DENG.2019.018

Protest in the Poetry of Kath Walker

Nabil Muhammed Ali Aljibouri

nabil.muhammed@cihanuniversity.edu.iq

Abstract- Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920-1993 also known as Kath Walker) is an Aboriginal Australian poet, writer and activist. Her poetry criticizes the long term effects of white colonialism on her people in Australia. It focuses on topics such as white racism and prejudice, political oppression and subordination, dispossession of Aboriginal land, the policy of assimilation and urbanization, and the annihilation of Aboriginal identity and culture.

The aim of this paper is to analyze Oodgeroo's poetry within the perspective of protest tradition because of its overt social and political message. Her poetry will be examined in the context of the social, political and cultural crises of the Aboriginal Australian people.

Keywords- Australian Poetry, Aboriginal Poetry, Protest Poetry

Date: 4/4/2018

Place: Department of English