© ATOM A STUDY GUIDE BY MARGUERITE O’HARA
http://www.metromagazine.com.au
ISBN: 978-1-74295-025-9 http://www.theeducationshop.com.au ‘The apology will acknowledge that what happened in the past was both real and wrong. It will make sure that a largely invisible part of our history is put firmly on the record. And it will remind the community of what happened to many of these children – the loss of family, the loss of identity and, in the case of child migrants, the loss of their country.’
– JENNY MACKLIN, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, October 2009
Introduction
n 16 November 2009, former prime minister Kevin Rudd offered a national apology to Othe ‘forgotten Australians’, including an estimated 7000 former child migrants who were sent Synopsis to Australia from the United Kingdom between the 1920s and 1967. Oranges and Sunshine tells the Oranges and Sunshine tells the stories of some of these children. It is also the story story of Margaret of Margaret Humphreys, an English social worker Humphreys, a who uncovered the truth about these schemes. social worker from Nottingham who There are many ways of telling true stories uncovered one of such as this one – in print; through personal the most significant accounts, whether in memoirs or interviews; social scandals through photographs; through statistics; and in of recent times: documentaries and feature films where the story the deportation may be dramatised and concentrated and the of thousands of roles of the principals played by actors. This film children from the United Kingdom to is based on the stories of real people and actual Australia and other events. It dramatises several of their stories to Commonwealth create a powerful and moving account of events countries. from our past, showing how the persistence and resilience of individuals like Margaret Humphreys Above: Emily Watson as Margaret Humphreys Almost single- handedly, against brought this often hidden history to light. overwhelming odds and with little regard Curriculum guidelines for her own well- earlier times, places and attitudes are represented being, Margaret Oranges and Sunshine would be an excellent film in the film. In some ways the recent past looks like reunited thousands to show middle and senior secondary students of a foreign country, though this film is set in the late of families, brought the following subject areas: 1980s. authorities to account and drew • Australian History and Society Oranges and Sunshine explores the meaning of worldwide attention • Civics and Citizenship identity and the importance of personal history to an extraordinary • Health and Personal Development in establishing identity. Television programs such miscarriage of justice. Children as • Early Childhood and Family Studies as the Australian and overseas versions of Who young as four had • Film and Media Studies Do You Think You Are? have led to an increased been told that their interest in genealogy and in individuals exploring parents were dead. The story told in the film is moving and absorb- their family history. ‘Where do I come from and They were sent to ing for what it reveals about changing attitudes to who are my forebears?’ have become increasingly children’s homes on SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM children and their welfare, as well as for the inspira- important questions in our lives. They are the other side of the tional portrait it offers of Margaret Humphreys. The fundamental to establishing a strong identity and world; many were way this material is presented is equally interesting. secure sense of belonging. subjected to appalling Students could be encouraged to consider what a abuse. They were feature film such as this one, based on true events, While some of the background to this story is promised oranges and is able to do that is different to either a documentary shown in the film, it may be helpful to read through sunshine: they got hard labour and life or written accounts of the period and the people. At the background material presented here to gain a in institutions. the same time they could look at how convincingly more detailed context for what we see in the film. 2 Background to the story Source B At a time when empty cra- Empty Cradles is the story of English social worker dles are contributing woefully Margaret Humphreys’ campaign to bring to light to empty spaces, it is necessary the hidden truths about the child migrant program. to look for external sources of Her book, published in 1994, details her work, supply. And if we do not sup- beginning in 1986, to assist many former child mi- ply from our own stock we are grants seeking answers to the following questions: leaving ourselves all the more exposed to the menace of the ‘Who are my parents?’ teeming millions of our neigh- ‘Why was I sent away from home?’ bouring Asiatic races. ‘Who am I?’ In no part of Australia is settlement more vital than for Western Australia, which while it contributes Empty Cradles provides the principal source only one-twelfth of the total population, occupies one material for Oranges and Sunshine. third of the whole commonwealth … The policy at present adopted of bringing out Sources A, B and C offer some further background young boys and girls and training them from the information about the Child Migration Scheme and beginning in agricultural and domestic methods... the Child Migrants Trust established by Humphreys has the additional advantage of acclimatising them in 1987 to help adults who had been sent overseas from the outset to Australian conditions and imbu- as children. ing them with Australian sentiments and Australian ideals – the essential marks of true citizenship. Source A – His Grace the Archbishop of Perth, Under the Empire Settlement Act of 1922 and welcoming British boys arriving 1937, the British Government assisted private or- on the SS Strathaird, August 19382 ganisations to help people who wanted to settle in ‘His Majesty’s Overseas Dominions’. Although not Source C specifically aimed at assisting child migrants, this The Child Migrants Trust legislation allowed non-government organisations In 1987 a specialist social work agency, the to send child migrants to various parts of the British Child Migrants Trust, was established with branch- Empire. The scheme intensified after the war when es in Perth, Melbourne and the United Kingdom. child migrants were sent under the Children’s Act The Trust contributed to public awareness of 1948. the history of child migrants and the mental and Although non-government organisations had physical abuses suffered by many of the children. direct charge of most of the children at the recruit- It continues to provide counselling services to child ment stage, during their passage, or after their migrants, helps with reuniting families and acts as arrival in the receiving countries, they received a lobby group. Although not all children claim mis- encouragement and financial backing from Brit- treatment, the Trust points out that ‘little attention ish governments and governments in receiving was given to the long-term implications of separat- countries. About 150,000 children with an average ing children from their families, their friends, their age of eight years and nine months emigrated from social context and their country on a permanent the United Kingdom, the majority to Canada, until basis’. the scheme ended in 1967. A key motivation for In 1990 the Australian Government announced child migration was to maintain the racial unity of it would provide $120,000 over three years to the the Empire and populate the Dominions of Canada, Child Migrant Trust to fund a case worker and Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), New Zealand and Australia, counselling services in Australia. Similar amounts with ‘good white stock’. were provided each year by the Government until The exact number of child migrants to Australia funding ceased in June 2008. is not known, but estimates suggest that from 1947 Awareness of the history of the scheme and to 1967, between 7000 and 10,000 children were its legacy also resulted from the work of Margaret sent to Australia. A feature of the scheme was the Humphreys, founder of the Child Migrants Trust. care of children in residential institutions rather than Humphreys visited Australia a number of times in by foster care or adoption. Most were placed in the 1980s and assisted in establishing the Aus- the care of Barnardo’s, the Fairbridge Society, the tralian branches. She was awarded an Order of Church of England and the Christian Brothers. The Australia in 1993 for her work with child migrants in SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM House of Commons Health Committee concluded Australia. that ‘children were placed in large, often isolated, Humphreys’ book Empty Cradles, along with institutions and were often subjected to harsh, a number of other books and television series, sometimes intentionally brutal, regimes of work notably Lost Children of the Empire, broadcast in and discipline, unmodified by any real nurturing or 1989, helped in the successful campaign to have encouragement. The institutions were inadequately the British government inquire into the scheme and supervised, monitored and inspected’.1 the welfare of former migrants.3 3 past, e.g. the Australian government’s apology to Australia’s Indigenous people, particularly to the Stolen Generations, and the apology to the ‘forgotten Australians’, which included child migrants? Should future generations and governments take responsibility for redressing harm committed in the past by governments and institutions such as religious organisations and charities?
