The Full Text of “We Are Going”
The Full Text of “We Are Going”
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“We Are Going” Introduction
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“We Are Going” is a poem by the Aboriginal Australian poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal, who was a leader in the struggle for Aboriginal rights in Australia. Australia was once a British colony—in fact, it is still part of the Commonwealth—and the poem examines the impact of British conquest on Aboriginal Australians, their way of life, and the natural world. Ultimately, the poem shows the profound destructiveness of colonialism, while also powerfully asserting the beauty of Aboriginal culture and identity. “We Are Going” was published in Noonuccal’s 1964 collection of the same name, the first book of poetry to be published by an Aboriginal Australian poet.
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“We Are Going” Summary
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They came into the small town, a small group of people who were partially nude, quiet, and withdrawn. They were the only ones left from their tribe. They came here, to what had once been their sacred land. Now, though, the place is full of white men who hurry around like ants over an anthill. The property agent who owns the land put up a sign that says, “trash can be dumped here.” Now garbage partly covers the faint lines of what had once been sacred a ring built into the ground, where ceremonies were held. “Now it seems like we're the ones who don't belong here, but the white tribe are the ones who actually don't belong. We're supposed to be here. We come from the old traditions. We embody traditional gatherings and dances, and the sacred ground where ceremonies are held. We embody those traditional ceremonies themselves, as well as the laws and traditions of the oldest in our community. We embody the wondrous stories that come from the beginning of time when everything was created, which has never ended and is where dreams come from. We embody the legends and stories that are told by the tribe. We are history itself, with all its hunts and games filled with laughter. We are the campfires that appear to wander from place to place as we move around. We are the bolt of lightning over a nearby hill, fast and awe-inspiring, and we are the loud thunder who comes after the lightning. We are the calm, silent dawn that lightens up the dark inlet of ocean water. We are the shadows, resembling ghosts, that inch closer as the campfires start to go out. We embody nature and the past itself, all the old traditions and ways of life, which have now been dispersed throughout the land. The low bushes have disappeared, as have the hunts that we went on and the laughter of those games. The eagle has disappeared from this place, and so have the emu and the kangaroo. The sacred ring where ceremonies were held is gone. The gatherings and dances are gone. And we are leaving too.”
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“We Are Going” Themes
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The Destructive Nature of Colonialism
Written by an Aboriginal Australian poet, “We Are Going” examines the consequences of British colonialism in Australia. The poem describes what has been lost through British conquest, and what will be lost in the future if Aboriginal people aren’t respected and valued. Ultimately, the poem offers a powerful critique of colonialism. It suggests that colonialism is a form of cultural genocide, robbing Aboriginal Australians of their lives and identities, and destroying the beauty and balance of the natural world.
The opening of the poem places it in the aftermath of British conquest in Australia, and strongly implies that many Aboriginal Australians have already lost their lives as a result of this conquest. The speaker describes “[a] semi-naked band,” or small group of people, coming into a “little town,” and says that they are “[a]ll that remained of their tribe.” This description makes clear that this tribe—implied to be a tribe of Aboriginal Australians—was once much larger; now, though, as a result of colonialism, only a small number are left.
This small group of Aboriginal Australians, who are described as “subdued and silent,” are then contrasted with the “many white men” who now “hurry about” the town “like ants.” In other words, where before the white colonizers were the minority, they have made themselves the majority—implicitly through conquest of the native people.
The poem also reveals that colonialism destroys whole ways of life and what is most sacred to these Aboriginal Australians. For example, “bora ground” is sacred land where ceremonies were traditionally held. However, the poem describes how the “old bora ground” has been taken over by white colonizers, who have even set up a sign indicating that “Rubbish May Be Tipped Here.” In other words, the sacred land of the Aboriginal Australians is now used by the colonizers as a dump.
