Contact..

by

.. is showing TONIGHT on ABC television 9.25 pm. It describes how in the 1960s Martu people of the Western Desert of Australia first encountered non-Indigenous Australians. It’s based on the book Cleared out by Sue Davenport, Peter Johnson and Yuwali, who appears in the film.

Yuwali has lived through contact, missions, remote settlements, Native Title and desperate efforts to hold on to language and culture. In effect, her story represents a microcosm of the Aboriginal experience since settlement in 1788. [from the media release]

Review of film in The Age here.

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2 thoughts on “Contact..”

  1. What a great show!
    I just read the review too which is entitled: “How Yuwali entered the modern world?” Does anyone else struggle with the term ‘modern’ being applied as a synonym for Western society? The Martu were living in the desert in 1964 and Kartiya were firing rockets into their country in 1964. The date is the same, they were both living in the same era. How is the Martu version of 1964 somehow temporally inferior to Kartiya’s 1964?
    I know this is nitpicky but it irks me. Maybe I’m being too sensitive or are there others that are similarly slightly irked by the use of ‘modern’ here?

  2. Yes I think it is the same as describing them as ‘coming out of the desert’. As if they have ever left, even if their lifestyle has changed!

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