White Australian and Indigenous relationships have been major themes of several Australian films. The film by Chauvel, Uncivilised (1936) takes the audience on a journey into Australia's "unexplored" territory to present the culture of a tribe of indigenous peoples. The film explores the relationship between whites and blacks, and through various techniques, reinforces the racial stereotypes associated with indigenous people. However, de Heer's The Tracker (2002), and Moffat's Nice Coloured Girls (1987), attempt to confront the racial stereotypes that dominate the theme in Uncivilised.The following essay analyses techniques employed in Uncivilised that reinforce racial stereotypes, and examines the techniques utilised in both The Tracker and Nice Coloured Girls that challenge these stereotypes.
Uncivilized concerns a successful high-society authoress, Beatrice Lynn, who ventures into unexplored territory in search of a white man, Mara, chieftain of a mysterious tribe of Aboriginals. Chauvel reinforces racial stereotypes by presenting the Indigenous people as "white devils", vulgar and dangerous, with primitive food, clothing, and housing.This depiction of Aborigines reinforces the assumption that it is impossible for them to ever adapt to white civilized culture. The Aboriginals in the film played only minor roles, generally filming their backs, rather than their faces. The lines they do speak are incoherent or in their native tongue, emphasizing the great distance between the two cultures.
Thus, Chauvel's portrayal of the Aborigines and their relationship with whites establishes and supports racial stereotypes. The Tracker is an Aboriginal man who is in a complex situation where his true nature is put to the test and his own life is very much at stake.He is helping a three-man military squad hunt down an Aboriginal man accused of murdering a white woman. The Tracker asks us to consider whether or not two different legal systems and two different religious systems can exist alongside one another in a colonial society. Discrimination, exploitation and racial intolerance are evident in the film, however by the conclusion, the audience should feel that justice has finally been served. The Tracker plays a large role in challenging racial stereotypes by highlighting the white men's arrogance and lack of respect.
The Tracker challenges the stereotypes with powerful, sarcastic comments such as "You know, we all cannibals....
Them black fellas probably cut him up and ate him". Later, when the Fanatic asks who the culprit is, the Tracker answers in a mocking tone, "Probably a white fella boss, they are murderers.... Can't trust them one bit".
De Heer has ensured that the audience begins to favour the Tracker, and allows the audience to comprehend the injustices that have been suffered by blacks at the hands of Europeans.The prayer the Tracker gives in Latin for the deceased Veteran, challenges the values of the Fanatic, and depicts the Tracker as a kind, peaceable Indigenous person. Tracey Moffat's Nice Coloured Girls describes three Aboriginal women who visit Kings Cross and pick up a "captain" so they can get him drunk and leave with his money. The film juxtaposes contemporary images of black women taking advantage of a white man with a voice over of extracts from early journals of white settlers and sailors, in order to question the validity of conventional white history and to deny the image of Aborigines as passive and powerless.Moffatt has set out to counter dominant representations and to explore how representations throughout history have constructed the identity of Indigenous peoples.
In doing this, she draws attention to the means through which history itself is constructed. Simon Frith argues that music amplifies the mood and aims to express the 'emotional significance' of a scene. 2 This is true of the score used in The Tracker, where the music creates a sense of solemnity and gives Aboriginals a voice, revealing the emotional pain of the Tracker and indigenous people for the way they were treated by Europeans.Lines such as, "I still long for my country, I still remember the spirit that lives in my land" accentuates the unethical treatment of indigenous peoples after European settlement. 3 In Nice Coloured Girls, the soundtrack enables the film to flow in and out of various time continuums through the voice-over and sound effects such as rowboats, Aboriginal language and bird cries. The sounds of the urban and rural landscape are heard simultaneously and it assists in continuing the juxtaposition of the present and the past.
The music in Uncivilised was employed for a different purpose.The tribal music presents the audience with indigenous culture, however the presentation of the music and chanting makes a mockery of their culture and depicts them as uncivilized and beast-like. It must be taken into account that the intended audience was foreign markets and its aim was its entertainment value, not historical or cultural accuracy, explaining the exaggeration of tribal culture. In Nice Coloured Girls, the white male attitude towards Aboriginal women as objects of sexual desire is shown to have developed and continued over the last two hundred years.However Moffat redefines the stereotype of powerless Aboriginal women as victims of white men, as found in official documents, such as the diary entries, by characterising them as dominating the white man.
