Celluloid Subjects to Digital Directors. Jennifer Debenham

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Название Celluloid Subjects to Digital Directors
Автор произведения Jennifer Debenham
Жанр Культурология
Серия Documentary Film Cultures
Издательство Культурология
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781789974805



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“the prevalence of the group A is a characteristic of the European peoples … and that blood group B had originated in India”.7 It implied a polygenic origin for humans, challenging the more widely accepted monogenic theory proposed by Charles Darwin.8 The Hirschfelds advocated for an internationalised study of blood groups claiming it “would be necessary to have close co-operation between anthropologists and the blood groupers”.9 The importance of this Index to the work of the SABAR group meant the origin of Aboriginal Australians could be determined through blood grouping.

      Two Aboriginal Protectors, Cecil Cook in the Northern Territory (1927–1939) and A. O. Neville in Western Australia (1915–1940) were also enthusiastic supporters of an absorption policy. They saw it as a remedy to the inconvenience of having to make special considerations for a minority population group. Others saw it as an opportunity to ensure a unified society. Contrary to what Cleland and his colleagues had in mind, Cook and Neville sought a more structured and methodical approach to how the policy was managed. Sadly, in the hands of these two men it led to the forced separation of families, The Stolen Generations, and today most Aboriginal families still suffer from the familial and cultural dysfunction caused by their interpretation and management of the policy. Although Life in Central Australia makes no specific references to eugenics or policies regarding absorption, the film is ideologically framed by these contemporary ideas. It demonstrates the processes of collecting the biometric data used to support the range of hypotheses proposed by the research group.

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      The Film

      The silent black-and-white film shows how the scientists interacted with the Warlpiri, Ngarti and Anmatjere people who came to the scientists’ camp. It depicts them as test subjects that provide a source of biomedical data with which to test various hypotheses. For example, the audience observes the methods of blood collection used in the field at this time to develop the hypothesis that Aboriginal peoples were “safe” to absorb into the settler Australian population. The film serves as a visual record of the methodology employed in the field, helping to anchor the visual narrative to the scientific circumstances that were in play when the film was produced.

      Establishing the integrity and proficiency of the scientists, the film records the performative display of what the researchers believed to be their scientific objectivity. Each of the researchers engaged their imagined audience by regularly acknowledging the presence of the camera whilst they carried out their tests and experiments and interacted with the Warlpiri, Ngarti and Anmatjere people. They demonstrated how they caste Plaster of Paris face masks, took blood samples from earlobes, measured basal metabolic rates, recorded songs and vocabularies and conducted psychological tests; faithfully recorded to demonstrate their scientific objectivity and proficiency.

      The film’s narrative of one hour, focuses on the scientist’s three weeks round journey from Adelaide to Cockatoo Creek in three stages. The first comprising 00:05:58 minutes, shows the group of scientists leaving Adelaide by train to Alice Springs. The group included:

      The film’s second stage of 00:02:16 minutes begins at Alice Springs where the scientists and their helpers load pack horses and lorries with equipment and supplies for the journey to an outlying pastoral station. The final stage of 00:01:14 minutes shows the group travelling by camel for the rough journey to Cockatoo Creek. The long visual narrative to reach the destination helps reinforce the remoteness, isolation and the harsh terrain that the scientists had to overcome in their quest to meet up with the Warlpiri, Ngarti and Anmatjere people. It also implies that by its very remote location these people must be very primitive.

      The next stage of the film of 00:28:10 minutes depicts Warlpiri men in classic anthropological poses, such as throwing spears, hunting kangaroo, and cooking their catch on the fire. It also shows one of the men using a metal axe to prepare a kangaroo for the fire. Collectively, these images reinforce the visual cues of primitiveness associated with Aboriginal people.