STUDENT ACTIVITY WATCHING THE FILM
There are several strands in this film. It may be useful to focus your attention on a particular aspect of the film and later to share your impressions with other members of your group. You may want PRE-VIEWING QUESTIONS to make brief notes on your chosen area as you watch the film. Choose from the following: 1. Have you heard or read anything about the Child Migration Scheme that operated in 1. Presentation and development of Margaret Australia between the 1920s and 1960s? Humphreys, the film’s central character, played 2. What do you think might have been the by Emily Watson reasons for British authorities sending 2. Presentation and development of Len, the young children to countries like Australia, character played by David Wenham Canada and Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) 3. Presentation and development of Jack, the between the 1920s and the 1960s? character played by Hugo Weaving 3. In countries such as England and Australia, 4. The role played by Margaret Humphreys’ family what happens to young children in the twenty- and colleagues in her pursuit of the truth about first century who are unable to be adequately the Child Migration scheme cared for by their biological parents or who 5. The contrasting images of England and Aus- become orphaned? tralia in the 1980s, when the film is set. Look 4. Are there orphanages or other children’s homes carefully at the roles of the costume designer, operating in Australia today? production designer and lighting technicians in 5. Why do people now usually have fewer children creating the look and feel of the period through than they did in the first part of the twentieth objects, costumes, colours and lighting. century? 6. The role of music and songs on the soundtrack 6. What does home mean to you? in reflecting themes and creating mood 7. Imagine either yourself or your younger siblings 7. How well the film presents the history and being sent to a distant country to be brought experiences of the children who are now adults up by strangers. Describe some of the losses searching for answers such removal would involve. 8. The representation of government and religious 8. How can the abuse of children have repercus- organisations. sions in adult life and sometimes affect how the abused children form adult relationships? What AFTER WATCHING THE FILM does it mean to be ‘emotionally scarred’, as are many people displaced from family and home After watching the film use the following discussion at a young age? questions, which divide the film into ‘chapters’ or 9. How are wrongs committed in the past against sections (A to H) and share your responses. individuals or groups generally brought to light where they can begin to be acknowledged and A. OPENING SCENES sometimes redressed? 10. Name any situations you are aware of where It’s simply not legal. There’s no way that a group of an injustice has been revealed through the unaccompanied children would just be shipped off SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM persistence of groups or individuals, e.g. the like that. – Margaret late Bernie Banton’s fight to bring some justice to victims of exposure to asbestos products • What aspect of Margaret’s job as a social manufactured by James Hardie Industries. worker is shown in the opening scene of 11. What do you think is the main value of national the film? apologies to people who have suffered loss • How can we tell that this story is set some time and damage through their treatment in the in the recent past? 4 • What meeting is Margaret taking part in during • When Charlotte meets her mother Vera, who the next scene of the film? gave her up for adoption when she was a baby, • What type of mutual support group is The how does Vera explain why she felt pressured Triangle, which Jim, Nicky and Margaret attend to give up her child in the 1940s? fortnightly? • What is the main purpose of Margaret’s trip to • What themes or topics are introduced in these Australia with Nicky? opening scenes? • Who are the people at the Fairbridge reunion • I want to find out who I am … I don’t even in Australia attended by Nicky, Jack and know if my name and birth date are right … I Margaret? remember leaving England … I was four years • To what extent is Jack able and/or prepared to old … I was in a children’s home because my talk about his time at Fairbridge as a child? parents were dead. Then they sent me on a • While she is in Australia what does Margaret boat to Australia. All I know for certain is I was discover about where the records of these born in Nottingham. – Charlotte Cooper children are kept? How is Charlotte’s brief account of what • What is the archivist in Melbourne able to show she knows about her origins a catalyst for Margaret? Margaret Humphreys to uncover the truth • What does Jack reveal about his life to about this story? Margaret when they are walking on the beach? • What do we learn of Margaret’s family life in the What is at the heart of the difficulties he has next scene, when she is at home? faced