Three boys. One Skin. One dream.

Source: SBS

Preparing for "catching-up" time over the study break, I decided to borrow several Aboriginal dvds from the library which I thought would be interesting. Maybe a bit too overambitious by borrowing 4 dvds at one go, I only ended up watching two. The first one was "First Australians," which you can read about in one of my previous posts, and I just finished watching the second one called "Yolngu Boy." Being someone who loves watching movies, Yolngu boy was another beautifully narrated and eye-opening movie with some very intersting themes.

Source: Australian Network

Depicting the stories of 3 boys from the Northeast Arnhem land: Lorrpu, Botj and Milika, Yolngu boy captures their unique and individual journey into adulthood. The movie unravels how three close friends who had "one dream," when they were young, grew up to have very distinct paths of lives, formed by their own life choices and differing circumstances. While Lorrpu and Milika have been chosen for the men's ceremony, Botj only just returned from jail and was beginning to feel estranged by his own community. Frustrated by this, Botj initiates his friends to break into a local store and finds himself  burning down the local community center where he was on substance abuse. However, trying to help Botj, Lorrpu encourages his friends to run away to Darwin in order find the elder of their community to prevent Botj from returning to jail. In this adventure to Darwin, the movie portrays an inspirational story of three friends who endeavor on a journey of finding their identity while rediscovering the strength of their culture and their "dream" which unfortunately concludes with a bitter-sweet ending.  


Touching on many very intriguing topics of Aboriginality in today's society, I thought Yolngu boy revealed a very personal and unique look into the lives of Aboriginal people. The movie gives you a chance to get a closer look of their lives, who they are, what they go through as well as allowing you to see through their eyes. Botj's story was I think the most heart-felt as it really gave a very raw and realistic account of what he was going through and why he was acting is such way. His character involved the many issues that Aboriginal people face today: whether it is finding an identity in today's Westernized society or in dealing with substance abuse. By watching the movie, you begin to understand the circumstances that Aboriginal people experience and you get to see the bigger picture, instead of quickly jumping into negative conclusions. Just like how you can't judge a book by it's cover, Botj's story highlight the common problem how many Aboriginal are often misperceived to have alcohol or drug problems.  However, when you look at how Botj has been separated from his parents and how he is unable to fit into his own community as well as the Western community, you realize that the issue is not just a matter of black and white. There's a lot of things that are happening underneath and there's a lot of history, such as socioeconomic factors that have their roots in the dispossession and colonization of Indigenous people, including unemployment, inadequate education, low self-esteem and the breakdowns of extended family networks (1). As a non-Aboriginal person, I have had minimum contact with Aboriginal people, only to meet them in museums or in the city, no more than that. My views of them are built upon these rare encounters and even then, I still do not know their story, who they are and their personalities. Only to be influenced by the media and brief meetings, many people have let lack of knowledge led to hurtful consequences to Aboriginal people in the form of discrimination (2) however by opening up your eyes to learning more about them, just like by watching a movie like Yolngu boy, I think is really gives you a new found sense of awareness and appreciation. Only until you really do so do you begin to see that often the blown-out-of-proportion stereotypes such as of how many Aboriginal people have alcohol problems are actually untrue. In fact, it has been indicated that in comparison with non-Indigenous people, a large proportion of Indigenous people do not drink alcohol at all, their proportions are lower than the general public (3).


Apart from Botj, Milika's story reveals a different facet of  life as an Aboriginal person - his story gives us a glimpse of the important role football plays in many Aboriginal communities. Portrayed by Milika's ambition, success and joy in life as well as Tandanya's past exhibition "Yiloga: Tiwi Footy" football has truly become part of the culture of many Indigenous communities and has brought about many positive influences of their lives (4).  It's importance is described by one of the members of the Tiwi community:

"When the Tiwi are out on the field they're representing themselves, the club, their father, their mothers, their grandparents, their brothers-in-law; they're representing their whole family and the country of the Tiwi islands," the resident said.

"For the Tiwi people, football means hope, it means pride and most importantly it means life.” (5)

Sports, unlike any other arena, provides many Indigenous people the acceptance and recognition they are longing for (6). This is because in this arena, they are able to pursue success on an equal basis with other Australians (7) - reminding me of what I learned about African American portrayals in US advertising where sports was also the place where they could escape the harsh effects of racial discrimination and found success, it was a place where the whole nation came together and a turning point to their acceptance as part of the whole society (8). I think it's really interesting to see this correlation of how sports can play such an important role in the lives of many people, particularly to those who have been subject to racial discrimination.


Last but not least..Lorrpa's journey to adulthood mainly highlighted the clash between the Aboriginal and Western culture as well as the survival of the oldest living culture. Throughout the movie, he is the only one who continuously holds a steadfast belief in his culture and traditions. He does not waver even when their journey to Darwin was filled with many hurdles and persists on depending on the elder of the community in saving Botj. In fact, this theme is seen in many part of the movie such as the contrast in experiences the three boys faced when they were traveling across the land and the struggles they faced when they arrived in the city. Everything changed, it was a different world. Additionally, it was also shown in their conflict of finding hunters who have killed crocodiles, which was actually their spiritual ancestor. The tension between Aboriginal and Western ways of thinking is a common issue and has been an underlying problem in past, particularly in regards to the land developments and rights to land - this all evolves around how land is perceived. From the colonisation period to when the land was considered to be terra nullius, Western and Aboriginal perspectives differ:

To udnertand the bassis of Aboriginal spirituality in relation to land it is necessary to understand ta totally different way of living and thinking. The connection between land and religion is largely absent in European societies, where land is mostly a commodity to be bought and sold. (8)

To many non-Aborigianal people, while land may be precious,  the same religious or spiritual connection that Aboriginal people have is not shared. Nevertheless, it does not call for ignorance but the opposite: understanding and respect.


Overall, the movie was I think very interesting (I can't believe how much I wrote!) and while I know this post is quite long, I hope what I shared was helpful and insightful. I think if there's something that I took away from the movie was that you can never know enough of something and you really can't judge a book by it's cover. Learning about someone else's culture may be a challange but I think as long as you keep your mind open and take your time in discovering new things: you can really begin to appreciate other people's values and beliefs.

References:
(1) "Yolngu Boy," Australian Screen, accessed 11 October, 2011, http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/yolngu-boy/clip2.
(2) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, As a matter of fact : answering the myths and misconceptions about Indigenous Australians (Woden, ACT : Office of Public Affairs, ATSIC, 1999), 59.
(3) Ibid., 67.
4) "Yiloga! Tiwi Footy," Tandanya, accessed 11 October, 2011, http://www.tandanya.com.au/ed99/yiloga-tiwi-footy.
5) "Yiloga! Tiwi Footy," Australian Museum, acessed 11 October, 2011, http://australianmuseum.net.au/media/Yiloga-Tiwi-Footy.
6) "Aboriginal Indigenous Sports," Creative Spirits, acessed 11 October, 2011, http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/sport/#ixzz1aS7pMmzU.
7) William Jonas, The little red yellow black book : an introduction to indigenous Australia (Canberra : Aboriginal Studies Press, 2008), 61.
8) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, As a matter of fact (ACT : Office of Public Affairs, ATSIC, 1999) 44.