Camera obscura: representations of indigenous identity within Australian cinema

Abstract

Karen Jennings (1993) and Peter Krausz (2003) in their works, written ten years apart, note the changing ways in which the academic world and the media have dealt with representations of Indigenous identity. It was hoped that the latter work would have been discussing the way in which things have already changed. The fact that it does not, initiates the questions addressed in this thesis: whether Australian cinema explores Indigenous issues in sufficient depth and with cultural resonance. Can a study of cinematic representations lead to a better understanding of Aboriginal identity? In representing Aboriginality on screen does the cinema present a representational complex for Indigenous Australia, which is constructed on their behalf by the cinema itself? In this thesis these questions are theoretically framed within a semiotic methodology, which is applied to the examination of the complexities of representation. This is done through an analysis of the connotations and stereotyping of Indigenous identity in filmic narratives; and the operation of narrative closure and myth making systems through historical time periods; and dualisms in the filmic narratives such as primitive/civilised, us/them, self/other; and the presence of Aboriginality as an absent signifier. The four films chosen for comparative analysis are Jedda, Night Cries, Walkabout and Rabbit Proof Fence. These films span a period of fifty years, which allows for an explication of the changes that have occurred over the passing of time in their visual representations of Aboriginal identity. Hence social and cultural filmic identity representations are juxtaposed with the historical and political discourses prevalent at the time of their production. Through such a detailed analysis of the four film texts, the dominant social discourses of Australia are analysed in relation to their operation as representational frameworks for Indigenous Australians.