Rmacfarl
Fri, Jul-21-06, 06:15
http://www20.sbs.com.au/storylineaustralia/index.php?pg=doc&i-
d=41&ax=ar
Making 10 Canoes Premieres on SBS TV
8:30pm, Thursday 20 July, 2006 Making Ten Canoes documents the
making of Rolf de Heer's eleventh feature film Ten Canoes,
which was selected for Un Certain Regard at the 2006 Cannes
International Film Festival.
"We are making a movie. The story is their story, those that
live on this land, in their language, and set a long time
before the coming of the Balanda, as we white people are
known. For the people of the Arafura Swamp, this film is an
opportunity, maybe a last chance to hold on to the old ways.
For all of us, the challenges are unexpected, the task
beyond anything imagined. For me, it is the most difficult
film I have made, in the most foreign land I've been
to...and it is Australia." Rolf de Heer May, 2005 Central
Arnhem Land, Australia
-------------------------------------------------
I watched this documentary on TV last night. It tells the
story of the making of a remarkable film that's just been
released in Australia.
The crux of it is that it's a story about pre-European tribal
aborigines. The actors are Arnhem Land aborigines of the
Ramingining tribe, who are living nearer to tribal lifestyles
than are most indigenous Australian.
But how close? It was quite poignant that they learned much
about their own heavily disrupted culture from the filmmaker
bringing them photographs of their grandparents taken in the
1930s by a white anthropologist, Dr Donald Thomson (who is
remembered with great respect and affection by the aborigines.
The film was inspired by a photo he took of 10 Ramingining
tribesmen on their canoes in the Arafura Swamp, which was part
of their traditional lands.)
An aborigine from another tribe was supervising the making of
the canoes, because none of the elders had ever made one
before. The fimmaker got them to change the design of the bark
canoes that they were making for the film to one that was more
like their specific tribe's traditional design (they had a
pointed prow like a Phoenician trireme, because it was easier
to push through the reeds of the swamp). After this the
aborigines treated him as having the wisdom of a tribal elder,
although he was much younger than the true elders.
However it was good to see the increase in self-respect that
the aboriginal men garnered from discovering some of their own
lost heritage. Their respect and understanding for their
ancestors, and for themselves, grew visibly through the
film-making process.
The greatest challenge, in my opinion, that aboriginal society
faces - the root cause of the alcohol and substance abuse,
endemic preventable disease and lifespans more than 20 years
shorter than non-aboriginal Australians - could be called a
lack of life purpose, most especially for males.They have
largely if not entirely had their connection to their
traditional lands, and their traditional lifestyles, severed,
leaving a vacuum which has not been filled by a western "work
ethic" culture - partly because many live in places where
little or no work is available, partly because of the welfare
culture of the past few decades combined with the breakdown of
social networks and the substance abuse, and partly because
many are -understandably - resentful of and resistant to a
European culture which was imposed with violent and
destructive effect on them over the past 2 centuries.
Women are also afflicted by these problems, but some at least
can find a purpose in raising children and in nurturing the
social networks - often it seems to be the grandmothers
stepping in because both parents are in the grip of substance
abuse and violence. If you are a young man with poor job
prospects, facing instituional racism, having had poor
education outcomes, why would you care what grog and
petrol-sniffing will do to your future - when to all intents
it may seem that you have none?
Anyway, I can't wait to see the movie itself, & give you my
film review...
Ross Macfarlane
(See also http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2006/06/22/1150-
845250935.html...)
d=41&ax=ar
Making 10 Canoes Premieres on SBS TV
8:30pm, Thursday 20 July, 2006 Making Ten Canoes documents the
making of Rolf de Heer's eleventh feature film Ten Canoes,
which was selected for Un Certain Regard at the 2006 Cannes
International Film Festival.
"We are making a movie. The story is their story, those that
live on this land, in their language, and set a long time
before the coming of the Balanda, as we white people are
known. For the people of the Arafura Swamp, this film is an
opportunity, maybe a last chance to hold on to the old ways.
For all of us, the challenges are unexpected, the task
beyond anything imagined. For me, it is the most difficult
film I have made, in the most foreign land I've been
to...and it is Australia." Rolf de Heer May, 2005 Central
Arnhem Land, Australia
-------------------------------------------------
I watched this documentary on TV last night. It tells the
story of the making of a remarkable film that's just been
released in Australia.
The crux of it is that it's a story about pre-European tribal
aborigines. The actors are Arnhem Land aborigines of the
Ramingining tribe, who are living nearer to tribal lifestyles
than are most indigenous Australian.
But how close? It was quite poignant that they learned much
about their own heavily disrupted culture from the filmmaker
bringing them photographs of their grandparents taken in the
1930s by a white anthropologist, Dr Donald Thomson (who is
remembered with great respect and affection by the aborigines.
The film was inspired by a photo he took of 10 Ramingining
tribesmen on their canoes in the Arafura Swamp, which was part
of their traditional lands.)
An aborigine from another tribe was supervising the making of
the canoes, because none of the elders had ever made one
before. The fimmaker got them to change the design of the bark
canoes that they were making for the film to one that was more
like their specific tribe's traditional design (they had a
pointed prow like a Phoenician trireme, because it was easier
to push through the reeds of the swamp). After this the
aborigines treated him as having the wisdom of a tribal elder,
although he was much younger than the true elders.
However it was good to see the increase in self-respect that
the aboriginal men garnered from discovering some of their own
lost heritage. Their respect and understanding for their
ancestors, and for themselves, grew visibly through the
film-making process.
The greatest challenge, in my opinion, that aboriginal society
faces - the root cause of the alcohol and substance abuse,
endemic preventable disease and lifespans more than 20 years
shorter than non-aboriginal Australians - could be called a
lack of life purpose, most especially for males.They have
largely if not entirely had their connection to their
traditional lands, and their traditional lifestyles, severed,
leaving a vacuum which has not been filled by a western "work
ethic" culture - partly because many live in places where
little or no work is available, partly because of the welfare
culture of the past few decades combined with the breakdown of
social networks and the substance abuse, and partly because
many are -understandably - resentful of and resistant to a
European culture which was imposed with violent and
destructive effect on them over the past 2 centuries.
Women are also afflicted by these problems, but some at least
can find a purpose in raising children and in nurturing the
social networks - often it seems to be the grandmothers
stepping in because both parents are in the grip of substance
abuse and violence. If you are a young man with poor job
prospects, facing instituional racism, having had poor
education outcomes, why would you care what grog and
petrol-sniffing will do to your future - when to all intents
it may seem that you have none?
Anyway, I can't wait to see the movie itself, & give you my
film review...
Ross Macfarlane
(See also http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2006/06/22/1150-
845250935.html...)