We Are Going – Poem

 

We Are Going

They came in to the little town

A semi-naked band subdued and silent

All that remained of their tribe.

They came here to the place of their old bora ground

Where now the many white men hurry about like ants.

Notice of the estate agent reads: ‘Rubbish May Be Tipped Here’.

Now it half covers the traces of the old bora ring.

‘We are as strangers here now, but the white tribe are the strangers.

We belong here, we are of the old ways.

We are the corroboree and the bora ground,

We are the old ceremonies, the laws of the elders.

We are the wonder tales of Dream Time, the tribal legends told.

We are the past, the hunts and the laughing games, the wandering camp fires.

We are the lightening bolt over Gaphembah Hill

Quick and terrible,

And the Thunderer after him, that loud fellow.

We are the quiet daybreak paling the dark lagoon.

We are the shadow-ghosts creeping back as the camp fires burn low.

We are nature and the past, all the old ways

Gone now and scattered.

The scrubs are gone, the hunting and the laughter.

The eagle is gone, the emu and the kangaroo are gone from this place.

The bora ring is gone.

The corroboree is gone.

And we are going.’

 

Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Appreciating “We are Going” by Oodgerooo Noonuccal

Read Oodgeroo’s “We are going” (p. 32) and answer these questions on it:

 

1. Explain why they are “silent and subdued”.

   Because the town was overrun by whitemen.

2. How are white men represented? Why?

The white men are represented as ants because of how many of them hurried about.

3. What is a bora ring and explain why it is so central to this poem.

A bora ring is an initiation where boys are turned into men.

4. Explain their reaction in line 8.

They reacted in a way that was confusing. It was saying that the Aboriginals were like strangers, but the real strangers were the whitemen.

5. Lines 9-17 begin a ‘litany’. What is the effect produced?

1. Comment on the significance of metaphors used in the poem.

The significance of the metaphors was to make the audience aware of the issue.

1. Comment on the structure and form of this poem.

   The structure and form of the poem was set out in a way to describe what is happening. The form of the poem is made so that it doesn’t just act like a poem, but also tells a story.

1. Why does Thunder have a capital letter?

   Because it acts as a noun to name a person in the poem.

2. Comment on the mood and atmosphere created here.

3. The mood shows the people in a very upset way. The mood seems to be sad.

10. Combine comments on its theme, title and conclusion.

 

 

~ by ehab94 on March 7, 2008.