Later the speaker remarks that “all the old ways” are “[g]one now and scattered,” suggesting that all the traditional ways of life of the Aboriginal Australians have been lost as a result of colonialism. The ending of the poem reinforces this sense of lost culture, when the speaker says that “[t]he bora ring is gone” and “[t]he corroboree is gone.” A bora ring is a sacred ceremonial site in Aboriginal culture, and a corroboree is a traditional gathering or ceremony. In dispossessing people of their land and their traditions, the speaker implies that British colonialism has destroyed these sacred aspects of Aboriginal life.
Finally, the poem suggests that colonialism has also destroyed the land and natural world itself. The speaker mourns the loss of the “eagle, the emu, and the kangaroo” who are now “gone from this place.” In other words, British colonialism has resulted not only in the loss of the native people and their culture, but also in the loss of the animals that once inhabited the land. Implicitly, what was balanced and integral in this natural setting has been destroyed.
Ultimately, the poem suggests that Aboriginal Austraia, their ways of life, and all that is beautiful in the land they inhabit will be lost forever if something doesn’t change. The beginning of the poem shows a small group of Aboriginal people still remaining. But the title, “We Are Going,” which repeats in the poem’s last line, suggests that these last Aboriginal people will soon disappear from the land as well. The diminishing line lengths of the poem also convey a sense of a way of life that is eroded and disappearing forever. And once it is gone, the poem strongly implies, it can’t come back.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-7
- Lines 19-25
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Aboriginal Australian Identity and Experience
“We Are Going” explores the destructiveness of British colonialism and the erasure of the Aboriginal Australian people. At the same time, the poem offers a powerful counter to this erasure. While the poem begins with a description of Aboriginal Australians that could be from a white, colonial point of view, it goes on to speak from an Aboriginal perspective, celebrating Aboriginal identity and culture even as it mourns the erosion of this culture. In the face of colonialism, then, the poem asserts the beauty and resilience of Aboriginal Australians, and it implies the importance of centering and valuing Aboriginal experiences and perspectives.
The speaker starts by describing a group of Aboriginal people as they would be seen from a white, colonial perspective. The description of these people as a “semi-naked band” echoes colonial language, which often emphasized native people’s physical appearances and attire as “evidence” of their sub-human status.
Additionally, all that is said at this point about these people’s experience is that they are “subdued and silent.” This implies that they have undergone extreme suffering, yet the poem doesn’t, at this point, offer their point of view. The opening of the poem, then, implicitly conveys the ways in which Aboriginal Australians—and many native peoples around the world—are seen and represented: as dehumanized and fundamentally voiceless.
Yet the poem goes on to subvert this opening by giving voice to the people who are, at the start of the poem, “silent.” The speaker shifts to the collective first person: “We.” This can be read as the voice of the group of Aboriginal Australians described at the poem’s beginning. The poem goes on to sustain this point of view for the remainder of the poem. In its structure, then, the poem centers and prioritizes the perspective of people, who, it implies, have too often been dismissed, ignored, and silenced.
Speaking from this “we,” the poem speaks to the beauty and complexity of Aboriginal Australian identity and culture. In the list that sustains much of the poem, the speaker describes this identity in detailed, varied ways. The list emphasizes the connection of identity to both tradition and the land, in such lines as “We are the old ceremonies, the laws of the elders,” “We are the lightning bolt over Gaphembah Hill,” and “We are the quiet daybreak paling the lagoon.”
The variety and complexity of this list—the speaker asserts that “We are” such varied things as “the hunts and the laughing games,” “shadow-ghosts creeping back as the camp fires die low,” and “nature and the past”—emphasize the unique beauty and complexity of this culture.
Importantly, then, while the speaker describes the erosion of Aboriginal Australian culture—“all the old ways,” the speaker says, are “[g]one now and scattered”— the poem also powerfully asserts the presence of this culture. The vivid specificity of the speaker’s descriptions allows the reader to visualize the aspects of Aboriginal Australian experience that the poem describes. Additionally, the repetition of “we are” creates a sense that despite the violence and erasure they have experienced, the Aboriginal people speaking within the poem are present and resilient.
