False Claims quotes bank
| Name of poem | Quote | Integration |
| Undermining | “We try to find our way through the world avoiding reactors. Terms of trade are weapon grade.”
JK |
JK portrays that colonisers are publicising their effort on “avoiding reactors” on one hand, yet conducting “weapon grade” trades on the other hand. Thus, he rebuts the ill-natured justification with malicious psyche of colonisation as connotated in this militaristic language. |
| Undermining | “Scrub, forests, their contents. All gone. Hole.”
JK |
The diminishing length of sentences highlights JK’s desperation and extreme disappointment towards self-centred colonisers who resort to deceptive lies of development to gain profits whilst disregarding the destruction of the environment of the First Nation land. It is also a symbol of the brutal/callous/atrocious deprivation of Indigenous people’s resources, lands or even cultures by the hypocritical white colonisers.
In the poem “Undermining”, JK manifests his connection to the natural landscape through the tricolon in a story recollecting his mourning of loss of “scrub, forest, their contents”, accentuating the values of liveness and vibrancy attached to the place. He then introduces a dramatic tonal shift of “all gone”, which elicits the sense of despair and hopelessness of the readers, attempting to dispel their disdainful attitude to the land and reconstruct their connection and respect to the Country through this dreadful and heart-wrenching story. |
| Grandmothers | “… if only she understood how to see.”
JK |
JK unveils the historical tragedy of cultural segregation with the lack of mutual understanding between the Indigenous populations and white colonisers as the root cause. |
| Grandmothers | “She told me she watched the ‘blackfellas’ through the hessian curtains…”
JK |
The “hessian curtain” emblemises the racial separations in the Euro-centric society and further reflects on the colonisers’ historical pride and refusal of accepting the First Nation culture. It excavates the detrimental impact of communities being trapped in their own ignorance. |
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