Belonging

Belonging is difficult to define as it encompasses not just a variety of ways one does belong, but also all the ways one doesn’t. Skrzynecki’s poems ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ and ‘Migrant Hostel’ from “Imigrant Chronicle” along with Noyce’s film “Rabbit Proof Fence” explore the idea that feeling a sense of belonging comes from various factors. Rabbit Proof Fence takes us on the journey through the life of Aboriginals living in the 1930s, where although they are the original custodians of Australia, the aboriginals were made to feel like migrants, constantly being mocked for their culture. The whites’ settlement on the aboriginals’ land had forced the aboriginals to become dependant on the whites for rationing them with food and clothes, ruling who they marry and when they get to see their family. This left the aboriginals with the less fortunate hand of always wanting more and not belonging to their homes- feelings that migrants experience on arrival in a new country.
Molly, Gracie and Daisy, three aboriginal children are treated with contempt by the Mr. Neville, Protector of Aboriginals of Perth, also known as ‘Mr Devil’ who refers to the girls as   ‘half castes’, a derogatory term used by the whites to label half aboriginal and half white people- the unwanted third race. This cultural alienation leads to a lack of belonging, also explored in the poem ‘Feliks Skrzynicki’ where the persona’s father is ridiculed for his inability to fluently speak English by a clerk who demeaningly speaks to him in ‘dancing bear grunts’. The combination of profane names labeling Mr Neville and the animal imagery in the poem creates a negative impression of those who reject migrants.
The poem ‘Migrant Hostel’ emphasizes on a sense of disorientation experienced by migrants, a sense which is antitheses of belonging, also evident in Rabbit Proof Fence. In this poem, the migrants live in a populace migrant hostel where noone keeps count of how many people come and go and new arrivals come...