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Of all the films we have watched for this course, Rabbit-Proof Fence and Ten Canoes were my favorite. Both movies managed to both conform to Hollywood norms and defy them. In Rabbit-Proof Fence, the story strays from the typical action-oriented Hollywood narrative as nothing much happens. Most of the real “action” occurs within the first twenty minutes when the girls are taken away from their mother and home. The rest of the movie consists of them escaping the camp and making the trek home. The film’s use of suspense manages to keep fans of traditional Hollywood films engaged, however. Without giving background on the characters or providing buildup, Rabbit-Proof Fence presents a narrative that doesn’t necessarily need it and hooks audiences for the entire movie. 

Ten Canoes was a bit more defiant in terms of conforming to traditional Hollywood structures. The lack of linear storytelling and use of the traditional aboriginal language in place of English dubbing are things that would not be present in the typical Hollywood film. The film jumps back and forth between scenes which had seemingly nothing to do with each other with no warning. It would go from a scene telling the ancestor’s story to one explaining the process of making canoes. While this was not traditional, it worked. The narrator’s voiceovers and the frank dialogue amongst the characters in the story provided humor one might find in a Hollywood film. While both films functioned outside of traditional Hollywood standards in many unique ways, they were enjoyable to watch and I’m glad I got the chance to see them on the big screen under the stars.

Constructing Narrative: Linearity Reinforced and Resisted

Clearly, Rabbit-Proof Fence and Ten Canoes employ radically different methods for telling their stories.  While the former uses more standard Hollywood narrative techniques and cinematography to tell the tale of three girls’ journey to find their families, the later resists most of the markers of Hollywood cinema. That said, they both find ways to resist the status quo in terms of the stories they tell and the way they tell them.  Discuss narrative structure and visual style in both films, analyzing how the films both conform to and resist Hollywood structures (based on your own broad understanding of how films are so often presented)

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Sydney

This final week in Sydney has been absolutely amazing!

Our guide at the Hyde Barracks Museum was incredibly knowledgeable and enthusiastic about his profession. Have to say, my favorite part of this museum was the hammock section. Sleeping there every night would have been a nightmare, but by this point in the trip, I would have gladly taken a nap here!

A highlight of our visit to the Museum of Sydney was the room of fun. As everyone quickly realized, legos and sand are two highly effective ways to entertain college kids!

Following our visit to the Museum of Sydney, a group of us traveled to Bondi Beach for the afternoon. We watched the sunset, ate some amazing Brazilian food, and got some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream before heading back to the hotel!

For our final day today, we took a ferry around the harbor to get to Manly Beach. After some time on the beach, a great snack box and a little shopping, we headed back for the final dinner.

To finish off our final day, Dakota and I went to the Westfield Sydney Tower for some breathtaking night views of Sydney!

I’ve really enjoyed my time here in Australia and in some ways, it’s bittersweet to head home. I’ll always cherish the time I had here and the friends I’ve made on this adventure. But...

I miss my dog a whole lot (and maybe my family too...) 

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In Carpentaria by Alexis Wright, magical realism appears in both the structure and style of the novel. The story is told in a disjointed, nonlinear manner, making much of the story confusing for me. For example, in Chapter Twelve, as Mozzie begins telling Will what happened in Desperance, he jumps around, making it very hard to tell where in the story he is. When he started talking about how the Midnight boys were bringing bad news and immediately “paused in this story of his to talk about his premonitions before leaving Desperance,” it took me reading it a few times to understand that he had known something bad happened but did not realize it was the death of his children until the Midnight boys told him (424). This confusion contributes to the magical realism by making the reader question what is currently happening, has already happened or even actually happened. 

We see the magical realism come through in the writing style as well. Despite the setting of a typical small town, the story is told is told with mystic descriptions. From the beginning, Wright describes the land and its creation so fantastically. She does this with the characters as well. When Normal Phantom is introduced, he is described: “‘We watched him as a little boy running off into the night trying to catch stars.’ They were certain he knew the secret of getting there.” (6). He and Mozzie are frequently described this way. They are portrayed as being all-knowing, giving an air of mysticism to them. The mystery behind both of these characters and the descriptions of them also contribute to the magical realism in Carpentaria.

