Australian Cinema and the History Wars

Cambridge University Press 0521542561 - Australian Cinema after Mabo Felicity Collins and Therese Davis Excerpt More information

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521542561 - Australian Cinema after Mabo Felicity Collins and Therese Davis Excerpt More information 1 Backtracking after Mabo

Backtrack: (vb). 1. to return by the same route by which one has come. 2. to retract or reverse one’s opinion, policy, etc.

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. However, with shifts in the Australian social imaginary that accompanied the Land Rights movement of the 1970s, the tracker receded into the background, a result, perhaps, of a critique of racial stereotypes initiated by Aboriginal activists and critics. In 2001–02 the black tracker made an unexpected return to Australian screens in two feature films, Rabbit-Proof Fence (Phillip Noyce, 2002) and The Tracker (Rolf de Heer, 2002), and a short musical film, One NighttheMoon(RachelPerkins,2001).Inbothfeatures,aniconicactorofthe 1970s,DavidGulpilil,wascastintheroleofthetracker.1 Hisstartling,intense screen presence haunted Rabbit-Proof Fence and dominated The Tracker. Afteraperiodofrelativeobscurity(saveforsmallerrolesinCrocodileDundee, Peter Faiman, 1986; Until the End of the World, Wim Wenders, 1992; and Dead Heart, Nicholas Parsons, 1996), Gulpilil’s return to the screen in two key films of the post-Mabo era, like the films themselves, can be understood as a kind of backtracking, a going over of old ground in Australian national cinema, a going over which reprises and at the same time retracts some of the seemingly intractable figures of Australian national identity. In this book, we use ‘backtracking’ as a key term to describe and inter- pret Australian cinema (and to a lesser extent, television) in the twelve years since the 1992 Mabo decision overturned the nation’s founding doctrine of terra nullius (i.e., land belonging to no one). However, from the out- set, we want to be clear that this is not a book about the Mabo decision itself or the representation of Aboriginality in Australian cinema. It is a book about the cultural rather than political impact of a paradigm shift in Australian historical consciousness. The Mabo decision is central to this

Australian Cinema after Mabo 542561 vrteps eaehv hw,hwvr htnihrthe neither that however, shown, have decade past the over a nieospol spiiie worne vrteln ahrthan rather land the over it’. ranged inhabiting settlers/invaders ‘who it: primitives puts as Reynolds people As non-recognition Indigenous land. saw continued the the of ownership for Indigenous basis of the provided culture Aboriginal h ie omnt.Btol 8 aordgvn h ouetalegal a document the giving favoured status.’ 28% only But community. wider and the Aborigines between relations disagreed help 37% might and document reconciliation process agreed a that 57% the principle, how ‘In about example: divided For strongly proceed. recon- are of should process they the but that important; feel 2000 is (80%) early people ciliation of in majority Reconciliation large nation- Aboriginal a public for that One Council showed flaw. the serious for a done has poll with society wide terms democratic to our come that we fact as the ground unsettled on themselves find Australians naesrcgie h cinof fiction the recognised invaders n h edfra fca plg o atijsie;pooasfrwhat for proposals injustices; past for apology official blame an collective for of need idea the the and sovereignty; and Indigenous ownership of recognition prior of Australians’ implications financial and legal the including: ees ra htlgldcrn otne odpc utai sa as Australia depict to continued doctrine legal that a of . occupation by . acquired colony . great so argues were Reynolds Henry as Yet, inhos- life. be in human to presumed of had ‘empty’ British therefore coastal the and in which pitable interior, initially the land, in of later and possession areas in clans Aboriginal with encounters n iciiaoydcrn fta idcnn ogrb accepted.’ be longer no unjust can an kind that and colonies, of settled rights doctrine of discriminatory the inhabitants and indigenous recognise the to of refusing jus- land in the for interests ‘Whatever days case: earlier the in of advanced summation tification his in wrote Brennan Justice As nieosAsrlaswr ocdt ofottefito of fiction non- the as confront nation to forced the were across Australians shock-waves Indigenous created Australians Indigenous of Court’s High non- the of until intact 1992. number remained occupation in one, a decision the no in by to origin, belonging past nation’s land the nation’s of of the story the in Australians, times Indigenous different at supported identity. colonial the and relations’ ‘race pastasintegraltowhatTimRowsedescribesasamorallyillegitimatenational rethink to Australians forces it because shift osadnnIdgnu Australians. non-Indigenous and nous noritssubsequentenactmenthassettledissuesoflandrightsbetweenIndige- -AustralianCinemaafterMabo brgnlSovereignty Aboriginal utainclna itre hwta,fo a n,Erpa settlers/ European one, day from that, show histories colonial Australian hslnmr ea eiint eons h r-xsigpoet rights property pre-existing the recognise to decision legal landmark This 8 2 n20,Asrlasrmi iie narneo post- of range a on divided remain Australians 2004, In 5 ept itr fIdgnu eitnet dispossession, to resistance Indigenous of history a Despite teavnae fasmn h bec fpeople of absence the assuming of advantages ‘the , er nullius terra er nullius terra 4 7 ntecnrr,non-Indigenous contrary, the On ’. 4 . 3 aitasmtosabout assumptions Racist hsi vdn ntheir in evident is This Mabo er nullius terra Mabo decision www.cambridge.org 6 Events issues, Mabo . Backtracking after Mabo Since (Steven 12 www.cambridge.org decision. Mabo brought the dis- we Schindler’s List 5 At the same time, Huyssen reminds us 11 took the traditional lands’, ‘ we Huyssen’s description of this culture reminds us that in daily 9 decision is at the centre of an unprecedented politicisation of committed murders’ radically altered the terms of the nation’s was Prime Minister Paul Keating’s Redfern Park speech (1992). 13 we The past is, quite literally, closing in on us to produce what Huyssen Mabo 10 Mabo In Australia, the history wars have centred most intensely on past treat- - Australian Cinema after Mabo after Cinema - Australian ment of Aboriginal peoples and the politics of land since the One of theof first major acts in the politicisation of history in the wake The history in Australia. Thelic ‘history arena, in wars’ which are competing beingdetermine sides how attempt played to best out explain to in Australia’s remember pastAustralia. the it. and In These pub- the history wake wars ofity, are 20th-century not many genocide unique post-industrial and to other societies formsfor are of having answers atroc- a about similar howpast, debate, and to how struggling to explain remember them. unspeakable Indeed, culturalover episodes theorists the see from this past struggle the as integral recent progress to while the paradox simultaneously of lamenting modernitypast. the In whereby loss recent we times, valorise of referred a tohas as safer, intensified, late more resulting modernity, in secure obsession what withof the Andreas memory’. past Huyssen calls ‘the globalization the Howard government calls ‘practicalfor reconciliation’ overcoming – the that startling is, inequities in strategies education Indigenous and rates health, of employment, imprisonment. Politicising History life we are bombarded byular invitations global to memory remember of theSpielberg, the past 1993), Holocaust through in a pop- films newography like wave and of memoir museum writing, architecture, theon. retro rise fashion, of the autobi- History Channel, and so calls ‘an ever-shrinking present’. eases’, ‘ Keating’s assertion that ‘ the terrorist attack on theber World Trade 2001, Centre it twin is towers onthis tempting 11 is to Septem- something focus the primarily Howardelection. on But government as global did Huyssen argues, in relations. all the nations Certainly, ing are lead-up faced the with to ‘the legitimacy the task of 2001 andone secur- future of the of main their ways theywrongs’. existing do or this ‘is emergent to polities’, commemorate and and adjudicate past that ‘while memory discourses appearcore to they be remain global tied in to one the histories register, in of their specific nations and states’. 542561 © Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press University Cambridge 0521 Felicity Collins and Therese Davis Felicity Collins Excerpt More information More information Excerpt Felicity CollinsandThereseDavis © CambridgeUniversityPress 0521 Cambridge UniversityPress

