Summary
"We Are Going," written by Aboriginal Australian poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal, was first published in her collection of the same name in 1964. The poem begins by describing a small band of Aboriginal Australians, "All that remained of their tribe" (Line 3). They are quiet, subdued, and partially clothed as they come into a little town. The fourth line reveals that the town was built on top of and around the tribe's old sacred grounds known as bora. Now, many white men hurry about like ants as they go about their modern lives, unaware of the violent history beneath their feet.
A sign that half-covers the bora ground reads, "Rubbish May Be Tipped Here" (Line 6). The speaker switches from "they" to "we" as the speaker declares that though the tribe has been made to feel like strangers to the land, it is really the white tribe who are the strangers. The declaration of belonging continues as the speaker expands upon and specifies what it means for the tribe to "belong here" and be "of the old ways" (Line 9). The speaker states, "We are...the corroboree and the bora ground...the old ceremonies...the laws of the elders" (Lines 10-11). This continues as the tribe is declared to embody "the wonder tales of Dream Time, the tribal legends told...the past, the hunts and the laughing games, the wandering camp fires..." (Lines 12-13). The Aboriginal people are identified with various aspects of nature, including the lightning bolt, the Thunderer, and the quiet daybreak paling the dark lagoon. Though they "nature and the past," "all the old ways [are] / Gone now and scattered" (Lines 19-20).
Various elements that previously composed the landscape have left. These include the scrubs, the eagle, the emu, the kangaroo, and the bora ring. As a result, Aboriginal culture and livelihood have also disappeared: their hunting, laughter, and corroborees. The end of the poem (which gives it its title) reads, "And we are going" (Line 25).
Analysis
Oodgeroo of the Noonuccal people of Minjerribah (also known as North Stradbroke Island in Australia) was a celebrated poet, writer, artist, environmentalist, educator, and indigenous rights activist whose work focuses on the history of settler colonialism in Australia, the ongoing effects of colonization, her heritage and experience as an indigenous person, and the relationship between humans and the earth. "We Are Going" is a twenty-five-line, single-stanza, free-verse poem that works to provide a voice for Aboriginal people.
The poem begins with the speaker using the pronoun "they" to describe "all that [remains]" of an Aboriginal tribe (Line 3). They are "a semi-naked band subdued and silent" as they make their way into a little town (Lines 1-2). To be subdued is to be quiet, inhibited, repressed, or controlled; the tribal members' voices have been stolen from them as a result of colonization. "Semi-naked" expresses an awareness of clothing and shame, which is a European perspective. In the context of entering a town, to be "semi-naked" also demonstrates the band's vulnerability. They are not "half-clothed," but rather partially naked: exposed to the natural elements (whose connection they've been severed from) and to the white gaze.
The tribe makes their way to their old bora ground (the site where they once held ceremonies and gatherings). The fact that it is their "old" bora ground signals the way they were forcibly displaced from the land, thus rupturing their cultural connections and practices. The assonance of the "ow" sound in the words "town" and "ground" signifies the way in which the landscape was altered by colonization. Where before it was a place whose inhabitants engaged in mutual care and respect for each other and the land, now the land is used and disrespected in the name of progress. This is further seen in the description of the white men hurrying about like ants. That they "hurry about like ants" references the capitalist market economy in Australia, a system that is very different from the community and land-based cultures that were there prior to European settlement.
The "many" white men contrast the "[remaining]" tribal members, whose numbers were greatly reduced and continue to be disadvantaged by higher unemployment rates, poverty, isolation, trauma, discrimination, exposure to violence, trouble with the law, and alcohol and substance abuse (Lines 5 and 3). The impacts of colonization persist. For this reason, Noonuccal's poems must be considered as political because she is advocating for recognition, respect, and change.
Half-covering the traces of the old bora ring is a notice from the estate agent. This detail alone demonstrates the opposing ways that Europeans and Indigenous peoples view land. For Europeans, land is a blank slate to be owned and developed. Beginning with the arrival of the British in 1788, invaders claimed Australian land based on the premise of terra nullius, meaning that the land was legally deemed to be unoccupied and uninhabited. This legal structure has profoundly shaped the history of the land. An "estate agent" is a person whose job involves selling and renting out land, and the sign reads, "Rubbish May Be Tipped Here" (Line 6). The disrespect for the land, turning a sacred ground into a dumpsite, equates to contempt for indigenous culture. The bora ground is the site where the corroboree (Aboriginal dance ceremony and gathering) occurred, but the site has been desecrated.
This line about the tipping of rubbish on Aboriginal sacred ground proves to be a tipping point in the poem; after, the perspective shifts from using the pronoun "they" to "we." Though the tribe has been made to feel as strangers on their own ancestral lands, really "the white tribe are the strangers" (Line 8). The use of the term "tribe" to describe white society is ironic in that it unifies a group of people whose culture tends more towards individualism. The speaker goes on to say, "We belong here, we are of the old ways," speaking in plural from here on out (Line 9). Not only does the use of pronouns shift, but the tense goes from past to present. However, time is not defined as strictly linear in the poem. Different chronologies surface as being simultaneously accessible; the past is a living and generative force in the present.