Discussion Question 9: The Limits of Reality

A literary mode rather than a distinguishable genre, “magical realism” is characterized by the presentation of two conflicting perspectives: one based on a seemingly rational view of reality and the other on an embracing of the fantastical. Magical realism is distinguished from  fantasy in that it is, by definition, set in a “normal” modern locale.  According to literary critic, Ray Verzasconi, magical realism is “an expression of the New World reality which at once combines the rational elements of the European super-civilization, and the irrational elements of a primitive America.”

Wright’s Carpentaria is often described as magic realism.  How do you see that concept presenting itself in the novel?  Does this definition place the style, structure, or purpose of the novel in a different light?

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Thornton’s Samson and Delilah draws attention to the struggles faced by Australia’s Aboriginals in even the “post-Sorry” environment and the face-value effort the country has made at true reconciliation with their indigenous peoples. Simple apologies do not mean much when the government is continuing to ignore the problems faced by these communities. To me, a huge part of reconciliation is reparation. When a nation has done as much damage to a group of people as Australia has to their indigenous peoples, something more than a simple sorry is owed. 

As the narrative of Samson and Delilah shows, the Aboriginal communities need more than an apology to get back on their feet. The film displays how centuries of injustice have left the Aboriginals living in poverty on the fringes of society. Samson’s petrol addiction, Delilah’s struggle to survive following the death of her grandmother and the general poverty of the two are just some of many problems faced by the Aboriginal communities in the “post-Sorry” environment. The film also does an amazing job at portraying the general apathy towards the Aboriginals by the rest of society. For example, when Delilah attempts to sell her art at the gallery, she is rebuffed, and as she walks through the street trying to get someone to buy it, she is blatantly ignored. Only when she shoves her art in their faces does she get a reaction. This scene draws attention to the tendency to ignore the struggles of the aboriginals in this “post-Sorry” era. Thornton uses the film to call attention to the need to do more than just say “sorry.” A “sorry” does not fix every problem and ignoring the still-existing problems after the “sorry” is not really a solution.

Discussion Question 5: Is Sorry Enough?

On February 13, 2008, the [Kevin] Rudd Government issued a formal national apology to Australia’s Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders for the past wrongs committed by Australia’s government more generally, but especially for the policies that lead to the Stolen Generations.  Warwick Thornton has described his film, Samson and Delilah, as a “back-handed post-Sorry film.”  Warwick explained, “Sorry don’t fill fridges.  … It makes a lot of people stronger and makes them take bigger steps towards their future, but in my camp it pretty well doesn’t mean anything.” 

How do you see Thornton’s narrative as a “post-Sorry” film? How can the narrative be read against Australia’s backdrop of “reconciliation?  What is the narrative trying to tell us about Australia’s post-sorry environment?

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Good news: Got the ankle checked out and it’s just a bad sprain! (not surprising since I sprinted on it lol)

Some context for the picture: I couldn’t find something to put the ice in, so I just left it in the tray. Somehow Laney and Dakota didn’t notice this until I had already been using it to ice my foot for a solid minute or two 😂

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Australian Outback

I had a great time during our time in the outback. The variety of climates and landscapes we have been in over the span of a few weeks was absolutely amazing and a bit of a shock at times. Going from a chilly and rainy city like Melbourne to the tropical paradise that was Port Douglas was an appreciated change in scenery. 

Although I’m generally not a nature person at all, I really enjoyed myself during our time at Chillagoe and Sheoak Ridge. Claire and Marcus were such lovely and passionate people! The knowledge those two have about the animals, bugs and landscape was absolutely astounding. 

While at Sheoak Ridge, I managed to hurt my ankle pretty badly. It swells up every time I have to walk and is pretty bruised, but it doesn’t hurt too much so I’m hoping it’s just a sprain. I think I’ve decided to go see a doctor about it when we arrive in Sydney, though, just to make sure I didn’t break it. I wasn’t able to do much in Cape Tribulation, including the night spotting, as a result. However, driving around and looking at the scenery is always my favorite part about traveling, so I really enjoyed the bus rides through the rainforest.

I’m looking forward to exploring Sydney and hoping my ankle gets better!

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Over the past couple of days I’ve watched a sunset at St. Kilda’s beach, seen koalas, wallabies and penguins, and eaten some french toast that looked much nicer than it tasted. Experiencing the various things Australia and this wonderful city have to offer has been a once in a lifetime experience!