Australian Cinema after Mabo 542561 opodybsd hsrvtlsn h eulcncl octalte with ties all cut to call Republican the Britain. revitalising thus not based, identity proudly been into has national so identity brings national of which also upon It heritage heart British Australians. nation’s the the present-day disrepute from at response flaw a nation. demands the moral only to a threat of a assertion such Keating’s as reconciliation Aboriginal see conservatives ieeteeta sdcddyjudcdadgloomy.’ and jaundiced decidedly is that extreme site edrJh Howard. John Leader Opposition out- including also neo-conservatives, especially speech Australians, Keating’s many raged But reconciliation Australians. of process Indigenous the and in settler step between initial an was subjugation and violence of forms colonial for responsibility collective take should generation, present akMKnasget htKaigsat-rts gnacnb edas read be Singapore. can of agenda fall anti-British the Keating’s at that 1942 suggests in McKenna Australia Mark deserting of Britain accused had at o ett eebrit. nation’s remember the to explain best to either how best how past, with on identified view strongly neo-conservative Germaine or are Flannery, left-liberal Howson the Tim Peter Manne, and Brunton Robert Ron Akerman, as Greer, Piers such and intellectuals Pearson public Christopher while and figures, as national such uni- become journalists and have as high-profile schools Blainey such Geoffrey in historians and Individual discipline Clark importance. dying national Manning of a issue longer an Stolen but no the versities is Museum as National history such the that issues and over confirm curricula debate school Public conflict, his- swing. frontier the full Generations, mid-1990s, in the By were rhetoric. wars own tory his into black history’ ‘the of as view such armband phrases incorporating speech, Blainey’s pillaged and view self-understanding. ftepnuu rmapsto hthdbe o aorbet noppo- an to swing favourable ‘a too been history: had Australian that in position a crisis from a pendulum the was of there view that armband black claiming history’, ‘the Australian phrase of Lecture, the Memorial introduced Latham Blainey John Geoffrey Sir historian 1993 his hardworking In well-intentioned, settlers. of nation British a as past Australia’s of account old ueu en ftasern epniiiyfrteeiso colonialism of evils the for Britain’. responsibility to Australia transferring from of means ‘useful a Keating 1992, in Earlier experience. Australian past British-centred in a grounded from history away a identity Australia’s to personal Republican shift his Keating’s indeed to of aim, was Keating’s context history. passion, of broader politicisation the his in and agenda speech the consider and thepast,weneedtogobeyondtheunderlyingconceptofmoralresponsibility -AustralianCinemaafterMabo o hs esn mn tes e-osraie ogtt eedthe defend to sought neo-conservatives others, among reasons these For oudrtn h e-osraie poeKaigsasrin about assertions Keating’s oppose neo-conservatives why understand To 14 h rm iitrsakoldmn ht‘e,the ‘we’, that acknowledgment Minister’s Prime The 15 nti ih ecnbte nesadwyneo- why understand better can we light this In 17 6 16 oadsie this seized Howard www.cambridge.org Backtracking after Mabo Mabo www.cambridge.org However, 18 and native title, decision, as well as Mabo Rather than a celebratory terra nullius 20 At the other end of the entertain- decision, has reprised its role as an 19 7 rulings on Mabo decision (and the peculiar forms of anxiety Wik can no longer be maintained as the blind spot in Mabo is understood in terms of coexistence and recogni- Mabo Mabo terra nullius At one end of the media spectrum, the televised opening ceremony of Influential writers have analysed the anxiety and ambivalence which seem - Australian Cinema after Mabo after Cinema - Australian Australian national history, how has thenational cinema identity) (as the begun cultural to flagship revisesay of exhausted) and tropes retract of its national established self-recognition? (some would the Sydney 2000 Olympicevent, Games was integrating a particularly annation. self-conscious Indigenous media In dreamtime turn,tage as the of the nation’s masculine archetypes, history pre-history fromthe was the of lawn-mowing allowed robust man the stockman-on-horseback to of to unfold suburbia. as a mon- era? What part does cinemacolonial play past in and rethinking the the nationaltures ways process in can of which reviewing coexist? settler our and Thiscinema, Indigenous book cul- in the investigates aftershock the ofarbiter extent the of national to identity which by going Australian ing over some is old literal ground. in This the backtrack- caseidentity of to the British landscape settlement tradition of which theof anchored land. a national miscellany It of is films which also have metaphorical aby common in interest settler the in case and the problems Indigenous faced peopleshome of is being located at in homeas the in local, bush, Australia, national the whether suburbs orat or international