"We Are Going" and "Still I Rise" Poem Comparison

Q. How did the poets convey protest and/or social criticism through their poems?

‘We are........’ by Oodgeorooo newknuckle and still I rise by noonga dennga both have a different approach to convey their protest/social criticism. We are going details the connection between the land and the aborigines, and uses that to protest the unfair treatment of them. Still I rise takes a different approach, structuring the poem in such a way that it makes the reader feel responsible and guilty for the poets hardships. They both protest the discrimination and oppression of people by Caucasian people, and illustrate the responses of the oppressed, and both strive to inject a sense of objection among the audience.

‘We are going’ protests the oppression of Aboriginal life and culture by the white men, but the does so in a restrained, subdued way. It convinces the reader that the connections between indigenous Australians and their tribal lands exists, and then describes how the white men abuse their sacred sites and force them out of their rightful place( seen in “We are as strangers here now, but the white tribe are the strangers”). From here you expect the poem to stand tall and fight back, to spur the reader to do so as well. However the poem continues as “The bora ring is gone, The corroboree is gone, And we are going” This technique still has the same effect, as the reader feels sympathy for the discrimination of the Aboriginals and is morally obliged to do something about it. Unlike many other protest poems, ‘We are going’s protest of aboriginal is more subtle and restrained.

Although ‘Still I Rise’ never comes out and says for certain who’s repression is taking place, we can be quite sure the treatment of black people by the white is the poems main protest (“I’m a black ocean”, as well as “I am the dream and the hope of the slave”). This poet’s protest is very bold and strong, with many direct questions and an uplifting tone. Most paragraphs begin with the poet...