And They Took Us Away from Our Family
“And they took us from our family, took us away, they took us away, snatched from our mother’s breasts, said this was for the best.” Good Morning/Good Afternoon. Tribalism plays a fundamental role in our society, from children having fun in the playground to colleagues in a professional office. While tribalism does have its unifying aspects, in our society acts as a barrier and provides people with more reasons to stay divided. | . It can fuel hatred, hegemony and xenophobia. Tribalism is vicious. Tribalism is evil. Tribalism is, sometimes, lethal. Poems by Oodgeroo Noonuccal, the film ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ directed by Mark Herman and the song ’Took the Children Away’ by Archie Roach all contain expressions of these potent aspects of tribalism. | Tribalism has the power to divide people and create a barrier between them. This often involves ideological struggles with the conscience that give rise to negative insights and understandings. As sub-tribes have been formed, hatred and unfair biases have been becoming more prominent. Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s poem ‘All Once Race’ uses repetition to portray the idea of different tribes being formed and how she is against it. “Black tribe, yellow tribe, red, white or brown…”. | The rhetorical question, “all one family, so why make wars?” makes it undeniably clear that we shouldn’t be split into sub-tribes, and also reinforces the fact that tribalism has a negative force. Furthermore, the title of another of Noonuccal’s poems, ‘Last of His Tribe’, implies the feeling of alienation and disconnection that was the inevitable result of the differences in two tribes introduced in the poem. These differences between the tribes and causes xenophobia. | Xenophobia has the power to wipe tribes which is explored in ‘Last of His Tribe’. Tribalism has a monstrous amount of negativity embedded in it which is constantly explored throughout her poems. The notion of sub-tribes is also evident in ‘The Boy in the Striped