Masaryk University Faculty of Arts
Department of English and American Studies
English Language and Literature
Hana Smištíková
Archetypal Features in Australian Cinema: Representation of Aborigines Bachelor‟s Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: PhDr. Jitka Vlčková, Ph. D.
2013
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
…………………………………………….. Author‟s signature
Acknowledgement I would like to thank to my supervisor PhDr. Jitka Vlčková, Ph.D. for her guidance and help. Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ...... 5 1. THE ABORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE ...... 9 1.1. Lost child ...... 9 1.1.1. Children and the environment ...... 10 1.1.2. Teenage dilemma and “decolonization”...... 12 1.1.3. Aboriginal notion of country ...... 14 2. THE BLACK TRACKER ...... 18 3. THE BATTLER(S) ...... 21 4. PERVADING TOPICS ...... 24 4.1. Sticking together ...... 24 4.1.1. Yolngu Boy and Rabbit Proof Fence ...... 24 4.1.2. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and The Fringe Dwellers ...... 27 4.2. Racism ...... 29 4.3. Assimilation ...... 34 CONCLUSION ...... 37 WORKS CITED ...... 41 ENGLISH RESUMÉ ...... 45 CZECH RESUMÉ ...... 46
Introduction
The encounter of Europeans and Australian Aboriginal people was problematic from the very beginning. Due to different languages, traditions and the whole culture and mentality, these two groups were unable to understand and appreciate each other‟s perspective: “Communication was minimal and the cultural gulf was huge” (Encyclopaedia Britannica 9). In course of time the situation developed, and mostly during the second half of the 20th century it changed for better. One of the first steps was the referendum in 1967 that recognized Aborigines as citizens1. According to Ward the result of the referendum “marked the beginning of a new era in relations between black and white Australians”. (302) Another successes in Aboriginal rights were the “Mabo decision”2 and the “apologies for stolen generations3.”
The development of mutual relationship is illustrated by the film industry; the most visible aspect is an increasing number of films with Aboriginal themes
1 For more information see “1967 Referendum” 2 Mabo and others v. Queensland (generally referred to as the Mabo case or decision) was a break-through decision in recognizing the native title rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the first time ever in Australia. In 1992 The High Court of Australia decided to reject the terra nullius concept (no man's land) and thus recognized the presence of Aboriginal Australians in Australia before the European settlement. For further information see: “Mabo v Queensland (No 2)” 3 The term “Stolen Generations” is used for Aboriginal people who were forcefully taken away (“stolen”) from their families between the 1890s and 1970s (A Guide to Australia's Stolen Generation), as is suggested most of them had never seen their families again. These people were taken from the environment full of love; however, it was not corresponding to the standards of the white society. Rather soon after the “children removal policy” was stopped the individual politicians started to apologize for the misconduct of their predecessors. This was started by Western Australia's prime minister in 1997 (undoubtedly at least partly caused by release of Bringing them Home Report – an inquiry that contained testimonies of people directly affected by the “Stolen generation policy” for more see “Bringing them Home”) and followed by his colleagues till 2001. (Past Government Apologies) The final, and the most important apology was delivered by the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2008, and it was well received by the public (for more information see “'Sorry' Apology to Stolen Generation”).
5 during the last two decades. “Women, Indigenous culture and multiculturalism now occupy a legitimized (though for the latter two, very much limited) space after years of neglect and misrepresentation.” (Zielinski 94) This opinion is shared by Peter Krausz who claims that: “Over 1,000 feature films have been produced in Australia, yet I could only identify around fifty films that represent
Aborigines in any way at all within the narrative”, however, adding that “things are changing”. (1) Things are not changing only in numbers of Aborigines represented in Australian film, but also in the ways they are portrayed in these movies. The aim of this thesis is to examine Indigenous Australians in films as presented to the audience and prove that their representation is becoming more and more likeable and realistic. Moreover, in this thesis a link between the
“Mabo” decision plus the apologies and depiction of Aborigines is examined.
The thesis builds much on what Collins and Davis pointed out in their book Australian Cinema after Mabo as archetypes of Australian national cinema.
These are the black tracker, the lost child, the bush, battler and the Australian landscape itself. (8)
The first chapter, titled “The Aboriginal perspective”, is going to follow
Collins and Davis by examining the role of some of the archetypes previously mentioned. However, the first sub-chapter “Lost Child” will, as the title itself suggests, analyse the phenomenon of the lost children, and it will also analyse the bush and the landscape together at once. This is due to the fact that children occurring in Rabbit Proof Fence and Yolngu Boy are very much connected to the environment, and so one archetype is defined by the other in these movies. The sub-chapter “The Black Tracker” is about the figure of the
6 Tracker occurring in Rabbit Proof Fence and its role in Australian reconciliation.
The next sub-chapter is to provide a closer look on who the “battler” is, how is illustrated in all films selected and in what ways the newer and the older movies differ in depiction of the battlers.
The second chapter “Pervading Topics” is about to examine themes that go through all the selected movies while comparing and contrasting the differences between the films made before the “Mabo decision” and “apologetic mood” and more contemporary ones. By being present in all movies selected, the issues are also archetypal for Australian cinematography and its depiction of Aboriginal people. The elements discussed are sense of sticking together, racism and assimilation.
The selected films for the examination are: The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith,
The Fringe Dwellers, Yolngu Boy and Rabbit Proof Fence. These films were chosen to examine the representation of Aboriginal culture and identity by studying their main characters and the issues they deal with. These films are concerned with difficulties the Aborigines have been encountering in they lives recently. By the analysis of these films it is possible to understand both sides of the Australia's race-related problems today, and see that there is neither an easy nor a definite answer to them. All the movies discussed are feature films made by Australian directors with smaller or greater discussion with Aborigines.
One of the criteria for selection was the date of their release; The Chant of
Jimmie Blacksmith and The Fringe Dwellers are older, and date before the
“Mabo decision” and beginning of the “apologies for stolen generations” whereas Yolngu Boy and Rabbit-Proof Fence were filmed after 1992. These
7 films were also chosen because of their plots that offer a possibility to compare and contrast the approaches towards Aboriginal culture in the course of time on the basis of similar issues they deal with.