as an adult? How important is her own experience of family • The sun shines every day. You’ll live in a white and security to her capacity and desire to help house and ride a horse to school. You pick the adults who confide in her? oranges off the trees for your breakfast … your • What happened to Nicky and her brother Jack mother’s dead … so you might as well. when they were young children? – Jack’s recollection of what he was told • Where does Margaret first go to try to discover about going to Australia the truth about what she has been told? What How different to this account was Jack’s life at is the response of officials to her request for Fairbridge? written records? • What part did the White Australia Policy (which • What does she hope to find when she visits was not completely overturned until 1973) play St. Catherine’s House in London, the General in child migration schemes to Commonwealth Register Office for births, deaths and marriages countries? in the United Kingdom? • Describe Merv Humphreys’ role in helping to • What do these opening scenes establish uncover the truth about the Child Migration about Margaret, the central character, and the Scheme. parameters of the story she is beginning to • What is the Nottinghamshire County Council’s investigate? attitude to Margaret’s investigations? How SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM do her employers in the Department of Social B. MAKING CONNECTIONS Security make it possible for Margaret Hum- phreys to thoroughly investigate the scheme? Do you think I’ve got a mother? – Syd Do you think government departments today would release an employee on such generous Everybody’s got a mother. – Margaret terms to conduct an investigation into a former government’s policy? 5 • Publicity is clearly important in helping uncover the truth. Why do you think several of the journalists Margaret speaks with seem hostile to her work and incredulous about the stories she has uncovered? • What is Pauline able to tell Margaret about her life at Fairbridge? • What are some of the common features in Pauline and Walter’s accounts of what happened to them as children? • Comment on the purpose of layering the voice- over accounts of these people with scenes of Margaret’s life today? Is this an effective technique for conveying information or does it have another purpose? • What does Jack’s coming to England to help in the search for his mother and to assist Margaret • How did publicity through newspaper stories in suggest about how the ‘child migrants’ regard Australia and England affect Margaret’s work- Margaret? load? How did this publicity also provide the • What does Mary, a close friend of Jack and impetus and funding for the work to continue? Nicky’s mother, tell them that corroborates When Margaret first goes to Australia, she suspicions about the conducting of the Child meets with Bob, a former child migrant, and Migration Scheme? gives him his birth certificate. What is the • What is the difference in meaning between the anomaly on his birth certificate that has made it words ‘emigration’ and ‘deportation’? difficult to track down his true identity? What’s • ‘This slanderous publicity machine …’ Can you in a name? account for the hostility directed at Margaret by people who do not want what happened at One of the key scenes in this part of the film is Bindoon Boys’ Home in Western Australia to be when Margaret brings together Charlotte and her discussed? mother Vera (from 01:59 ‘Where is she? Does she • Since you stirred things up, the Christian have family?’ to 04:23 ‘Well, I always kept it.’). Brothers have been forced to conduct an internal enquiry into the boys’ towns at Bindoon • What does the scene early in the film between mother and daughter reveal about the mutual distress caused by the child migration scheme? • How has the meeting been made possible? • What does Vera, Charlotte’s mother, tell her about the circumstances of her life when Charlotte was born in 1947? • How is the tone and mood of this initial meeting established? • What is the significance and symbolism of the doll Vera offers to Charlotte? • What does Margaret Humphreys say during this scene? • How does this scene present the awkwardness and difficulties of such meetings between parent and adult child after so many years?
C. THE STORIES IN PERTH, AUSTRALIA
I’ve been cleaning floors for forty years … since I was eight. – Pauline SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM
• Describe Margaret’s first meeting with Len Connelly. What were your first impressions of Len? In what ways is he unlike many of the other men Margaret meets and talks with about their childhood experiences? 6 and elsewhere … have you any idea how much distress you have caused to elderly men who only sought the best …? – Monsignor Brutin Is ‘only seeking the best’ a justification for how people are treated by others in institutions? Should people belonging to an organisation today who were not directly involved in the events from the past accept some responsibility for what happened?
