THE ABORIGINE IN AUSTRALIAN CINEMA: FROM WALKABOUT TO RABBIT-PROOF FENCE

Year 2010, Issue: 14, 235 - 249, 01.12.2010

Sibel Çelik-norman

Abstract

The essay examines the treatment of Aborigine culture in Australian film through a study of two films separated by thirty years of cinematic history. The similarities and differences between the two films are examined in the light of historical developments in that period, and their respective contributions to the history of national cinema in Australia are outlined. It is argued that the more recent film, despite its significance in the wider acceptance among Australians of the cruel treatment of the Aboriginal population in earlier periods, made itself vulnerable to attacks by pro-colonial critics through its utilisation of Hollywood cinematic conventions. The older film, wholly fictional and stylistically expressionistic, has been criticized as condescending and sentimental, but avoided the excerbation of social and ethnic divisiveness. The reception and impact of the two films, it is argued, illustrate significant problems confronted in the emergence of national cinemas elsewhere

Keywords

Australian Cinema, National Cinema, Aborigines, Post-Colonialism

AVUSTURALYA SİNEMASINDA ABORJİNLER: SONSUZ ÇÖLDEN ÇİT’E

Abstract

Çalışma 30 yıllık sinema tarihiyle birbirinden ayrılan iki film ile Avustralya sinemasında Aborjin kültürüne yaklaşımı incelemektedir. İki film arasındaki benzerlikler ve farklar o dönemdeki tarihsel gelişmeler ışığında incelenmiş ve Avustralya ulusal sinema tarihine sırasıyla olan katkılarının altı çizilmiştir. Daha yakın tarihli film eski yıllarda Aborjinlere yapılan zulmün Avustralyalılar arasında daha geniş bir kabullenme olmasına karşın Hollywood sinematik uygulamaları üzerinden koloni öncesi kritikler ile kendini saldırıya açık bir hale getirmesi tartışılmıştır. Daha eski olan film küçümseyici ve duygusal yönleriyle eleştirilmiştir ancak sosyal ve etnik bölünmenin şiddetinden kendini korumuştur. İki filmin algısı ve etkisinin herhangi başkabir yerdeki ulusal sinemaların acil olarak karşılaştıkları belirli problemleri örneklerle anlatması tartışılmaktadır

Keywords

Avustralya Sineması, Ulusal Sinema, Aborjinler, Post-Sömürgecilik

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