The sense of belonging is something that we will all feel whether we mean to or not, if it is for good or bad, if we feel we belong or alienated. This sense of belonging can come through our family, friends, likes and dislikes, backgrounds and opinions. This belonging gives us connections to other people or things and we can gain other certain feelings with it such as security, happiness and pride. Mekaleya Eshete’s photograph reflects this sense of belonging through many different ways and in many different contexts such as family, culture and belonging to the land.
Mekaleya has a variety of different aspects of belonging, partly to do with her culture and family. The sense of belonging is also explored in the “Sorry” speech given by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to the Aboriginal people who experienced discrimination because of their race, who’s children were taken away and who’s connection with the land and younger generations was severely damaged. These themes are commonly throughout the texts that I have chosen; “Mekaleya Eshete’s” Photograph and the “Sorry Speech” given by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on February 13, 2008.
The use of first person narration throughout the sentence in the paragraph shows us that the poem is actually about a personal feeling of belonging. . In Kevin Rudd’s “Sorry” speech he says “We apologize especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country”. This quote shows the loss of belonging to the land and community when the children were taken away.
Kevin Rudd’s speech was given on the 13th of February 2008, directly aimed at the Aboriginal community in Australia today. It was a formal apology given for the mistreatment of aboriginal people from the past Governments and for the dispossession and assimilation of Aboriginal people. The aim of his speech was to encourage reconciliation and restore the connections and belonging of the aboriginal community, as well as creating a feel of belonging and unity with Aboriginal and Non Aboriginal people as one nation.
The idea of Belonging to the land is explored through out Mekaleya’s Quote in her photograph as she says “ When I first wrote a letter to my family back home” the fact that she has mention “Back home” emphasizes that she is not with her family, this in contrast is merely the exact opposite as in rainbows end, where the importance of family is cherished between dolly and Nan especially when dolly tells Nan she won’t eave her even though Errol asked her to go live with him. The use of juxtaposing the quote with the photograph shows a very affectionate women who seems like she is alone but not sad as if she feels she will reunite again with her family. Kevin Rudd’s apology is very similar to the Need for Empowerment when Gladys’s finds the courage to speak in front of an audience especially on behalf of her people with formal and persuasive language.
These 2 texts both show the sense of belonging and how important belonging really is. Through all the different contexts of the texts, belonging has still been a dominant and important theme throughout them, represented by a variety of different techniques to successfully communicate the theme of belonging to the audience.