By giving voice to the people who are, at the start of the poem, described as “subdued and silent,” the poem implicitly shows the urgency and importance of understanding and valuing Aboriginal Australian perspectives. In doing so, it refuses to accept the colonial framework that erases these perspectives, instead showing a “we” who are dispossessed and “going”—but not gone.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-25
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “We Are Going”
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Lines 1-3
They came in ...
... of their tribe.In the first three lines of the poem (“They came […] their tribe”), the speaker describes a group of Aboriginal Australians coming into a small town. The speaker notes that this group is "semi-naked," as well as "subdued and silent." The speaker then notes that this group of people is “[a]ll that remained of their tribe.”
By letting the reader know that this group of people are the only ones who remain from their tribe, the speaker places the poem in the aftermath of British conquest in Australia, and also strongly implies that many Aboriginal people have already lost their lives as a result of this conquest. Those who do remain, the poem implies, are now dispossessed of their land, since they are coming into a “little town” that is no longer their own.
Additionally, the speaker describes the group of people as “subdued and silent,” implying that they have gone through violence and suffering and are now withdrawn and quiet. The sibilance of /s/ sounds in this description, which evokes a kind of hush, emphasizes this silence.
The word “subdued” means to be withdrawn, solemn, or quiet. At the same time, it implies that one has been forcibly subdued, since the verb “subdue” means to conquer or pacify someone or a group of people by force. Both meanings are present and relevant in the poem, and the hush in these opening lines conveys a sense of overwhelming loss and violence that this small “band” of people has endured.
Interestingly, the speaker’s descriptions of this group of people, and the imagery the speaker uses, call to mind colonial descriptions of Aboriginal and Indigenous people. The speaker remarks that the “band” of people is “semi-naked.” Colonizers often emphasized the physical appearances of native people, including their attire or partial nudity, to make the argument that they were less “civilized”—and implicitly less human— than white Europeans.
By describing the group of people as “silent,” the speaker also suggests that they are voiceless or unable to articulate their experience. This, too, resonates with the ways white, colonial frameworks have depicted Indigenous people: as suffering, solemn, and fundamentally inarticulate.
At the start of the poem, then, the speaker alludes to the way that Aboriginal Australians have often been seen from a white, colonial perspective: the reader sees this group of people as a white outsider might see them, but the poem doesn’t yet fully show their own perspective or experience.
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Lines 4-7
They came here ...
... old bora ring. -
Lines 8-9
'We are as ...
... the old ways. -
Lines 10-13
We are the ...
... wandering camp fires. -
Lines 14-17
We are the ...
... the dark lagoon. -
Lines 18-20
We are the ...
... now and scattered. -
Lines 21-22
The scrubs are ...
... from this place. -
Lines 23-25
The bora ring ...
... we are going.'
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“We Are Going” Symbols
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Rubbish
In the opening scene of the poem, the speaker describes a group of dispossessed Aboriginal Australians coming into a small town now inhabited by white men. The speaker says that this place is the site of the "old bora ground," meaning that it was sacred land to the Aboriginal Australians, where ceremonies were held. Now, though, an "estate agent," or white property manager, has put up a sign that says "Rubbish May Be Tipped Here," and this rubbish "half covers the traces of the old bora ring," the most sacred site within Aboriginal culture.
It is clear that in this scene, what the speaker is describing is literal; colonizers have built a town on top of sacred Aboriginal land, and established a dump for their trash there. However, this detail about the "rubbish," or trash being dumped onto the bora ring, is also symbolic.
Trash is what people discard or throw away—what they least value. Here, the speaker reveals that the white colonizers view the land with such disregard that they have made the most sacred area of land into a trash heap. The rubbish in the poem, then, symbolizes the colonizers' relationship to the land they have taken over, and to the Aboriginal Australians who inhabited it. While these people lived in the land with reverence and respect, the white men who now live here treat it in the opposite way, disrespecting and destroying everything that is most meaningful and beautiful within it.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 6-7: “Notice of the estate agent reads: 'Rubbish May Be Tipped Here'. / Now it half covers the traces of the old bora ring.”
