form y separately published work icon Moora Neya, or The Message of the Spear single work   film/TV  
Issue Details: First known date: 1911... 1911 Moora Neya, or The Message of the Spear
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Contemporary newspapers indicated that the film went through the following scenes:

  • The message of the spear.
  • Look for the attack on the Hut.
  • Harry teaches the Overseer a lesson.
  • A horrible revenge: the Overseer arranges with the Aboriginals to kill Harry.
  • To save her sweetheart.
  • Arrival of the Police.
  • Lovers re-united.

Source:

'West's Pictures', Gippsland Times, 21 December 1911, p.3 (via Trove Australia)

Notes

  • Moora Neya was one of the first Australian films to actually cast Indigenous Australians as Indigenous Australians, instead of reverting to the then-usual convention of blackface:

    The scenes are thoroughly Australian, and typical of the bush and backblock township life of Queensland, where the incidents of the drama were carried out. A strangely fantastic effect was obtained by the introduction of a tribe of genuine Australian aboriginals, whose grotesque war-painted bodies added to their weird corroborees. This is the first film introducing the Australian aboriginals in their native haunts and war dances.

    Source:

    'Australian Films', The Advertiser, 19 August 1911, p.20.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Last amended 16 Jul 2014 13:24:52
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  • Darling River, Far West NSW, New South Wales,
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