Summative Entry

What insights has your study of Australian Literature and Art given you into the importance of creativity as part of human experience?

Australian Literature and art has never been my area of focus overall. When I started this unit, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to learn more about Australian Literature. The way I saw it was that it was an Australian perspective on how literature was. How ignorant! I hadn’t realised that there was a whole scene of Australian literature that I was not aware of.

As Les Murray’s poem “The Cool Green” expresses,  “How did money capture life; away from poetry, ideology, religion? “. We/ I am so blinded by the glitter and gold that the only thing I see is stars. I didn’t notice the beautiful night sky that was a home to these stars. All I could focus on was the brightest sky. Michael has been the grey clouds (not because of his hair) that brings the rain and thunderstorm, which made me realise that there is so much more to the sky than just a handful of bright stars.

I couldn’t name a single Australian artist before I started this unit. Now I can name more than 15! And what baffles me more is that I can relate to more of them than what I could imagine. As I’ve progressed through the blogs for this unit, I’ve titled them mostly with single words or short phrases, and it is truly a reflection on how this unit has helped me correct some of my ignorance.

My first blog is titled The Crude Reality, it is my first look into reality and how unaware of it I was. It was a self reflection on how the English language has allured me into studying it and embracing it more than my mother tongue. I can still feel the adrenaline on the tip of my fingertips as I typed that blog out, while I read the post. I believe that it is one of my best critical. My second blog is titled Treaty?, it refers to the song by Yothu Yindi and also to the unjust Australia Day that celebrates Australia but mocks the aboriginal community.

My third blog is titled Predictability and it reflects the me coming face to face with how predictable our life has become and how much it bothers us when we can’t have things our way; this is followed by Assertion which boosted my acceptance of this unit, reflected by the Untitled (Jupiter Well to Tjukula) painting by Uta Uta Tjukula. This progresses through with my other blogs and ends with Purpose and Reflection.

I believe that this unit has given me a purpose to follow what I believe in although it may not seem like the best alternative in the present scenario. It made me reflect on how vain my life has been and how governed by success and ignorance it has been. This unit has given me strong female role models like Mary Gilmore and Judith Wright, who have always fought for what they believed in. And other role models like Kim Scott, who was not ashamed for who he is and who fought for his own people.

This unit has been a rollercoaster ride. I started out nervous, after a few seconds in – thought it might’ve been a bad idea but fell in love with that adrenaline rush and would go back for more.

Thank you, Michael. You made this unit even better than it already was.

Prarthana

Reflection

A Mid-Summer Noon in the Australian Forest by Charles Harpur is a beautiful poem that emphasises on a single strong presence that leads to silence, whereas in “BellBirds” by Henry Kendall focuses on the abundant presence of bell-birds and their humming that echoes and creates an ambience of home. In Harpur’s poem, the object is unknown and the availability of the object is vague, he stirs the attention to the other things that are present in the surroundings. It creates reflection inside the poem that resonated the beauty of his inspiration.

In Harpur’s poem, the object is unknown and the availability of the object is vague, he stirs the attention to the other things that are present in the surroundings. It creates reflection inside the poem that resonated the beauty of his inspiration. As he puts it on his last line, ” Musing thus of quietness”.

Kendall’s poem is completely opposite to Harpur’s. Instead of a single presence, he talks about the abundant presence of bellbirds that enhance the beauty of daytime.

“It lives in the mountain where moss and the sedges
Touch with their beauty the banks and the ledges.
Through breaks of the cedar and sycamore bowers
Struggles the light that is love to the flowers;”

He adds appeal to the surroundings and the Australian landscape through the help of the bellbirds. The bellbirds are made to seem like the glitter to the gold that is Australian landscape. 

These contrasts made in the two poems by these writers struck me about how differently these things reflect on us depending on our what is influencing us. This has made me think about how this unit may have affected all of us with our individual lives.

 

Purpose

Inspired by “The Cool Green” by Les Murray

Pretty butterflies in the sky,
why do you fly?
Pretty butterflies in the sky,
do you earn?

Little ants on the ground,
why do you push yourself so hard?
Little ants on the ground,
do you have a currency?

Oh Almighty humans in the world,
why do you chase money?
Oh Almighty humans in the world,
do you only do it to feed yourself?

Godly earth that spins around,
why did you let us figure you out?
Godly earth that spins around,
Should’ve never let yourself be found.

Don’t let man vanquish every bit of you,
Although man may not be as big as the dinosaurs,
It is very lethal.
It will suck you dry and manage to create another earth!
This curiosity and greed of consumption are what drives it after all.

 

Peer Review 7

For this week, I’ve decided to peer review Sarah Azzopardi‘s blog post Blog 8: Les Murray.

It was very refreshing to read Sarah’s poem inspired by “The Cool Green” by Les Murray. I have very similar views to Sarah, money that was created for an easier means to support of wellbeing and needs has changed to become a curse that is ruling our lives. It affects everything from the products we use to the university we choose.

I love how Sarah has used the three sisters as her background. I would like to suggest her put the picture as a single picture and make her content central. The beautiful three sisters kept distracting me from her content because of beautiful blues and greens in the picture, which could’ve been her intention all along.

Your blog looks lovely, Sarah!  Good luck on the e-portfolio!

Prarthana

Peer Review #6

For this week’s Peer Review, I’m reviewing Claudia Barkil‘s blog post Week 6 about Henry Kendell and Charles Harpur.

Hey Claudia,

I love your review on Charles Harpur and Henry Kendall. I agree with you on how both of them are trying to emphasise the beauty of Australian nature, both in completely different manners. While on is discussing the humming of bellbirds the other is describing the stillness through the stillness of something.

