Goodmorning, have you ever truly considered how much you allow prejudices to affect your first impressions of others? Does “Aboriginal man” sound more threatening and imposing than “man” alone? Perhaps the word aboriginal carries negative connotations? For decades Aboriginals have been associated with stereotypes and prejudices claiming they are a culture of violent, lazy and unstructured primitives. But on what basis? Has anyone ever questioned the validity of these stereotypes or even the origins of them?

Well if i could direct your attention back to term 1, when we explored the short story ‘Kill to Eat’ written by Kath Walker. The short story worked to reject these fictitious stereotypes and in doing so created a voice for the Aboriginal people. The stereotypes were combated through the author's skillful use of both text structure and language features alike.

The voice provided in the text is most influentially characterised by the authors use of point of view. Kath Walker was an Aboriginal-Australian poet, educator and campaigner for Aboriginal rights. The text is a recount of her time as a child, when she was most impressionable. This is important as the first person perspective encourages the reader to put themselves in the same situation. Given that the author is targeting people who hold prejudices it is assumed they have little to no idea of aboriginal life, and just like the impressionable little girl they must discover their own way and come about understanding as she once did. Through this journey of acknowledging and understanding the culture the reader inevitably concludes: Aboriginal values and laws in no way promote violence, or lazy behaviour. This is a direct example of the author's use of language features to shape the reader's views and combat stereotypes.

Coupled with the author's use of language the text structure present in the