Unit 4
1. The poem develops a contrast between the past and the present. The past
is presented in phrases such as those in the left column below. Beside
them in the right column, write phrases from the poem, which refer to the
present and contrast with the past.
Phrases referring to the past
Phrases referring to the present
‘Them fierce old fellers’
They’re all gone now
‘Blackfellers’
‘Native home in Currarong’
‘Honeybul’
‘No harm’
They’d call all over your honey
smeared arm
2. The word ‘native’ is used three times. Why does Robinson repeat this
word so often?
To make it clear their home is here, and no where else.
3. Why does Robinson make Percy describe the foreign imported bees as
‘Eyetalian’ (they are actually Italian)
Because they are not native bees they are from Italy. Unlike ours who so
no harm, the bees from another land are fierce, and mean and show no
mercy.
4. The poet uses onomatopoeia (the use of words with sounds that convey
their meanings, like ‘hiss’ or ‘thump’) to mimic the sound of the attacking
bees. Which words do this?
Savage! They’d fetch your blood. Them bees
would zoom an’ Zig an’ chase a feller.
5. How does the word the word ‘But’ which means beings line 13 signal the
change from the past, when the native bees were harmless and the
Aboriginal leaders were fierce, to the present, when the foreign bees are
fierce and the old leaders ‘all gone now’?
I think that, its implying with this all this that has happened, is good and
all, BUT look what it is now.
6. Percy names some of the Aboriginal leaders who are no longer alive.
Working in pairs, list them and discuss the following.
a. What effects do these names have on this poem?
It just goes really well, and they are like tribal names.
b. How effective is the repetition of ‘old’ before their name?
Very, I think its really good.
c. Percy calls them ‘them fierce old fellers’. Do their names change the
way we think about them?
Yes, it shows they are brave.
7. How should the last two lines be spoken? What feeling should the speaker
put in his or her words? Why?
I think the last two lines should be spoken softly, and harmoniously as to
leave the reader content, and not upset.
8. The poet has chosen to write this poem in the persona of an Aboriginal
man.
a. Do you think Percy might have been a real person?
Yes I think it may be a real person.
b. How do you think the poet might feel about the changes in Aboriginal
life shown here through he contrast between native and imported
bees?
Upset, he used to like how those fierce old fellers roamed the
bushland, which were their homes. And now they are dying out
through generations.
c. Why might he have chosen to create the voice of Percy Mumbulla in
this poem?
Maybe Percy is a icon for him, and he is a fan.
9. What audience does Robinson/Mumbulla speak to?
I think Robinson, tries to speak younger generations. Of us Australians, so
we know what our elders do.
10. Present a reading of the poem to the class, performed in front of a mural
showing wither the landscape of the past and the aborigines gathering
honey, or of the present.
~Incomplete
11. Use a detailed atlas of Australia to find the places referred to in a poem.
Can you find out what sort of countryside these Aborigines would have
known in the early twentieth century?
Bushland.