A key scene in this part of the film is when Margaret meets Walter, one of the deported children, now a man in his fifties (from 5:51 ‘He’s been in and out of hospital …’ to 9:59 ‘‘Christmas back on then?’). Margaret listens to Walter’s story of one of his Christmases as she is about to celebrate her own family Christmas. D. LEN, JACK AND THEIR MOTHERS • What does Walter relate to Margaret about his Christmas when he was four? She didn’t want me. She put me in a children’s • How is his account of his suffering visually and home. – Len verbally juxtaposed and contrasted with the Christmas Margaret is about to have with her • On this visit to Perth, what does Margaret learn own family? from Len about his early life? • Explain why Margaret is so distressed by the • What is Len’s main wish in life now? singing of Ave Maria on the television at her • What concerns does Margaret express about home on Christmas Eve? Len’s (and others’) expectations about what • How does the linking of Walter’s story with finding their mother might mean? Margaret’s life bring home the horrors of the • … the truth is, our mums shot through didn’t child migrant experience to both Margaret and they? We didn’t just fall out of our prams and the audience? fly off with Peter Pan, did we? No, our mums • How does this scene encapsulate the extreme didn’t want us. That’s why we’re here. Isn’t that stressfulness of hearing these terrible stories? the truth? – Len • How does the construction of this scene The truth is actually much more complicated in convey a great deal of information and most cases. – Margaret emotional complexity in a brief time frame? What is the truth ‘in most cases’? To what extent can ‘the truth’ be understood by being aware of social and economic conditions in the 1940s? The fathers of many of these child migrants aren’t blamed or held responsible for what happened to their children. Why not? • What debt does Len feels he owed the Christian Brothers at Bindoon? • Explain what you think Margaret means when she describes Len’s sense of paying his debt to Bindoon as ‘the monster living in your head’. • What does Margaret’s insistence on meeting with Jack in a beautiful and calm place tell us about her? • Why is the discovery of the identity of Jack and Nicky’s mother such a cruel blow to Jack? • When Len comes to England to visit his mother, what expectations does he have? • Why does Len offer Margaret a blank cheque SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM and why doesn’t she accept it?
The scene with Margaret and Len in Perth, Western Australia (from 2:35 ‘Look, we don’t need to talk about that’ to 4:03 ‘… the monster living in your head’) illustrates in dramatic terms many of the inextricable links between the personal and political aspects of the child migrant scheme. 7 • When Margaret and Merv meet with representa- tives of the British government and various charities, what is their initial justification for not taking responsibility for what happened to the child migrants? • Why don’t these representatives want to accept Margaret’s offer to give them a chance to assist in the process of providing these former migrants with an identity through learning about their family connections? • What is so upsetting to Margaret and Merv about The Children’s Society representative who speaks to them on the stairs as they are leaving? What do words like ‘drunks’, ‘degener- ates’ and ‘slums’ suggest about this woman’s attitude to the families of the child migrants? • What might ‘legal responsibility’ mean in • Why are Len and Margaret in Western relation to these cases? Australia? • How were the churches, and particularly the • What does Len say that he wants to discover? Christian Brothers, complicit in this scandal? • How does he feel about his ‘unknown mother’ • Why are they so reluctant to take any at this point in his life? responsibility for what happened at places • What are ‘the complications in most cases’ such as Bindoon? that Margaret suggests to Len were behind the • What do you think is the motivation of those actions of the mothers in the 1940s? people who dispute the adults’ memories of • Why do you think Len wanted ‘to pay his debts their childhood and want to silence Margaret to the Brothers’ at Bindoon Boys Home? Humphreys? • How is the still prickly but now more trusting relationship between Len and F. LEN AND JACK AND MARGARET Margaret shown in the body language between Margaret and Len? Absorbing other people’s pain is a stress of its own. • What is she referring to when she mentions – GP to Margaret ‘the monster living in his head’? What is this monster? • Why is the Cat Stevens song ‘Wild World’ such an appropriate song for Len and Margaret to E. DENIAL AND BUCK-PASSING sing along with in the car? See lyrics below.
