Thoughts on Returning from a Conference

Guest blog: Odette Kelada

 

Baz Luhrmann’s Australia Reviewed: An interdisciplinary conference on history, film and popular culture, 7 Dec – 8 Dec.

 

Thoughts on returning from a conference on the film ‘Australia’ by Baz Luhrmann -  Two days to pour in detail over the sprawling colourful ‘epic’ that attempts to meld a ‘Gone with The Wind’ romantic exuberance with a larrikanesque knock about aussie adventure tale. I embarked with the AIS team to Canberra rather unsure of what might await and with a few questions in mind. I’m no big fan of the film as I read it as a highly troubling and current day colonial fantasy, but was there a chance that all the brilliant minds at this forum may persuade me otherwise? Could it be that in the mire of critical race reading, I had lost the ability to enjoy a generous entertainment spectacle when it came bounding in all its red dust kangaroo embossed technicolor glory? And was that catchy slogan – something about going walkabout to find oneself, really capitalist white tourist induced appropriation or eerily insightful observation on the modern day concrete oppressed office worker?

 

Standout keynote speech by Prof. Meaghan Morris launched the conference with a wonderful nuanced reading of the complexities in the responses to this film, an original take on cliché and a great description of Nullah’s magic weaving gestures as ‘oogabooga’ that looked more kungfu claw (taught by the cook perhaps) than anything identifiably Indigenous . Morris’s observations traveled with me over the next two days as I listened to various presentations and attempted to emulate the spirit of openness and dialogue fitting such an auspicious start. In the first session, Ann Genovese gave one of the most interesting papers from a cross-disciplinary perspective, as she connected the film’s narrative around the Stolen Generation with legal cases brought by Indigenous litigants fighting for recognition of the illegality of their removal. Her paper offered a fascinating reflection on myths in law and how these sit alongside the mythmaking around the story of Nullah in the film. Philip Morrissey in his thoughtful presentation on the film offered much to ponder but it was his shocking and yet uncannily persuasive suggestion that given Nullah’s propensity to pop up  in inappropriate places (including the bedroom), interrupting any ‘wrong side’ business that was afoot, and his strange long haired allure as he ‘sings’ Lady Ashley, that Nullah was possibly going to come back and marry Lady Ashley, which drew an illicit gasp from the audience. ‘Australia’ as Oedipal fantasy certainly broadened the implications of the film’s narrative arc. Johanna Simmons, project coordinator of AIS, gave a compelling insight into the spectacularistion of history that has been repressed, drawing attention to Luhrmann’s representations of the Stolen Generation and the Darwin Bombing as two such histories. Simmons sophisticated exploration of how the film may be read as an attempt to counter this repression and the effect of melodrama as genre on this endeavor, was  enhanced by the presentation of images illustrating various cinematic devices employed by Luhrmann. The visual impact of seeing the poster for ‘Australia’ juxtaposed with the poster for the American film ‘Pearl Harbor’ left little doubt that in the almost identical imagery, Luhrmann was reaching self-consciously beyond intertextual referencing to overt mimicry. ‘Redeeming Aboriginal masculinity’ by Shino Konisho was another paper that stood out as she gave a unique reading of the film, opposing Germaine Greer’s condemnation of King George as ‘a tasteless joke’ by suggesting that he was on the contrary, a positive example of paternal love. The range of presentations varied in substance and clarity over the duration of the conference but overall most had something of interest to say, be it on landscape, aural semiotics or international reception.

 

Apparently the enthusiasm by academics to attend a conference on ‘Australia’ outweighed the expectations of the conference conveners, Konisho and Maria Nugent, who did an excellent job of providing a cohesive program from the many threads. Indeed by the end, rather than assuaging the appetite for this film, the participants appeared well able to continue the discussion ad infinitum. After the two days, while I found myself adhering to my initial concerns and sense of disturbance, there’s certainly a great deal more to the film than I had appreciated. There’s no doubt from all the multi-disciplinary approaches that Luhrmann created a fertile landscape for debate, controversy and analysis on diverse fronts. Witnessing some of the fervent affection by a number of participants for the film, I swayed between a sense of oversaturation with all things ‘Australia’ and starting to wish that I too had been able to be swept away with the Drover and the Wizard of Oz, to some far far away place. But no, we were still in Canberra, the locus of many a flawed fantasy, and soon to be in the airport lounge.

 

 

Other Eyes: The half-caste in Luhrmann's Australia

 

The AIS team is heading off to Canberra in a fortnight. The National Museum of Australia is convening an interdisciplinary conference addressing Baz Luhrmann’s Australia and we’re all presenting papers.  Films like Australia can be easy targets for academics and I hope I can temper my discussion with some acknowledgement of where the film suceeds.

