Belonging – ‘We Are Going’

What does the Oodgeroo Noonuccal poem We Are Going have to say slightly belong and Not Belonging? How does the poet use language forms, features and structures to convey ideas and feelings? The poem We Are Going by Oodgeroo Noonuccal is about the displacement of the Aboriginal people in Australian society/ refining and their confusion about where or what to belong to as their traditional customs be taken away/forgotten. The text raises the issues and themes of Belonging through a mostly-defeated tone as it shows their loss of tradition and culture in the new Australia.In order to create a sense of beneficence and consideration for the Aboriginal people, the poet uses a range of language forms and techniques to cause effect in this text. One of the most important of these is the writers use of mockery in Lines 8-9 we see the words, We are strangers here at present, but the white tribe are the strangers. We belong here, we are of the old ways. This statement, in particular, exp resses the overall pith of this poem while foc apply on the Belonging concept.The writer put forward the interesting yet tragic idea that the Aboriginal people no longer belong to their homeland, whereas the White tribe who are unable to fully understand or appreciate it as the Indigenous do have now overrun them and belong more to this land now than they do. This side of the poem brings it its tragic and defeated tone, thus affecting the reader. The language the poet uses is quite informal and colloquial, without using any slang. The feeling created is that of a story-telling almost.They in any case use around Indigenous words such as corroboree and Dream Time. This is in-keeping with the poets heritage and the nature of belonging to a language and to a people. Using unusual, broken-meter and irregular phrasing, the melancholy mood is heightened in that it doesnt flow as a poem a good deal does. This puts more emphasis on each line and makes it sound less like a poem, more l ike a short story. Then, in Lines 8-14, the uniform repetition of the word we at the beginning of each line gives the poem a more defiant, hopeful edge making it sound like a pledge.The blunt contrast between the words We and They at the beginning of many lines de-humanises the White people, making them seem more like an enemy or foe. The poet also uses very emotive words such as Subdued and Silent, Dream Time, Laughter and Belong to cause effect, as well as Visually-impacting words such as Wandering Camp Fires, Lightening, Dark Lagoon and Shadow Ghosts. These add to the emotional effect and eerie feel. Like a true Indigenous person (the author is clearly Aboriginal by looking at her name and her use of they and we), they speak of the land like their mother, their provider (eg. The shrubs are gone, the hunting and the laughter. The eagle is gone, the emu and the kangaroo are gone from this place, and so the poet asserts a strong connection and sense of Belonging to the land and to their people, heretofore though they are dying out as a culture and community. As the final line states, And We Are Going, the writer is not except stressing that their race or clan is becoming extinct, but also that the traditional Indigenous customs and traditions and being forgotten.These are a part of the Aboriginal culture and a significant thing, which they belong to as a people. This is shown through the writers emphasis on these customs and traditions in such lines as We are the corroboree and the bora ground and We are the wonder tales of the Dream Time, the tribal legends told. When the poet uses phrases like The Shrubs are gone and The emu and kangaroo are gone from this place, she doesnt mean they are extinct completely, of course.What she is saying is, in fact, is that their traditional way of life is gone the hunting and gathering, their wandering camp fires. The White people have come and taken over their land and have chased away many of the native plants, animal s etc. and as such the Aboriginals are left confused and misplaced in their own land, becoming dependent on the Europeans for food, whereas before they were self-sufficient and able to hunt, and medicine, with the introduction of virus and disease.And so, basically, the poem is in fact a metaphor for the disappearing old way of life of the Aboriginal people and their connection and sense of Belonging to the land. It assumes a slightly nostalgic tone with traces of defiance in some parts but an overall sense of hopelessness and defeat. Through it, we the reader meditate on the idea of Belonging and ask ourselves what the Aboriginal people provide belong to in our society where their old traditional ways are being taken away. In the words of Oodgeroo Noonuccal, We Are Going.