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The first few days in Melbourne have been both tiring and exciting! From the academic excursions at the Ian Potter Centre and Melbourne Museum to the free time exploring, it’s been a blast so far!

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In The Fringe Dwellers, we see Trilby in particular struggle to deal with her family's history and ancestry as aboriginals. She seems to want to separate herself from the aboriginal part of her and desires to be white. In stark contrast is Sally, the narrator of My Place. Initially unaware of her Aboriginal heritage, Sally is excited to learn more about it and seeks out this new identity despite the initial resistance from her family. Sally and Trilby's reactions to their family histories are exemplified in many instances. While Sally marries a black man and is content to have multiple children with him, Trilby argues with her boyfriend Phil about not wanting to have black babies and even eventually kills the child by dropping it on the floor in the bathroom. We also see their feelings come through in the way they treat their families. Both girls occasionally do not understand their elder family member's behaviors at times, but their reactions to these instances say a lot. Sally, though frustrated with her Nan, only ever pesters her Nan for more information and typically avoids getting angry. Trilby, however, is often combative with her family for not acting white, becoming angry with her mother for behaving "improperly" when visiting a new white neighbor. 

In The Fringe Dwellers, familial history is used to show how political tensions relating to Aborigines personally affected some of the younger generation. Trilby's shame of her family and origins comes from a desire to escape the persecution of being black. The influence of the white kids making fun of her and special treatment due to her skin tone have made her ashamed of that part of herself. Much like how a kid comes to hate their nose when a bully continuously points it out, Trilby has learned from society to be ashamed of her family and heritage. 

We see politics emerge in My Place with the clashing between Nan and Sally. Sally doesn't understand why Nan would want to ignore her past and avoid identifying with being aboriginal and this is because Sally did not experience the same things Nan did. Sally cannot truly understand why Nan wants to suppress a familial history she yearns to know more about because she has grown up in a different political environment than Nan. While Sally is able to go to school, even applying for an Aboriginal scholarship, Nan cannot even read or write because the people she worked for never let her learn. When Nan accidentally tells her about being called mongrel many times in her life, Sally is shocked. The two have evidently grown up in different worlds, which plays a major role in Sally's quest to learn more about her history and identity as an Aborigine.

At the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, the House of bones room truly resonated with the theme of personal history. As the placard on the wall stated, "Metaphorically, the screens can be read as dividing time: serving as symbolic markers of out past, present and future." This room was just one piece of Lambe's exhibition which showcased major events in life, from the birth of her son to burying her loved ones. The exhibition acknowledged the passage of time and importance of family to our personal histories through various artistic mediums.

The Personal is Political: The Politics of Family in My Place and The Fringe Dwellers

Both Morgan’s My Place and Beresford’s The Fringe Dwellers place family front-and-center in their narratives.  They portray their characters’ grappling with the juxtaposition of cultures  through a more intimate personal story that focuses on the family and its complex dynamics.  In many respects, they are both “coming of age” stories, focusing as they do on girlhood and adolescence.  Explore how each narrative uses the personal and the familial, considering how the personal also becomes political in the respective stories.  Again, I’d also like you to consider the notion of family and personal history are configured in at least one piece of art you saw at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.

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My reaction to the movie was rather similar to the distributor’s. It frustrated me that after two hours, I still had no clue what happened and so many questions that would not be answered! The film’s failure to offer any resolution or sense of “truth” frustrated me because I wanted an explanation for all of the weird scenes and events. In terms of narrative, the beginning of the movie seemed incredibly pointless to me as nothing truly happened. When it was over, my first thought was that it could have easily been a twenty minute film without all of the long silences and scenes filled with the characters doing nothing. I am used to watching films with clear plots and consistent dialogue, so this movie felt incredibly slow and boring as I watched it. 

It was interesting to read Boynton’s stories after watching the movie. The first story was barely understandable to me and seemed to focus on the Australian scenery much like the movie. I ended the first story just as frustrated as I had been after finishing the movie, and then I started noticing that each story became more coherent and narrative based than the last. By the end of the second one, I was still mildly confused, but had a better sense of the general plot, and the third made much more sense to me than both of the previous stories combined. 

