For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. The aboriginal experience has been heavily portrayed in Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailmans play ‘the seven stages of grieving’ as well as former prime minister Kevin Rudds national apology, with the help of dramatic techniques in the play and literary devices in Kevin Rudds ‘Sorry’ speech, the concept of discrimination in regard to the indigenous Australians as well as the idea of reconciliation is heavily presented when interpreting the aboriginal experience. The 7 Stages of Grieving is a contemporary Indigenous performance text. It apropiates western form whilst using traditional storytelling. Kevin Rudds National apology took place on the 13th of February 2008 at 9 am in the Parliament of Australia.This speech was given with the intention to reconcile with the indigenous Australians and apologise for all the past governments wrong doings. In this speech I will be analysing the way in which the texts have presented the Aboriginal experience.
The concept of discrimination is heavily portrayed in scene 6 ‘story of a father’ of the play “the seven stages of grieving”. The scene starts off with the protagonist sitting on the edge of a grave, through this dramatic technique of stage movement the audience is given an insight on what the scene is going to be about, death. The protagonist is dealing with the fact that her father is not going to be around for much longer. Her father is only 48, this shows the audience that the life expectancy of an aboriginal person is lower than the average Australian. During the scene the protagonist stays seated and does not move away from the grave, this shows the audience that no matter what happens she will allows be by her father's side. This further reinforces the importance of family to the indigenous people. Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailmans incorporation of symbols and motifs when talking about the pain her father's near death is causing her emphasises the effect of discrimination. “The pain comes in and I cry, and cry until I can’t feel anymore. Numbed. Nothing”. The motif of the feeling of nothing reinforces the effect discrimination has on the indigenous people. The discrimination they were faced with from the non-indigenous Australians, has left the aboriginals feeling worthless. “The one thing that I find confronting about it is that everyone’s got to do it. Philip Ruddick, Alan Jones, Pauline Hanson, just for being stupid”, the use of political allusion and the naming of the different politicians that discriminated against them, shows that despite the fact that they feel worthless they are no longer afraid. This is done with the hope of confronting them.
In scene 24 “walking across bridges”, the concept of reconciliation is displayed. The scene retells the story of the walk for reconciliation, which took place on May 28th 2000, where approximately 250,000 indigenous and non-indigenous Australians walked over the Sydney Harbour Bridge in an attempt to reconcile. The event was a major turning point in Australian history as the amount of support the walk was given, displayed the how much Australia cared for the indigenous Australians. “They’ve written sorry (pause) they’ve written sorry across the sky”. Through line delivery, Deborah Mailman incorporates the use of pauses when performing this scene in an attempt to convey the dazed responses the indigenous Australians gave towards the “sorry across the sky”. The Howard government at that time showed no sign of empathy towards the indigenous Australians, which led them to believe Australia did not care for what had happened to them those years ago. The idea of reconciliation was beyond the indigenous Australians dreams, so the success of the event left them baffled. The scene was comprised with pauses to reinforce this idea. The pauses, as well as the use of ellipsis and sentence breaks, helped grab the audience's attention, whilst giving them a short moment to think about how the aboriginals may have felt. Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman incorporated symbols of aboriginal culture into this scene. “I’m walking across the bridge and if you look from a distance it’s like a colourful snake, (pause) like a rainbow serpent”. Through the use of a simile, Mailman compares the Australians to the rainbow serpent, a very respected spirit in aboriginal mythology. The importance of the rainbow serpent reinforces the comparison made, helping guide the audience to understand how much the walk across the bridge meant to the indigenous. The walk for reconciliation allowed the non-indigenous Australians to empathise and understand what the indigenous Australians went through.
Enoch and Mailman have presented the aboriginal experience in a very similar manner in terms of scenes 6 and 24. Most of the dramatic techniques including stage movement, symbols and motifs, line delivery and ellipsis were found in both scenes, this helped present the aboriginal experience in a similar manner whilst exploring the key concepts of discrimination and reconciliation. The use of symbols and motifs allowed the audience to gain an insight into how the aboriginals may have felt at the different times. Scene 6 shows us the story of how the aboriginals were discriminated against and not seen as Australians, this may be different to scene 24 because ‘walking across bridges’ was the first step towards Australia ‘accepting’ the aboriginals. This is an aspect of the different aboriginal experience, note, this was solely because of the different times and not because of the use of techniques.
The related text I will be discussing today is former prime minister Kevin Rudds national apology speech. The issue of the stolen generation is heavily represented in this text as the speech is targeted to those affected by the stolen generation. I felt the need to talk about this text as it was what I see as the face of reconciliation, which is a big part of the aboriginal experience. On the 13th of February 2008, then-prime minister Kevin Rudd formally acknowledged the suffering caused by decades of mistreatment of Indigenous Australians. Through his use of a metaphor in his speech when referring to cleansing Australia's metaphorical sins, “to remove a great stain from the nation's soul”, Rudd attempts to create an image in the audience's mind in hopes of those not affected to understand the severity of the issue and the importance of the speech. The ‘stain’ refers to the mistreatment of the indigenous Australians and the ‘soul’ refers to the indigenous Australians themselves. Most stains come off after one wash but some stains need to be prepped and then washed, even then a small discolouration is evident. The speech is the first step taken to remove the stain and everything promised in the speech is the process of removing the stain. The stolen generations will never forget how they were treated, hence, the material or the soul will never be good as new. Rudds use of epistrophe and anaphora is evident in the beginning of his speech and towards the end respectively. “For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations… we say sorry. For the breaking up of families and communities… we say sorry.” “A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions… A future based on mutual respect… ” Rudd attempts to draw emphasis on the phrases ‘we are sorry’ and ‘a future’ by using epistrophe and anaphora. The use of this makes the phrases memorable whilst grabbing the audience's attention as it offers something enjoyable to listen to as it has a rhythm and cadence. Rudds repetition of the phrases reinforces the fact that this speech is targeted to the stolen generations with the goal to reconcile.
The concepts of discrimination and reconciliation are represented in very similar ways in terms of Kevin Rudds national apology speech and ‘the seven stages of grieving’. The idea of discrimination is evident in Rudds apology as the main reason for his speech is to apologise to those discriminated against. Discrimination is also presented through referencing to the stolen generation. “We reflect on their past mistreatment.” “For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, we say sorry.” Reconciliation is presented in a completely different way to the play due to form and style. Rudds national apology was an attempt at reconciliation, he shows reconciliation by presenting the speech. Rudd incorporates more literary techniques which makes sense as his text is a speech and not a play where dramatic techniques would be used.
The aboriginal experience has been heavily portrayed in Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailmans play ‘the seven stages of grieving’ as well as former prime minister Kevin Rudds national apology, with the help of dramatic techniques in the play and literary devices in Kevin Rudds ‘Sorry’ speech, the concept of discrimination in regard to the indigenous Australians as well as the idea of reconciliation is heavily presented when interpreting the aboriginal experience. The play is profoundly composed of symbols and motifs which allow the audience to see the bigger picture as well as understand the importance of the play. The sorry speech is made up of metaphors which allow the audience to create images of important points in their heads. The aboriginal experience is presented to be seen as very upsetting in my eyes in terms of the way they were treated and how long they waited to be finally accepted.