8 1. The Aboriginal perspective
An attitude that Australian Aborigines have towards their land is a different one than that of non-indigenous Australians. Aboriginals “have a profound spiritual connection to land. Aboriginal law and spirituality are intertwined with the land, the people and creation, and this forms their culture and sovereignty.” The land is said to “owe Aboriginal people” and to be their
“mother” (Meaning of Land to Aboriginal People). Such a meaning is difficult to grasp for a western-thinking society. The connection to the land is so strong that it underlies films about indigenous Australians even nowadays; though colonization and centuries that followed must have contributed to the destruction of such a notion. This kind of Aboriginal perception of the land was a huge contribution to the “Terra Nullius” concept adopted by white settlers, which was rejected rather recently.
1.1. Lost child
Rabbit Proof Fence‟s main characters are three half-cast girls that are living with their Aboriginal mothers, but they are forcibly taken away from them. Not long after they get to Moore River (place where half-cast girls are educated to became assimilated into the white society), they decide to escape.
The film becomes a “Road movie without roads” (Probyn) where the girls lead back home. These girls are becoming familiar to the spectator as “lost children” characters. (Collins and Davis 37)
9 Similarly, Yolngu Boy is about three Aboriginal boys who decide to travel to Darwin, because one of them – Botj – committed a crime and he is about to be sent to a jail. Therefore his friends set off to Darwin with him to argue his case with tribal leader Dawu. The journey might be also seen as a “Road movie without roads” because the film follows a “road movie pattern” (Yolngu Boy) when there are in fact no roads, but only paths. The pattern of “lost children” is also present, because the boys are adults neither according to Aboriginal nor white laws.
1.1.1. Children and the environment
Collins and Davis discussing the Rabbit Proof Fence “propose that history films be understood in terms of spectatorship rather than historical representation, as deferred revisions which invite the viewer to perform a cinematic kind of backtracking that is, going over old ground in ways that may lead one to retract or reverse one's opinion.” (37) They discuss the familiar and often used “children lost in the bush” that are seen in a new light in this movie;
Molly is made ill by the environment around the Moore River settlement where she is taken by white authorities for the purpose of education. (45) Mainly by help of camera angles, (absence of) music, and blur colours, the spectator learns about the connection she has with the land. She belongs to the land she grew up in, the “white environment” is “making her ill”. However, thanks to her escape she is seen as a strong person who is not afraid of the environment.
Moreover, her belonging to the land is illustrated by her depiction as a part of
10 the environment; she is being happy in green Jigalong while being sad in hostile and desert-like Moore River. By pairing her mood with presentation of the environs the director achieves a complete symbiosis of her and nature.
Lydon sees the familiar children figure in a new light as well: “she (Moly) is inflected with a new strength and power”. (147) Where this power comes from is questionable. Yet, considering the relationship Aborigines do have with the land, and the “desaturated colours” of the unfamiliar territories contrasting
“with the oasis-like qualities of the scenes at home in Jigalong” (Collins and
Davis 45) it is possible to conclude that the land itself is the source of the power in the movie. The environs have been provider for water and food from time eternal and these things are essential for survival of the people. What more, Moly is capable of using the land as much as possible; she knows how to hide the trace or find food. In this sense, she is “owned by the land”, she needs it in order to survive. Moreover, towards the end of the film, Moly is very thin, the environment is hostile, and she is near to giving up. Out of a sudden a bird comes and fills her up with new strength. Obtaining power this time is more visible than during the rest of the film. It is a type of bird that, as the spectator learns at the beginning of the movie from Molly‟s mother, is an ancestor spirit that protects Molly. She knows immediately that she will recover. The bird is not only her protector, but it is also part of the environment that will “cure” her. The spectator is also full of hope and believes in happy ending of the story. The bird is a symbol of a new faith; faith that is obtained from surroundings of Jigalong.
The hope is so strong because the spectator has already learned that some parts of the country are making Molly “ill”, and the bird comes from her home
11 where she was so full of life and happiness.
Connecting Moly‟s character with the landscape around her is a tool to make the spectator see the land from her point of view. Though being a half- cast, she was raised by Aborigines, and she fights to return home by using her knowledge of nature gained from Indigenous Australians. Certainly, her
“Aboriginal half” dominates, and while a spectator watches the film, the environment seen through Molly‟s eyes is basically the land seen from the
Aboriginal perspective.
1.1.2. Teenage dilemma and “decolonization”
Discussing Yongu Boy under the statement of Collins and Davis about backtracking, though aware of the fact that it is not a history film, ideas of backtracking emerge: the boys are still children – they are not adults according to the white or Aboriginal laws, they are lost in the environs, so the spectator sees the familiar pattern of “lost child” again. The guys are gradually becoming attached to the land and their Aboriginal roots are “revived”. Depicted as children who grew up in mixture of Aboriginal and white environment, the boys are perceived rather as part of the white society (at least Milika and Botj). By their “growing into the environment” the spectators are forced to “retract or reverse” their opinion on the guy's position in the society and rethink (at the same time as they do) their Aboriginal connection to the land. “Yolngu Boy is about the search for identity, making the journey from adolescence to adulthood and the implications of belonging to a larger social group, whether it
12 be a culture, a family or a group of friends.” (Education Resources) Belonging to the culture is one of the most important motives in the film. Aboriginal culture is being highly connected to the land, and thus more specifically, the bond between Aborigines and “their” land is one of the major themes.
Botj's relation to the land copies the one of Aboriginals as a group has been having to it. From flashbacks the spectator learns that Botj was the most skilled in Aboriginal way of life same as the native Australians' were prior to white settlement. Botj is then “collonized” by sniffing petrol, however he is able to find his way back to his land and his roots, but only seemingly which could be seen as a metaphor to the Aboriginal inability to live their lives same as prior to the colonization. The “Mabo decision” was a breakthrough, in relationship of white and Aboriginal Australians. However, there are implications this decision have that yet not have been dealt with fully. Collins and Davis noted that
“In 2004, Australians remain divided on a range of post-Mabo
issues, including: the legal and financial implications of recognition
of Indigenous Australians' prior ownership and sovereignty; the
idea of collective blame and the need for an official apology for
past injustices.” (4)
The official apology for stolen generations was already received; however, there is still a lot to do in reconciliation of Australia.