This may have been a distressing episode in history ‘Wild World’ – Cat Stevens but there’s no profit in playing the blame game. Now that I’ve lost everything to you – Government spokeswoman You say you wanna start something new And it’s breakin’ my heart you’re leavin’ The good brothers and sisters ran decent, loving Baby, I’m grievin’ homes for these poor children. But if you wanna leave, take good care – Receptionist at radio station Hope you have a lot of nice things to wear where Humphreys is being interviewed But then a lot of nice things turn bad out there
CHORUS: Oh, baby, baby, it’s a wild world It’s hard to get by just upon a smile Oh, baby, baby, it’s a wild world and I’ll always remember you like a child, girl
You know I’ve seen a lot of what the world can do And it’s breakin’ my heart in two SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM Because I never wanna see you sad, girl Don’t be a bad girl But if you wanna leave, take good care Hope you make a lot of nice friends out there But just remember there’s a lot of bad and beware 8 H. FINAL SCENES
• At the Christmas party in Perth with her hus- band and children, what does Margaret’s son Ben say he has given everyone for Christmas? • What does the archival footage of the child migrants arriving in Perth show us about the children and their hopes and expectations? • Why are these photos so poignant in the light of what actually happened to these thousands of children on their ‘great adventure’ to a land of oranges and sunshine? • There are four pieces of text shown on the screen before the final credits: 1) It was a further 23 years before the governments of Great Britain and Australia apologised for their child migration schemes. • How do the attempts to intimidate her 2) More than 130,000 children had been affect Margaret? deported. [Between 7000 and 10,000 to • What condition does the doctor think she is Australia] suffering from? 3) Margaret and Mervyn continue to search for • What does the scene of Vera and Charlotte the families of former child migrants. together visiting Margaret show her (and 4) Len is still trying to build a relationship with us) about the work she is doing? his mother. • What does the placement of this scene next to • Which (if any) of these updates surprised you? the attempt to frighten Margaret reveal about the importance of this work to many people? EXTENSION ACTIVITIES • Why is Len so keen for Margaret to visit Bindoon? 1. Saying ‘sorry’ • What are her reservations about this suggestion? Whether governments and church and welfare • How is he finally able to persuade her that she organisations should apologise to people who needs to ‘touch [their] childhood’? suffered under the policies of earlier governments and organisations is contended by some members G. BINDOON of the community. When John Howard was prime minister of Australia, he resisted all pressure to Who’s going to look after me? I’m … I’m nobody. make formal apologies to groups such as the – Bob Stolen Generations, many of whom were removed from their families over a long period of white • How is the landscape and climate of Bindoon history. Howard’s view was that present day quite unlike that the English countryside? governments should not be held responsible for • Why is it important to Len that Margaret see the policies of earlier governments. Bindoon from a distance first? • Describe the conditions at Bindoon for young In relation to the ‘forgotten Australians’ (the boys as Len explains them. child migrants) some organisations, such as the • What is the atmosphere in the dining room Fairbridge Society, now view the policy of child where the brothers are having breakfast when deportation as totally unacceptable, but say it was Len and Margaret enter the room? supported by government. Barnardo’s was another • What effect did the brutal treatment have on charitable organisation that sent children away. It Len, Graham, Bob and James? too regrets what happened, but its chief executive • Everybody thinks there’s going to be this big, Martin Narey believes saying sorry is not appropri- cathartic moment when all the wrongs are ate. ‘It would be glib of me as chief executive of righted and all the wounds are healed, but it’s Barnardo’s in 2010 to apologise for something that not going to happen. I can’t give you back what was done in large part before I was born,’ he said. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM you’ve lost. – Margaret to Len ‘What I would like to do is something much more What can and does Margaret give to Len and practical. It is to do everything we can to put right the other child migrants? any hurt that is caused.’ They are offering help to • What does Len believe is the greatest loss any children they were involved with to go back suffered by the child migrants? through their family records.
The Catholic and other Christian churches have 9 a rather dark history of mistreatment of young children who were entrusted to their care. In 2001 the Catholic Church in Australia made an apology to the child migrants. However, much pain and anger remains.
• Should the current government and churches take responsibility for mistakes made in the past? • Do you think saying sorry is enough? • Can individuals like the child migrants ever have adequate restitution or compensation for what they have lost? Is there anything that could possibly give them resolution or ‘closure’? • Why do you think groups who have been mistreated through government policies are so determined to have these wrongs publicly acknowledged? • Should people whose lives were blighted by mistreatment as children while in the care of government or church organisations have the right to financial compensation?
Apologising Here is what Jim Loach, the film’s In November, 2009 and in February, 2010 director, says about his approach respectively, the Australian and United Kingdom to filming this story: governments offered formal apologies to the child migrants. These were made as Oranges and Right at the outset we had a sense Sunshine was being filmed. of how we were going to approach it: it was very much Margaret’s When Camilla Bray, the film’s producer, was asked story. It was going to be Margaret what it was like when she heard that the Australian the character and seen through her and UK governments would be formally apologis- eyes. So then Rona [Munro, writer] ing to the former child migrants, she responded: locked herself away and started to write.