home’ the terrains after outback, of or action.tion is of And a conceived whether sovereign First ‘being Nation withinmodel, the or Second Nation, post-colonial on reconciliation the based Canadian understanding of on Indigenous–settler a relations. moral rather than legal endemic to Australian nationhood and to Australian cinema. the Stolen Generations report, Nationalof Sorry the Day, Sydney the 2000 opening Olympics, ceremony andfalse belief the in 2001 centenary of Federation. If the Cinema after How then do we begin to think about Australian cinema in the post- ment spectrum, the national cinemaconcerned of with 2000–02 produced Indigenous–settler a relations. cycle of films related events such as the 1997 about the nation’s past andbeen future analysed to in which terms itthe of has issue cinema. given of In rise) this howand has book the national not we Australian self-recognition yet are cinema in preoccupied the has with wake mediated of historical the memory the cultural impact of the 542561 © Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press University Cambridge 0521 Felicity Collins and Therese Davis Felicity Collins Excerpt More information More information Excerpt Felicity CollinsandThereseDavis © CambridgeUniversityPress 0521 Cambridge UniversityPress

Australian Cinema after Mabo 542561 ieata,i aiu as el swa tfeslk ob iigi the in living be to like globalisation. feels intense of it moment what a us during colonialism tells of ways, ‘afterwardness’ various in that, cinema i od,‘h atflse pi h ntn ti eonzdadnvrseen never and recognized is it in instant where, the collide, in again’. up present flashes and past past ‘the words, the his where moments evi- dialectical dialectical itself the in makes of past dent concept the Benjamin, his For to consciousness. related historical closely and image is modernity and film of ing f‘eonzblt’wt h dao eigtepeeti em ftepast, the of terms in present the seeing of idea the with ‘recognizability’ of fmdriy aigfima moieto h euirsokeffects shock peculiar modernity. of the changes of rapid the embodiment effects with alienating an associated the film and – making images modernity, of juxtaposition of rapid the – film prin- montage of the shock. ciple between affinity and structural a modernity is there history, that argues of Benjamin theories Benjamin’s Walter post- by of informed understanding Our recognition. political from and impact different col-legal a have enables which cinema recognition of that forms argue intimate We recognition’. and lective of ‘shock national a the as of impact sion in the spaces experience public to the able been of have one Australians is which cinema Australian that propose we book this In Concepts Key failures the of terms in understood modernity. national being Western where now of memory, are of genocide politics like media-based have traumas global, films Australian a cinema, of international part of become genre have a history As timely. national in very events been traumatic clear with becomes dealing it films modernity, Australian late that of perspective international same these the at from look films we if However, mode. cosmopolitan decisively post-national, moving were a culture into popular imaginary and economy social the the when moment of a version at Anglocentric an funding. revive to production Aboriginal tended featuring characters for films cinema, resistance qualify national of to commercial perspective the overcome order from Further, in to stories needed an Indigenous–settler past partly to colonial was nation’s subject quality unpopular the the belated with of This dealing Proposals media. policy. film-funding print of the effect and immediacy after the radio years lacked cinema ten television, national release of subsidised their the already because of belated, partly time was strangely the it seemed at films date these Australian of the of out and many battler, bush If the figures itself. child, lost familiar landscape the certain tracker, black revised the cycle as this such archetypes, national of montage -AustralianCinemaafterMabo 23 ecuin,hwvr htw hudntcnueteemoments these confuse not should we that however, cautions, He 21 o s h em‘after term the us, For 8 22 Mabo ejmnsunderstand- Benjamin’s mle national a implies ’ Mabo Mabo Mabo ieais cinema decision, www.cambridge.org deci- Backtracking after Mabo .Itis (Leah www.cambridge.org The following 26 Black Chicks Talking recognition of discontinuity and decision as a rupture in the continuity 9 Mabo social imaginary grounded in memory. We refer 25 Mabo decision provides the impetus for us to propose a new