Use terms from the list below to correctly complete the paragraph about Rainbow’s End.

This will help you to develop an understanding of these terms and how to incorporate
them smoothly into your analytical essays.
 racist
 power imbalance
 pervasive mistreatment
 entrenched racism
 institutionalized racism
 disempowerment
 injustices
 assumption
 autonomy

Indigenous Australians in Rainbow’s End experience continual and pervasive mistreatment as they
battle to scrape a living on the fringes of white society in rural Victoria. The authority figures who
they are forced to interact with on a daily basis, such as the Inspector and the Rent Collector, hold
deeply racist views that underpin their negative attitudes towards the Dear family. Thus, the Rent
Collector feels he has the right to question Nan over her ‘obvious flouting of the rules’ because she
allows the midwife to visit Dolly. The power imbalance between he and Nan is evidenced clearly in
his patronizing remark: ‘Everything to do with the habitation of this establishment is my concern’.
His disempowerment of Nan – the refusal to allow her any autonomy over what happens in her
own home – is exacerbated by his use of formal English, which further reminds her that
institutionalized racism is the norm in the bureaucracy of the 1950’s. Unlike Mr. Coody, the
Inspector is reasonably polite in his interactions with the Dears, admiring Nan’s ‘crocheted pillow
shams’ and her spotless ‘whites’. However, his assumption that the absent Papa Dear must be
‘away shearing’ demonstrates the deeply entrenched racism that makes him believe an Aboriginal is
incapable of taking on an important leadership role. As a result of the implicit racism that literally
colours the views of white Australians, authority figures in the play feel justified in their use of
dehumanizing terms such as ‘an itinerant minority’ and ‘interloper’ when Gladys attends the Council
meeting. Harrison’s decision to write about the simple lives of these ‘unsung’ heroes, and the
thousand pinpricks they endure daily, allows contemporary Australians a telling glimpse of the
injustices faced by Indigenous Australians last century.