Cirrus@Austlit

'Jedda, directed by Charles Chauvel and written by his wife Elsa Chauvel, was a landmark film for Australian cinema because of its groundbreaking firsts: it was the first film to cast Indigenous actors in lead roles, the first to be shot in colour, and the first Australian film to compete in the Cannes Film Festival.  Jedda is largely of Australian historical interest as it offers an insight into race relations of the 1950s, ideas of Aboriginal assimilation, and inadvertently, the Stolen Generations.'

'Set in 1867, Ivan Sen’s short film Wind tells the story of a young Indigenous tracker named Jess who, in the process of hunting a wanted criminal with his sergeant, begins to trace the footsteps of a community and a heritage he has barely known. This story is set entirely in the mountains, with few references to the wider contexts of Jess and the sergeant, placing it almost completely apart from the plateaus of central ‘big’ truths (Read 2002, p. 54) that constitute the crux of Aboriginal Australian history. Jess’ story acts as a representation of one of the complex anomalies that were a part of early frontier life. It not only tells, but shows audiences that it’s just not that simple.'

'The Rabbits, written by John Marsden and illustrated by Shaun Tan, is “a rich and haunting allegory for all ages, all cultures” (Marsden & Tan 1998). The 32-page picture book is a reference to Australia’s colonial past, exploring the history between British colonisers and Australia’s Indigenous population.'

'I read Terra Nullius (Coleman 2017) after listening to an interview with Claire Coleman. She was intelligent, with a clear, striking voice that didn’t hide her discomfort, but challenged us to feel it too. She said:

White people say that Australia is the lucky country, well…who is it lucky for? Because it’s certainly not lucky for us. People always talk about closing the gap, well I think the gap that needs to be closed is the gap between the fiction of Australia and the reality of Australia. The fiction of Australia is terra nullius. The reality is that terra nullius was actually a lie. (‘For us, happy endings feel dishonest’ 2017).'

'Twenty years since Stolen debuted in Melbourne’s Playbox Theatre, the play still resonates with audiences as one of the key texts exploring the constructed and contested nature of Australia’s Stolen Generations. Its timelessness is owed to the interpretability of theatre, but also to the thoughtful construction in its superb writing. Stolen has continued to prove its relevancy in Australia’s negotiation with its Indigenous population, from its plural histories to its ongoing attempts at reconciliation. Stolen is a poignant exploration of the intersection between history and memory, and the role human experiences have to play in building a more inclusive, shared history on Australian soil.'

'Feminism and issues of violence against women are at the forefront of the contemporary world. However, although women are speaking out for themselves, there are still minority groups whose voices remain unheard. With the recent Women’s Marches and International Women’s Day, it is important to place emphasis on the mistreatment of all women throughout Australian history, particularly that of Aboriginal women, who have often had issues which have been ignored by the government and media. The Riverside Theatre (Parramatta Girls 2014) acknowledges the voices of Aboriginal women in their production of Alana Valentine’s Parramatta Girls (2007), a verbatim-style play that tells the true stories of women who grew up in a training home for girls. Through the plot device of memory, an integral theme throughout the performance, eight women meet in the old Parramatta Girl’s Home at a reunion, reflecting on their experiences they each had with each other and their determination to escape and survive the psychological, physical and sexual abuse inflicted on them as young girls.'