What history teach us...

What would you feel if you are taken out of your bed by the force?
Separated from your family and roots just because others see you as an inferior?
Would you be beaten and humillated until you deny your roots?
Or would you find a way to return home?

These are the questions that came to my mind when I read Rabbit-proof Fence, the book based, sadly, in the true history of Doris Pilkington's mother: Molly Craig. This book is actually quite strong, the way in which Doris recounts the experiences of her mother, and all that it took to return to freedom, is simply epic, and is proof of the meaning of being brave and being free. There are some parts in the book that are extremely painful and sad to read, the first one being at the chapter two when Constable Riggs went to Jigalong to take the three little girls, Molly, Daisy, and Gracie, to Moore River Settlement, and when you read this part, you can kinda feel the desesperation of their families, and how painful it must be. When I noticed that the little girls are beaten and molested in Moore River Settlement just for being themselves, just for saying something in their own language, is when I started to compare this situation with other historical situation of this kind, like the Jewish Holocaust, or the African Apartheid. I don't understand why there is always someone in the world that believes that he is superior to the others just because he has a clearer skin colour or a fancy last name, and just because of that, he is on the right of stomping your beliefs and beat your culture until you are nothing but his shadow. The humanity has still a lot to learn, and Rabbit-proof Fence, among other sadly-realistic books, is just a reminder of the cruelty of the human race.

Maöri Culture

In our last Introduction to Cultural Diversity class we were talking about New Zealand, specifically about Maöri people. They are the aboriginal people of this country.

Maöris are so interesting and spiritual people who have a lot of traditions and beliefs. I was reading about them and a want to show you some things that I think you might find interesting.

One thing that characterizes Maöris is the great collection of tales that they had. For example, there is the myth about their origin:

Also there is the myth which narrates how Maui slowed the Sun:

Other aspect that is so interesting is their belief about the “Mana”, they say that all the living creatures was born with “Mana” inside. Mountains, animals, humans, all of us have this “spirit” that makes us to be who we are. “Mana” not necessarily it’s a good “spirit”, it also can be a bad “spirit” who corrupts our self and make us walk in a bad way along our life. 

But my favorite part is about Maöri’s tattoos (Ta Moko). In my opinion there isn’t a better cultural expression of spirituality and identity like this draws in their faces and bodies. Ta Moko has a big meaning for this people, first, let people know about the social caste of each of them. Also tell them about their family heritage, every single tattoo that they have narrates their own history and the history of their family. Maori warriors wore proudly their tattoos to show at the society that they were who defended their lands and their community from the invaders.

Currently, they only make up a 15 percent of the country population. Sadly, as the time pass, fewer and fewer Maöri still preserved their costumes, only a little part of this aboriginal group continue studying their traditions and their history and although New Zealand gains so much money with native things, hardly anyone say proudly that is part of this people. 

So, that is... I hope you like it :)

The Rabbit Proof Fence

I just finish reading this book a few hours ago and I couldn't help myself to watch the movie before doing the blog entry. And if it wasn't enough, I saw some fanmade videos about the film.
This book it's about three half-caste aboriginal girls who were sent to Moore River Native Settlement because the Australian Government considered that mixed-race should be educated as any other citizen, but at the same time, they only see them as future servants for white people. But this three sister (Molly,14/Gracie,10/Daisy,8) were not going to accept the fact that they would be taken from their families and sent away, and that's why they decided to run away from the settlement and make their own way home. 

The story that Rabbit Proof Fence present us it's not one of those stories that we usually hear or read. If you are part of the "Beginer" group (and if you already read it) you'll know how deep the narration is, this is why I would like to share with you a part of one specific chapter and scene.

                                                 Chapter 7- Losing Gracie

In this part of the book, Gracie decided that she's not longer able to get back home, she's to tired because of all the days that they have been walking through the desert. That morning they saw a train station and Gracie wanted to get closer, after that, she came back to where Daisy and Molly were and told them that according to a woman who worked on the train station, her mother left from Jingalong and  was now living in a place call Wiluna, so she thinks that the best thing to do it's take the train until Wiluna and meet there with her mother. This is a really emotional part; the other two girls cry, because they both  know that her sister it's probably walking to a tramp and that they might never see her again...

Now, the same scene in the movie:
It's pretty much the same, the girls separated and Gracie decides to leave. Except for this:  Gracie is taken while she's waiting for the train, but she's not alone, her sisters are watching all that happens from the bushes, incapable to do anything while they see Gracie in the back seat of a black car. (5:28)

When I finished this book I told to my older sister about it, and she couldn't believe that this was a real story, and neither the age of the girls when they did this journey looking for their way back home. Definitely the braveness that they had was unreal, as their strait; they were just little girls who shouldn't pass for what they had to lived, as many other children, they should feel and be safe in the place where they were born.

