Word Bank

Anglocentric vs Aboriginal, Civil Unrest, Unjust Treatment, Government, Dispossession

Brief Description

An Aboriginal community from Northern Western Australia which was abolished by the government, with people evicted from their homes. The purpose of the poem is to influence readers to learn more about Australian history and not be complacent.

The community of Oombulgarri (sometimes written ‘Oombulgurri’ or ‘Umbulgarra’) was a small settlement in Western Australia. In 2011, the state government closed it and required the residents to move elsewhere. This poem reflects on the deserted town they left behind, which acts as a metaphor for their disheartened community.

Like in ‘Unearth’ there is an angry tone in this poem, especially in the lines: ‘the town is empty now / as empty as the promises / that once held it together’.

Culture in Oombulgarri

A strong reference to an Aboriginal town

A strong relationship/connection to culture

"blue pattern dresses", "paddy wagons"

A strong connection with land

"tumble weeds", "even the wind can no longer sit movement in the playground"

Evidence of strong conflict between two groups - e.g. the government (whites) and the Aboriginal people

Annotations

Analysis Table

Aboriginal dispossession from land and Government paternalistic policies have disrupted traditional connection to place and culture. This has resulted in a fractured collective identity. We see the tragic and detrimental effects when Aboriginal people are forcibly removed from Country in the Ali Cobby Eckermann poem, Oombulgarri. Oombulgarri is a poem about an Aboriginal community that was closed down because of Government ceasing to provide services and support. The people of Oombulgarri had no choice but to move away from Country. The classic, (almost clichéd) symbol of a tumbleweed that opens the poem is used to represent desolation and emptiness. This symbol is combined with the blue-pattern dresses left behind by the community’s women in the opening line; 'tumble weeds of blue pattern dresses'. Eckermann wants to acknowledge the absence of women in the community. The bright dresses, like the town, have been vacated and emptied of life. The empty dresses imply the loss of the people that once wore them, the loss of community and creates a ghostly image to introduce the poem. Furthermore, the mention of 'paddy wagons' references a time in the town of Oombulgarri when crime was an issue but also connotes a history of over-policing, surveillance, intervention, Government control and paternalism.

The simile in the second stanza - 'the town is empty now / as empty as the promises / that once held it together' has the physical emptiness of the town being compared to the ‘emptiness’ of Government promises. The word 'promises' alludes to the responsibility of government to provide basic public services in the form of housing, schools, roads, electricity, health care services and employment opportunities. Furthermore, the auditory imagery of 'echoes of laughter' suggests that the children exist in the past, are out of reach,  and are now only memories, creating a haunting tone. This tone is further developed through the ominous and unpredictable comparison of memories of past communities to a storm, in  the simile 'roll like distant thunder'. While a storm is a dangerous event that can pass by, the trauma of this dispossessed community will not pass. The alliteration in the line 'whips and wails and wails' creates an energy and rhythm to the turmoil of this lost community. The repetition of 'wails' combined with the polysyndeton emphasises the pain and creates a sense of endless/cyclical pain.

In the final stanza, the motif of emptiness and isolation returns with the repetition of 'tumbleweeds' and the military imagery in the words, 'fortress' and 'guard' and 'perimeter' is a reference to the fact that the town of Oombulgarri was fenced off to prevent people from returning. Eckermann ends her poem with the visual and auditory image of the sound of isolation and loss in the line 'even the creak of the gate is silent'. The hyperbole emphasises the silence. The paradoxical image of a silent creak symbolises the depth of the silence and the loss of community and identity. This ominous, ghostly image of a silent gate reiterates the haunting tone used throughout and reinforces the  feeling of emptiness and desolation.