Unexpectedly I have been invited by Aunty Iris White (our friend and an Elder of Monero-Ngarigo) and Murray van de Veer, a videographer, photographer, and a filmmaker to a screening of a movie Ablaze in which Murray has some screen credits.
Aunty Iris White welcomed in Kraków, Poland (2017) |
Murray van de Veer, a filmaker |
The screening was at the International Australian Studies Association (InASA) 2025 Biennial Conference at Macquarie University Wallumattagal Campus Sydney, Australia and organized by Professor Hsu-Ming Teo.
Ablaze tells the story of Bill Onus, the first Aboriginal filmmaker, a Yorta Yorta and Wiradjuri man
from Victoria, a truly heroic cultural and political figure who revived
his peopleʼs culture in the 1940s and ignited a civil rights
movement that would, against enormous odds, change the course
of history. Indeed the film shows how after the change of the government from Menzies to Holt in 1966 the movement
succeeded in 1967 with the historical referendum related to the Indigenous Australians. The referendum included the following question.
Question 2 of the 1967 Referendum
Do you approve the proposed law for the alteration of the Constitution entitled—
"An Act to alter the Constitution so as to omit certain words relating to the People of the Aboriginal Race in any State and so that Aboriginals are to be counted in reckoning the Population"?
90.77% voted YES
The film was produced by Dr. Alec Morgan, an honorary senior lecturer at Macquarie
University and a multi-award-winning filmmaker and by Tiriki Onus, a grandson of Bill Onus.
My personal impressions? Thank you to Iris and Murray for taking me to this film. I got an opportunity to watch an important piece of the Australian history presented from a non-textbook point of view. It has been pieced carefully from the old filming by William Bill Onus, from filming of Bill Onus by ASIO spying on him, and with a great contribution from his grandson Tiriki. It was wonderfully produced by Alec Morgan.
Another important feature of the production: the producers avoided creating hatred on any side and showed contribution of both Indigenous and Australian communities towards rectifying the complicated history of which we happened to be participants.
Ablaze |
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