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A comparative study of representations of indigeneity in five Australian and New Zealand feature films

Wilson, J. M. (2008) A comparative study of representations of indigeneity in five Australian and New Zealand feature films. Paper presented to: Remapping Cinema, Remaking History: XIVth Biennial Conference of the Film and History Association of Australia and New Zealand (FHAANZ 2008), Dunedin, New Zealand, 27-30 November 2008. (Unpublished)

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Abstract: This comparative study of postcolonial representations of indigeneity in five New Zealand and Australian feature films, examines how postcolonial ideologies overturn the binary paradigms of colonial films about race relations which romanticise the indigene. It refers to debates about the representation of indigenity by white directors, and the collaborations and mediation of indigenous film-making. Its study of Maori/Aboriginal concepts of identity, focus on the different concepts of the past in Australian films, The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith (1978), Rabbit Proof Fence (2002) and Ten Canoes,(2006), and the utopian ‘cultural recuperation’ of New Zealand films, Once Were Warriors, (1994) and Whalerider (2003) In concludes that Australian films made by white directors represent aboriginality through reference to historical events involving racial discrimination, but the narratives of Ten Canoes draw on indigenous concepts of time. In the two New Zealand features the politics of colonisation are less important: their stories about contemporary Maoridom draw on the tensions between traditional ethnic values and modernity.
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1993 Motion pictures > PN1993.5.N43 New Zealand
P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1993 Motion pictures > PN1993.5.A8 Australia
Creators: Wilson, Janet M
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes: University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Faculty of Education & Humanities > English and Creative Writing
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Research Centre > Centre for Critical and Creative Writing
Faculties > Faculty of Education & Humanities > English and Creative Writing
Research Centres > Centre for Critical and Creative Writing
Date: November 2008
Date Type: Presentation
Event Title: Remapping Cinema, Remaking History: XIVth Biennial Conference of the Film and History Association of Australia and New Zealand (FHAANZ 2008)
Event Dates: 27-30 November 2008
Event Location: Dunedin, New Zealand
Event Type: Conference
Language: English
Status: Unpublished
URI: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/1917

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