increasingly important role in the articulation of both Aboriginal and Indian cultural identity, and poetry as the genre of creative expression perhaps most amenable to previously oral cultures is, for indigenous groups in both countries, the single most popular medium of creative expression in written English. In both countries, most of those indigenous people writing verse are very politicised and active in the field of agitation for their rights. In the case of Canadian Indian poetry the symbolic, spiritual nature of indigenous existence is extensively explored; in Aboriginal poetry, what defines contemporary the distinctive Black Australian ‘Aboriginality’ – self-definition is a common emphasis. The poets of both nations display in their work an overriding sense of – loss: the loss of happiness, of traditional laws, of togetherness and of freedom. Hence, the poetry is very often bittersweet and ambivalent. The atmosphere of evanescence of witnessing the fading away of the old ways strikes one of the strongest – – chords in indigenous poetry, both in Canada and in Australia. Oodgeroo Noonuccal addresses this dilemma of potential identity loss, and emphasises the fragility of the entire human species, in her most famous poem, ‘We Are Going’, which ends: 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.[432] The lamentation for lost heritage is equally fervent in Canadian Indian poetry. Jim Dumont uses the symbol of the buffalo to represent the extinction of traditional ways: In my youth I went south, In my dreams I went south. There I watched them hunt … I watched them hunt the buffalo. And in my heart I hunted with them. Now they are gone. The buffalo have left, Ashamed, That we had let them die, Mercilessly, At the hands of the white hunters.[433] In his poem Last Crackle’, Gordon Williams illustrates effectively how the rape and destruction of Indians ‘The in the past continues in the exploitation of Indians today: All our men are dead and our ones Have no ambition. They took it all away, Those bearded men, with their strange ways. with us’ they said, pray!’ ‘Kneel ‘and Then they took our land and children. Now they’ve taken their beards off and shorn their
increasingly important role in the articulation of both Aboriginal and Indian cultural identity, and poetry as the genre of creative expression perhaps most amenable to previously oral cultures is, for indigenous groups in both countries, the single most popular medium of creative expression in written English. In both countries, most of those indigenous people writing verse are very politicised and active in the field of agitation for their rights. In the case of Canadian Indian poetry the symbolic, spiritual nature of indigenous existence is extensively explored; in Aboriginal poetry, what defines contemporary ‘Aboriginality’ – the distinctive Black Australian self-definition – is a common emphasis. The poets of both nations display in their work an overriding sense of loss: the loss of happiness, of traditional laws, of togetherness and of freedom. Hence, the poetry is very often bittersweet and ambivalent. The atmosphere of evanescence – of witnessing the fading away of the old ways – strikes one of the strongest chords in indigenous poetry, both in Canada and in Australia. Oodgeroo Noonuccal addresses this dilemma of potential identity loss, and emphasises the fragility of the entire human species, in her most famous poem, ‘We Are Going’, which ends: 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.[432] The lamentation for lost heritage is equally fervent in Canadian Indian poetry. Jim Dumont uses the symbol of the buffalo to represent the extinction of traditional ways: In my youth I went south, In my dreams I went south. There I watched them hunt … I watched them hunt the buffalo. And in my heart I hunted with them. Now they are gone. The buffalo have left, Ashamed, That we had let them die, Mercilessly, At the hands of the white hunters.[433] In his poem ‘The Last Crackle’, Gordon Williams illustrates effectively how the rape and destruction of Indians in the past continues in the exploitation of Indians today: All our men are dead and our ones Have no ambition. They took it all away, Those bearded men, with their strange ways. ‘Kneel with us’ they said, ‘and pray!’ Then they took our land and children. Now they’ve taken their beards off and shorn their
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