P3 Judith Wright

The poetry of Judith wright shows that an Australian Cultural identity is complex and hard to define as she expresses her personal strung;e tp develop a true and individual cultural identity. A cultural identity is a persons sense of belonging to particular group or environment with resinates with their nationality, ethnicity, generation, religion and any kind of social groups that has its own distinct culture. Many of wrights poems wish as “Niggers Leap New England” and “Bora Ring” highlight the personal guilt wright feels towards the displacement and dispossession of Aboriginals by her ancestors, as a fifth generation Australian. Many of the literary techniques of these poems reveal her self-association with the Aborigines’ love and respect for the land and her struggle to share that kindred connectives with nature. Judith Wright feels her home, which she loves, is not truly hers, having been claimed at the expense of another’s cultural identity, and so struggles to develop her individual cultural identity with a clean conscience.

The aboriginal culture and way of life revolves largely around their connectivity with the land because of their originally nomadic and tribal lifestyle. “Niggers Leap New england” expresses their loss of this identification with the land, because of their culture physically dying with them. The personification of the crops in the line “black dust…crops ate” symbolises the British ways of life, such as their farming, destroying the Aboriginal culture, represented by the black dust. The dust has a dual meaning and also represents the ashes of the deceased. “their blood channelled our rivers” is a metaphor of the Aboriginals having original ownership of and a deeps connection with the land. there is also a duality in this metaphor using the imagery of blood to symbolise the horrific treatment of Aboriginals that caused their dying culture. The repetition of “only” in “Bora Ring” reflects Wrights thoughts of sorrow for the small amount of Aboriginal culture that still lives on. The metaphor “lost in an alien tale” shows that the Aboriginal culture is being talked about in past tense, after being ruined, by foregone lips. There is no one left to tell their story. Wrights imagery expresses her sorrow for the Aboriginal loss of culture and her kindred love of nature.
Many images of nature are used in Wrights peoetry, not only to show the loss of aboriginal culture , but also the wonder and awe of the natural world and how this beauty resinates in the aboriginal culture. This imagery shows wrights respect for their culture, as an outsider, understanding and admiring their identity. The personification of nature in “Bora Ring” shows the aboriginal people represented by nature even when they are gone, mimicking the behaviour of aboriginals, essentially reflecting their culture. :The apple gums poster and mime a past corromboree”. The wind “mumurs a broken chant”, mimicking what belongs and keeping the culture present in the land. “Only the grass stands up in protest” shows that nature witnessed the brutal behaviour of the settlers and will forever hold the history of their culture. Wrights protest against injustice and the
Aboriginals fight for their culture is reflected in the personification of nature.
Judith Wright expresses through her poetry that she take the actions of her ancestors upon her own conscience. Wright expresses her thoughts that she feels the brutality of her kind makes it hypocritical for her to respect and long for the aboriginal connection with the land, as they are the ones that destroyed it. Wright struggles to remove herself from the stereotype that comes with being a white Australian, that they cannot fully have ownership of the land as it was made their home through destructively claiming it. Through the punctuality and changing persona in “Niggers
Leap New England” wright questions the morals of her ancestors “Did we not know their blood channelled our rivers” The rhetorical nature of the question and the use of “we” shows wright expressing the guilt she feels being associated with her own kind, questioning the acts of injustice committed with no remorse. Even the title of the poem shows the easy thought of disposing of the aboriginals with complete disrespect, “Niggers Leap”, to make room for a superior race, “New
England”. Wrights predetermined social identity was established at the expense of the cultural identity of Aboriginals. Wright shows the irony of wanting to create a more sophisticated society by the means of barbaric actions. In the line “how small the light of home” Wright refers to home as her own people and the light being a metaphor for acknowledgement of injustice. The metaphor describes how there is no dignity in the displacement, dispossession and death of the Aboriginals.
Wright shows how her own kind overlooked the loss of culture and kept it in the shadows. The

imagery of “Niggers Leap New England” reveals Wrights disgust in the lack of human dignity given to Aboriginals by her kind, and her struggle to disassociate herself with the actions of her ancestors.