Australian HIstory
The first navigator who made it to Australasia was William Janszoo; this discovery was made by the Dutch in the 17th century. They made no attempt of settlement. In the 18th century, James Cook mapped the east coast naming it New South Wales and claiming it for Great Britain. Upon the claiming of the country, the English established a new penal colony in which they sent prisoners mostly to discover the land and to see if it was habitable, but the colonization did not end in the eastern part. In the 19th century the western part of Australia was claimed formally by the United Kingdom. Although penal colonies were considered a common aspect, a campaign was issued by settlers of New South Wales to end compact transportation. Similarly to what happened in America the indigenous population declined mainly due to infectious disease.
The stolen Generation
The stolen generation consisted in the removal of Aboriginal children from their families and communities; this began with the Aboriginal protection act which gave the British extensive powers over the lives of Aboriginal people which; this may have also caused the decline in the indigenous population.
Australia did not escape the practice of segregation separating things as establishments, bathrooms, bars and schools; this practice is clearly illustrated in the movie called Australia (2008) in the separation of the bar.
Australia is considered to be a mega diverse country having semi- arid or desert like areas to tropical rain-forests. Regarding the animal life, Australia is considered to have the most dangerous animal fauna in the world. For instance, white sharks, anacondas, crocodiles and poisonous snakes. Regarding those animals who look innocent and pet-able, they are included in the everyday diet. |
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The Australian national flag was created through a competition in 1901 announced by Sir Edmund Barton. The Australian flag consisted of three elements on a blue background: the union jack, the commonwealth star and the Southern Cross. The government in Australia is a constitutional monarchy and it uses a parliamentary system of government. Queen Elizabeth is the head which is mostly symbolic, since she has no political power in the country. However, the federal government is separated into three branches: the legislature, the executive and judiciary. |
WWII
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1942, Australia had to take a self defense position since they were a base for Great Britain´s forces. It was conveniently positioned near Japan which made the air strike an easier mark. Most of the attacks were in the coast, therefore, the population migrated to the north in order to be safe.
The women:
Due to the war the role of women changed all over the world. Women were unable to get out of the traditional roles, so contributions to the war were unthinkable. The typical role of women in war was nursing service which was the only female branch of the army. Due to the need of more labor power, the government allowed women to take a more active role. In 1941 the RAAF (Royal Australian Air force) received approval to establish the Woman´s auxiliary Australian Air force (WAAAF) and also in that same year the Australian women army service (AWAS) was established. In 1942 Australia established the women's royal Australian Naval service and in order to encourage women to work in rural industries the land army (WLA) was created.
The women:
Due to the war the role of women changed all over the world. Women were unable to get out of the traditional roles, so contributions to the war were unthinkable. The typical role of women in war was nursing service which was the only female branch of the army. Due to the need of more labor power, the government allowed women to take a more active role. In 1941 the RAAF (Royal Australian Air force) received approval to establish the Woman´s auxiliary Australian Air force (WAAAF) and also in that same year the Australian women army service (AWAS) was established. In 1942 Australia established the women's royal Australian Naval service and in order to encourage women to work in rural industries the land army (WLA) was created.
Chauvinism:
Even though there was a great development in the role of women there was still discrimination practiced against them untill the present day. One example of this are women who take maternity leave, by having children they are less likely to be promoted in public services than women who don´t have children. A more public example is the magazine "Zoo Weekly", which created a competition where they invited men to send pictures of their girlfriend´s cleavage in order to win ten thousand dollars for a boob job. The same magazine received a lot of complaints by feminist women which led to the magazine creating a contest for Australia’s sexiest feminist or how they prefer to call it is the “search for the hottest girl in sensible shoes”.
Education:
Nowadays, and as many countries, school attendance or registration for home schooling is mandatory. Every state and territory is responsible for the education of their children, but the rules vary between states. The thing they have in common in the requirement to attend school is that children aged from 16 to 17 are required to either attend school or participate in vocational training. Australia has a good educational system considering the adult literacy rate which was estimated to be 99%. Moreover, the country usually has high scores among the top five of thirty major developed countries.
Religion:
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Australia is a secular state, however, in its history until a certain point today Paganism is still practiced. There are 900 aboriginal groups across Australia and they all have a different branch of beliefs, although they all center in animist ideas including the notion of dream time. Dream time is considered to be a kind of heaven among the beliefs of Australian people. One the most important is that of saying a person’s name after death which consists in the fact that people cannot say the name of the diseased out loud because the soul may remain in this world. As it also happened with many colonized countries, the British forced conversion among the Aboriginal people into Christianity.
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Author’s life: Katherine Mansfield
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Katherine Mansfield is the author of The Dolls House. She was born October 14th 1888 in Thorndon New Zealand. Her family afforded her education and sent her to Queens College in London where she deeply got into writing. Furthermore, some of her interests were writing for newspapers, reading Oscar Wilde´s works and she recommended people to play the Cello.
Similarities
1) One of the countries which has similarities with New Zealand was Canada. The Quebecois were able to maintain their identity as natives similar to Maoris in New Zealand. 2) Similarly to Australia, India, and many others, New Zealand was colonized by The British Empire. 3) As Spain, New Zealand shares the same type of government which is Monarchy, Parliamentary Democracy, and both of them share numerous islands. Differences 1) In contrast to Australia, New Zealand had a native spoken language that was kept to the present day, and it’s officially taught in every NZ school while Australia did not. 2) In contrast to Chile, New Zealand was at one point classified as a “classless society” in 1980, where there was no real difference in the monetary gain which led to equality in most cases. 3) New Zealand has a common type of education: the primary, secondary and tertiary education (university or institute) in contrast to Finland and Japan which have a more developed type of educational system. |
themes
Loneliness - This theme can be seen in the Kelvey´s as they are always by themselves and even by Kezia as she is the only one who thinks differently in her family.
Isolation- The kelvey´s were quite isolated from society through the whole story due to their social- economic background and social status. Discrimination- this theme can be seen in the story through the ostracization by the kelvey´s in different ways. For example, the teacher would have a different smile for the kelvey´s in contrast to other students. Cruelty between class distinctions: The situation where the kelvey´s were bullied by their classmates because of their social status clearly portrays the presence of this theme in the story. Innocence: Kezia and Els share the common aspect of innocence throughout the story. For example, what they both saw in the lamp. |