When you’ve got both Australian and UK prime … We were trying to simplify it and boil it down ministers standing up in parliament apologising because we never really wanted to make it a and acknowledging what took place, that ends campaigning film. We were interested in explor- the discussion of, ‘is this exaggerated, aren’t you ing the nature of identity and what makes us who maybe enhancing one or two bad incidents in order we are – and if you take all those things away from to have a story?’ We met that disbelief, implied somebody how do they come to terms with it? or overt, when we were putting the film together, It was also quite a challenging scripting process so I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for because of course the real events happened over the child migrants to encounter that attitude for all a very long period of time, so we had to find a way those years. of shaping it into a coherent, singular narrative. It was one of those stories that you could go spin- • How damaging is it to be ‘not believed’ for a ning off into all sorts of different areas – you could very long time? look at the involvement of the Catholic Church, or you could look at the role of the state in caring for 2. Ways of bringing the so-called less privileged people. We had to home past to life – feature film or in on our story. documentary? When asked about what a drama adds to this story Film is a powerful medium for bringing stories from that straight documentary couldn’t, Loach says: SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM the past to life. Whether through the documentary form or feature film, visual representations and Documentary can expose the facts and point the recreations are probably watched by many more finger and bring people to account. But I think a people than are likely to read written accounts drama can explore the themes in a much more of history. But how to create a powerful and interesting, human way – themes such as iden- truthful story from such material is the filmmakers’ tity and the role of the church. For me it’s a more challenge. rounded way of looking at it. 10 Rona Munro, the scriptwriter for the film, explains ORANGES AND SUNSHINE how she used the material from Margaret Hum- Oranges and Sunshine is distributed by Icon. It is a co-production between Australia phreys’ book, Empty Cradles, to develop the script. and Britain. The story is based on Margaret Humphreys’ 1994 book Empty Cradles. It runs for 105 minutes. I think film can probably only tell one story; books Cast Crew can tell about seven or eight, but in film you’ve got to decide what’s your main story and just tell that. Margaret Humphreys – Emily Watson Director – Jim Loach Quite early on we had decided we wanted to tell Jack – Hugo Weaving Writer – Rona Munro the story from one person’s point of view and it should be Margaret’s. So then it was about which Len – David Wenham Producer – Camilla Bray of these myriad stories that were recorded in the Merv (Margaret’s husband) – Producers – Emile Sherman, Iain Canning book and all the other stories of the child migrants Richard Dillane and what they’d been through and their back story … which of those do you then include to tell your Charlotte Cooper – Federay Holmes Director of photography – Denson Baker main story? It was really about amalgamating and Pauline – Tara Morice Production designer – Melinda Doring cutting and trying to keep finding what are the things that are the emotional core of this that’ll ac- Nicky – Lorraine Ashbourne Costume designer – Cappi Ireland tually play for an audience. And of course, when it’s Music – Lisa Gerrard a true story you end up going, ‘That means that this woman’s tale is never going to get told.’ You almost feel like you’re letting people down because you Oranges and documentary? Is one approach to storytelling can’t put everybody in. We could have made about Sunshine is English any better than another, or are there multiple director Jim Loach’s 18 films out of what was there. approaches to telling different stories? first feature film. Loach has previously • Name any feature films you have watched that In response to the question – to what extent is your directed a number of tell a powerful story based on true events from film factually accurate? Munro says: television programs, the past. including episodes • If we don’t have a detailed understanding of of Shameless, It’s the sort of thing that sometimes people get very the period, people and events being explored Coronation Street irate about, especially when you’re asking them and The Bill. He is the in a film, how do we judge the truthfulness of a to care about something and distressing them. In son of Ken Loach, story? How can the filmmaker convince us of terms of the facts there’s nothing in the film that the renowned English the truth of the story, both overall and in the de- raised a question legally, otherwise it wouldn’t be in film and television tail? Does Jim Loach convince you of the truth director