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“We Are Going” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Allusion
“We Are Going” alludes to several important aspects of Aboriginal Australian culture and tradition, including the bora ground and bora ring, the corroboree, and Dream Time. The poem also alludes to a local hill, establishing the importance of this specific landscape.
Bora ground is sacred ground in Aboriginal culture. A bora ring is a ring built into the ground out of earth and stone, where ceremonies would be held. The speaker alludes to both bora ground and the bora ring in several moments.
At the start of the poem, the speaker says that the group of dispossessed Aboriginal Australians come into a small town (now inhabited by white men) that is the “place of their old bora ground.” This means that white colonizers have built a town on top of Aboriginal sacred land. The poem further says that the colonizers have set up a sign saying that trash can be dumped onto this area of land, and this trash “half covers the traces of the old bora ring.” Here, the speaker shows the degree of disrespect and disregard that the colonizers show to the Aboriginal people and the land itself.
Later, the speaker asserts that they “are […] the bora ground,” revealing how their identity is inextricably connected to the sacred land and its meaning. Finally, at the end of the poem, the speaker says that “[t]he bora ring is gone,” implying that this most important aspect of Aboriginal culture has been lost as a result of colonialism.
The speaker’s allusions to the corroboree are similarly important. A corroboree is a traditional dance or gathering within Aboriginal culture. The speaker says that they “are the corroboree,” but at the end of the poem mourns the fact that the corroboree, too, is “gone.” Implicitly, these most important aspects of Aboriginal culture—along with the land to which this culture is inextricably tied—have been destroyed.
The speaker also refers to Dream Time, an important concept in Aboriginal culture. Dream Time refers to the beginning of time, when, in Aboriginal thought, everything was created by the spirits and the ancestors. Traditions, ceremonies, and understandings of the sacred are believed to have come from this time, passed down by the ancestors of the modern-day Aboriginal people. Importantly, too, Dream Time is thought to have never ended and to be ongoing, as modern-day Aboriginal people, too, participate in it.
In the poem, the speaker says that they are the “wonder tales of Dream Time,” referring to the stories and legends passed down over generations. This allusion is important in the poem, because it shows the speaker asserting the unique dignity, sacredness, and meaning of their culture. In the face of the destructiveness of colonialism, the speaker shows that Aboriginal culture is deeply rich and profoundly meaningful.
Finally, the speaker alludes to “Gaphembah Hill” when describing the lightning striking within this landscape. This allusion to a specific local landmark shows the connection between the speaker’s identity and this specific setting. By naming something so local, the speaker shows their knowledge of this place, which has been passed down over thousands of years.
Where allusion appears in the poem:- Line 4: “They came here to the place of their old bora ground”
- Line 7: “Now it half covers the traces of the old bora ring.”
- Line 10: “We are the corroboree and the bora ground,”
- Line 12: “We are the wonder tales of Dream Time,”
- Line 14: “We are the lightening bolt over Gaphembah Hill”
- Lines 23-24: “The bora ring is gone. / The corroboree is gone.”
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Simile
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Anaphora
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Repetition
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Polyptoton
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Asyndeton
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Imagery
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Metaphor
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End-Stopped Line
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Enjambment
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Alliteration
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Consonance
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Assonance
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"We Are Going" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Band
- Subdued
- Bora Ground
- Traces
- Bora Ring
- Corroboree
- Dream Time
- Gaphembah Hill
- Lagoon
- Scrubs
- Emu
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(Location in poem: Line 2: “A semi-naked band subdued and silent”)
The word "band" refers to a group of people who have joined together out of a shared experience or for a shared purpose. Within the context of the poem, the word suggests that this is a group of Aboriginal people who are together because they are from the same tribe and the only ones who remain.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “We Are Going”
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Form
“We Are Going” is not written in a fixed or traditional form. However, the poem creates its own form that is important to its meaning.
