Riding the Black Cockatoo & Company Sin Representation Essay Example for Free

Riding the Black Cockatoo Company Sin Representation Essay Words are powerful tools that can be used to represent people and shape opinions about others. In a similar way, certain actions and our treatment of other cultures demonstrate our understandings and acceptance of, different beliefs and cultures. Two texts that support these statements and include representations of Indigenous Australian culture and beliefs are: ‘Riding the Black Cockatoo’ by John Danalis and ‘Company Sin’ by John Butler Trio. John Danalis wrote a captivating novel about his journey towards righting the wrongs his family committed, by returning an Indigenous skull that was kept on his family’s mantelpiece. Throughout his writing, John portrays the sense of oneness towards the land of the Indigenous community and his need to come to terms with all the connections he never knew existed. ‘Company Sin’ symbolises a young man’s ignorance and indifference towards the Indigenous culture. Ben naively participates in a mining company’s desecration of an Indigenous Australian burial site. The words in the song portray his struggle with dreams and what these dreams actually embody. Symbolic use of words and language creates vivid images of the song and novel in the audience’s minds. Through representations in the text readers have been positioned to perceive qualities of Indigenous Australian’s heritage, spirituality and their relationship with mother earth. In ‘Riding the Black Cockatoo’, words and language are used purposefully to demonstrate the significance of returning Indigenous Australian’s bones to the tribal elders for burial. Danalis realises through his journey of reconciliation that for Indigenous Australians, the disturbance or non-burial of bones means that a soul remains in a state of unrest. Current generations know that it is their spiritual duty to ensure that bones are returned â€Å"home†, to the earth. Danalis begins to realise that Indigenous Australians â€Å"†¦feel death very differently to white folk.† The handover of the skull is significant for both Danalis and the Indigenous people. The Indigenous community worked with Danalis and did not condemn him for what his family had done with the skull. They even included them in the ceremony and both â€Å"sides† working through some sensitive issues, with the common aim of returning â€Å"Mary† to the rightful place †¦ the earth. The Indigenous community led Danalis through a learning process about the â€Å"rights† of their ancestors and the need for the land to be a central part of their spirituality. With this, the land is positioned to be the sacred resting place for those who have passed on. The relationship Danalis developed with the Indigenous community and being invited to participate in the ritual ceremony, gave him an insight into Indigenous cultural traditions. Indigenous Australian culture believes that when a person dies, their spirit goes back to the ancestral land, when the correct ceremonial rituals are conducted. This ceremony encompasses many traditions for the clan, such as: the cloak of possum fur and the Yorta Yorta song man making a Cockatoo cry: â€Å"We waited ‘KAR-AAK’ †¦ There was a clack-clack of clapping sticks, and then another ‘KAR-AAK!’ †¦ His black cockatoo cries cascaded down the stairwells, echoed off overhead walkway escarpments and bounced through the air-conditioning ducts.† This linkage of nature connotes Indigenous Australian’s strong connections of culture with land. It shows they treat nature with full respect and incorporate it into their lives. Ceremonial objects specific for the ceremonies come from the land. Danalis describes Bob when requiring a smoking bowl, called a coolamon and not having one there, saying: â€Å"I’ll make one†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Bob finds the bark needed, pulls it off and makes the bowl. This demonstrates their strong reliance on nature. Through his description of this event, Danalis was sure that they would have to go without a bowl for the ceremony and was surprised by Bob’s actions, in being able to create what they needed from the land. Indigenous Australians do not own the land. They see it as part of them and that it is their duty to respect and look after their mother earth. They use the land to live on, to gain food from, to make items they need and then to return their ancestors to the earth, when they pass on. This is a different concept to the culture White Australians have grown up with. Danalis has to explore his own prejudices and realises that he lives in a nation with some, who are trying to come to terms with both heritages, cultures and beliefs. Indigenous Australians bury their ancestors on what average Australians see as prime land, where profits could be made from farming or mining. Indigenous Australians do this, as they believe they can: â€Å"†¦enter the spirit world and become one with their mother†¦ the Earth†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Calling the earth their Mother, solidifies Indigenous Australian’s strong connectivity of their spiritual heritage with the land. This is something that White Australians do not have in their heritage. The Indigenous people care for and love the earth they live on. They have a spiritual connection to it, not just a physical one. Simply, this is not part of how White Australians view the land and it is not part of their heritage.