In the film, Botj is already too deeply rooted into the white culture
(addicted to sniffing) so he is unable to beat the habit, leave the white culture and come back to his roots and perception of land forever. In this respect,
“Yolngu Boy is about land and links to nature” (Nelson 121) and about how
13 these links might be destroyed or revived.
The question how to deal with “Mabo” is not a simple one and has to be dealt with delicacy; it might be complicated not only for white Australia, but also for Aborigines who are already getting used to live the life of the white majority. Nelson puts it in this way:
“The national and international problems of environmental and
social sustainability will not be addressed until we agree on our
social bond(s) with nature. Along with Suzuki, I would argue that
the resolution of ecological crisis is integrated with the
reconciliation of black and white, male and female. In this sense, I
see Yolngu Boy as a kind of Hamlet. It exposes dilemmas between
fathers and sons that are, at base, conflicts between ideology and
behaviour, between traditional Law and modern choices. These
dilemmas are not only central to being Aboriginal, but to being
Australian and being a citizen of the world today.” (122)
1.1.3. Aboriginal notion of country
Both the films offer different approaches to the Australian landscape; they show more of the Aboriginal perception of living along with nature than the European tradition of owing the land. Prominent is the connection these
Aboriginal children have to the land, and that is almost fairy-tale like (Molly made ill while Botj made “clear” by the environment they are in). The films are thus referring to, strengthening and pointing out the rightness of the “Mabo
14 decision” in rejecting the Terra Nullius concept by taking Aboriginal point of view into consideration. Moreover, Rabbit Proof Fence offers “radical inversion of the meaning of lost-child films, for it actively allows for an Aboriginal notion of 'country', i.e., belonging to particular areas of land, having customary obligations to that land.” (Collins and Davis 45)
Yonlgu Boy as well as Rabbit Proof Fence helps to establish better relation towards land of the white and “colonized” Aboriginal inhabitants of
Australia. Both do so by providing the Aboriginal perspective, showing not only harshness of the environment, helping Botj out of his addiction and letting Molly to live along with nature. The purified landscape in the films may be seen as an alternative offered to Australians. The films show how beautiful and useful the land is. It inevitably raises issues whether white Australians know how to behave to the land and the environment or how to live with it. In this respect it makes one think about ecology and land preservation.
Johnson states that: “Aborigines believe proper location is important, and that a film to be authentic has to be made where the story came into being.”
Collins and Davis think the location of Yolngu Boy in Yolngu country “is essential to the meaning of the story.” The film conveys an essential belief about the connection between the land, identity and the Law thorough Baru/Maralita Man
[…].” (90) So to gain Aboriginal approval it is vital to have the film shot in a proper location. It just strengthens the importance that Indigenous Australians give to the land in real life, the “customary obligations” they have to it and the sense of their belonging to that land. When speaking about Yolngu Boy, we learn that much of the country where the film was shot is recognized as
15 Aboriginal territory and is managed by Indigenous Australians (Yirrkala, Kakadu and Darwin). (Nelson 120) While Collins and Davis recognized the landscape as a national archetype and a character playing important part in Australian cinema, they also noted that in Yolngu Boy “the central and northern landscapes are rather backdrops than expressive characters in their own right.”
(89) By this the central attention is given to the plot about the “revised
Aboriginalities based firmly in modernity, not relegated to the primitive, the exotic or the archaic.” (89)
Speaking about Yolngu Boy, Collins and Davis also noted that:
“If Australian film is a genre of international cinema noted for its
landscapes (the outback, bush, suburbs, beach), then memory in
contemporary Australian films is spatial (prompted by place) as
well as temporal (historical event). The continuing process of
„deferred revision‟ or „afterwardness‟ informs our definition of a
post-Mabo cinema as a kind of backtracking through the
cinematic landscapes of pre-Mabo cinema.” (88)
So the notion of “backtracking” occurs not only in the theme (lost children), but the landscape is also kind of revived and presented in a different light (refusing the “stunning exoticism” of the landscape in Walkabout as well as the “romantic locationism” of Jedda) (89). The movie provides the spectator with what is expected – the magnificent landscape – but differs from the old well established “white” idea of the environment by pushing the environs beyond the main concern to the unconscious spheres of viewers‟ perception.
Thus these two films place themselves into the Australian traditional
16 cinematography and (white) culture by using the “old” lost children pattern, though adding something new to the concept. On the one hand stands the
Aboriginal perspective in the depiction of the landscape, while on the other hand the technique of telling the story that is more Hollywood-like. Yolngu Boy is referred to as a “road movie” by Urban and Bothroyd (“Yolngu Boy”) and
Rabbit Proof Fence is said to be a “road movie on foot” (Doyle in Probyn). This road movie characteristic seems to be more of a western approach, but it works perfectly together with the Aboriginal perspective in these films. Normally, the roads might be seen as the element that pushes the plot forward to its conclusion; it is a tool for the characters to get to their destination. These “road movies” lacking the roads are more centred on the depiction of the Australian environment as a secondary source of action development. Due to “no roads” the whole environment becomes the pushing force revealing how far or close the characters are to their journey‟s end.
17
2. The black tracker
“Aboriginal people have developed exceptional tracking skills
based on their hunter and gather life which includes the ability to
track down animals, to identify and locate edible plants, and to
find sources of water. […] Stories about trackers are often used to
explore the relationships between Indigenous and white
Australians and, in turn, how these groups relate to the land in
which they work and live.” (Aboriginal trackers)
Collins and Davis support this idea: “the familiar yet estranged figure of the black tracker has enjoyed a certain longevity in Australian cultural traditions for it easily corresponds with the metaphor of exile and imprisonment in a purgatorial landscape, identified by Graeme Turner as one of the key tropes of
Australian fiction.” (3) The topic of belonging to the land is the vital one for the
Tracker‟s survival depends on his ability to understand the environment. The tracker in Rabbit Proof Fence is clearly having a connection to the land same as
Molly and her companions. The spectator learns it via different film features such as colours, camera angles, and mise en scene. During the film the tracker is usually placed in the middle of the wild landscape while fulfilling his duty with the “help” of the environment.