Most notably, the poem is written in a single, 25-line stanza. Though there is no overarching form here, the line lengths themselves are thematically interesting.
- At the start of the poem—lines 1-3 ("They came [...] tribe.")—the speaker describes a group of dispossessed Aboriginal people coming into a town now inhabited by white men; the lines are short, and feel, like this group of people, subdued and almost silent.
- When the poem shifts, and the collective "we" describe who "[w]e are," the lines grow longer, suggesting the richness, diversity, and vitality of Aboriginal culture and life.
- A single short line (line 15) punctuates this part of the poem, when the speaker describes a bolt of lightning as “Quick and terrible”; here, the short line creates a different impression, as it enacts the suddenness of the lightning that the speaker describes.
- Yet as the poem moves toward the ending the lines begin, again, to diminish in length. Here, the speaker describes all that has been lost through colonialism and lists what is now “gone” from Aboriginal life and the land itself. These diminishing lines, then, imply the erosion of this culture and way of life, and suggest that it could be lost entirely.
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Meter
As a free verse poem, “We Are Going” has no set meter. Instead, it sounds closer to natural human speech, as though the speaker—especially the collective “we” who speaks for most of the poem—is addressing the reader directly.
Yet the poem also uses certain elements to create emphasis and rhythm. The anaphoric repetition of “[w]e are” imbues the poem with cadence and authority, driving these lines forward. Similarly, the repetition of the word “gone” creates music and falling rhythm, conveying the sense of what has been lost and will be if something doesn’t change.
Finally, the poem’s use of end-stopped lines creates powerful pauses at its line endings. These pauses ask the reader to move through the poem slowly, taking in each image and considering the full meaning of what the speaker is saying. These end-stopped lines become especially powerful at the poem’s ending when the speaker reiterates what has been lost and what is “gone”—before saying that they, too, are “going.”
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Rhyme Scheme
“We Are Going” has no set rhyme scheme. Much of its music comes from its use of repetition, especially the anaphora of “We are” and the speaker’s lists, which build toward the ending of the poem.
The poem does, however, include moments of sound echoes that allude to rhyme and the music of rhyme. For example, in lines 14-16 the speaker describes lightning and thunder within this local landscape, saying “We are the lightening bolt over Gaphembah Hill / Quick and terrible, / And the Thunderer after him, that loud fellow.” In this description, the consonant /l/ sounds in “lightening,” “Hill,” “terrible,” “loud” and “fellow” help to unify this image, conveying a sense of this setting as intricately interconnected. Importantly, though, these lines also contain a subtle slant rhyme between “Hill” and “terrible,” which is echoed in the long /o/ sound of “fellow” a line later. These sound echoes convey the sense that the world of Aboriginal life and identity the speaker describes was integrated and whole before colonialism.
At the end of the poem, the word “going” also creates a sound echo with “gone.” The hard /g/ sounds at the end of these lines emphasize the speaker’s connection to all that has already been lost and reinforce the sense of imminent loss at the poem’s ending.
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“We Are Going” Speaker
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The speaker of “We Are Going” changes over the course of the poem. At the start, the speaker seems to be a more distanced, anonymous observer; they describe the scene that opens the poem in almost a detached way. Importantly, too, at this point of the poem the speaker describes the group of Aboriginal people who come into the town in ways that recall colonial descriptions, remarking on the fact that these people are “semi-naked,” and viewing them only as “subdued and silent,” as though they can’t express their experience or identity. In doing so, the speaker at the poem’s start evokes ways in which this group of people would be seen from the outside, by the white colonizers within the town.
Yet the poem goes on to shift. In the eighth line, quotation marks indicate that someone else is now speaking, a collective “we,” and this “we” speaks for the remainder of the poem. Here, it is clear that the “we” is the collective voice of the group of Aboriginal people described at the poem’s beginning. No longer simply “subdued” or seen from the outside, the poem gives voice to this group of people’s experience and culture in all of its richness and complexity. For most of the poem, then, the speaker can be understood as a collective speaker, articulating the experience of this group of dispossessed Aboriginal people.
