Contextualising Indigenous Australia - Click To Get Sample Solution

Question: What is culture, identity and identification? Answer: Introduction Released in the year 2012, this particular film is considered to be a comedy-drama film, where the struggle of the four indigenous women is seen, namely Kay, Gail, Julie and Cynthia. The film also introduces to Dave Lovelace who helps them to go to Vietnam and perform as singers for the troops near the Vietnam War in the year 1968 (Abc.net.au, 2015). Evaluation With the help of the film, the learner gets to visualise the life, traditions and culture of the indigenous people of Australia. The film opens with a wide landscape in the countryside where two children are happily running around free from any restriction. It then narrows down the screenplay to show case the family of the three sisters, namely, Gail, Cynthia and Julie (Garratt, 2012). The physical appearances of all three sisters denote the fact that they are the black-skinned aborigines. In fact, they reflect the outward appearances of the typical rustic people who tend to live in the countryside of Australia. The father of Gale stands out as a cowboy, which is undoubtedly the obvious profession that any county man takes up. Moreover, it is also found that the girls and the family members speak in a dialect, which is quite different from the urban Australian English (Abc.net.au, 2015). Several issues regarding the topic of racism are found to emerge here in the film. For instance, the scene where Cynthia and Gale ask for a lift from a car to go to the singing competition since they have been getting late, the learner finds that the car does not stop. The reason that the two sisters come up with are that probably because they are blacks or that they are ugly that the driver does not stop the car (Abc.net.au, 2015). In fact, when the girls reach the competition and sing their song, the white women present there does not show much interest in them. Even at the end of their song, only a small boy is found to clap. This undoubtedly illustrates the fact that a wide wedge exists between the whites and the blacks living in Australia. Moreover, the discrimination, reaches its heights when the lady judge announces a white girl to be the winner (Garratt, 2012). As Dave Lovelace, points out Noelene, the white girl hardly has much interest in music and undoubtedly the sisters d eserve to win. Another incident social conformity towards the discrimination of the blacks is found when Gale and Cynthia visit their cousins house in Melbourne. Since Kay, their cousin belongs to an Irish lineage (her father being an Irish) therefore she turns out as white damsel. It is to be noted from Kays expressions in the film that even though she loves her cousins but she cannot detangle herself from the social conformities. This is the reason she feels embarrassed when she finds Gale and Cynthia suddenly at her house amidst a party going on with her friends. Her friends are mainly among the whites (Ryan, 2010). The learner does get to understand the emotions of Kay when she is found to visit party at Daves place along with the three sisters. Moving on, when Dave Lovelace starts training the girls regarding the effective performance that they can produce on the stage, he moves to make them understand the difference between country western music and soul music, thereby stating that western music refers to the loss and retribution whereas soul music refers to the loss as well as the strife and struggle to achieve back things, which are lost. In fact, this film also manifests the ways by which the indigenous and non-indigenous people interact as well transact their business in Australia (Abc.net.au, 2015). It is to be noted that in Australia, mainly people from northern and central regions are primarily recognised based on their skin colour. Others tend to use regional names. At the end of the film, the girls are seen to visualize death in front of their eyes since the adjourned Vietnam War has again resumed at the borders suddenly because of which the bombarding has started. Discussion Thus, the learner successfully gets to align the theoretical concepts of stereotypical behaviour, cultural identity, complexity, cultural competency and cultural diversity with that of practical visuals. Stereotyping in cultural identity, as Tierney (2007) points out, refers to what we do, how we do, how we perceive our surroundings, why we do and even the way by which others perceive our existence and a conformity in it. Moreover, as Ryan (2010) adds on, even though culture is certainly dynamic since it keeps on changing at a continuous basis, once stereotyped, it tends to continue on the same beliefs. Dave Lovelace makes them realize that the only fault that they have in them is that they are the blacks and that even by singing Western music, they cannot please the whites. However, he even make s them realize the talents that they possess as indigenous inhabitants. Cultural competency refers to the attempts to foster constructive communications and interactions among the people belonging to different cultures. In fact, it focuses on maintaining a free flow engagement or two way communication within the culturally diversified population. It encourages wide world view lens approach, thereby trying to maintain of the attitudinal behaviour and the policies (Waite and Calamaro, 2009). Cultural diversity adheres to the significance of understanding as well as praising the cultural distinctions that tend to exist between the groups. Even though the nation moves towards incorporating such aspects, it seems that people are still confined within the societal norms (Waite and Calamaro, 2009). However, the aborigines need to come out of the societal strictures and encourage others to do so. Conclusion This particular paper thus attempts to present a reflective report on the conditions of Aborigines in Australia and the different problems that they tend to face in order to gain recognition in the society. This reflective report makes reference to the film, The Sapphires, which is directed by Wayne Blair in order to explore through each of the aspects of an Aborigines life and the regular strife that each one of them has to make. References Abc.net.au,. (2015). Wayne Blair and Deborah Mailman tell the amazing true story behind The Sapphires - ABC Sydney - Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 15 January 2015, from https://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/07/30/3556763.htm Garratt, S. (2012). Chris O'Dowd interview: The Sapphires - Telegraph. Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 15 January 2015, from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/9630249/Chris-ODowd-interview-The-Sapphires.html Ryan, L. (2010). Rewriting Aboriginal history. History Australia, 7(3), 70.1-70.2. doi:10.2104/ha100070 Tierney, S. (2007). Accommodating cultural diversity. Aldershot, England: Ashgate. Waite, R., and Calamaro, C. (2009). Cultural Competency. Perspectives In Psychiatric Care, 45(3), 232-238. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6163.2009.00226.x