The tracker (Moodoo) in Rabbit Proof Fence is a complicated character; he is imprisoned between two cultures. On the one hand, he is an indigenous inhabitant of Australia, and it is clear that he was brought up by the Aborigines; otherwise he wouldn‟t be such a great tracker. But on the other hand, the
18 spectator sees him living near to Moore River, where his task is to help Mr.
Neville (nicknamed Devil) to track the children who run away. The whites in the school are destroying Aboriginal culture by trying to re-educate the half-cast girls. At first, they are damaging part of the girls‟ Indigenous experience in which they, though being half-cast children, are educated same as the full blood
Aborigines and are given the same treatment (in the film there is no trace that half-white children would be treated less lovingly than any completely Aboriginal offspring). Mr. Neville‟s plan is to marry these half-Aborigines to white husbands, in a few generations there would be no Aboriginal blood in their veins. Potentially, all Indigenous Australians would be assimilated into the white society this way. The tracker‟s character expresses approval to the white way of
“breeding them (the Aborigines) out” by following and finding the escaped children. His motives are, however, selfish and understandable – his own daughter is a half-cast “imprisoned” in Moore River; the viewer is willing to forgive him. Still, without his help the whites would not be able to catch most of the runaways. In this respect his figure is helping to cast shade of the blame for the stolen generations on Aboriginal people. His character is in the film to balance the evil force on the white side a bit by showing his cooperation with white authorities. He might have said a thousand times that the three girls are impossible to find. In contemporary issues of reconciliation his position might be seen as a tranquiliser to the white audience, who might be offended, because of the film‟s attempt to retell the history from the point of view of the
Indigenous people.
Moreover, Moodoo in Rabbit Proof Fence also serves as an example of
19 the ability of both races to work and exist together. He embodies the old
Aboriginal way of life by being a tracker while at the same time he helps to establish the white values and social order. If the spectator stops thinking about his moral struggle and just focus on the basics, they learn that his figure is not only caught between two cultures, but he himself is a connection between the two “worlds”. “Peter Pierce argues that the Tracker is a "most potent image of reconciliation between black and white Australia” in general. (in Probyn) He is a figure from which the reconciliation should start; he is the one who knows most about the environment, and so he should be the one to owe it in this respect.
The land is assigned to Aborigines in Rabbit Proof Fence also by the Tracker and his connection to the land. The inability of white people to track Molly and her friends in Rabbit Proof Fence only by themselves as well as the Tracker fully
“articulating a limit to settler occupation and settler understanding of the land”
(though in The Tracker) tells us that the figure itself may be seen as a
“challenge to white claims to sovereign possession of the land. [...]. (Probyn)
The tracker‟s knowledge of the land is recognized by the white settlers by the act of employing him. However, no admiration or respect is shown to the tracker by whites. They need his knowledge, because they do not understand what he does, however, they are unable to think him superior because of it.
Though the tracker‟s ability to understand the land may be seen as a proof of his right to its possession, it is not seen by the whites in the film. They do not understand why his knowledge of and special bond with the land should inscribe him any title at all.
20 3. The Battler(s)
A Battler is, according to an Oxford Dictionary, “a person who refuses to admit defeat in the face of difficulty” and it is also said to be “chiefly
Australian/Nz term”. (“Battler”) There are, however, more narrow definitions of the word; Sekiya in her work provides some of them: “[it is a person] who perseveres despite the odds being stacked against him or her especially in regards to finance, health and sport” or they “are ordinary or lower class individuals who persevere through their commitments despite adversity.”
(23,24) Collins and Davis state that “battler” is a character used often in
Australian cinematography. (8) Examining the films selected, it is possible to find at least one such a person in any of them according to the definitions provided.
Jimmie Blacksmith follows all of them perfectly; he must face racial prejudices through his whole life and still fulfil his duties towards his employers while not being paid accordingly. This is where his money problems come from.
Moreover, he is clearly a person from lower class according to his dwelling and treatment he gets; plus he is an Aborigine. He is able to stand all the injustice he encounters, but only to a certain extent. Considering his violent attack, it is possible to conclude that it is in fact a defence. It could have been taken for surrender, were it not for his proclamation: “I declared war!” This is an indicator of his unshakable resolution to fight against the whites. He changes his weapons while he chooses an axe and a rifle instead of rhetoric. His brother
Mort decides to surrender and commits an “assisted suicide” in fact, while
21 Jimmie holds on till the very last moment.
In The Fringe Dwellers the whole family is struggling with financial difficulties, but their dreams (or at least Trilby‟s ones) of getting assimilated into the white society plus having a nice fully furnished house, are stronger. They are able to get the house; they lose it; they move back to their old dwelling due to the inability to pay for the new one, but they never give up. When the father figure and the main bread winner leaves them in the most desperate situation, the women are able to provide for themselves and with help of each other get through this tough time. Only the females are “battlers”, the head of the family
“chickens out” and leaves.
In Yolngu Boy Lorrpu and Milika struggle for Botj‟s life, they are the battlers who do not give up their friend though they do have different opinions and goals. They decide to fight for him and set off on a journey towards Darwin to safe him from imprisonment. The striking difference between Lorrpu‟s determination and Botj‟s resignation is marking what an extraordinary “battler”
Lorrpu is; mainly because he is not struggling for his own sake but for the friend‟s one.
In Rabbit Proof Fence the battler is Moly, who following the Oxford
Dictionary definition, is unwilling to admit the white authorities‟ victory. Her fight is a non-violent one: she successfully escapes from educational system of the whites, and after many years tries to save her daughter from the same fate of forced assimilation. Though being a child in the film, she never gives up during her journey home, though she is tempted to. When the two younger girls, who travel with her, want to have a rest, it is Molly who decides to
22 continue the struggle and persuades them to follow the fence further.
The main characters of the older movies are all encountering money problems while the “battlers” in Rabbit Proof Fence and Yolngu Boy are not driven by desperate need of money. This is one of the shifts in representation of
Aborigines in course of time; Yolngu Boy is concerned with money, but only as a secondary topic while Jimmie and Trilby are portrayed chiefly by their struggle for cash; caring for their income is what Trilby and Jimmie have in common as well as their want of a “career”. Moreover, both older films offer interpretation of Aborigines clearly from lower class who would like to get higher on social ladder. In this respect these main characters fit into Sekyia‟s narrower definition of “the battler” while Molly, Lorrpu and Milika “only” fight against the difficulty they encounter.
