Different Worlds Going Home

Archie Weller

Pre-reading

a. Check your knowledge of Australia’s geography. Pair work task.

Maps on the following two pages.

b. Which words do you associate with Australia? Try to think of nine different words, each containing one of the letters in Australia.

A

U

S
T
R
A
L
I
A

Pre-reading

2. Answer the following questions.

a. How many Aborigines lived in Australia when the first settlers arrived?

100,000 - 300,000 - 600,000 - 900,000

b. The original inhabitants of Australia were? farmers - hunters – gatherers

c. What is the “Dreamtime”?

d. How long do you think the Aborigines have lived in Australia?

for more than 60,000 years - for about 20,000 years -

no more than 10,000 years - since 1000BC

e. When did the Aborigines become full citizens? 1920 - 1967 - 2001

f. When did the first European settlers arrive? 1698 - 1750 - 1788 - 1830

g. What do you know about the first Europeans who settled in Australia?

h. What happened to the Aborigines when Europeans settled in Australia?

i. Who were forcibly removed from their families between the early 1900s and 1970s?

j. How do you think the original inhabitants of Australia are treated today?

Now read the following information and check your answers. If the text does not solve all your problems, check some of the internet addresses below.

Archaeological evidence shows that the ancestors of Australia’s Aborigines came to Australia more than 60,000 years ago. Aborigines lived in family units of 15-30 people. People respected the environment around them and made sure animals and plants were never over hunted or over collected. The Aborigines were hunters and gatherers. The men hunted the large animals such as kangaroos, emus and turtles, and the women and children hunted smaller animals and collected fruits, berries, and other plants. On the coast people caught fish and collected shellfish. To protect nature, and because of seasonal variations, people would only stay in an area for a certain time. The older men and women of a group passed its history and laws down to young people in the form of stories, dances, and paintings on rocks.

According to the beliefs of many Aboriginal groups, people have been in Australia since the beginning - the Dreaming, sometimes called “the Dreamtime”. This was the creation period when the landscape was created and the plants, animals, and human beings were given life. The Dreaming sets up a spiritual relationship between the people and the land with its plants, and animals and it is the basis of the traditional Aboriginal way of life. The spirit ancestors gave Aboriginal people their laws and customs and are the source of their songs, dances, and rituals.

It is estimated that there were about 300,000 Aborigines in Australia in 1788 when the first European settlers arrived, but by 1830 perhaps only 100,000 remained. In the late 1700s the British prisons were overcrowded and it was decided to send convicts to Australia. This was a time when Europe’s nations believed they could colonize countries they considered less developed than their own. The Aborigines saw their land invaded and their people killed, either because of strange diseases transmitted by the Europeans or as a result of direct conflicts. From the 1840s many Aborigines were placed in settlements run by the government or church authorities. From the early 1900s until 1970 tens of thousands of children who were part Aboriginal were forcibly taken away from their families and placed in institutions run by the government.

Pre-reading

Australia today is completely different from when the First Fleet arrived in 1788 with convicts and marines. Aborigines still live throughout Australia, both in cities and in the outback, but it was not until 1967 that the Aborigines became full citizens. Aboriginals have gradually won the right to determine their own future and to preserve their cultures, but, in spite of more positive social and political attitudes, they still have to fight against prejudice and intolerance.

Aboriginal and Aborigine are both nouns used about inhabitants of a place, especially Australia, from a very early period.

Aboriginal can also be an adjective.

Indigenous is an adjective meaning belonging naturally to a place, e.g. an indigenous people

For more information about Australia’s indigenous people you may find the following links useful:

Australia's Indigenous People
Background information and links: http://www.dreamtime.net.au/index.cfm

Australia's Indigenous People
Fact sheets from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Indigenous people, cultures and current issues.
http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/index.html#indig http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/indg_overview.html http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/reconciliation.html

Rebutting the Myths
This site has a number of information sheets that show how commonly held attitudes about Aboriginal people are not true.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/special/rsjproject/
rsjlibrary/parliamentary/rebutting/

Pre-reading

7. Vocabulary: Synonyms, antonyms and word building.

a. Match the following synonyms.

trapped / beaten
defeated / escape
carefree / embarrassed
break free / cornered
pretend / stranger
ashamed / revolting
outsider / deceive
disgusting / happy

b. Match the following antonyms.

arrogant / free
reject / superior
trapped / ashamed
inferior / respectful
proud / accept

c. Fill in the gaps.

adjective / noun / dansk navneord
humiliating / ydmygelse
proud
fame
success
lonely
inferiority
hostility
prejudiced (against/in favour of) / fordom
humble / humility

While-reading

11. Which of the following statements are true (T) and which are false (F)?

T / F
The Aboriginals are described as unhappy and desperate
Billy feels revulsion when he sees his aunt Rose
Billy has the features of his white grandfather
Billy is ashamed of having shoved his aunt away
The part-Aboriginal opponent at the football game looks upon Billy with contempt
Billy is going home because he wants to show off
Billy changes his appearance in order to fit into the white world
Billy has vowed never to go home again
At the nightclubs he is mostly together with a lot of white people
The trees force Billy to go on
Billy wants to be reminded of who he is and where he comes from

14. The meeting with the barman.

Characterize the barman’s behaviour towards Billy and Darcy, and Billy and Darcy’s behaviour towards the barman.

Substantiate your views by referring to specific words in the text.

condescending (nedladende) - respectful - arrogant - supercilious (overlegen, hoven) -
humble - polite - ingratiating (indsmigrende)
character /

behaviour

/ words from the text
Barman
Billy
Darcy

While-reading

25.

“At last he can walk this earth with pride, as his ancestors did before him” (p.108 ll.10-11).

Compare this to “Ancestors crying for remembrance.” (p.110 ll.31-32).

Sum up Billy’s attitude to his own people and to the white people before he goes home and

at the end of the story?

What has effected the change?

White

/ Black
Before
After

Useful vocabulary:

proud - ashamed - alienated - human - less than human - prosperous - embittered - despairing trapped - free - sacrificed - victimized - primitive - self-righteous - white - black - carefree

Post-reading

1. Did the story end the way you expected it to?

2. Comment on the title.

3. Which adjectives would you use to characterize the short story? Why? (Look at the vocabulary list “People – Character, mood and intelligence” pp.250-252.

4. If you were to give Billy a piece of advice what would you tell him? Use at least three words from the pre-reading vocabulary exercise.

5. Vocabulary

a. Find a synonym for the following words.

trapped
defeated
carefree
break free
pretend
ashamed
outsider
disgusting

b. Find an antonym for the following words.

free
superior
ashamed
respectful
accept

c. Translate the following words into English.

fjendtlig
stolthed
ydmygelse
berømmelse
fordom