There is also another way of understanding the speaker that encompasses both of these parts of the poem. The speaker could be understood as an Aboriginal person witnessing this opening scene. The speaker understands how this group of people is likely seen from a white, colonial perspective, and alludes to this in the poem’s opening lines. Yet the speaker then goes on to express, on their behalf, the point of view of these Aboriginal people, from a place of shared identity and experience.
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“We Are Going” Setting
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“We Are Going” is set in Australia, in the aftermath of British conquest and colonialism. Several elements of the poem establish this setting.
First, the speaker alludes to aspects of Aboriginal Australian life, such as bora ground, the bora ring, the corroboree, and Dream Time. The bora ground and bora ring are sacred sites in traditional Aboriginal culture, and a corroboree is a traditional gathering, ceremony, or dance. Dream Time is an important concept in Aboriginal culture, referring to the beginning of time, a time of creation that is understood to be never-ending. By referencing these aspects of Aboriginal life, the speaker places the poem in Australia. The speaker also evokes specific plants and animals native to Australia, such as the “scrubs” or brush, eagles, emu, and kangaroo.
At the same time, the speaker also mourns the loss of these aspects of Aboriginal culture and identity, as well as these aspects of the natural world, and describes a scene in which a small group of Aboriginal people, “[a]ll that remained of their tribe” come into a little town now inhabited by white men. These details make clear that British colonizers have taken over Australia, and implicitly reveal that a genocide of the Aboriginal people has already taken place, since only a small number remain.
Additionally, the white men who “hurry about,” are compared to ants, suggesting that, like ants actively constructing their ant hill, the white colonizers are actively building their towns and society on top of sacred Aboriginal land. This suggests that the poem is placed in a time when colonization and its practices are firmly entrenched, and white dominance is ongoing. The Aboriginal people have been dispossessed of their land and their way of life, and they too are in danger of “going,” if something doesn’t change.
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Literary and Historical Context of “We Are Going”
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Literary Context
“We Are Going” was first published in 1964 as the title poem of Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s first collection of poetry. We Are Going was the first poetry collection to be published by an Aboriginal Australian writer. Some critics denigrated the collection as political propaganda, and others even expressed disbelief that an Aboriginal person could have written the poems. However, the collection quickly sold out in several editions, and Oodgeroo Noonuccal went on to become one of the best-selling poets in Australia. She expressed pride in the apparent accessibility and direct nature of her work, saying that she wanted to reach the broadest possible audience and advocate for civil rights through her writing.
Oodgeroo Noonuccal went on to publish numerous other collections of poetry, as well as non-fiction and children’s literature. She won a number of literary awards, including the Fellowship of Australian Writers’ Award and the Mary Gilmore Medal. In 1970, she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), but she famously returned the award in 1987, in protest of the Australian Government’s celebration of the Australian Bicentenary, the anniversary of the arrival of the first British fleet in Australia.
Today, Oodgeroo Noonuccal is understood to be a major Australian poet and leading figure in the movement for equality in Australia. Her work, beginning with We Are Going, laid the groundwork for other Aboriginal writers as well as activists in the movement for Aboriginal rights.
Oodgeroo Noonuccal published We Are Going, and a number of her other books, under the name Kath Walker; she was born Kathleen Ruska, and Walker was the last name of her former husband, Bruce Walker. In 1988, after returning to her ancestral island, Minjerribah (also known as North Stradbroke Island), she took the Aboriginal name Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Oodgeroo meaning “paper-bark tree,” and Noonuccal the name of her tribe).
Historical Context
In a way, the historical context of “We Are Going” begins over 60,000 years ago, when Aboriginal and Indigenous people began to live in the islands now known as Australia. The Western term “Aboriginal Australians” refers to the diverse peoples who lived in many of these islands over this period of time, while “Indigenous Australians” encompasses both Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, who have a distinct ethnic lineage. Prior to colonization, over 500 Indigenous peoples lived in the continent, speaking over 250 different languages.