What is also interesting to note is that in films shot before “Mabo decision” the main Aboriginal “battlers” are more violent ones. Trilby gives birth to a child, but the infant is what holds her from her career, it is a main
“difficulty” an “odd stacked against her” on her career path. She does not want to admit she was defeated and her plans ruined, so she decides to kill the baby.
Jimmie‟s murderous fight is his way of struggling with the injustice on and on.
The two contemporary films selected are thus depicting Indigenous
Australians more favourably. Botj might be seen as an exception, because he sets the community centre on fire and robs a shop; however he is not as violent as to kill somebody.
23
4. Pervading Topics
4.1. Sticking together
Aboriginal inhabitants of Australia before white settlement lived in small
“family groups” that were distinguished from others by their own history and culture. “Aboriginal people built semi-permanent dwellings; as a nomadic society emphasis was on relationships to family, group and country rather than the development of an agrarian society.” (Dudgeon 26) The Australian
Aborigines were traditionally hunters and gatherers; such an organization helps to establish communal thinking, because the prey was divided between all members of a group. Moreover, “larger implements such as bark or dug-out canoes seem to have been both made and used cooperatively and to have been regarded as group or tribal property”. (Ward 13) It is understandable that one of the elements present in all selected films is the sense of Australian
Aboriginals' strong belonging to their family, friends or tribe, more generally communal sharing. While “relationships within groups predetermined categories of responsibilities and obligations to the group and to family” in Aboriginal real life, it is also used by filmmakers as a tool for defining the main characters and their acts of the selected movies. (Dudgeon 26)
4.1.1. Yolngu Boy and Rabbit Proof Fence
Yolngu Boy is an example of the Aboriginal communal thinking and its clash with western world‟s individualism.
“Aboriginal boys share relationships based both on skin identities
24 and Dreaming, tied in a close set of duties including maintaining
the Law through ceremonies, and fulfilling obligations to „country.‟
The film‟s discourse foregrounds the more heroic and
individualized image of the hunter. […] moreover, the archetype of
the hunter is one particularly beloved of the neo-primitivist „men‟s
movements‟ which have risen to prominence in Western countries
in recent years […] As children, the Yolngu boys‟ aspirations were
to a masculinity centered in the time-honoured, hegemonic
tradition of the hunter, and were sustained by a trust in the
embrace of their community and a firm belief in the power of their
ancestor spirit, Baru. (Rutherford 65)
Common past and ancestry is what makes the boys stick together.
However, the archetype of a hunter is preserved in Lorrpu and is rather individualized. He is a character that is portrayed not only by his relation towards his friends, but also by his own abilities and wishes; he is an individual being as well as Botj or Milika, and has enough space in the film to show as such. Such a description is, as Rutherford suggests, more of a western approach (65). In agreement with this point of view is Nelso who writes: “Even if they do not equally aspire to become hunters, they all want to „grow up‟. But the aims of one are not necessarily valued by the others. Clearly, this is not just three Aboriginal teenagers‟ dilemma. This is the human condition in the early twenty-first century.” (Nelson 122) Both the authors thus discuss the position of the hunter, but they also notice how the film oversteps the Aboriginal point of view, and makes a mixture based on values of the western society as well as
25 indigenous Australian myths and the dreaming. Such “overstepping” is practically shown when Lorrpu decides to go with Botj to Darwin to save him.
This is not an individualistic “western” idea of a hunter; it is more of an
Aboriginal group of hunters. Yolngu Boy (and Serenades) is
“concerned with the way identity can be remade in the many
intersections between tradition and modernity. In this sense the
films are deferred revisions (or fantasised memories) of the archaic
as it resurfaces in modernity. At one level, the two films construct
an argument, from a present-day multicultural perspective, about
what happened to traditional identity in the wake of British
colonialism.” (Colins and Davis 88)
It is a film that deals with a clash between the Aboriginal and white culture.
The clash is explicitly illustrated by the motto of the film: “three lives, two laws, one country”; three lives meaning three individual people, but at the same time three lives connected together by an invisible bond. Their journey towards finding their real identity is unresolved in the end; leaving the audience to wonder whether the Aborigines should or should not became “decolonized”
(Nelson 121)
When Lyndon comments on Rabbit Proof Fence he uses the phrase
“responsibility to her kin”:
“[...] One of the film‟s most moving ironies is the contrast it
makes between Neville's admonition to Molly to mind her duty, and
Molly's own sense of her responsibility to her kin, expressed most
poignantly as she is enfolded into her weeping mother's arms at the
26 end of the film, sobbing: “I lost one. I lost one.” The missing Gracie
stands for the larger absence.” (147)
According to Lyndon Molly is just fulfilling her duty by coming back for
Gracie to the station. It is a “responsibility” of an indigenous Australian to take care of the others. While Gracie waits for a train to lead her to her mother, she sees Molly and her sister hiding; at the same time a car comes and the white men are trying to catch her. During her desperate escape she sets off towards her friends, but then she turns around and runs the opposite direction in order not to give away the girls. It is expressing the responsibility she feels towards her group. Her altruistic approach, that is standard for the native Australians, casts a different light on the stolen generation showing more vividly the awfulness of children removal from the families where family members were so closely attached.
The clash between western individualism and Aboriginal collectivism is not as visible as in Yolngu Boy because the girls are not directly under the white settlers influence. Both the films offer an image of Aboriginal inhabitants of
Australia who are willing to sacrifice their own comfort and help their friends which is more flattering image of the Aborigines than the one offered in The
Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith or The Fringe Dwellers.
4.1.2. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and The Fringe Dwellers
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is a story of half-cast man on whom the white education had an enormous impact, and who belonged neither to
Aboriginal nor white community. Driven by anger and desperation he commits
27 bloody murders, mainly out of his struggle for equal opportunities.