Much like the movie, this set of stories revealed the human tendency to desire clear answers. However, for me, the excerpts did a much better job at revealing this to me. The movie left me frustrated with all of the unanswered mysteries and nothing more. By starting off with a frustrating story and ending with one that was less confusing and more resolved, I realized that what made a story for me was a clear narrative with an ending that made sense. I have read stories that were intended to leave you wondering about what has really happened and enjoyed them, but the difference for me seems to be that they still had a relatively clear plot. A resolution is not always necessary for me, but a defined narrative that I can at least partially understand absolutely is.

Discussion Question 1: Picnic at Hanging Rock and Resolution

At an industry screening of Picnic at Hanging Rock, director Peter Weir recalled, one distributor “threw his coffee cup at the screen at the end … because he’d wasted two hours of his life—a mystery without a solution!” Like some other viewers, the distributor was frustrated by the film’s lack of resolution, the fact that the narrative introduces so many “useless” facts, loose threads, and mysteries that it ultimately fails to solve. Weir’s celebrated film is often described as one of Australia’s best films; yet, it eschews traditional narrative conventions, instead working to establish a poetics of Australian landscape: one that is mystical and impenetrable. In fact, one could argue that the film  focuses on seeing and feeling, at the expense of knowing. In contrast, Boynton’s stories are much more concretely rendered.  Still, they, too, have an air of mystery about them, showing an acceptance that not all things can be “known” in a definite way.

Discuss this issue of “resolution” and how mystery is used in the film and how it engages with the notion of “truth” and the perhaps human tendency to want more clearly defined answers.  What does the film suggest about “truth” and narrative?  How does this compare to what you see about truth, resolution, and mystery in Barbara Boynton’s Bush Studies?  

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Kelly’s repeated justifications that he did not have a choice are not credible to me. I have a very economic way of thinking and everyone always has a choice. I understand that he drew the short straw in life, which in turn made his choices a lot harder. His circumstances and the people he grew up around were highly influential in how his life took shape. Had his mother not hired Harry to take Ned on as an apprentice, he might have never been introduced to the life of a bushranger. Thats said, growing up poor would have likely led him to committing crimes out of desperation anyways. This is shown when he slaughters his neighbors calf. It did not help that police would have targeted him anyways since “the police would never leave the Quinns alone” and his dad was an ex-convict. 

The odds were stacked against him pretty high, however, it is very likely he would have stayed at only property crimes had he not been introduced to Harry. His escalation to murder can be partially attributed to the influence of other people, specifically Harry and the police, but it also required him to make a conscious decision. He made the choices to keep helping Harry with his roadside robberies and eventually escalating to bank robberies and murder on his own. He may have felt like his hands were tied and it was the only logical option, but there is some individual agency involved in everything we do. His other options were not always pleasant but claiming he had no choice is a cop out. 

Discussion Question 2: Ned Kelly: Individual Agency versus Fate

Throughout Carey’s novel, Ned Kelly repeatedly represents himself as someone driven by fate, circumstances beyond his control that drew him to a life of crime.  He asks, “What choice did I have?” shortly after he kills Strahan, for example. (250). Do you buy these claims of his?  What are some of the forces, political, personal, cosmic, etc. that influence his life? How do other people and their choices influence what becomes of Kelly?  Is it really about fate or individual agency?  Or, a combination of both? 

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While Hughes provided an eye opening account on Australia’s brutal history, it largely overlooked the perspective of native aboriginals. His brief mentions of the aboriginals imply other horrors that have been erased from Australia’s history. His description of the first encounters with aboriginals is telling: “All they seem’d to want was for us to be gone.” Bennett and Syron provide the perspectives that Hughes fails to include in his work. For much Australian history it seems no one stopped to consider how the “noble savage” felt about these colonizers invading their land and trivializing their rights to it. Bennett’s painting in particular struck me as incredibly effective. By taking an old piece of art and placing a shape over the one aboriginal person in the painting, he speaks volumes about the treatment of aboriginals as a whole. You see the centuries of erasure, suppression of culture and racism the aboriginals have suffered at the hands of white colonists. A history that only acknowledges the suffering of a single race is not complete. By including the perspectives of aboriginals, Bennett and Syron help to complete it.