The speaker identifies the tribe as being "the corroboree and the bora ground," thus further reflecting the connection between Aboriginal culture and land (Line 10). This physical and spiritual embodiment continues as the speaker says, "We are the old ceremonies, the laws of the elders" (Line 11). In another work by Noonuccal, she writes, "I know / This little now, this accidental present / Is not the all of me, whose long making / Is so much of the past" ("The Past" Lines 3-6). This shows an awareness of and appreciation for all the cultural traditions that held (and hold) the tribe together. These aspects of Aboriginal identity are further expressed in "We Are Going" as the speaker identifies the collective "we" with "the past, the hunts and the laughing games, the wandering camp fires" (Line 13).
The mention of Dream Time is particularly relevant in composing and layering the poem's chronology. The term "Dream Time" is not a fully adequate translation of the Aboriginal concept; other words used to describe the concept in English include Everywhen, eternal beginning, and the uncreated. Warlpiri teacher and artist Jeannie Herbert Nungarrayi (whose people refer to the concept as the Jukurrpa) has defined the Jukurrpa as "an all-embracing concept that provides rules for living, a moral code, as well as rules for interacting with the natural environment...a lived daily reality" (Nicholls). This complex unfurling of time that occurs in the poem is further shown when the speaker says, "We are...the tribal legends told" (Line 12). The legends (told in the past by ancestors) have in essence been alchemized into the very existence of the tribe's living descendants. To be (in the present) what once was turns the past into a living force. This, too, is part of the epistemology of Dream Time, and contributes to Noonuccal's poem being a healing work in the present for Aboriginal people.
The speaker metaphorically identifies the tribe with nature: "We are the lightening bolt over Gaphembah Hill / Quick and terrible" (Lines 14-15). In making a specific allusion to a landmark, the poet shows the relationship between the tribe and their ancestral lands. In Noonuccal's short story "Dugong Coming!" Gaphembah Hill is referred to as "the sharing-out place," a place of gathering (Zeller 251).
The line "Quick and terrible" is the first to break the anaphora of "We," which begins the preceding eight lines. Like a lightning bolt itself, these three words interject an honest appraisal of and respect for nature. All aspects of nature, regardless of whether they can be used as resources, are considered sacred. What follows the lightning bolt is the thunder, personified as "Thunderer...that loud fellow" (Line 16). After evoking these loud and striking images, Noonuccal widens the spectrum of identifying with nature as the speaker states, "We are the quiet daybreak paling the dark lagoon" (Line 17). Just as the length of the poem's lines vary, the range of imagery and identity is shown to be diverse.
The soundscape of the poem stays quiet with the line that follows the daybreak paling the dark lagoon: "We are the shadow-ghosts creeping back as the camp fires burn low" (Line 18). This creates a continuum with the earlier line about "the hunts and the laughing games, the wandering camp fires" (Line 12). From thunder to shadow-ghosts, laws of the elders to quiet daybreak, the identities of this specific tribe (and of all the diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples) are not abased or cheapened in Noonuccal's writing. This is another reason why her work is inherently political: she does not depict a monoculture.
Reflecting the quieting of the poem's ambiance, the tone shifts as Noonuccal depicts various kinds of absences. The speaker states, "We are nature and the past, all the old ways / Gone now and scattered" (Lines 19-20). Just as the anaphora "We are" was used earlier, here the poet repeats the word "gone." Gone are the scrubs, the eagle, the emu, the kangaroo, and the bora ring (Lines 21-23). As a result, the hunting and the laughter and the corroboree are also gone (Lines 21 and 24). Throughout the poem, Noonuccal weaves Aboriginal identity with nature, but that connection was severely impacted by colonization. The poem serves as a kind of warning: if things continue on their current course, then everything beautiful and sacred in this land will disappear.
The final line of the poem gives it its title. The speaker says, "And we are going" after listing all the flora and fauna that have gone from this place (Line 25). There are multiple meanings to this line, the first being the genocide that occurred alongside colonization and that continues to impact Aboriginal descendants. The United Nations defines genocide as any of the following acts: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. All of these apply to First Nations people in Australia.
However, there is another possible meaning. Professor and researcher Francesca Di Blasio writes that the final line "may...refer to the progressive ending of a culture and of a community...but it may also refer to the sense of a movement onwards: 'we are moving further, we keep on moving towards the future against all odds.'" In any case, Noonuccal offers an opportunity for Aboriginal healing with her poetry by depicting the truth of what happened (and continues to happen) to the community, aligning the collective identity with nature and the old ways, and weaving different temporalities to offer possibilities for the future.