Finally, and as Hazel Grace said once, "nothing is too messed up that can't be fixed with a Peter Gabriel song", so here's a fanmade video about the movie so you can have a better idea of what this book it's about and maybe encourage to read it and realize about a different and sad reality that some people had to live .

TA MOKO

Today in class the teacher talked to us about the Maori, which is the native people of New Zealand, and that they originally came from Polynesia.

One characteristic feature of Maori culture is the Ta moko which is the tattoos on Maori people´s faces and body, clearly face tattoos are most notorious than those in the body. Ta moko is sacred and its meaning depends of the person who wears them, usually it is bare on the face and it represents the history of the family (whakapapa) of the person that wear the mark; it is a ritual of passage from childhood to manhood. Also in the past it was considered as a symbol of prominence so very important Maori people wore them.

Maori woman also can have moko in their faces, but usually they are located in places such as the chin or in the forehead.  Obviously get a tattoo is a painful experience even with the new tools we have nowadays, so it had to be really extremely painful in the past when they used pieces of bone and they didn’t had the technology and medicines as we have today.

As many other cultural features Maori tattoos are very popular nowadays an example of this is mike Tyson face tattoo. Would you get a face tattoo, not like Mike Tyson, as Maori do it, on all your face? What other trait of this culture called your attention?

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS3GE3lw6SA

The chance to a Real Help!

The book Rabbit Proof Fence is about the history three girls that were to go to the Moore River Settlement, place that was destiny to a school for the "half castes" name that was used for those children that have an aborigine mother and a white father. Molly was a girl "half castle" and for that condition she was to go to this "school" with her cousins.

 Moore River Settlement began in 1918 following the passing of the Aborigines Act 1905 which gave the government increased powers to move Aboriginal people from their traditional lands to other parts of the state. In 1920 the staff quarters and a schoolroom/hall were added, and smaller buildings followed later. From 1934-1950 the settlement suffered from lack of funding coupled with an increase in population and finally When the Methodist Church assumed responsibility for the settlement in 1951, its name was changed from Moore River Settlement to Mogumber Mission.

 In the web I found a lot of piece to testimonies about aboriginals that lived in this place. These information and videos that I found make to ask myself that maybe that experience don’t can be just bad, and could be a good opportunity for a different life. One of this testimonies was made to: Sam Dinah who in 1944 was removed to Moore River Settlement, he say this words “I am angry” he is angry because he didn’t see his mum and he see she just in picture, of course for he this was not a good experience, but finally he was removed to other place where he say “where we had a very good structured education there”.

 

P.S: this video is in this link

     http://stolengenerationstestimonies.com/index.php/testimonies/996.html

when I were read the Rabbit Proof fence, I were feel sad about Molly's history, but maybe this bad way to "help" was a very good idea for a Really Help, Moore River Settlement  when in 1951 change the name too change to style in charge of the church the real Help come, with education and with really opportunities. Absolutely this change was  valued for the aborigines; I found a video where aborigines talk about that Real Help!

 So enjoy them!

P.S: the history about Moore River Settlement is in this web side

       http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?              mode=place_detail;place_id=19497

Stereotypes all around us

Acording to the page thefreedictionary, stereotype is a conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image. And as we all know, it's usually crated by the media. 

We are lying if we said that we have never used stereotypes, because sadly, we all have done that at least once... but what can we do?. We see stereotypes everywhere, the media is one of the responsibles of this, because it creates a FAKE idea or image of something, and that image it's so repetitive that we end up believing. This is kind of like fashion, sometimes, at first sight we don´t like the clothes that we see at the catalogue, or on the tv commercials but then, with the time, and the repetition of the same images, we end up sympathizing those outifits and finally, we end up buying some of them.

At classes, we have seen different types of stereotypes (sounds weird, I know.), and now, that we are reading "the absolutely true diary of a part-time indian" while reading, I was trying to understand all the racism-and stereotypes that we are submitted to, I noticed that in the very first page. You can imagine that indians are all strong and Junior, well, he isn´t. Also, I've heard that indians are not good at school, and Junior and his sister as well, were very clever.

Sometimes, we don't notice when we use stereotypes. The most usual stereotypes are those about women ( women should be at home doing the housework), men ( men shouldn´t be at home because they are the ones that bring money to the house), blondes (they are all dumb), indians ( they are alcoholics ), "americans" -> actually, united states citizens ( they are all fat), and I can keep on writting but that's not the point.

So Is there something that we can do to stop stereotyping?, in my opinion, I think that we DO have a solution, and that is avoiding stereotypes, is trying to be more careful about things, it's not being racist, it's respecting each other, and overall is accepting at the other person for what they are. 