Discussion Question 11: Bennett and Syron Disturb History

How do you see Bennett and Syron disturbing history and providing a new perspective on the historical narrative we saw in Hughes’s text, Fatal Shore?  What new information does their artwork provide?  How does their artwork function as in intervention into that narrative?

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Prior to reading Fatal Shore, I was under the false impression that Australia’s British roots were similar to America’s. The bulk of history classes I was required to take prior to college always focused on America’s founding and detailed lessons of our own history, leaving with little information about other countries and assuming their histories. My (very wrong) impression had been that Britain colonized Australia much in the same way they had America, leading to a rebellion when Britain began to treat the colonists poorly. 

I had no idea that the country was essentially colonized by convicts acting as slaves to serve as Britain’s “criminal waste-disposal system.” Hughes tells every gruesome detail of this process in Fatal Shore. Of the descriptions I found the most appalling to be conditions on the ships over. He describes “a fermenting, sloshing broth of sea water mixed with urine, puke dung, rotting food, dead rats and the hundred other attars of the Great Age of Sail.” I had conceptualized Australia as a country built by British colonizers fleeing the crown to eventually become frontiersmen similar to America’s old west cowboys. The fact that many of the original “settlers” were actually convicts forcefully removed from their homes dashes that idea and makes me look at Australia, and Britain too, in a different light.

Discussion Question 4: Robert Hughes: Australia’s Dante

In Fatal Shore, Hughes asks readers to confront the dark history of Australia’s past, to grasp what Peter Carey calls “the cruelty of our birth.”  How do you see the text engaging with the country’s hellish past?  What does this doe to your own mythological conception of Australia?  Do you conceive of the country differently after having read Hughes’s historical mapping of Australia’s birth? 

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I was a bit surprised at just how much of a caricature Mick was, especially since the movie was made in Australia and not America. Mick really embodies the American ideal of what an Australian frontiersman would be like. His confusion at things as simple as escalators and elevators is absolutely ridiculous, but drives home the country-boy character he is evidently supposed to be. As Sue says when he stops them from getting mugged: “I’m always alright when I’m with you Dundee. Why do you always make me feel like Jane from the Tarzan comic?” The tough country boy protects the “sheila,” an ideal of traditional masculinity romanticized by both Americans and Australians. 

I guess I could understand why the Australians would portray him as a rugged man-of-the-land. This trope is highly admired for what is a rather extreme version of traditional masculinity. The frontiersman takes care of himself and others in dangerous situations. People like the idea of a self-made man who relies on no one to protect him. We see this in American culture with our rugged cowboys in various western movies. Dundee is the Australian version of this trope. His character plays into a shared love of seeing a rugged country man while also portraying the American stereotype of what an Australian is, which I think is what made this film so successful in both countries.

Discussion Question 9: Crocodile Dundee and Australian Masculinity

As early as the silent period, Australian cinema has been obsessed with a certain image of Australian masculinity: the romantic, self-made, tough, old-fashioned, ‘knight’ in oil-skin hat and khakis who spouts a nature-loving, irreverent, and free-spirited philosophy. Well, Micky Dundee embodies this ideal in spades. The film was tremendously successful both in Australia and the United States.  In fact, it remains the most successful Australian film ever made and continues to hold the title of one of the top grossing non-Hollywood films ever produced.  One might argue argue that its popularity stemmed, in large part, from how it appealed to that enduring frontiersman image, one that drew on both American and Australian mythologies. Discuss how you see the film engaging with such myths. What kind of masculine hero does Mick present, and why might he have held such appeal for both American and Australian viewers?

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Frank the Poet seems to advocate for almost any type of rebellion in the face of cruelty and harsh punishments. He uses poetry to portray rebellions in the prisons and convicts positively. In doing so, he shines light on the suffering he has seen and endured in the Australian prison system. Even in his poems that don’t depict specific events or people, he manages to rebel through his sarcastic humor. The poem he recited to the judge sentencing him to more prison time is a perfect example of this. In a situation with a man who holds all of the power, Frank responds in the only way he really can: reciting a mocking poem with various impossible circumstances as the “day I will be free.” He even responds to being sentenced to solitary confinement - a punishment proven now to have severe psychological effects - with a small poem requesting the cruel captain to “make it hours instead of days.” I think it is this spirit that appeals to the folk singers who adapt his poems into songs. He maintained humor and utter sass even as he suffered in the prisons of a foreign country he was shipped off to. Most men’s spirit would break under such conditions, but he maintained his. That itself is rebellion and the idea of it is amazing to think about.