Overall I love the post, although I did find some spelling errors at the end of the post. At the end of the post, you seem to have difficulty trying to express yourself as the sentences seem a bit repetitive and confusing. I’m sure you’ll be able to fix this once you go through it.

I love the design and incorporation of aboriginal art in your blog. Looking forward to reading some more of your work.

Good Luck!

Prarthana

Commiseration

“Our ferry is homesick, whistling again and again;
But still I see how the myth of a daylight bled
Standing in ribbons, over out heads, for an hour.”  – Francis Webb

This is the last prose from the poem “End of the Picnic” by Francis Webb. I find the title of this poem very powerful – “End of the Picnic”. Nobody enjoys an end of the picnic, this means that you’re going home to your mundane life where you need to go ahead with your daily chores. Here Webb states that the ship he is on is whistling to reach the harbour, it sounds so impatient that it may almost be homesick. But he still sees the “myth” of daylight bled; as the dusk approaches and the colors start bleeding through the blue sky creating the illusion of bloodshed, in streaks of clouds like ribbons. Webb connects this to the history of Australia where there has been too much blood loss; he sees the battle of the beach and the sea on the sky above. The orange beach like the clouds and the blue ocean like the sky, slowly merging together. It causes an illusion of bloodshed, which is indeed a reality yet just a myth.

I took this picture on May 9, 2016. And it happened in a split second but all I could think about was these last four lines from Webb’s poem

 

These powerful transports me to a boat as I’m returning home, thinking of all that was and all that could’ve been. But I’m powerless all I can do is contemplate these myths.

Lest We Forget

“Closed are the doors that stood so wide-
The white beds empty, side by side.”

These are the last lines from the poem The Measure by Mary Gilmore.

Mary is trying to express death in these two lines of the poem and the image that she uses is extremely compelling. The term ‘open doors’ usually indicated potential or opportunities, but these doors that were open wide are now closed. there is no opportunity after death and the beds they occupied while they were injured after war is now empty.

 

Stamford Military Hospital 1917

This draws a strong concern towards all the young children that were being deployed for the means of war which was not only cruel but unjustifiable. All the lives that they lost just for hatred and power.

 

I would like to commend Micheal for timing this poem and period right before the ANZAC day long weekend, compelling us to understand why this day is so important for us; why their lives matter so much and why this subject is still so sensitive after 100 years of it.

War is a very brutal solution which cannot be justified for any reason. All we can do now is honour the people who fearlessly entered the battlefield and defended this country.

 

Peer review #5

For this week’s peer review I’ve chosen Georgiana Bou-said ‘s blog on Mary Gilmore, also titled Mary Gilmore.

I loved the background on Mary Gilmore that Georgiana provided. As the blog is titled after the writer, her description allowed me to get a sense about why the blog was titled after her. In saying this, I would’ve loved a brief introduction in her transition to the poem, “The measure”. The transition to the description of the poem felt abrupt.

Overall, I would love to have read more about her thoughts on the poem. Hey brief description of the only gave me insight on what the poem itself was trying to say and not much on her reflection of the poem.

I also love the blog header. Looking forward to reading more of your blogs, Georgiana!

Cheers!

Peer Review #4

For this week’s peer review, I’ve chosen Barbara Apicella‘s post Perspective.

The way Barbara has chosen to review her perspective on the two poems by Charles Harpur and Henry Kendall is very interesting. Although breaking down the poems and then explaining them did help me understand her interpretation but I also felt that the poem covered more of the post and I couldn’t feel a flow in the whole post.

My connection with what she was trying to say broke because I had to scroll down through the poems to read the complete picture of what Barbara was trying to say. I really loved Barbara’s spirit in this post. I would’ve loved to read more of her. But her sentences seemed to be cut short and abrupt. A little more emphasis on the flow of sentences would make her posts more appealing to the readers.

Overall, great post! There are some grammatical errors that can be fixed with a final proof read but nothing too major and the content overall was very enlightening and spirited. Look forward to reading more from you, Barbara!

Assertion

 

Untitled (Jupiter Well to Tjukula) 1979  by Uta Uta Tjangala

As I saw this painting at the end of the tour – I was mesmerised; then I was furious. All the paintings, except for a few, that Michael  had shown us were done by white people! Yes, some of them were influenced by indigenous art but nonetheless by settlers. All we were studying was yet again a foreign art form. But then as I held on to my senses and studied this painting, I realised that this painting is dated 1979 AD – only 12 years after the aboriginal were granted Australian citizenship.

This opened me up to a whole new meaning. This  230.0 x 380.0 cm painting gave out a strong surge of energy. It felt like Assertion. These patterns in the paintings may have a different meaning in the aboriginal culture, but it seemed like the circular patterns represented different aboriginal tribes, all of them similar yet different from each other. All of them have the same core values of being a circle; another interesting feature about the painting is that all of it is formed with dots – which could represent people. The formation of it is more or less the same but all of the circles are connected.

The rest of the patterns seems very intrusive in the painting. All of them are different and from different directions, moving towards different directions. But the circles stand out and they’re fighting these patterns from breaking their link with each other and also from their core. I believe that this painting comes as a statement that they will fight together for what they rightfully deserve. And as long as they’re together, their values won’t be shaken.

This is one thing that I love about paintings – you can always represent it any way you want. This painting comes across as endurance to  me. The aboriginal people have gone through a lot and there is only so much we see today. If I didn’t know any better I could’ve walked through the room and seen this painting, I wouldn’t have noticed that this was only one of the few paintings in the tour, let alone be infuriated about it.