My Dawning by Arwin Arwin

Today I am delighted to share with you a text which explores the fascinating history of refugees and
migrants. The text I have presenting today is My Dawning by Arwin Arwin. Arwin arrived in Australia
in 2012; he left Afghanistan in hope of a new home and a new life. He began studying at year 10 in
high school where he improved his English and found himself exploring his creative side. He then has
explored and developed his creative skills through filmmaking, poetry and acting. Poetry is critical for
teenagers as it helps with their creative language skills, imagination, language development, writing
abilities and self- expression. Poetry helps show others their viewpoints on different conditions.

My Dawning teaches the reader about the history of Australia: how hard it was for refugees to come
to Australia from the perspective of a refugee. Arwin Arwin uses the words ‘Christmas Island’ making
the protagonist a refugees as Australia used Christmas Island for refugees. The poem is most likely to
be Arwin Arwin himself from a couple results from the poem ‘I blossomed in the ancient city of
Ghazni” and Ghazni is located in Afghanistan. Another clue was near the end, and it says ‘Maybe this
time my journey could make a poet,’. The poet gives a strong sense of the protagonist’s journey
when he portrays horrific sights, ‘Smelling of blood and emanating fear and anxiety,’ and ‘Death was
my closest neighbour, one hand span distance from it is bitter breath’. This provides the reader
some understanding into how peril the journey must have been from a refugee’s perspective.

Arwin Arwin uses descriptive language to show the audience the refugee’s point of view. This is
accomplished by language features such as assonance: “Fear,” “Timber,” personification: “Kite took
flight,” and emotive language: “My first smile came soon after pained cries from my mother,”. The
peacefulness and the horror is highly effective in identifying the reader how peril the journey to
Christmas Island was.

From 1945 to the early 1900s, more than half a million refugees and other displaced persons were
accepted into Australia. “My Dawning” made by Arwin Arwin provided us the audience a new
understanding of what the refugees or even migrants had to go through, such as pirates, contagious
illnesses, etc.

Thank you for listening