Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Keeping Culture: Aboriginal Tasmania



This new book Keeping Culture (a collaboration between Aboriginal Tasmanian artists and the National Museum of Australia edited by Amanda Jane Reynolds) has had a big impact on my thinking about the film - especially Jim Everett's essay: This is Manalargenna Country: Clan Country of a First Nation and his exploration of the mind/body/spirit that moves moving beyond the colonial construct: "We walked the country, talked about it and brought together the threads of our being with it all: the place, history and people...the experience of what I call All, of being related to everything there, with responsibilities and acceptance of our role as humans living beyond the colonial construct."
Jim's activism spans decades. This 21st century phase is especially relevant as he articulates Aboriginal philosophy: it's as if he is providing a map, a synthesis of years political action with a profound caring of country. Four Corners Interview ABC 2002.

I am re-reading Ashis Nandy's Exiled at Home: these 1970-72 essays where Nandy examines "Indian political consciousness and- I cannot avoid the expression- unconsciousness. Being directly concerned with the relationship between the private and the public in politics."
Nandy and Everett - post colonial thinkers - come together in my mind as this film evolves its shape, content and form - the technical realities of the filmmaking process - reverberate, stretch to encompass these ideas and bring them forth in images, text and music.

No comments:

Post a Comment