Jimmie Blacksmith shares his earned money with other kinsmen, however not very willingly – he throws the money on the ground for the
Aborigines to collect. This is a reflection of his struggle between his indigenous and white selves. Another such an indecisive moment comes when he is trying to persuade Mort to stay with him “Mort, I‟m your brother! Mort!” the Aboriginal values as well as on the Christian ones are reflected on, as the word “brother” means a lot in an Christian environment. In his response Mort calls Jimmie “the devil” so affirming the Christian context and strengthening Jimmie‟s trouble with deciding where he belongs. Jimmie‟s desperate call for his brother seems to have no effect on Mort who is decided to leave. However, being a real
Aboriginal and having responsibility for his kin, in the following scene, he is accompanying Jimmie again.
The Fringe Dwellers is interested in depiction of an Aboriginal family who is trying to fit in to the white society. The main character, Triby, is presented mainly by the clash between her individual desire to get a nice job in the city and her responsibility towards her family, and then to her child as well. She decides to follow her dream and drops her baby on the floor consciously. The infant dies and she is free to leave to the city. “The film has been hailed as a fine example of ensemble acting, but this ensemble, or community approach plays no part in resolving the plot” states Johnson, who thus strengthens the notion that Trilby is the only one who contributes to the ending, not taking into consideration any of her relatives and their feelings.
These two films are depicting central characters whose biggest problem is
28 the clash between their white and Aboriginal “selves”. In the end they are willing to sacrifice anything for their personal fulfilment, and family or tribe are far behind their selfishness. This way the difference between selected films shot after “Mabo” is clear. Jimmie and Trilby gradually lost their Aboriginal sense for communal sharing and help. They are individuals who have their own goals they want to achieve (Jimmie is seeking his revenge fighting with the whites who caused his trouble while Trilby tries to escape from her Aboriginal family).
The Aborigines acting side characters are depicted only as (alcoholic) fringe dwellers who do not know how to treat their money, but who are sticking together, sharing the harshness of life. So the communal thinking is depicted as something unwanted that holds Jimmie and Trilby back, preventing their success. It is their responsibility towards their people that disables them from achieving their dreams until they decide to neglect it. According to Johnson, the idea that the Aboriginal community or the Aboriginal extended family is what keeps individual Aborigines of worth down has been carefully constructed for the spectators.
4.2. Racism
Racism is present in all films selected for the purpose of this paper. The
Aborigines are not only portrayed highlighting the racial stereotypes, but they are also encountering racism, mainly Jimmie Blacksmith. As Colin Johnson notices the possible aim of the film does not meet the final reality: “Perhaps this film was hailed as a sensitive portrayal of racial issues in Australia, but the
29 image lingering on is that of a berserk boong hacking to death white ladies.”
The outcome of the film was not the same as probably intended. Rekhari agrees: “Aboriginal people were routinely figured as vanishing creatures of nature, as was clearly displayed in Walkabout and other films of the Australian
New Wave of the 1970s and 1980s […] such as The Chant of Jimmie
Blacksmith.” This representation of the Indigenous Australians can be seen as racist because “It assumed a culturally monolithic and homogeneous image of
Australia with the possibility of enforcing social change only with the aim of the ultimate destruction of a whole race within this population. (128) Krausz states that it was “Fred Schepisi‟s Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978) [that] brought the clash between Indigenous and white culture to the fore, in an angry film that caused audience debate about endemic Australian racial attitudes”. (3)
However, in Langton we learn that the easiest and most “natural” form of racism in representation is to make the other invisible, and so it is possible to conclude that even though the films in the 1970 and 80 were offering a racist and simplistic portrayal of the Aborigines, it was still at least some sort of representation. From all these sources it is possible to conclude that the cinema before the “Mabo decision” and “the apologies” consisted of an uncomplimentary (if any) representation of Aborigines.
Moreover Rekhari argues: “Even a more contemporary response to a changed sociohistorical situation, such as that presented by Philip Noyce in
Rabbit Proof Fence, cannot ultimately discharge the formulaic narrative.” (128)
In her reading of the story Moly was sentenced to be a victim during her whole life. However, such a reading of Moly‟s character might be questioned while she
30 is presented as strong enough to keep herself going and take care of herself plus other two girls. She is a heroine of the story; the final sequence of the film reveals that she had to make the same journey once more because her own daughter was taken from her. This additional story is without a happy ending as we learn that her child was “stolen” once more and Moly has never seen her again. Apart from this final “filmstrip” attached to the story of Moly and Daisy, there is a happy ending. The need to exterminate the whole race in a movie is not preserved; even Rekhari agrees that the final sad sequence is “detached from the rest of the filmic narrative itself.” (129) The racism in the film is just part of the plot and have nothing to do with the representation of Moly, Daisy and Gracie. They are brave and strong; the spectator pities them, but are not the “usual victims” unable to escape from the “imprisonment”.
In Yolngu Boy Botj dies leaving his two friends mourning and following the “formulaic narrative”. However, lives of his friends are probably about to be happy and long. Yolngu Boy thus sticks to the old pattern of exterminating the
Aboriginal protagonists with Botj, but offers wider range of Indigenous
Australians representation.
The contribution of Aboriginal co-workers on Yolngu Boy was large. The film used Aboriginal music, though the script was written and directed by a white person, “Mandawuy and Gallarrwuy Yunupingu promoted and produced it”. (Nelson 120)The director‟s quote: “I don‟t see them [Aborigines] as different.” underlies the whole film. “Indeed, as he likes to point out, the story of Yolngu Boy could be about three 15 year olds anywhere in Australia. Or the world.” (Johnson, Stephen: Yolngu Boy) The final shape of the film differs from
31 classical Australian films about Aborigines, because in such movies Indigenous
Australians are represented “as nothing but victims, alcoholics, fringe and slum dwellers”. (Kearney in Sunneti 126). “All Aborigines are dirty, drunk and useless, and they‟re going to die out anyway,‟ say some white people without hesitation or qualification” even in real life Langton agrees. The film is powerful medium and he thinks that:
“The densest relationship is not between actual people, but
between white Australians and the symbols created by their
predecessors. Australians do not know and relate to Aboriginal
people. They relate to stories told by former colonists. Films, video
and television are powerful media: it is from these that most
Australians „know‟ about Aboriginal people.”
It is rather difficult to connect with Aborigines while the film offers a representation based on racial stereotypes.
The newer selected films are trying to differ from this notion of
Aboriginality by offering different representation of indigenous Australians.
