We of the Never Never
( dir. Igor Auzins
)
Australia
:
Adams Packer Film Productions
,
1982
Z901254
1982
single work
film/TV
(taught in 6 units)
Based on Jeannie Gunn's fictionalised autobiography of the same name, the story begins in 1902 with the arrival of Mrs Gunn and her new husband Aeneas in the Northern Territory. They have come to take over management of Elsey Station, a huge cattle and horse property. She is subsequently forced to battle isolation, disease, and the white stockmen who believe the station is no place for a woman. She befriends the local Aboriginal women, but is mystified by their culture. Her affection for the place and the people is tested by frequent tragedy.
(Source: Australian Screen.)
That Deadman Dance
Sydney
:
Picador
,
2010
Z1728528
2010
single work
novel
historical fiction
(taught in 43 units)
Big-hearted, moving and richly rewarding, That Deadman Dance is set in the first decades of the 19th century in the area around what is now Albany, Western Australia. In playful, musical prose, the book explores the early contact between the Aboriginal Noongar people and the first European settlers.
'The novel's hero is a young Noongar man named Bobby Wabalanginy. Clever, resourceful and eager to please, Bobby befriends the new arrivals, joining them hunting whales, tilling the land, exploring the hinterland and establishing the fledgling colony. He is even welcomed into a prosperous local white family where he falls for the daughter, Christine, a beautiful young woman who sees no harm in a liaison with a native.
'But slowly - by design and by accident - things begin to change. Not everyone is happy with how the colony is developing. Stock mysteriously start to disappear; crops are destroyed; there are "accidents" and injuries on both sides. As the Europeans impose ever stricter rules and regulations in order to keep the peace, Bobby's Elders decide they must respond in kind. A friend to everyone, Bobby is forced to take sides: he must choose between the old world and the new, his ancestors and his new friends. Inexorably, he is drawn into a series of events that will forever change not just the colony but the future of Australia...' (From the publisher's website.)
This subject will commence with an explication of new historicist methods and approaches. It will then move on to an application of these methods to selected key events in Aboriginal Australia's colonial history. Students will be introduced to reading and research methods that will enable them to effectively use historical, archival and cultural materials and documents in engaging with these key events and historical periods. Key events will include: colonial narratives and Aboriginal and Settler contact and conflict in the 18th Century. Ellen Draper's Old Cobraboor and The Myall Creek Massacre of 1868. William Ferguson's short story Nanya and the 1938 Sesquicentenary; and, pastoral narratives and the age of the cattle empires.
Objectives:
On completion of the subject students should have:
Tutorial participation and a 10-minute paper presentation (done in class), 10%, an essay of 1500 words 30% (due mid-semester), and an essay of 2500 words 60% (due in the examination period). This subject has a minimum hurdle requirement of 75% attendance and regular participation in tutorials. Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 10% per day. In-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked. All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass this subject.
