Oodgeroo Noonuccal

1: A) Indicate the Indians’ puzzlement over the ways of the white men. The line “and I don’t understand” is using repeatition through the story and conveys the confusion and puzzlement over the white men’s ways. B) Show the Indians’ disapproval of the whites’ treatment of land. Phrases like “there is no quiet place in the white man’s cities” display the disapproval the Indians have over the whites’ treatment. C) Words that show the importance to the Indians of their ancestors’ graves Sentences like “Our dead never forget this beautiful earth” and “The water’s murmur is the voice of father’s father. Portray the importance of their ancestors’ graves and how the Indians feel about it. 2: a) How does the Indian see the idea of selling and buying land? The Indian sees selling and buying land as wrong and unnatural. The land is one with man and shouldn’t be abused. b) What condition does the chief set upon selling his land? The condition is for the white man to take care of the land and teach the future generations of how the land came to be and what it will be in future times. c) How does the Indian regard all living things
The Indian reveres all living things as being the soul of the earth. If man replaces the living things with man-made apparatus the soul of the earth will die. 3: a) The Indian is mainly interested in little things like “every shining pine needle” and “humming insect” b) The Indian was silly enough to think the train was a “smoking iron horse” c) The Indian’s hearing was acute enough to hear sounds such as “the unfurling of leaves of Spring” These quotes are misleading because without the framework the writer intended the quote sounds shallow and insubstantial.
But also taking the quotes too literally when really the author is using a metaphor. 4: a) “The Great Chief sends word he will reserve us a place so that we can live comfortably to ourselves” b) “I have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie, left by the white man who shot them from a passing train” c) “Even the white man whose God walks and talks to him as friend to friend cannot be exempt from the common destiny” 5:

The misquote is the first one with the correct quote being “The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors” 6: a) This quote is patronising. The writer stating almost obviously that he finds the Great Chief wrong. b) This quote is a comment on how the white man would assume that the red man has no idea because he is a savage. c) The white man sees himself as very different yet the writer feels they may have more in common than the white man thinks.