I was appalled by the overall nonchalant attitude towards the film throughout the piece, primarily due to my recent study of Indigenous Australians and the arts. Admittedly this piece was published by an American educational institution, but I've recently come to the conclusion that the integration of Indigenous people into film, television and music, is going to bridge an awful lot of gaps between an Indigenous culture and those-who-do-not-understand. Which is pretty much the majority of Australia.
According to Dodson "The right to self determination entitles Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development."" (Dodson, 1993, p.41) Does self determination dictate the need to become westernised in order to achieve respect? No, for it specifically mentions that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can "freely- pursue - not necessarily within the bounds of another's culture. However I think it's been black and white for too long now, and it's time to integrate a little grey. Both cultures, native to the country or not, are determined to stick to their own sides of the argument, and not particularly wanting to meet each other half way, each side calling for their identity to be known. This is possible due to the overwhelming demographic that the media reaches every day. A media, that has been and continues to be monopolised by non-Indigenous Australians, and if the Aboriginal people were mentioned at all, they were portrayed to suggest "Australianness-, according to Jakubowicz (1994, p.59). This "Australianness- usually centred around desert scenes or rough and arid land, usually in comparison to something brand new and air conditioned (i.e. a four wheel drive).
Apparently the media has long been accused of racism according to the Contemporary Australian Indigenous Societies Study Guide, 1999: "No employment opportunities in the industry for Indigenous people, no voice for the Indigenous peoples, biased, stereotyped, sensationalist representations of Indigenous people, no attempt at educating audiences into Indigenous issues- (Bird, 1999, p.