way Black and White, The Tracker . The shock of recognition of historical discontinuity entailed More particularly, why these films, here, in this national cinema, Mabo politics of recognition. This approach to a contemporary national 24 Mabo Apart from the influence of current research into memory and trauma In their ground-breaking study of Australian cinema of the 1970s and - Australian Cinema after Mabo after Cinema - Australian now? We are interested in questionsories of how may ‘unintegrated traumatic impede mem- recognitionconflict of between present the traumas’; pre-traumatised‘the and of layering traumatised trauma’s of self’; ‘internal several of experiencesthe rather trauma role than as trauma the films impact maymitigating of play individualised ‘in isolation one’; and their and creating spectators’ of empathy integration withof the others of suffering in trauma, the present’. Purcell, 2002) will clarify our usecinema as of a the public sphere interrelated for concepts reprising or of going Australian back over established themes of Australian history that informs ourafter understanding of Australian cinema precisely this recognition of the 1980s, Susan Dermody and Elizabethimaginary’ Jacka deploy to the account concept of forcinema. a In historical ‘social this modes study, of weto use spectatorship define concepts in a of national post- shock, recognition and trauma of assuming a continuity between pastwhich and the present. past Rather, these becomes flashes, visible, in arise out of films, our concept ofMiriam recognition Hansen’s reprise and of memory critical theory’s inmate approach public to cinema sphere of cinema is experience. as Drawing an indebted onKracauer, the inti- to writings Hansen’s of work Benjamin and offers ancinema alternative as to a place film ofcally theory’s grounded voyeuristic concept ideas and are of particularly fetishistic useful for identification.history, rethinking recognition Her the and ways memory histori- in continue which to be so centralof to Australian our experience national cinema as a ‘vernacular modernity’. readings of in the of thinking about the relationshipMabo between Australian cinema and acinema has post- the advantage of providingwell-worn a debates way about for Australian us national to identity. backtrack over some to memory in four differentordering ways: of events; historical involuntary memory memory as as a theshock; chain of remembering chronological associations the incited by past assense; a and work repetitive, of belated mourning memory in associatedthe the with following psychoanalytic chapters historical we draw trauma. on In theories of memory andorder trauma to cinema answer in the question posed by Radstonenow?’ and others: ‘why these films 542561 © Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press University Cambridge 0521 Felicity Collins and Therese Davis Felicity Collins Excerpt More information More information Excerpt Felicity CollinsandThereseDavis © CambridgeUniversityPress 0521 Cambridge UniversityPress

Australian Cinema after Mabo 542561 yLhf ntecutomsee sacnitoe eibeeiec and evidence reliable over conflict a as scenes truth. historical courtroom the in dramatised Lahiff arguments, defence by of series constructed carefully screenplay’s aifsapoc)adei eoy(ai gobjrasapproach). Ngoombujarra’s (David storytelling, memory on epic writing and approach) his Lahiff’s In (Craig remembrance sphere. historical between different difference public the two emphasises a indicates Benjamin as story and cinema history for between possibilities contrast This waiting told. stories’ ‘hidden be many of to one just Ngoombu- be film, to story feature Stuart’s considered a jarra into events of with historical concerned trial complicated was 1959 Lahiff transforming Whereas landmark Stuart. the Max Rupert about man, different film Aboriginal two an their discussed informing Ngoombujarra history David of concepts actor and Lahiff, Craig tor, trtliga pcmmr,btrte es fhwte r ohoper- both and are they remembrance how coherent of sense as a in history rather ating but between memory, choice epic as a storytelling not it’s us, For of season Melbourne the launch to forum a At in Storytelling and History trauma- a as and memory. recognition, public of of politics space the tised for site a as history, national of iet ainlhsoyudrtnscnm sapbi peewihcan which sphere public a correc- as a cinema as understands to film history bring the historical national to in the to seeks tive to class film approach the with This which intersected consciousness. moment race historical a as Adelaide, of