THE AUSTRALIAN LITERATURE

Running head: AUSTRALIAN LITERATURE
REPRESENTATION OF ABORIGINALS IN AUSTRALIAN LITERATURE
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1AUSTRALIAN LITERATURE
TASK 1: PASSAGE ANALYSIS
Representation of Australia’ and ‘Australianness’ in “Ten Canoes” from 6:50 to 9:30
The section of “Ten Canoes” from 6:50 to 9:30 had been selected for analysis since it
offers the audience a glimpse into the actual aboriginal Australia which had not been touched by
the process of colonization, capitalism and other kinds of evils that the western world stands for.
More importantly, an important aspect this section can be attributed to the fact that the director
had tried to take the help of effective storytelling devices and also visual cinematic devices to
showcase an Australia which had not yet being touched by colonization and is still aboriginal in
nature (Peat 2016). Furthermore, it is seen that the narrator Rolf de Heer who claims to narrating
his own story offers an insight to the audiences regarding the different myths, values, ideas that
the aboriginals believed in and also by taking the audiences back to the time of his ancestors as
well as telling the story of the incident of the forest he helps the audience to understand the kind
of life that they led (Imdb.com 2019). This is important since these along with the other entities
which are being elucidated in the section under discussion here are the elements which not only
make up Australia but also render to it the element of “Australianness” as well.
The section under discussion here is a classic example of documentary making wherein it
had been seen that some of the most contemporary techniques of movie making are fusing
together to make the section appealing for the audiences. For instance, the entire section is being
showcased in black and white so to convey the idea to the audiences that the concerned scene is
historical in nature or for that matter had already taken place in the past and the narrator is
merely retelling it so as to make the audiences understand the historicity of the tale that the
narrator is telling (Jorgensen 2016). More importantly, it is seen that the audiences get the

2AUSTRALIAN LITERATURE
impression that the camera is static at one place and the different aboriginal characters of the
scene are moving in the scene and this in turn enhances the documentary nature of the work
under discussion here. However, at the same time it can be said that this had been done so as to
make the audiences believe in the fact that the narrator himself is present in the scene and all the
events or “the vanished reality” of these people are being represented through the eyes of the
narrator (Strange 2015).
An important feature of the passage under discussion here can be attributed to the fact
despite using the modern techniques of cinematograph, the scenes are redolent with
“Australianness” and therefore try to offer a fleeting glimpse to the audiences into the real
Australia or for that matter the nation that it used to be before colonization or the arrival of the
European settlers (Peat 2016). For instance, the ideology as well as the way of life of these
people becomes apparent from the simple beliefs regarding birth, death, rebirth and others they
held, the topics that they generally talked about, their humor or comic sense and others. It is true
that these are simple in nature in comparison to the present day Australians yet at the same time
it needs to be said that this is what renders the element of “Australianness” to their lives more
than the present day Australians.
TASK 2: PASSAGE ANALYSIS OF “THAT DEADMAN DANCE”
Keyword: Race
“Wunyeran had politely sat through several church services and now, broken English
interspersed with his own language and again with song, he expressed something of his elder
brothers the kangaroos, and that trees or whales or fish might also be family. Or so Cross
understood. The sun was their mother ... Cross’s face showed he did not understand.”