We Are Going

They came in to the little town

A semi-naked band subdued and silent
All that remained of their tribe.
They came here to the place of their old bora ground
Where now the many white men hurry about like ants.
Notice of the estate agent reads: 'Rubbish May Be Tipped Here'.
Now it half covers the traces of the old bora ring.
'We are as strangers here now, but the white tribe are the
strangers.
We belong here, we are of the old ways.
We are the corroboree and the bora ground,
We are the old ceremonies, the laws of the elders.
We are the wonder tales of Dream Time, the tribal legends told.
We are the past, the hunts and the laughing games, the wandering
camp fires.
We are the lightening bolt over Gaphembah Hill
Quick and terrible,
And the Thunderer after him, that loud fellow.
We are the quiet daybreak paling the dark lagoon.
We are the shadow-ghosts creeping back as the camp fires burn
low.
We are nature and the past, all the old ways
Gone now and scattered.
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.'

Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Appreciating "We are Going" by Oodgerooo Noonuccal

Read Oodgeroo's "We are going" (p. 32) and answer these questions
on it:
1. Explain why they are "silent and subdued".
2. How are white men represented? Why?
3. What is a bora ring and explain why it is so central to this
poem.
4. Explain their reaction in line 8.
5. Lines 9-17 begin a ‘litany’. What is the effect produced?
6. Comment on the significance of metaphors used in the poem.
7. Comment on the structure and form of this poem.
8. Why does Thunder have a capital letter?
9. Comment on the mood and atmosphere created here.
10. Combine comments on its theme, title and conclusion.

1. The Aboriginal people are silent and subdued because they are
as expected more quiet but feel unwanted as outsiders
entering the white civilization.
2. The white men in the poem are represented as to be “like
ants” because they had hurried to them when it was about
something in which wasn’t of any real concern to them.
3. A bora ring is a cultural symbol for the Black civilization. It is so
central in this poem because it is firstly of religion for the Black
civilization and also because it was the reasoning on why the
Aboriginal people had come for. Seeing that it was gone the
poem for the Aboriginals point of view was no more.
4. They were so confused and completely emotionally disordered.
They felt as if nothing could happen at that moment and felt
let down as apart of their reaction.
5. The effect that is produced in lines 9-17 is repetition.
6. The significance of the metaphors that are used in this poem
are used to typically show the usual elements of these people,
e.g. the white people were represented “like ants” being a
metaphor describing them.
7. The structure and form of this poem are in the beginning they
basically in the beginning describing where the location is at.
The structure is also used to give both sides of views feelings
e.g. the structure using the title “We are going” would sound
very good for the White people seeing that they are leaving,
 but for the Aboriginals it is the opposite because they were
unsuccessful in not being rejected. The title sets an outline of
the structure of the poem. The final few lines briefly give the
message of the poem that is to be proven. The reason being is
that especially in the last 3 lines proves that everything that
they cherish on the land is gone and that they are also going
away just as how it had gone.
8. Thunder has a capital letter because in Dreamtime stories it
proves that all essentials e.g. in this case Thunder, all have
personality. Thunder has a capital “T” to describe the effect of
“that loud fellow”.
9. The mood that is created is regretful and confident. The
atmosphere gives guilt to the white people but gives disgust
and hatred atmosphere for the Aboriginal people.
10. The theme of this poem basically gives a description of
hate due to the fact that neither of the opposition gives kind
and loving information of the other side. The title “We are
going” basically refers to the fact that they came and again
“We are going” due to the fact that there was nothing left of
the Aboriginal Culture and therefore they had nothing to do in
the land and therefore are going away. They were unpleased
with what was left. Then they left. The conclusion refers to the
title in this situation.

Understand Old One

What if you came back now?

To our new world, the city roaring
There on the old peaceful camping place
Of your red fires along the quiet water,
How you would wonder
At towering stone gunyas high in air
Immense, incredible;
Planes in the sky over, swarms of cars
Like things frantic in flight.

Analysis of Poem
A short yet magnificent poem written by Kath Walker Understand
Old one is basically a poem with no rhyme and use of no repetition,
similes or metaphors. In this poem there is use of an Aboriginal
word such as gunyas. This shows the fact that the poem that is
written may have come from a bit of an Aboriginal presence. The
mood of this poem is a glad, yet seemingly neutral. This poem in
my point of view basically is all put together to suggest that it is a
short poem with a lot to tell. My suggestion about this poem is that
it describes the change of time throughout the time of the
Aboriginal people till now. This poem is also structured in a way with
no paragraphs to show the fact that it is straight forward and sets a
message of “Change”. It also sets an atmosphere to the reader by
showing picturing in their minds the fact of that if they were to go
back in time and see how it was back then in the times of the
Aborigines. The words that are used in this poem to describe the
infrastructure of today such as immense and incredible have been
used in a technical manner to describe the Planes in which the
Author thinks are majestic in a way through the change of time and
as well as cars. The terminology that is used “swarm of cars” is
used to describe the fact that there are many uses of transport
especially cars which has rapidly increased throughout time, yet
another way linking it back to the moral of change. As more
emphasis on the moral of Change it proves the fact of the many
different ways life has been without the Aborigines and no decisions
have been made without them in this changing world. The poem
written by Kath Walker is amazing and gives the reader a point of
view worth observing the fact of how life has been over the years in
different times. The poem has a theme of History of Aboriginal land
and the new land of today.