The Dreamers
of Arnhem Land
by Christopher
Walker
First Run/Icarus Films, Brooklyn, NY,
2005
Video/DVD, 50 mins., col.
Sales: Video-DVD, $390; rental/video,
$75
Distributors Website: http://www.frif.com.
Reviewed by Jonathan
Zilberg
Jakarta Institute of the Arts
The Dreamers of
Arnhem Land is
a documentary account of a sustainable
development project. It begins with imaginary
film of Aboriginal life before the European
arrival and what seems like a parody of
the cultural encounter with Europeans,
of the encroachment of white settlement,
the subsequent dispossession of ancestral
lands, and the descent into poverty, both
economic and cultural. After depicting
the deprivations of modern life for such
communities, it proceeds to tell the story
of how two Aboriginal elders returned
to their land to begin anew. The remainder
documents their apparently successful
attempt to reconnect the future to the
past through bringing the next generation
back to their ancestral homes.
The strongest and main part of the documentary
relates how Stuart and Valerie Ankin set
about working with European technical
advisors to provide a better future for
the North Coast Aboriginals. Their idea
is for their descendents to be able to
live healthy and productive lives in which
they harvest and market traditional natural
products in a sustainable fashion. It
is an interesting example of how two elders
have resolved to ameliorate the multiple
problems facing Aborigines in Australia,
namely unemployment, poverty, chronic
illness, and alcohol abuse and drug addiction.
It all came about as the natural culmination
of such peoples return to their
homes after the Australian government
changed its land policies and recognized
their rights to their traditional estates
in the late 1970s.
The film will prove useful for educators
looking for an example of how highly motivated
indigenous peoples can team up with scientists
and other advisors to creatively use native
knowledge to produce new products in a
sustainable and profitable fashion for
the market. The dual purpose of this project
is to provide meaningful employment in
which Aboriginal people return to live
on their lands as their ancestors did,
to varying degrees, but to do so in order
to earn a living and live more healthy
lives. In this, the Ankins, the Australian
government and the universities and business
community, are working together to provide
hope and an alternative future to the
bleak life of the settlements into which
these populations were forcibly settled
when their lands were appropriated for
ranching and farming in the 1950s.
It is an interesting film in that one
gets a sense of the powerful connection
these Aboriginal peoples have to their
land and to their ancestors. Indeed, the
film succeeds in conveying this connection.
However, it is not a particularly compelling
documentary. Nevertheless, what makes
The Dreamers of Arnhem Land important
is the fact that it shows that there is
significant potential for sustainable
development and cultural survival if isolated
local communities work with universities,
entrepreneurs and the state to synergistically
combine "blackfellas"
and "whitemans" knowledge.
From the women collecting female long
necked turtles to harvest their offspring
for the pet market to the men planting
harvesting indigenous fruit trees to produce
a health tonic, from men harvesting crocodile
eggs for crocodile farmers to women harvesting
and preparing natural medicines for local
use and potential future markets, there
is hope in the land.
The movie ends with a particularly compelling
scene of a musical event. After the mcs
quintessentially modern invocation "lets
rock n roll", the youngsters
begin to dance to electronically enhanced
indigenous music. What is so striking
is how they do so, if at first tentatively,
in the same way as their ancestors have,
right there - for tens of thousands of
years. Though these children grew up in
town watching television and listening
instead to rock and country, and surely
hip hop and rap, they are finding their
way home again here through their very
bodies and through sound itself. Through
the re-embodiment of the past, of their
ancestral knowledge and experience, that
they are developing a profound sense of
local pride. In this, the proud young
rangers of Arnhem Land, and these children,
will finally escape the downward spiral
of poverty and cultural degradation.
Perhaps the strongest form of critique
of this film would be to compare it to
deeply nuanced and theorized ethnographic
studies of Aboriginal communities that
engage the "Blackfella/Whitefella"
debate such as Painting Culture: The
Making of an Aboriginal High Art (2002)
by Fred Myers. There, towards the end
of the book, Myers describes peoples
reactions to the show Papunya Tula:
Genesis and Genius in 2000 and the
larger Australian culture wars and white
anxieties, and most pertinent for this
film, the culmination of the show in a
modern Aboriginal rock performance. Why
are such studies so pertinent to this
film? Because this is as all as much about
Blackfellas, as Whitefellas working with
Blackfellas.
The lyrics for the celebrated anthem "Blackfella/Whitefella"
by the Warumpi Band are as follows:
"Blackfella, whitefella.
It doesnt matter what your color
As long as youre a true fella
As long as youre a real fella"
And the refrain is: "Are you the
one whos gonna stand up and be counted?"
Here lies the larger significance of the
success of this sustainable development
project. Its success lies in the common
cause for a cultural future, new partnerships
based on mutual respect and co-operation.
It is very much an experiment in inter-cultural
production, as is Western desert Aboriginal
acrylic painting.
Lastly, if one compares the enormous economic
and cultural success of Aboriginal high
art to the less lucrative harvesting of
long necked turtles and such, it is clear
that the changes in lifestyle and labor
associated with working rather than representing
the land, are driving the kind of economic
and social changes that are so desperately
needed in Australia. Perhaps music and
art, and ecotourism, could provide avenues
for an even deeper cultural and economic
convergence which could increase the capital
available for research and development
of natural resources in Arnhem Land and
thus the sustainability of this important
project.
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