known for the film. In terms of what characters did and said I of the story he tells in Oranges and Sunshine? his naturalistic, saw my job as trying to decide what the emotional social-realist truth is. In other words, how would that character directing style and for 3. Reviewing and promotion want themself to be represented and what should his socialist beliefs. we as an audience understand about where they These are evident in • Write a review of Oranges and Sunshine to his film treatment of are emotionally in this moment? You can’t pos- be published in either a daily newspaper or social issues such as sibly answer a huge question like that by talking homelessness (Cathy an online film blog. Outline the film’s major to someone for a few hours, but as far as I could Come Home, 1966) strengths and comment on any especially I thought that was my responsibility: to make sure and labour rights strong performances or impressive technical that it was emotionally truthful so that those char- (Riff-Raff, 1991). In elements of the film. 1969 he directed Kes, acters would go, ‘Yes, I recognise that. That is my • If you were charged with the job of promoting a very popular film truth as I understand it.’ about a young boy this film in the weeks before it is screened, what living in the north kind of approach would you adopt? Which of • What would be some of the difficulties in mak- of England who the film’s key cast members would you recruit ing a documentary film about the child migrants develops a special to assist in promoting the film? Would you try relationship with a sent to Australia in the 1940s and 1950s? What to get some of the child migrants to become kestrel. kind of written and visual resources are neces- involved in promoting the film? How would sary to bring a documentary account of history you arouse people’s curiosity about the film’s to life? What kind of primary sources need to subject matter? Outline your approach and be available to a filmmaker wanting to make a the media, whether print or online, that you documentary film or series about an issue such would use. as the child migrants? • Oranges and Sunshine is not a documentary. Resources and references SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM However, it is based on true stories and does in fact incorporate some primary source material Margaret Humphreys, Empty Cradles, Doubleday, from the period. What is this material and how London, 1994. important is it as part of the story? The book on which the story told in the film is • What are the strengths of a feature- based. It includes a number of photographs film approach to telling a historical story from the period, beginning in the 1920s. as opposed to a written account or a The Leaving of Liverpool, 1992 mini-series directed 11 by Michael Jenkins; ABC/BBC co- a range of information and interesting in Western Australia, where many production. links to other related material. children from England were sent to When the mini-series of The Leaving http://ukinaustralia.fco.gov.uk/en/ live and work between 1947 and of Liverpool went to air in 1992, the news/?view=PressR&id=22597968 1954. It is now known as the Catholic issue of what had happened during Information about the Child Migrants Agricultural College. the Child Migration Schemes of the Restoration Fund launched in Britain http://brokenrites.alphalink.com.au 1950s had been largely swept un- in 2010 to help families separated by Broken Rites is a support group for der the carpet. A huge national and the scheme reunite. people who have suffered abuse by international controversy followed its http://www.aph.gov.au/Library/pubs/BN/ members of the Catholic Church. broadcast as thousands of victims of sp/ChildMigrants.htm http://www.independent.co.uk/arts the schemes broke the cone of silence Australian government website -entertainment/films/oranges-and that had enclosed them for nearly half outlining the history of the Child -sunshine-sheds-light-on-dark a century. Thousands of children had Migration Scheme and its aftermath. -episode-2108983.html been transported from England to http://www.independent.co.uk/news/ An article from the Independent news- Canada, Rhodesia, New Zealand and world/australasia/bindoon-boys-town paper about the film’s premiere at a Australia. The stories of their suffering -the-sad-truth-behind-britains-lost film festival in South Korea in 2010. were epitomised in the story of Bert -children-1782544.html and Lily’s transportation from Liver- A 2009 article from Britain’s Endnotes pool, England to Australia. Information Independent newspaper about the 1 Parliament of Australia website,
iPad app developed with the assistance of Film Victoria iPad study guide app: https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/oranges-and-sunshine/id439211586?mt=8 This study guide was produced by ATOM. (© ATOM 2011) ISBN: 978-1-74295-025-9 [email protected] For more information on SCREEN EDUCATION magazine, or to download other study guides for assessment, visit