We Are Going Essay Questions

What does repetition accomplish in the poem?

The first instance of repetition occurs when the speaker describes the scene of the remaining tribal members returning to their ancestral lands from the perspective of an outsider looking in. "They came," first to the little town and then to the place of their old bora ground (Lines 1 and 4). This phrase creates a complex dynamic because it was the coming of the British colonizers in the first place that estranged the indigenous Australians from their lands, now causing them to return. The repeated "ow" sound in "town" and "ground" highlights the way that the original landscape and its inhabitants were altered by the coming of the British.

The next instance of repetition is the anaphora "We are" occurring in Lines 8-14 and 17-19. Here, the speaker gives voice to a collective tribal identity. The past is embodied in the present as a healing force: "we are of the old ways...the corroboree and the bora ground...the old ceremonies, the laws of the elders...the wonder tales of Dream Time, the tribal legends told..." and so on (Lines 9-13). In essence: "We are nature and the past" (Line 19). This repetition of "we are" insists on the tribe's presence and creates a collective identity that weaves together different timelines, including pre-colonization. This repetition is a celebration of Aboriginal identity.

The last instance of repetition is of the word "gone." The flora and fauna are gone and as a result, the cultural practices of the Aboriginals are also gone. All of this culminates in the final line: "And we are going" (Line 25). The change in tense from "gone" to "going" serves as a warning about what will happen if action is not taken. This is part of the political message of the poem: the need to respect, honor, and protect indigenous ways of life.

How is time represented in "We Are Going?"

In the poem, the past is evoked in the present through a retelling of history from a different perspective and an embodiment of pre-colonial indigenous practices and landscapes. The tenses used in the poem constantly shift to reflect simultaneous chronologies. For example, the statement "We are the past" connects the contemporary Aboriginal community to the old cultural ways of life (Line 13). The corroboree and the bora ground (sacred Aboriginal ceremonies and the places where they occurred) are embodied by the living descendants who continue to suffer the consequences of displacement, genocide, and cultural uprooting. The old ways are "Gone now and scattered," but that does not lessen this embodiment and connection between modern Aboriginal people and their ancestral ways (Line 20). Though repetition occurs in three different instances, the use of the anaphora "We are" marks the bulk of the poem.

While the entire poem works to simultaneously evoke and layer different time periods, the mention of Dream Time focuses this point. The term as a translation does not fully encompass its meaning; other words used to describe the concept in English include Everywhen, eternal beginning, and 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). In "We Are Going," the speaker states, "We are the wonder tales of Dream Time, the tribal legends told" (Line 12). This complex unfurling of different times and planes of reality serves as a healing force in the poem for Aboriginal people.

Describe the importance of land in Aboriginal cultural practices as described in the poem.

Land is integral to indigenous everyday life and identity. The physical occurrences of rock, sand, plant, etc. are imbued with spiritual meaning. In contrast to the extractive one-dimensional perspective in Western societies, Indigenous worldviews engage in a more holistic and mutual relationship of care with the land. This differentiation of perspectives is seen in the poem when a sign allowing for littering half covers the traces of the tribe's old bora ring (site for ceremony and gathering). This is the tipping point that causes a shift in perspective: the speaker's voice switches from describing "them" to identifying as "we."

Without the bora ground, there will be no corroboree (ceremony and gathering). This means that the disrespect for tribal lands is the disrespect of their culture, and vice versa. If the scrubland is gone, the hunting and laughter are also gone. Displacement has caused "all the old ways" to be "Gone now and scattered" (Lines 19-20). Ultimately, the tribe has no choice but to also leave.