Australia is Not a Finished Product

Before this unit I was a History major undergrad student. I had studied a lot about Australian colonisation, feminism and Indigenous spirituality. I thought I would not learn too much more about perspectives and values, rather I would learn about Australian literature and how specifically things were written. I was expecting Australian Literature to be a bland and an uninteresting experience, but I found myself in many instances to be wrong. Through uncovering the literature, I discovered more about the history and the people in it. It personalised my general, factual recounts of facts about the injustices women and Indigenous people faced (through things like Tottie Tippet and That Deadman Dance). One specific example was when I read Tottie Tippet, indeed the book seemed like a recount of mediocre activities in a woman’s life, however, after I discussed it in tutorials and read it for a second time, I took note of the small discrepancies that prove it couldn’t have been published at the time, despite it being a diary entry discussing everyday happenings for a women.

Every time I read or re read a piece of literature something new is illuminated for me, sometimes changing what I thought about the piece or creating whole new meaning.  The beauty of literature is that there is so much to consider, personally and contextually; even when you think you understand a poem inside out, the reader can change their lens of perception and discover a whole new meaning. 

Moreover, I learnt even more about the struggles with the landscape and the conjuring of meaning through different perspectives and perceptions. In conjunction with my aboriginal studies unit that I did this semester, both challenged and excited my knowledge and it worked coherently relating to each lesson from either unit.

From the unit I found myself discussing writers, movements and the facts of the human condition with friends and family. The Blogs and Peer reviews worked with this to expand my experience, as blog topics provoked conversations and writing and the peer reviews stimulated both critical and creative aspects of my brain. In the peer reviews I often asked questions, which were rhetorical, however I also wished they were answered. Perhaps peer review conversations can be a futuristic implementation in the unit as I would love to engage about the topics and discuss the personal meanings and insights people find. 

In relation to my reflection and insights from this unit, Australia being an unfinished product is ever present and relevant in all of the contexts and perspectives Australian literature has derived from. Despite the ever-changing aspect of time and place, people and the multiculturalism of Australia embraces new findings and perspectives, thus fostering this amalgamation of history and experience in order to enrich people, art and culture within Australia.  Indeed, nowhere is a finished product and there is room for growth and progression within all nations and therefore their inhabitants. Australia’s great prejudices against Aboriginal heritage, colonisation, multiculturalism, feminism and homosexuality, do have the potential to disappear if people think with the mindset that Australia is unfinished. 

There is beauty behind the unfinished, rather the enchantment and fulfillment that the process of finishing brings. Rather than thinking how new technologies and people bring new influences which makes the finished product farther away; through each individual having a voice Australia is becoming more complete.