In 1992, the Australian High Court officially recognised native title and thus the occupation of the Australian continent by indigenous Australians prior to European settlement. This landmark decision, known as the Mabo decision, effectively overturned the precept of terra nullius (empty land belonging to no one) that grounded European colonial expansion on the continent, thus rewriting Australian colonial history as one of invasion, dispossession, genocide and deracination. Yet the retelling of Australian colonial history was not left uncontested. The years following the Mabo decision also witnessed the proliferation of tensions between ‘black Armband’ and ‘white Blindfold’ views of history as the Australian nation attempted to deal with the legacies of a traumatic and violent past. This course examines the ways in which various Australian filmmakers have attempted to negotiate relations between Aboriginal Australians and European settlers in the wake of Mabo. Over the course of the semester, students will critically interrogate a range of films by both black and white Australians in order to assess not only the ways in which the recognition of Aboriginal land rights and the revision of history has been negotiated in filmmaking at the turn of the new millenium, but similarly to consider the ways that these films attempt to forge a future that admits of difference and equality.
Films will be made available for download prior to each seminar.
Set Texts:
Luhrmann, Baz, dir. Australia (2008)
Moffatt, Tracey, dir. bedevil (1993)
Perkins, Rachel, dir. Bran Nue Dae (2010)
Thornton, Wawrick, dir. Samson and Delilah (2011)
Weir, Peter, dir. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1992)
- Trainer/in: Jennifer Wawrzinek