Though Both in Yolngu Boy is addicted to petrol sniffing that may be seen as a substitute for alcohol, he is not the only Aboriginal represented in the film.
“There is a naive belief that Aboriginal people will make „better‟
representations of us [Aborigines] simply because, it is argued,
being Aboriginal gives a „greater‟ understanding.[This belief] is
based on an ancient and universal feature of racism: the
assumption of the undifferentiated „Other‟. More specifically, the
assumption is that all Aborigines are alike and equally understand
32 each other, without regard to cultural variation, history, gender,
sexual preference and so on. It is a demand for censorship: there is
a „right‟ way to be Aboriginal […]
The “right way of being Aboriginal” in a modern society is what Yolngu Boy questions. There are multi-layered characters that offer different perception of what Aboriginality means. Moreover, the clash between the three main characters is illustrating the problems with connecting the old and the modern way of life. The boys encounter people with prejudices, but the portrayal of
Aborigines in the film is not racist. Nelson among other things describes Yolngu
Boy as a story “about fears, addictions and racial conflict […] It is about black and white and black and black in Australia today”. (121) The story that offers realistic representation of what Aboriginality means.
Langton‟s quotes suggest there is a link between perception of
Aborigines in real life and in films. One influences the other and “Both
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people create Aboriginalities.” (Langton) The
“Mabo decision” and “apologies for stolen generation” created a mood in the society divided between people who agreed with the apologies and the minority who denies stolen generation ever existed. Before the official apology was received the people were in favour of it according to two of 1997 apology polls by high margin. In 2007 people were asked: “How much will an apology to the
Stolen Generations help towards achieving Aboriginal reconciliation?” 48% of the voter thought that an apology would help very much or moderately while
52% thought the apology would not help very much or not at all. After the apology 62% out of 34,967 voters thought Kevin Rudd‟s apology was excellent.
33 (“Sorry” Apology to Stolen Generations) This result was probably caused by the content of the apology itself; but the fact that even before the official apology people were in favour of it, shows that white majority was willing to admit past injustices and possibly re-evaluate its attitudes towards Aborigines. Taking into consideration the success of Rabbit Proof Fence (were the portrayal of
Aborigines is very sensitive and impressive) and Yolngu Boy together with the fact that film is a powerful medium, it is possible to conclude that it was at least partly the influence of “post Mabo” cinema which helped towards receiving the satisfaction with the official “Sorry” (and probably contributed to the official apology itself).
4.3. Assimilation
The assimilation is a process causing debates for many generations as is illustrated in the movies. The problem of assimilation is offered mainly in The
Fringe Dwellers where the main story is based on Aboriginal wish to become part of the white society. Johnson acknowledges that the film was perhaps the first one since Jedda in which Aborigines were centred, but he also believes that “the factual content of the film might have been true in the fifties, when the screenplay was written, but not in the eighties or nineties”. Contrary to his opinion is Krausz who is persuaded that the movie offers “a genuine look at a potentially united Australian society” though “the underlying cultural differences and attempts at reconciliation are both moving and overly sentimental”. (3)
It is difficult to resolve this dispute, but the assimilation in the film is very similar to the one in the Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith or Rabbit Proof Fence;
34 it is a forced one. Though in the films previously mentioned the pushing force was the white society, and in The Fringe Dwellers this element is Trilby herself, it is still the same underlying principle. The problem with this type of forced assimilation is the unwillingness of the person pushed to accept the role society prescribes them as well as deal with it.
In The Fringe Dwellers it is Trilby is the one forcing her family towards buying a house they cannot afford situated in the white community because of her selfish desires. In The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and Rabbit Proof Fence the main characters are pushed towards assimilation by white authorities who are following the goal of their community based on racial prejudices. Yolngu
Boy is on the other hand providing multi-layered characters that are not forced to mingle into white society, but they can choose their way of life independently. The assimilation seems to be gradual and more natural. This film is suggesting different types of personalities as well as various stages of mingling into the white society; not judging any of them. Krausz notes that in this way Yolngu Boy “provides insights not previously seen in Aboriginal stories”
(3) such an insight is on the field of assimilation where the film is depicting not only one option, but multiple possibilities. This film is suggesting how difficult the process of reconciliation is; while at the same time it offers possibilities for the main characters to lead the life they want to.
In context of the “Mabo” decision and “apologies” it is vital to note that the films about forced assimilation and its terrible consequences are either the ones filmed before 1992 or Rabbit Proof Fence dealing with past. The film offering nowadays problems directly shows Botj, Lorrpu and Milika in a way that
35 provides the spectator with multiple readings of their story (stories). The movie follows Langton‟s idea of aboriginal artistic production where she sees it as a process of “incorporating the non-Aboriginal world into the Aboriginal worldview or cosmology, to lessen the pressure for Aboriginal people to become incorporated, or assimilated into the global worldview.” Though the film was not purely Aboriginal production, it offers, as was noted above, the spectator with
Indigenous point of view of the landscape. At the same time it shows white elements in this Aboriginal environment and white environment with Aboriginal features. This way the film incorporates Aboriginal world into the non-Aboriginal one as well as the other way around. The pressure of assimilation is diluted given such a depiction, though during the film Aboriginals encounter the white people on everyday-life basis.
36
Conclusion
This thesis was to examine the problem of depiction of Australian
Aboriginal people in Australian cinema on the basis of four films: The Chant of
Jimmie Blacksmith, The Fringe Dwellers, Rabbit Proof Fence and Yolngu Boy.
Half of the films was filmed prior of “Mabo” decision and “apologies for stolen generation” the other two were some ten years after “Mabo” and in the middle of “apologies for the stolen generation”.
The problem of white and Aboriginal people to understand each other is still an issue in Australia. The subject that is reflected in Australian film industry where “representation [of Aborigines] is made „„real‟‟ to an audience through the medium of film. […] the audiences become involved in the process of representation: they become more than mere passive receptacles of the images that are presented to them.” (Rekhari 125) The film is becoming the reality for the audience and they base their perception of the Aborigines on such a representation. This thesis‟s purpose was to illustrate the difference between depiction of the Aborigines prior and post of the “Mabo”. Such a description of
Australian film industry was based on Australian cinema‟s specifics; these are unique archetypal features and figures in the country‟s cinematography that have been used rather often in connection to representation of Aborigines.
