That Deadman Dance Final Exam

1) Unlike the colonists, the Noongar people were people that believed in prosperity
and equality. They did not have to fear each other because of their loving culture.
The Deadman Dance and Bobby was one of the prime examples of their loving
and fearless culture. In the novel it states, Laughed and loved, Bobby
Wabalanginy never learned fear; not until he was pretty well a grown man when
he ever know it (Scott 61). This explains how fearless the Noongar people were
before the colonists came. It also states, Sure, he grew up doing the Deadman
Dance-those stiff movements, those jerking limbs-as if hed learned it from their
very own selves; but with him it was a dance of life, a lively dance for people to
do together (Scott 61). This represents how the Deadman dance shaped the
culture of the Noongar people to be more loving towards each other. From my
understanding of this novel, the colonists viewed love and marriage as a class
status and race instead of true love. I believe that the Noongar people saw
marriage and love and people who are truly in love but preferably the same race.
For example, Bobby and Christine were in love but their race and class status was
making it difficult for them to be open about it. The colonists also believed that
Noongar people were less of humans than they were, therefor, they took instant
power from them by the use of fear. They took their land and made them adjust to
a new way of living, which is the colonists way of living. The way that the
Noongar people gave up their land caused me to believe that they obviously were
not accustomed to the idea of ownership and property. This novel is actually a
good example of globalization. Just like how America has globalized its culture
by creating a chain of businesses throughout the world, the colonists are
essentially doing the same thing with the Noongar people. They are changing their
language their spirituality and even the way they dress. This also relates back to
how Christopher Columbus changed the culture of Native Americans.
2) The Noongar people are very spiritual people, unlike the colonists. The Noongar
people view nature as if the different aspects of nature have souls. The Noongar,
spirituality is deeply connected with the nature and how the nature effects humans
and our lives on earth. They believe that everything associated with nature such as

trees, lakes, grass and winds have some kind of spiritual meaning related to
humans. To the Noongar people, being closely connected to nature translates into
being closely connected to their ancestors and other spiritual beings. For example,
Bobby is seen to be a spiritual person, but that is because he is close to nature. In
the novel it states, Bobby is a spiritual man who feels the land around
him. Bobby looked into future graves, and into some peoples hearts and minds,
went into the hollows within them, into the very sounds they made. All his friends
and their goodness kept him alive. And he never learned fear, because he was not
just one self. He was bigger than that, he was all of them (Scott 141).
This is one of the many examples of how Bobby used his
surroundings as spiritual guidance. The Noongar people also view
animals differently than the colonists. The colonists only see
animals as livestock, food and a way of survival. The Noongars
spirituality enables them to see beyond the animal. They believe
everything in nature has some kind of meaning. If everyone had
this kind of spirituality, then maybe we would see beyond the
nature, and see it as souls. This could result in better treatment
of our environment and each other.
3) Having different perspectives makes the narrative of this novel very unbiased.
The experiences that the Noongar people had were very different from the
colonists. Both people have different views on life. For example, the Noongar
people are very spiritual people and have deeper resons of why certain events in
their lives happen. The colonists are not spiritual and they believe in economic
value. The colonists also believe in expansion, globalization and power rather
than spiritual beliefs. The colonists view point was that they were trying to make
the culture of the Noongar people better by modernizing it. The view point of the
Noongar and Bobby was the the colonists were just trying to take power and
slowly destroy their peoples culture.
4) The Deadman Dance is a spiritual dance in which