"In My Blood It Runs"and Poems

In My Blood it Runs stars Dujuan, an Aboriginal boy of Arrernte and Garrwa descent. It tackles Indigineous issues such as loss of culture, lack of connection to their spiritual roots, social segregation, and police brutality.

It centres around Dujuan's troubles in getting the best of world worlds; his inability to immerse himself in Aboriginal culture whilst also being unable to fit into colonial life.

This documentary will be linked to in reference to Aboriginal issues when analysing the poems Municipal Gum and I'm Not Racist, But....

Municipal Gum states that the gum tree "should be" "in the cool world of leafy forest halls'' (such as 2.Red Gum...) rather than the city street. This can be interpreted as saying that the gum tree is best at home in nature. It uses the phrase "wild bird calls" which alludes to freedom. This propels the reader to think that with "hard bitumen around [it's] feet", the gum tree is not free and instead constrained and imprisoned.

It uses a simile to compare the tree in Municipal Gum to a "poor cart horse" (3.Horse Cruelty...)

"Castrated, broken, a thing wronged,

Strapped and buckled, it's hell prolonged..."

Here, the poem uses words with very negative connotations and hard sounds in order to highlight the described suffering of the horse (and through it, the tree). However, in the next lines, the sounds turn soft, and repeats the use of "h" and "s" sounds. This emphasizes the "listless[ness]”, the acceptance that it has for its suffering.

"Set in your black grass of bitumen--

O fellow citizen,

What have they done to us?"

"Black grass of bitumen" has two opposing connotations. It uses "grass" which has the positive connotation of nature, but then "black" which is an unnatural colour for grass, and then "bitumen" which is an unnatural substance. It subtly expresses to the reader that what used to be green, natural grass around the Municipal Gum's feet has now turned into artificial bitumen (1. A Municipal Gum). It especially highlights this change from natural and free to unnatural and prohibited and propels the reader to remember this.

"O fellow citizen" refers to the Municipal Gum being a fellow of the narrator. The narrator is representing the Aboriginal Peoples (i.e. the gum tree is a fellow of the Aboriginals -- this is further confirmed by the close relationship that the Aborigines have with the Land). "What have they done to us?" thus implies that it is not only the gum tree which has been stripped of freedom and constrained, it is also the Aboriginal Peoples. This one line instantly applies everything said about the Municipal gum to the Aborigines.

The poem ends on this message in order to evoke a moment of thought from the reader. It is essentially a dramatic pause, in which the audience can mullover the words. It is meant to elicit thought about the Aborignal people having to live within towns for one reason or another -- and how this strips them of the freedom of living naturally.

This is an issue that In My Blood It Runs also tackles.

Dujuan, while living with his mother, is rarely able to go bush. He struggles with living in the town as it cuts him off from his spiritual, cultural and ancestral roots. Many Aboriginals share this issue. They are made to live in towns in order to access things they have been made to need. Being unable to connect to their roots has a negative impact on their sense of belonging, it can make them feel isolated from their cultural community and homeland.

While living with his father, Dujuan is able to live out bush more frequently -- every weekend -- while still receiving education. He becomes much more lively, saying that it is "all [he] ever wanted]. His wish is to live in the outback like an Aboriginal person would have centuries ago, however he remains tied down to the city even though his situation vastly improves by the end of the documentary.

By providing better rural education and accessibility to other services, as well as considerations, it could be possible to set the Aboriginal People "free" again, and to allow them to live as they please.

The title of the poem, I'm Not Racist, But... is used repetitively within the poem, because it holds a certain importance. The use of the word "but" provides a contradiction to the statement "I'm not racist", which is the subject matter of the poem -- the narrator starts by saying they are not racist, but increasingly proves otherwise.

The narrator asks, "Why can't I climb Ayers Rock?" (1.Ayers Ro--...Uluru). Ayers Rock is a famed Australian landmark, named by a colonial explorer. However, before it was known as Ayers Rock, it was called Uluru by the Aborigines. By calling Uluru “Ayers Rock", the narrator is suggesting that they do not believe that the land rightfully the land of the Aboriginals, and is instead acknowledging the colonial claim upon it. It is a clear contradiction to the phrase "I'm Not Racist".

This renaming of an important Indigenous Australian landscape translates to the colonials claiming ownership of Aboriginal land. It is a longstanding issue and tragedy which can not be easily fixed. The issue of stolen land is not explicitly focused on in In My Blood It Runs but is an underlying tone to the entire documentary.

For example, Dujuan says, "Before the cars wasn't made, before the house wasn't made... It was just Aboriginals, on Australia." This quote displays the longstanding connection between the Aboriginals and Australia. The repossession of the land by colonials infringed on this connection, and the use of colonial name for sacred landmarks dismisses it.

With this line, the narrator provokes the audience's line of thought towards the stolen land and inevitably the stolen generation. Then, by following up closely with the line "Why are the Aborigines so angry?" brings to mind more transgressions against the Aboriginal People. For example, cruel and inequitable treatment.This is the focus of the entire first verse.

"Why do I have to say sorry for something I didn't do?"

This line summarizes the ignorance surrounding issues that Aborigines still face today. For example, some of those portrayed in In My Blood It Runs. Dujuan faces issues in immersing himself and learning his culture, as it has died out in the past few generations. Some other problems they face include obtaining employment, education, health and healing, land and language.

Another example is segregation (3. Bus and Services Segregation). The line, "I let them sit next to me on the bus" implies that the narrator thinks it is a privilege for Aborigines to be treated as normal people. This is intended to provoke the reader to respond with distaste, because aren't we all human? The poem's true goal is to reveal the true face of racism and privileged ignorance, and the troubles which Aboriginal people have to face on a daily basis.

This is much the same as In My Blood It Runs, which intends to spread awareness of Aboriginal issues. Both this poem and the documentary intent to englishten people regarding how Aborigines are still treated inappropriately, and of their continuing plight of balancing their current lives with their culture and heritage.