The camera focus on their facial expressions portrayed their feelings towards the drunken white "captain" and emphasised the men's sorrowful behaviour. One caption regarding the behaviour of the "captain" read, "We don't feel sorry for him, he should be at home with his family". Some viewers, especially Aboriginal women, have been critical of the portrayal of women in the film, believing it reinforces negative stereotypes of immoral Aboriginal women. However, Moffat aimed to create a realistic representation that contradicted dominant stereotypes.
Perhaps the men should be at home with their families in the first place. To identify how stereotypes were developed in these films, it is important to analyse how indigenous people were presented in terms of costume design and physical appearance.In Uncivilised, the white women were wearing fur coats, pearls, and beautiful dresses and the men were dressed in suits and hats. Compared to the costumes of the tribal people who were dressed in dirty diaper-like cloths, and decorated with tribal jewellery and body paint, the white characters were depicted as cultured and refined. The black characters however, looked like cannibals, emphasised by the witch doctor with a bone through his nose.
The costume design in Uncivilised intended to support the colonist's declaration of 'Terra Nullius', an undeveloped land belonging to no one.However, the costume design in Nice Coloured Girls achieved a different purpose. The Aboriginal women were well dressed, wearing white dresses to symbolise purity and innocence. More importantly, the women were portrayed as equal to that of the other characters in the film. The environment in which the film takes place and how the sets are presented in the films are a significant technique used to achieve a particular style or message in the film.
In Uncivilised, several scenes showing the thick vegetation and muddied rivers portray the unexplored land like an exotic jungle, with rivers like the Amazon.This jungle-like portrayal of the tribe's land creates the idea that the inhabitants are uncivilized, living in a humid jungle, isolated from civilisation. However, in The Tracker, the Australian outback is accurately depicted the stunning views create a sense of rugged beauty, helping the audience to respect Aboriginal culture and heritage. This respect also develops into pity for the innocent killing of a tribe living peacefully in the bush by the "fanatic". The killings paint a historical reminder of the European "settlement" that involved the slaughtering of thousands of Indigenous people.
The arrogance and cruelty of the Fanatic is symbolic of the dispossession and cruelty suffered by Aboriginal people, and helps to challenge the racial stereotypes developed by whites. Nice Coloured Girls was shot in King's Cross, the heart of Sydney's prostitution industry. Being filmed in this environment can be seen as an attack toward the stereotypes of Aboriginal women as sex objects. By portraying them manipulating the men, and using the men for what they have got, instead of the opposite, this shows that the women are gaining control in this power struggle.A recurring image within Nice Coloured Girls is the typical nineteenth century European print of the Australian landscape or tall ships.
This calm landscape reflects the European vision of the Australian landscape and is another aspect of European colonization. It is also a reminder of when the women would visit the "captains" aboard the ships, and represents how the relationships have altered. Further, pivotal moments in violence scenes in The Tracker are cut back to native-style paintings giving a sense of how the legend of this nineteenth century confrontation might truly have been preserved through art and song in a non literate culture.It also censors the acts of violence upon the Aboriginal people, emphasising the criminal behaviour of the white trekkers. These three films explore the relationship between Indigenous peoples and white Australians. The portrayal of the Aboriginal tribe in Uncivilised and the area in which they live depicts them as primitive, reinforcing the stereotypes regarding their animal-like behaviour and strange culture.
The Tracker however, manipulates racial stereotypes and presents the whites, especially the Fanatic, as the uncivilised and dangerous. Nice Coloured Girls also challenges racial stereotypes by portraying powerful Aboriginal women manipulating white men, enforcing that the women are no longer powerless. As Uncivilised (1936) reinforces stereotypical views considering Aboriginals, and Nice Coloured Girls (1987) and The Tracker (2002) challenge these racist misconceptions, it is evident that over time these stereotypes have changed.
