FINAL
Renowned for their inseparable relationship to their land, few people grasp the concept of Indigenous Australian peoples’ inextricable ‘connection’ with the Country. Opposing perspectives regarding the Australian Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) relationship to Country are offered by the author of Purple Threads, Jeanine Leane and Gary Crew, author of Strange Objects. Crew’s representation through the perspective of Wouter Loos’ journal and Steven Messenger includes deliberate literary devices such as characterisation, figurative language and sentence structure in order to describe the lack of ‘connection’ to the land that non-indigenous people have. Leane has utilised similar literary devices to depict a rich and …show more content…
The extensive use of informal dialogue in a chain like structure (occurring after one another) such as, “This is my home an’ that of ya Nan an’ ya Aunty an’ ya sista an’ ya-self”, “ya dunno the trouble I went ta to grab this little bit a land fer us girls” and “Ya cheeky an’ ungrateful, that’s what ya are” accentuates the ‘aussie’ accent of Aunt Boo. This creates an empathetic tone and ultimately conveys this passionate relationship often demonstrated by Aboriginal peoples. This effect amplifies as the chain like structure lengthens. Crew 's application of sentence structure is largely different to Leane’s, where she uses repetition of speech in oder to imply the rich relationship that Aboriginal peoples experience. Rather, Crew provides short and non detailed descriptions of the land through the view of Steven Messenger in order to illustrate the disconnect towards the land which is often reflected in non-indigenous people. For example when Steven describes Highway One “On a piece of paper make two parallel lines about a centimetre apart going straight up the middle” (Crew, 1998, pg. 31) and the mission “It was an awful place. Very depressing. It made me fee sicker than before” (Crew, 1998, pg. 158). Steven even describes the land as a sickening place. Both authors have utilised sentence structure differently in order to portray their perspective on the ATSI relationship to