Australia, moment city 1950s particular Anglocentric a in represents relations also race It in Australia. South in system judicial hc ie tattels,icnlsv odi h l ntequestion the on film the innocence. in or word guilt inconclusive his of last, final the a Stuart of gives inclusion film, which the documentary with to a led contact from Stuart (taken and mate- with scene historical contact daughter This other O’Sullivan’s Stuart. on with Max and Rupert interview case an the including about books rial three on defence drew Nowra, his Lahiff Louis screenwriter of with Working Murdoch. Rupert efforts scion film) media and determined the to but (according altruistic chiefly lawyers,DaveO’SullivanandHelenDevaney,ChristianministerTomDixon, confused, won were the stays seven through These after execution. sentence South prison of Ceduna, fourteen-year stays in a girl into nine-year-old commuted a was of Australia, murder and rape the for sentence -AustralianCinemaafterMabo o aif h l ersnsa motn ea aeta hne the changed that case legal important an represents film the Lahiff, For rmtefculpito iwo itrclrmmrne tatsdeath Stuart’s remembrance, historical of view of point factual the From lc n White and Black . 29 hsseeed h l,ptigit ob the doubt into putting film, the ends scene This 10 lc n White and Black rknEnglish Broken lc n White and Black e adr 1993) Lander, Ned , , 27 h direc- the www.cambridge.org 28 Backtracking after Mabo Black www.cambridge.org , speaks to , the film draws on Black and White 30 Black and White cinema is the way in which history, 11 Mabo . The film’s mix of the modernist flashback together Mabo , have something to tell us about history, memory and storytelling Although the factual courtroom drama, based on the historical record, In her description of ‘trauma cinema’ Janet Walker has described the Like traumatic memories that‘verbal narrative feature and context’,these vivid films are bodily characterised bymentation, and non-linearity, nonsynchronous frag- sound, visual repetition, rapid sensation editing over andAnd strange they angles. approach the past throughmetonymic an symbolism and unusual cinematic admixture flashbacks. of emotional affect, - Australian Cinema after Mabo after Cinema - Australian problems that traumatic or catastrophic historicalory events and present for for mem- the stylistic conventions of narrative film form: the dilemmas of themitted present. to In obtaining its white justice depictionfirmly for on of a the flawed side black individuals of man aroom com- in 1990s drama, the politics from of 1950s, which reconciliation. the Ngoombujarra’s Yet character, its filmexcluded, Max central reminds Stuart, is us court- that is legal largely justice in thehistorical present empathy is more if important reconciliation than is totory have as unfinished any business meaning. pervades A the sensewith film’s ending, of an overriding leaving his- sense the of audience anticlimax, of hollowcious, victory. endemic This aura failure, of which perni- surrounds all theis white relieved characters only in by the the film, documentarydirectly, coda not which as allows a Stuart victim-survivor, nor to as addresshave a us just ‘real-life’ witness seen to dramatised, the but eventsthe as we effort a of kind the of film tricksterriddle to or about clarify jester evidence, the truth who, facts and after of belief: all the Elvis case, really leaves is us dead. with Isn’tis a he? the bit most of prominent a generic strand in several other genres, including costume melodrama, crime investigation, the modernist flashback, and even theakin road to movie. Ngoombujarra’s This notion hybrid ofof genre history genres is as produces a more epic series storytelling. of shifts Theaffects. between This mixing different incoherence emotional of registers or genre andthe affect has limits something of to tell thethrough us a historical about national film cinema conceived in asa communicating cultural-interventionist both public a traumatic sphere. commercial-industrial The experience incoherence and ofwith affect, the together chronic sense of political, professional and personal failure in and White in cinema after with family melodrama and the crime thriller is a case in point. re-educate its audience bytraumatic reconstructing event in and the history reinterpreting of race a relations. Astanding significant crucial aspect of of our backtracking under- in post- reconstructed as a courtroom melodrama in 542561 © Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press University Cambridge 0521 Felicity Collins and Therese Davis Felicity Collins Excerpt More information