I will leave here a video that I found by casuality in youtube, and it is about the typical stereotype of blonde girls, its author Jon Lee, analises some commercials (cruel comercials for blonde girls), and kind of explain the "sense" of the advertising. 

Fiction vs. History

After we watched "Elizabeth: the Golden Age" I started wondering about historical movies and their proximity to reality. 

Is well known that not everything we can see in movies is completely truth and we all know about the existence of special effects, edition and all that kind of things, but... what happen with "historical" movies?

First of all, is important to know what historical movies are. So, they are films in which story are based upon historical events and/or famous people (in this case, Queen Elizabeth I) and their purpose is to represent  that event or life as good as posible. 

There are lots of historical movies, and they show us some important events or details of someone's life in a more interesting way, especially if you don't like History very much.  Despite this, most times these films are not completely close to what really happens. For that reason, I started surfing the Internet and I discovered that "Elizabeth: the Golden Age" is one of these films. 

In this movie,  Sir Walter Raleigh is one of the most important characters, but actually he was less important that another characters who was omitted in the film, as William Cecil, Robert Dudley, Sir Robert Cecil or Robert Devereux, for example. Also, his role against The Invincible Armada was less important than Sir Francis Drake's role, who was one of the most important pieces in the England's victory. 

I think that this happens especially with historical movies because the story became more interesting if there is a  charismatic character who catch your attention, even if productors have to "modify" the events just to make it more attractive. 

Maybe, spectators would be less interested in the film if  they could see events as it happened.... We have to think that in general, movies are made to entertain... 

What about you? 

Would you enjoy the movie as much as you did if events would be shown exactly as it happened?

Urban legends of England

We have a lot of topics to talk about England, but my favourite topic is regarding Myths and legends of this country. England has a big variety of stories about ghost, killers, wizardry and witchcraft, some of them are most credible than others, but all this “tales” are so interesting. Now I will show you a few:

First, there is Sweeney Todd:

This is one of the best urban legends floating around London, is about a barber that supposedly kill his clients with his razor, then, his partner in crime, Mrs. Lovett, turned them into meat pies, which were then sold to the public in her pie shop. The existence of a real Sweeny Todd in 19th century is much disputed and there is little evidence to back these claims up.

In second place there is Jack the Ripper:

Between August and November 1888, five prostitutes were horribly mutilated. There has been much speculation as to the identity of the killer, he was named Jack the Ripper and maybe was a doctor or butcher. Many theories have been put forward suggesting individuals who might be responsible. One theory said that the murder was Queen Victoria's grandson, Prince Albert Victor, also known as the Duke of Clarence. Jack the Ripper was never caught and his or her identity never was clear

The third, is about the Ravens in the Tower of London:

An ancient prophecy gave to King Charles II said that the day on which the Ravens of the Tower of London live the building, this would be destroyed, the Crown would fall and with it throughout the British Empire. To prevent the prediction come to be real, Charles II issued a Royal Decree that said that should keep six crows live in the Tower.  During the Second World War the prediction almost turning real, the country was on the verge of falling down to hands of the Nazi. In this moment only an alive crow was staying in the tower, thanks to him the prediction was not fulfilled. Coinciding with other predictions, the empire does not have to survive.

And finally, we have Robin Hood:

Legend of famous Robin Hood says that he was a charitable thief that gives to the poor what he stole to rich. Some people say that he was living with his men and her maid Marion in the forest of Sherwood, near Nottingham between 1160 and the 1247.

I wanna invite you to read more about this country and his amazing culture and history.... Enjoy!!!

Elizabeth'98

This movie shows Elizabeth's first moments beforeand after her crowned . Since the moment she is in prison until the scene when she's declared as the Virgen Queen We can also see in a better way how the conflict with Spain and France begins, and how was the relationship that both countries had with Elizabeth's reign. As an example of that is the visit that Philip II of Spain and Henry III of France did to propose her marriage . In the movie Henry II of France is show as a men who prefers male company, wear lipstick and dresses like a woman, putting his sexuality in doubt.

The movie reveals how involved was Elizabeth in her duty, preferring her kingdom over her love life. In which Robert Dudley was present, who ended married with another woman, in the movie Elizabeth i's devastated with the new, specially because it was a hidden marriage. This is one of the reason why Elizabeth decided to married with England. Cate Blanch does an excellent performance in the role of Queen Elizabeth I, because she was able to show her as an strong and independent woman, who was capable of government a country without the need of a men by her side. But also, showing her insecurities as a woman. The film ends in a very dramatic way, when Queen Elizabeth I decided by some kind of ritual giving England a Virgen, this is why she convert herself into what she considered the image of a Virgen, by cutting her hair (a very emotional scene) and also painting white all her body. The final scene shows Elizabeth sitting in her throne and initiating her Golden Age

Elizabeth: the golden age

Elizabeth: the golden age was a great movie; one of the things that caught my attention of it was the fact that in the movie were shown two women as queens, they both had so much power and a huge responsibility  in contrast with the women´s role in the old England where women were educated to serve men and they didn’t have the right to a proper education or to have any kind of possession, they were treated as inferior beings, as they served only to procreate as Elizabeth father demonstrated during his life with his many marriages and his wives beheadings.

