011, follows 6 ordinary Aussies as they are challenged to review their preconceived notions about refugees by embarking on a refugee journey backwards. It is a confronting and provocative 25-day journey for the 6 participants that aims to stimulate new ideas for the participants and the viewer. The late 19th century poem, Invictus is a…

The Fear of the Foreigner Xenophobia can be defined as the attitudes, prejudices and behaviour that reject, exclude persons, based on the perception that they are outsiders or foreigners to the community, society or national identity. As citizens of a multicultural nation, we can be conditioned to fear and discriminate against those whose characteristics differ from ours. The drive to quickly divide the world into ‘us’ and ‘them’ are powerful in…

Violent, loud and highly socialised. Wolves are animals clearly displaying pack mentality. The minority of the group, the alphas, decide the behaviour of the pack. The behavioural patterns of animal species can be viewed in the societal structures of human throughout time. Groups such as the bra boys, a surfing gang located in Maroubra, have implemented pack mentality. But is this a negative or positive? Does pack mentality help or disadvantage society? Is it a social construct which should…

incorporates this technique, however I believe that it would be an incredible interesting and rewarding performance to watch. In an article written by Caroline Wake, titled The Politics and Poetics of Listening: Attending Headphone Verbatim Theatre in Post-Cronulla Australia, it states that audience members have said that the effect is “somewhere between acting, ‘being’, and possession.” As we can assume, being in the audience would be a different experience to being in the audience of a regular…

Australia seems to be blessed for producing beautiful films about real life situations fraught with meaning and mystery. The movies “Puberty Blues” and “The Year my voice broke” are of no exception. The landscape seems so realistic on the screen, and the sense of Australia's isolation does as well. The subject matter and thematic thrust of Puberty Blues is the girls’ inceptive desperation to hook into the “in-crowd”, but with a strong feminist kick. Sixteen-year-olds, Debbie Vickers and Sue…