The imposition of British colonialism began in 1788, when the first fleet of British ships arrived in Australia to establish a penal colony. The colonizers immediately began a brutal, deliberate campaign to exterminate the Indigenous population, through the intentional introduction of fatal diseases, poisoning, widespread massacres, pervasive sexual abuse of Indigenous women and girls, and the violent displacement of Indigenous people from their lands. In the 10 years following this first arrival of British ships, the Indigenous population in Australia was reduced by 90%.
Over the centuries that followed, British colonizers and their descendants continued to attempt to annihilate and erase Aboriginal Australians, claiming that the land had been “empty” when they had arrived. The White Australia policy, which was formalized at the beginning of the 20th century, included a set of policies advocating for a white-only Australia, prohibiting immigration to Australia of non-white people, and continuing the displacement and marginalization of Black Aboriginal and Indigenous Australians. White Australia policy continued to exist officially into the late 20th century and still shapes dynamics of race in Australia today.
It was within this context that Oodgeroo Noonuccal wrote We Are Going and published it in 1964. As an Aboriginal woman, she had left school by necessity at the age of 13, and worked for years as a domestic servant, one of the only areas of employment open to her. While serving in the Australian military during World War II, she met Black American soldiers and later began to advocate for Aboriginal rights. Beginning in the 1960s, she was a leader in the movement for Aboriginal Civil Rights, including the right to vote, and participated in the 1967 struggle to change parts of the Australian constitution that barred Aboriginal Australians from full citizenship.
In 1972, Oodgeroo Noonuccal returned to her ancestral island, Minjerribah, also known by its colonial name North Stradbroke Island. While land rights laws in Australia barred her as an Aboriginal person from owning the land, she leased an area of land which she called Moongalba, or “sitting-down place.” There, she established the Noonuccal-Nughie Education and Cultural Centre, and in the years that followed, thousands of Aboriginal and white students came to the center to learn about Aboriginal culture and respect for the natural world.
All of this context is important to “We Are Going.” The poem begins in the aftermath of colonialism and the genocide of the Aboriginal people, and it articulates what colonizers have permanently altered and destroyed. At the same time, the poem asserts the dignity and resilience of Aboriginal identity. Ultimately, it asks the reader to imagine a world in which the remaining Aboriginal people, and the land they have inhabited for thousands of years, could be respected and restored.
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More “We Are Going” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poem Out Loud — Listen to Oodgeroo Noonuccal read "We Are Going" in this 1986 audio recording. Interestingly, in this reading, the text of the poem is slightly different, including a longer transition between the opening scene and the collective "We" beginning to speak.
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British Colonialism in Australia — Learn more about British colonialism in Australia, and the impact on Aboriginal and Indigenous peoples, in this article from Australians Together. The article describes the brutal history of colonialism in Australia, beginning with the arrival of the first fleet of British ships in 1788.
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Biography of Oodgeroo Noonuccal — Read more about Oodgeroo Noonuccal's life and work in this article at the Australian Poetry Library.
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Interview with Oodgeroo Noonuccal — In this interview originally conducted in 1981, Oodgeroo Noonuccal talks about why change in Australia will come with the younger generation, and what she hoped to achieve through opening an educational center on her home island of Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island).
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The White Australia Policy — Learn more about the White Australia Policy, the set of governmental policies that established and maintained white supremacy in Australia. Oodgeroo Noonuccal and other Aboriginal activists struggled against the White Australia Policy to obtain civil rights for Aboriginal Australians. This article discusses the history of the policy, as well as how it still impacts Australian culture today.
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Photograph of Oodgeroo Noonuccal at Moongalba — View a 1982 photograph of Oodgeroo Noonuccal at Moongalba, the educational center she opened on her home island of Minjerribah.
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