Discussion Question 12: Frank the Poet: A Rebel Voice and a Rebel Heritage

Examine poems written by the man known as “Frank the poet,” and be sure to examine some of the other supporting material included in that link. A great many of convict poet Francis MacNamara’s poems were compositions based around protests about conditions within prisons and refusals to work.  Or, they celebrated convict escapes, the exploits of famous bushrangers, seizures of ships, or the death of the infamously cruel head of the Moreton Bay Penal  colony, Captain Patrick Logan.  Although only two of his poems were published in his lifetime, a great many of MacNamara’s poems have been set to music by contemporary folksingers. Discuss how his work celebrates rebellion in its various forms.  Why do you think his work continues to hold such appeal for folk singers?

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The influence of its time is clear in Jedda. Sarah and Doug seem to have adopted a tribe of indigenous peoples to “civilize” and provide labor for them. Both deem the culture of the aboriginals to be wild and uncivilized. Sarah takes this to a new level as she essentially adopts Jedda. She believes it is her “duty” to “bring them [the indigenous tribes] closer to our [European] way of living.” When Sarah prevents Jedda from learning her own culture as she grows up, it comes from a misplaced attempt to help her, although it is still wrong, and portrayed as such. As Jedda grows up we see her attempting to interact  and learn with the other children of her race, but Sarah forcing her to “learn her letters” and behave the way she wants. She not only forces Jedda to assimilate, but separates her from her culture and her own people, leaving her in limbo. 

The film also demonstrates how forced assimilation also damages the indigenous people by them. As seen in the film, Jedda responds poorly to Marbuck and his “wild” tendencies as she has been raised to act more “civilized.” In turn, when Marbuck brings Jedda to the lands of his tribe, they respond poorly, saying she is “of the wrong skin tribe” and he has broken the “law of skin code.” The ones who have assimilated clash with those that do not and both sides begin to form low opinions of each other. 

Jedda raises the issue of what could happen to the Aboriginal culture should this level of forced assimilation continue. While the tribe living with Sarah and Doug does maintain some of its culture, the differences between it and Marbuck’s tribe are stark. Should all of the indigenous peoples eventually be forced to assimilate completely, huge parts of their past and culture could be lost forever. 

Discussion Question 7: Jedda’s Intersections with Australian History

Charles Chauvel’s outback drama, is often considered a watershed one in Australian cinema and Aboriginal cinema, both for being the first Australian film to be shot in colour and the first to star Aboriginal actors.  It was also released in 1955, at a point when assimilation was the standard policy of individual Australian states and the wider Commonwealth in “managing” their Indigenous populations.  Consider how you can see Jedda grappling with the tensions surrounding how ‘Aboriginality’ was being (re)defined and (mis) understood. Can you read in the film questions about what the future might look like for Australia’s Indigenous inhabitants? Might we consider how Jedda reflects on aspects of the country’s past by connecting it to Hughes’s text? 

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The voiceover in Harvey Krumpet reminded me of a narration that could be found in a nature documentary. This thought, along with the impartial and dry voice of the narrator, often contributed to the humor that lightened what was truly a sad tale. With each horrible thing that happened to Harvey, the narrator’s method of telling it made everything feel less tragic. From the death of Harvey’s parents to his contemplation of suicide in the nursing home, the narrator’s tone never changes. He manages to describe every event in the same disinterested tone, as if it were all very common.  As Harvey ending up in the hospital three times, each time for something progressively more ridiculous, the dry voice with which the narrator delivers the news makes everything feel a bit absurd and funny. Harvey’s life consists of one spectacularly tragic event after another. The narrator and his tone are key to turning what should be a depressing story into something comedic.

Discussion Question 6: Voicing a Life in Harvie Krumpet.

Narration drives the tale, with voice-over dominating quite a bit, something that can often cause a film to flounder, to be frank. But it somehow works in Elliot’s film, a work that uses no dialog at all.  What do you make of how narration works in Harvie Krumpet?  What does this voice-over do to help convey what could be described as the “unspectacular” tale of Harvie’s life and history, told as it is via his very matter-of-fact voice-over?