 It seems to me a little odd that any of them did anything to change the women’s role during their reign, it wasn’t until the 1800´s that women began to have some rights. I believe that Elizabeth fought against the conception of men about her as a woman and her capability to rule a chauvinist country. She demonstrated what a strong and intelligent woman was capable of if given the opportunity. Maybe the reason why she did not marry was because of the role of women in old England, she didn’t want to be subjected to a man wishes and desires, she was the Queen after all, men and women were subjected to her wishes and desires not the other way around.

Elizabeth became an icon of courage and strength of character for women nowadays, but she actually failed in changing the women´s stereotype in old England. How do you think it would be the lives of women today if elizabeth had done something to improve the situation of women during his reign? Would it have made ​​any difference?



http://www.elizabethi.org/contents/women/

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-women.htm

Most Famous Queen of All Time. Period.

When we hear talk of kings and queens, it is very likely that we will come to mind Europe, and especially England, it is a fact that has made this kingdom a medieval culture icon. So between both king and queen of that era, it is one which has been featured in countless movies, series, and documentaries in his honor; nothing more and nothing less than the Queen Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen. We saw in class the Elizabeth 1998 movie directed by Shekhar Kapur, and it was really fascinating. It was clearly more sensationalist and exciting than the real story, but it certainly captures the aura of majesty and divinity with which is often related to the queens. We also have to take into account the historical factor of the same story, which makes it even more impressive. It's a good movie to watch with your family, or even to study it, as was our case. It helped us better understand the European culture and place it in a historical context.

Would you be upset if I told we were dying?

Sometimes we spend so much time worrying about so many things without sense, that we do not realize what is really happening. Sometimes we think that just a good action make a good people. But that is not the truth. The truth is that every time we look away we are still part of the problem. A fact is that animal life on our planet is declining, and the guilt of this, is on us. That is the meaning of this song by Streetlight Manifesto, and the phrase "Would you be upset if I told we were dying?" makes us question whether we are actually doing something about it. Sometimes, I really feel that the human race is a cancer in the history of the Earth, but I also feel that we are the only ones able to fix it. So, you will do something about, or you will still looking away?

Why was so popular the Virgin Queen?

Why was so popular the Virgin Queen?

We are never know how would was the queen, the true is the British people loved, all the names that she had about “Virgin Queen” was and is a very important and interesting way to said things but why she was so popular?

 I think that the most important point was that in this time there isn’t TV and pop singers , so for this the people just follow the Queens and Kings because they were the only people that were different and popular and famous. Other way she was so popular I think was that she was a very different woman; because she in all live was a virgin Queen, this is a very interesting point for the people in internet are more blogs, pages and forum with a lot ideas about why she never married… in one documental of the History Channel talk about that and show more ways that her life, one theory said that she was she or he? I think that is very interesting because are two theory one is that she was a men because when she is 10 years she sickened and died and one boy that play and was very close to hers replacement to hers. The other theory is that she has hermaphrodite and for this problem she never married. All this hearsay say why she is very interesting in the “Culture as an Iceberg” I think this is relevant with “roles in relation to status” and in this case is with sex and the same time is relevant with the occupation where one queen or king have to make a family and have descendant of their crown.

When you start to read these reasons maybe you want to know and search  more information  or maybe when you read this do you feel reading one magazine because in this times we want to know everything about the others persons and have one opinion so why was so popular the queen? Is easy was and is now because she was a special and intelligent person.
   

The Queen Representation

Elizabeth I, The virgin Queen. 

We watched the movie Elizabeth in class, this was a really good movie because I think that this movie represented all the power that Elizabeth had. 

For me, this movie wasn’t a critic of her empire, it was a representation were the way they dress, they talked and acted meant something.

 Elizabeth, in the movie, was glorified, there wasn’t moments in the movie were she appeared weak, even when she had a love disappointment, she was kind of strong and she overcame it, also, she was pious she didn’t want to execute Mary, but she had to because she was a threat.

The movie was pretty close to the real history, of course that there were some things that probably didn’t happen, but we have to remember that movies are for entertainment (most of them). Elizabeth was definately a  queen with a strong character, and a huge intelligence. The virgin queen will always be remembered for the way she ruled her nation.