The expansiveness of Luhrmann's vision of Australia and his understanding of a mass-viewing audience goes without saying.  However Australia aspires to be more than popular entertainment and accordingly warrants consideration and critique.  Though set in the 1940s, in northern Australia, the film invites the Australian viewer to interpret it in a larger framework, resonant with contemporary Aboriginal-Settler concerns. From this perspective we are obliged to note some of the film’s shortcomings. For instance, the issue of sovereignty is never addressed and Lady Sarah Ashley’s tenure of Faraway Downs is unproblematised.

In my conference paper I will address another major shortcoming - the manner in which it attempts to resolve the ‘half-caste problem’ as embodied in the figure of Nullah.  At the conclusion of the film Nullah goes off with his ‘full-blood’ grandfather to be initiated and to become not only a proper Aboriginal but also a human being. Underlying this is the racialist belief that the ‘half-caste’ is a being, in a sense, without a caste. This 'romantic pessimism' is still present in some popular conceptions of the relation between Aboriginals and traditional culture.  

Co-optation or Survival?

2009 has been one of the most productive years ever for Australian Indigenous Studies in the Faculty of Arts. Last week we had the inaugural Narrm Oration and the launch of the Murrup Barak Institute for Indigenous Development. Professor Ian Anderson has been a key figure in conceiving, and guiding these initiatives to completion.

As part of the Oration there was an academic procession of Aboriginal staff. I knew immediately I received the invitation that I should accept but remained ambivalent about the academic procession and Indigenous co-optation into the resulting pomp and circumstance. Henry Louis Gates' description of ‘official marginality’ and universities still has a certain measure of truth: 

once scorned now exalted. You think of Sally Field’s [1985] address to the Motion Picture Academy when she received her Oscar, ‘You like me! You really like me!” we authorised others shriek into the microphone,  exultation momentarily breaking our dour countenances.’

Actually the Oration was a profound and satisfying event. The Oration by Professor Mason Durie, a Maori, and Deputy Vice Chancellor of Massey University, New Zealand, was wise reflection on the relationship between Indigenous peoples and universities.  Arriving a few minutes late I was struck by the gowned figures of my colleagues: Aboriginal  academic and professional staff, and Aboriginal students, waiting quietly in the order they would enter the theatre. As sometimes happens in moments of intensity I had the experience of being both participant and observer. My final thoughts?  'We're gonna shout to the top...'

Sally Field's Oscar acceptance speech

Goodwill

We had the launch of the Australian Indigenous Studies major on Tuesday - it’s important to mark achievements, otherwise the academic year is reduced to an infinite set of problems to be solved and deadlines to be met.

It was also an occasion to thank some of those who 

contribute to the success of the Australian Indigenous Studies Program. Academic staff give their time to teach into it; tutors take on the challenge of working through concepts and ideas with students; professional staff ensure that our administrative infrastructure is sound and that we are appropriately advised.

Underlying this is the less quantifiable fact of goodwill. Without it an interdisciplinary program has no future. Goodwill can be unacknowledged but its absence is immediately obvious.

At the launch: Ruby Lowe, Diane Jones, Odette Kelada and Erin LaRue

Pecan Summer

  

I had a pleasant interlude on Friday before the mid-semester break. (Sorry, I’m slipping into bloggese.) Deborah Cheetham and the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development held their Spring Recital. The Joan Hammond Recital Room at the VCA was full to capacity; Aboriginal and Settler opera singers performed classic arias and excerpts from Ms Cheetham’s  opera Pecan Summer for an appreciative audience. Pecan Summer intertwines Deborah Cheetham’s personal history with communal history and gives meaning and profundity to that banal term ‘shared history’. The excerpts we heard were superb. Pecan Summer will premier next year and the production has auditioned for the 2010 Melbourne Festival.

http://www.deborahcheetham.com/pecan_summer

AIS Major up and running

I’ve just received news that our proposed major in Australian Indigenous Studies has been signed off on by the final university committee. The approval was a lengthy process as the proposal was vetted by ascending layers of university committees.

 

It’s the only interdisciplinary Australian Indigenous Studies major in Australia, founded on the principles of intellectual exchange, interdisciplinarity,  and social relevance.

 

The major itself was developed during 2008 - a difficult year for everyone in the Faculty of Arts, and it would have been easy to walk away, but I know from experience that its often in times of organisational turmoil, or what Dabrowski would term ‘creative disintegration’, that opportunities for innovation and rapid development arise.

 

The AIS team is now developing teaching templates for all the AIS major subjects for 2010. The challenge is to develop ways to maximise the intellectual inputs of lecturers perpetually short of time.

Foundation for the Future

Our First Year course Australia Indigenous Studies has 388 students enrolled in it this semester. When we ran it for the first time in 2008 it had 188 students. One of our goals has been to transform possible perceptions of Australian Indigenous Studies   as a minority interest field to one of mainstream relevance. It’s a privilege to have so many University of Melbourne students choosing to do this subject and it’s the foundation for the future of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne.