21_canberra

This film is an account of Australian Aboriginal people steering their way through the often frustrating process of official decision making. The film focuses on two men determined to resolve an impasse which has left their community with a valuable property but too few cattle to operate it at a profit. At the heart of the film is the understanding between these two engaging but contrasting personalities who, with patience, humour and political acumen overcome delays, poor communications and policy shifts to achieve their ambitions for the station.

The cattle station at Collum Collum in New South Wales is run by an Aboriginal cooperative. They need $300,000 to restock the station so that it can run at a profit and become self-sufficient. This film follows the difficulties and tensions the managers of the station encounter as they wade through the bureaucracy of Canberra in their applications for the money.

The film follows the MacDougalls' strong narrative style that they used so effectively in Takeover (see entry under that title) of using a negotiation or conflict as a means not only of illustrating the tensions between Aboriginal people and the Australian bureaucracy, but also to give fascinating insights into the people whom they follow in the films. Although this film focuses on the two men, as they spearhead the negotiations with Canberra, we also see the work of the women as they continually prepare vast quantities of food for the various visitors and in general manage the household of the station. Away from the house, we watch the men building fences and working with the cattle. Through these scenes, the participants in the film's drama become human, touching the viewer with the reality of their predicament. Collum Calling Canberra is recommended for university courses on Oceania, land rights, culture change, and environmental issues. Catalogue number (16mm): 6RA146 £18.

R. M. Berndt, 1977. Aborigines and Change: Australia in the `70s. Social Anthropology Series No. 11, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra.

C. Lippman, 1981. Generations of Resistance: The Aboriginal Struggle for Justice. Longman Cheshire, Melbourne.

B. Morris, 1989. Domesticating Resistance: the Dhan-Gadi Aborigines and the Australian State. Berg, Oxford. [This book is about Aborigines in a quite different part of Australia from those shown in the film.]

F. Myers, 1988. 'From Ethnography to Metaphor: Recent Films from David and Judith MacDougall'. Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 205-20.

N. Peterson, 1981. Aboriginal Land Rights, A Handbook. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra.

N. Peterson and M. Langton, 1983. Aborigines, Land, and Land Rights. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra.

If you are interested in hiring or purchasing this film please contact the Film Officer by or +44(0)20 7387 0455.

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