One of them is “lost children” who occur in Rabbit Proof Fence as well as in Yolngu Boy, and whose perception by the audience is based on their relationship towards the landscape and “their” land in these two movies. Moly in the former film is connected to the land very thoroughly by being part of the
37 environment from the very beginning, whereas the boys must go through the process of “decolonization” to understand the land again. The spectator sees the environment form the point of view of the main characters and thus is offered an Aboriginal perception of the land(scape). This is seen, by the author of this paper, as a major difference between the environment as presented in the movies made prior to 1992 and in contemporary ones. In Rabbit Proof
Fence and Yolngu Boy the land is a resource of food, a shelter and vital element for gaining strength; it is not as hostile and unfriendly looking as in the films made previously. The idea of “backtracking” offered by Collins and Davis in connection with “the lost children” is revived in the context of the Australian landscape. The spectator is made to backtrack and reverse their opinion on the
Australian environment.
An approach of providing the viewer with connection between the children and the land is offering a space for thinking about the “Mabo decision” and its rightness. Even deeper understanding of Aboriginal rightness to claim the ownership of the land nowadays is offered by the figure of the tracker portrayed in Rabbit Proof Fence. If the knowledge of the landscape was considered central to such claims it would be him owning the land. This character embodies the Australian cultural clash. Moreover, the director shows him as a human who is neither a victim nor a hero, and ascribes him a bit of a responsibility for not helping the stolen generation. Thanks to him Aboriginal and white cooperation is achieved; he is a kind of mediator calming down the passion between the cultures.
Positioning Aborigines into the roles of victims, fringe dwellers and
38 alcoholics was normal in the 1970‟s and 1980‟s (Kearney in Sunneti 126) but it is gradually changing. Molly in Rabbit Proof Fence is a heroine and her story has a happy ending. While at the same time she is a victim of the stolen generation policy, and the final sequence of the film reveals the ending is not as positive as it may seem. There is a clash between the traditional structure of representation and a new approach that portrays Aboriginals as multi-layered characters, not labelling them. Yolngu Boy offers more mature and non-racist representation of Aboriginal teenagers, were it not for Botj who, being addicted to sniffing, commits a suicide. Yolngu Boy however, questions the meaning of
Aboriginality in modern days, offering different Aboriginal characters that are more natural and do not confirm the notion of Aboriginals as a group of
“undifferentiated „Other‟”. (Langton) Even the side characters in The Chant of
Jimmie Blacksmith and The Fringe Dwellers are nothing but (alcoholic) slum dwellers as opposed to the Rabbit Proof Fence‟s loving mothers and Yolngu
Boy‟s group of Aborigines who are living their traditional way of life. In this respect, it may be concluded, the representation of Indigenous Australians in
Rabbit Proof Fence and Yolngu Boy is more favourable than the one offered in older movies.
One of the crucial elements in the films is sticking together of the
Aboriginal community as opposed to western individualism. All films mentioned present Aboriginal inhabitants of Australia who are suffering from inner fight between their Aboriginal and white inner selves on the level of belonging to a group, family or tribe. While in the two films shot after “Mabo” the main
Indigenous characters decide to care about their friends, even though it is not
39 matching their personal wishes and goals, the main protagonists of the older ones make up their mind to live independently on their community. In this respect “Mabo” means a shift towards nicer and pleasanter representation of main characters played by Indigenous Australians.
The archetypal features of Australian cinematography spotted by Collins and Davis are preserved in contemporary films, as well as topics such as racism, assimilation and sense of sticking together; however, it is clear that the newer films examined differentiate from the traditional representation of
Aboriginals, and aim to offer more likeable, multi-layered and so more realistic representation of them.
40 Works Cited
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41 “Johnson, Stephen: Yolngu Boy.” Urban Cine File. Urban Cine File. 22 March
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44 English Resumé
The thesis deals with depiction of Aborigines in Australian cinematography on the basis of archetypal features pointed out by Collins and
Davis, and topics pervading in films selected. The films for analysis are The
Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, The Fringe Dwellers, Rabbit Proof Fence and
Yolngu Boy. The main aim of the thesis is to illustrate the difference in the representation of Indigenous Australians in older films dated before the “Mabo decision” and “apologies for stolen generation” and the newer ones.
The first chapter is focused on the phenomenon of “lost children” occurring in the two newer films and the depiction of Australian landscape offered in them. It is shown that the environment is defined by the “lost children” as well as the other way around.
The second chapter focuses on the figure of the tracker as offered in
Rabbit Proof Fence and the ambiguous role it has in the narration, as well as in the Australian reconciliation.
The third chapter illustrates how the archetype of the battler changed in course of time.
The fourth chapter is concerned with phenomena that occur in Australian cinematography in connection to Aborigines. These are sense of sticking together, racism and assimilation.
45 Czech Resumé
Práce se zabývá otázkou zobrazení australských domorodých obyvatel v australské kinematografii na základě archetypů, jak je zaznamenali Collins a
Davis, a témat, které se ve vybraných filmech vyskytují. Analyzované filmy jsou:
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, The Fringe Dwellers, Rabbit Proof Fence a
Yolngu Boy. Hlavním cílem práce bylo ilustrovat změnu, která nastala mezi zobrazením australců ve starších filmech natočených před „Mabo rozhodnutím“ a „omluvami za ukradenou generaci“ a filmech novějších.
První kapitola se soustředí na fenomén „ztracených dětí“ tak, jak je vyobrazen ve dvou novějších filmech, a na zobrazení australské přírody v těchto filmech. Je ukázáno, že prostředí je definováno pomocí „ztracených dětí“ stejně jako jsou tyto děti definovány prostředím.
Druhá kapitola se soustředí na postavu „trackera“ (stopaře), jeho zobrazení ve filmu Rabbit Proof Fence a na mnohoznačnou úlohu, kterou má jak ve filmu, tak i při rekonciliaci Austrálie.
Třetí kapitola ilustruje, jakým způsobem se změnilo pojetí archetypu
„battler“ v čase.
Čtvrtá kapitola se zabývá fenomény, které se v australské kinematografii objevují ve spojení s jejími domorodými obyvateli. Jedná se o pocit sounáležitosti, rasismus a asimilaci.
46