Comparing Stan Grant's Racism And The Australian Dream

The ‘The Australian Dream’ has been an aspirational symbol in Australian society for many years. For as much power it holds, it holds controversy as although it serves as a representation of the freedom and pride of being Australian, it also exemplifies the negatives of Australian history, specifically towards indigenous Australians. Stan Grant’s ‘Racism and the Australian Dream’ speech expresses how despite the many promises of ‘The Australian Dream’ he faced generational discrimination as a result of his indigenousness. Racheal Perkins’ ‘Stand up’ episode of TV show ‘RedFern Now’ explores similar ideologies through the Australian National Anthem, illustrating how it acts as a symbol of rejoice yet fails to acknowledge the extensive indigenous

Stan Grant portrays these perspectives on the national anthem though alluding to the lyrics whilst Perkins demonstrates these same perspectives through the use of dialogue. Grant expresses his themes of the discrimination of the national anthem through alluding to the national anthem. He concludes his speech with “And one day, I want to stand here and be able to say as proudly and sing as loudly as anyone else in this room, Australians all, let us rejoice”. In this example, he alludes to the lyrics of the Australian national anthem, wishing he could one day sing them “as loudly”. This implies how the national anthem is not representative of indigenous perspectives and that he hopes for a better future in which he is proud to sing the national anthem. In Stand Up, Joel’s father regarding the national anthem states “This isn’t us” (10:10). This use of tone in the dialogue portrays the indigenous perspectives on the national anthem by expressing their feelings of the anthem not being representative of “us” meaning the indigenous Australians and their culture and history. Through powerful statements in either text, a combination of allusion and tone, these two texts portray to the audience the lack of inclusion within the lyrics and meanings of the national

Grant portrays the indigenous perspective of reconciliation through inclusive language, repetition, and calls to action. He states “The people who supported Kevin Rudd when he said sorry to the Stolen Generations, they are better than that. My children and their non-Indigenous friends are better than that. My wife who is not Indigenous is better than that.”. He retreats the phrase “they are better than that” in order to emphasise his point and even lists non-indigenous and indigenous Australians as the ones who need to change, giving a call to action to the audience. Contrarily, Perkins’ techniques of portraying the perspectives on reconciliation are more focused around visual means such as camera angles and mise-en-scene. Within the first few days of his schooling, Joel played a game of basketball with a multicultural group of students (14:12). The camera and characters are positioned in a way that shows both indigenous and non indigenous students at a similar height - portraying them as being on an equal level - having fun together. These techniques demonstrate the desire for reconciliation of all students, despite how the principle may discriminate against Joel, the students simply hope for reconciliation between groups. By highlighting who’s responsibility and desire it is for reconciliation, both texts send their audiences the message