Citizenship_and_Rainbows_End

Does citizenship alone make a group of people really belong to a country or society' What needs to happen to achieve a true sense of belonging' Write your response to these questions, with reference to the play "Rainbow’s End" and what you know of the 1967 Referendum The definition of citizenship is the state of being an inhabitant of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Although citizenship defines what country you legally belong too it doesn’t necessarily mean that you belong to that country. There are two types of citizenship; ‘right of blood’ and ‘right of soil’. ‘Right of blood’ means that policy grants citizenship based on ancestry or ethnicity. ‘Right of soil’ means that policy grants citizenship to anyone born on the territory of the state. A person’s ancestry may be from India but they may have been born in Australia. This person may feel torn between which country they feel like they ‘belong’ too as they were born in Australia and by birthright and where they live, are characterized as an Australian citizenship but are also characterized by their skin and ethnicity as Indian. The 1967 referendum allowed Aboriginal people to be included in the national census, which meant they would have the same citizen rights as other Australians. Even though all the non-indigenous/’white’ people that lived in Australia were from other countries they were still classified as Australian citizens while the Aborigines who were the ‘true Australians’ were not. Up until 1967 the Aboriginals were classified under the Flora and Fauna act which meant that they were not classified as people or citizens of Australia. In rainbows end Gladys complains that “ We’re second class citizens in our own country. No not even citizens”. The Aboriginals were not classified as citizens, yet they still belonged to Australia. A citizenship means that a person legally belongs to a country but does not necessarily mean that a person ‘truly’ feels like they belong to that country. A true sense of belonging is determined by the environment in which a person lives; it can emerge from the connections made with people, places, groups, communities and the larger world. A person needs to feel at ease with all of the things in their environment in order to feel a true sense of belonging. In Rainbow’s end Errol is asking Dolly to come with him to Sydney. He is listing all the reasons why it would be beneficial for her and asks “Are you saying you’d rather live in a humpy by the river' When I’m promising you the world'” Dolly responds by saying “you’re assuming that your world is better’. Dolly is angry that Errol is belittling the home that Dolly lives in saying that his is much better. Dolly doesn’t want to leave her home because although Errol’s may be more stable, Dolly’s home is ‘a real home where there are people looking out for each other’. “Our life isn’t perfect, but like Nan says, it’s ours”. Dolly feels a true sense of belonging to her home.